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“You’ve been busy with your brood.” He hugged her back.
“Isn’t that the truth!” She laughed and ushered us both inside, while rubbing her belly. There was a small baby bump there I hadn’t noticed.
“Congratulations,” I murmured to her. “Zeph said you already have four, so this is number five?”
The woman smiled widely at me. “Ridiculous, right? In this day and age with how much it costs to feed each little person. But I just love being a mama. Kenny and I are truly blessed by God. I keep saying we’re done, but God keeps giving us more.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Sounded more like Kenny and Kelly could just get on board with contraception, but each to their own. If the two of them wanted to repopulate the earth single-handedly, then who was I to stop them?
“It’s Lyric, right?” Kelly asked, reaching a hand toward me. “You can put your purse in the cupboard here if you like.”
I handed it to her with a forced smile.
Zeph jumped in. “Sorry, I forgot the two of you haven’t met. Kel, this is Lyric. Lyric, Kelly.”
I shook Kelly’s hand, noting that her skin was buttery smooth and completely absent of the callouses that had become a permanent fixture on my hands, thanks to long nights swinging my G-string-clad ass around a stripper pole. “Nice to meet you.”
To my surprise, Kelly tucked her arm in mine and abandoned her post at the door. “Zeph says the two of you work together at the church. You clean the toilets?”
I stopped walking. “Excuse me?”
Kelly gave me a sickly sweet smile I knew probably worked on most of the population but hid her wolf teeth and a bitchy undertone. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did I have that wrong?”
“No. That’s exactly what I do there. Clean the toilets.” I added silently in my head, ‘And have mind-blowing sex with your brother when he climbs through my window on my nights off.’ I imagined the horror on her face if I’d said it out loud.
It was satisfying.
Zeph chuckled, and I was surer than ever that he actually could read my mind.
His sister glanced between the two of us like we were crazy. I ignored her and wandered toward the sounds of the party in the back of the house, but slowly, taking in all the family photos on the walls. I recognized a younger version of his mother in many, with a man I hadn’t met, but who was clearly her husband. In the living room were large photos of two babies, one boy and one girl, smiling gummily at the camera.
I pointed to the boy and nudged Zeph. “Is that you? So cute!”
But he shook his head. “It’s my older brother, Jonathan.”
“The girl is me,” Kelly piped up completely unnecessarily since I knew Zeph only had one sister.
I frowned at the photos. “Why isn’t there one of you as a baby?”
In fact, as I gazed around the room, there were no photos of Zeph until he was about kindergarten age. Then it was like he’d been birthed out of thin air, and he joined all the family photos.
“I was adopted,” he said carefully. “When I was four.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really? You didn’t tell me that.”
“It never came up.”
That was fair enough.
Kelly was more than happy to fill in the blanks, though. “Our parents saved him. He was born into a terrible family. His birth mom kept him in a tiny apartment in a terrible part of Saint View.”
I reached for his hand, but he dodged my advances and walked stiffly away from us, toward the other room where the party was taking place.
“Oh dear,” his sister murmured. “I didn’t know he hadn’t told you. He’s very embarrassed about his early life, but we can’t help the people we come from now, can we? Mom and Dad got Zepherin out, and it’s been all hunky-dory since there.” She fingered the single strand of pearls around her neck. “Do you have children, Lyric?”
“One. A daughter. She’s four.”
“Starting school in September?” Kelly clapped her hands together excitedly then grabbed my arm. “Oh, isn’t that just the most exciting stage yet! You’ll cry on her first day, of course. I sob like a baby when mine start school. But it’s such an enriching and exciting experience for the child. She’s going to Edgely Academy, right?”
