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BB’s hand reached down from the back of the couch to tap her arm. “Why don’t you let me worry about that? You just tell me what you think I need to know first.”
She was glad he couldn’t see her eye roll. He would find out soon enough that she was right with her warning. He wouldn’t know what hit him when he met the Taylor side of her family tree.
“Okay, well, my grandparents are Joseph and Helen Taylor. Granddad was a major in the Army, and since they traveled a lot with his job, Granna was a stay-at-home mom, but with eight kids, it was a full-time job.”
“Did you say eight kids?”
She grinned. “Yep. Eight children and thirty-two grandchildren. I wasn’t kidding when I said my family was huge. At least on my mother’s side. I never knew any of my dad’s family. He wasn’t close to them. Oh, and more than likely my grandparents are going to insist you call them Granddad and Granna too. Everyone does.”
“Noted. Now tell me about the eight kids.”
She chuckled. “I’ll start with my family first. Those are the ones you’ll need to remember more than anyone else. My mom is the second of the eight. She’s Carolyn. My dad is Russell. Granddad introduced them. Dad is a plumber, and Granddad hired him to do some work on the house. Granddad would invite him to supper and make sure he and Mom were always seated side by side or across from each other.
"After a while, they just accepted Dad as part of the family and he and Mom as a couple. She said she barely realized what was happening until Dad proposed. She said she knew then she loved him and said yes. The rest is history.
“Just like Granna, Mom was a stay-at-home mom. That’s just the way it is with my family.”
“Let me guess, you’re one of eight too.”
Gennessey chuckled. “No. After my youngest brother, Merrick, came along, Mom decided three was enough. Mom and Dad had Japser first, and he’s still single and is dating a new woman every time I see him. I don’t think he’ll ever marry and give Mom grandbabies, and she’s furious about it. Then I came along and gave Jasper some relief because I’m a bigger disappointment than he ever thought about being.”
“Let me guess. Because you decided to work instead of marry and have babies?”
“Ding, ding, ding,” she sang in an imitation of a game show bell. “This man wins the prize. You guessed it. Because I wouldn’t fit the mold of the traditional woman within my family, I was the outcast. I never fit in. They couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t choose the same life my grandmother and mother and aunts and cousins all did.”
“Your granddad had to be proud. I mean you followed his footsteps by enlisting in the Army.”
“And then I left it for the CIA, and I couldn’t even tell them what I was doing. I’ll never be forgiven for missing a lot of get-togethers. Even my dad never liked me having a dangerous career even though I served my country. It just wasn’t my place, and it made settling down and starting a family difficult. Never mind those were never my goals to begin with.”
“No one understood your desire to follow your own path in life?”
“Cohen did — my cousin who’s getting married. Cohen was a family outcast too. He’s an artist. All of the other men in our family work blue collar jobs or join the military. Cohen never wanted any of that. We bonded over being the black sheep of the family. We vowed never to follow the rules, and we both said we’d never marry.
"But then he met Autumn, and his whole world changed. She’s a photographer. He’s a painter and a poet. They support themselves with their art, and they do pretty well. Of course, now that Cohen is settling down, even if his job doesn’t fit the family criteria, he has become less of an outcast. Everyone loves Autumn, even me. They were supposed to buck tradition and elope, but Autumn changed her mind. Cohen couldn’t deny her what she wanted, and I couldn’t blame him. Suddenly having the family’s acceptance has to feel pretty nice.”
Gennessey thought her voice sounded sad, but at least she’d spoken about Cohen’s nuptials without her usual bitterness. She meant it when she said she was happy for him and Autumn. She just didn’t like feeling alone on her island of rebellion.
“What about your brothers?” BB asked, drawing her out of her sudden melancholy. “You said Jasper wouldn’t marry, but what about Merrick? And what is up with your parents and the unusual names for their kids?”
“Merrick is seeing someone. He’ll probably propose at the next holiday when the family’s all together. It’s how we roll in this family. He won’t take the focus away from Cohen and his wedding, but he will make a spectacle of the proposal. I don’t like her very much, but she keeps Merrick calm, which is a good thing. He tends to be over the top sometimes with his stories and practical jokes and behavior. He likes to be the center of attention.”
“And the names?”
She shrugged. “My mom and Aunt Vickie thought of those. There’s only a year separating them, so they grew up as best friends. They’re always together, and if one came up with a unique name for a child, the other had to top it. Aunt Vickie went the extra mile because she had five kids instead of three like Mom.”
“Okay. Tell me about them. What are they like?”
She twisted her head to look up at him. “You sure you want to hear all of this?”
“Positive.”
She didn’t read any insincerity in his eyes, so she twisted back around and began to talk.
“Aunt Vickie married Uncle Matthew. Not Matt…Matthew. He’s particular about that. They had five boys, and since they were the closest to us growing up, you can understand why I was more tomboy than girly girl. The boys are Benton, Henley, Elias, Rowan, and Cohen. So, yes, the unusual names continued with them.”
She was unaware of her voice growing softer, her words more slurred. When she drifted off to sleep still talking about her family, she slept soundly, curled against the warmth of BB’s body.
When she woke the next morning, she realized she was still on the couch, but this time alone and covered with a blanket from her bed. Her front door was secure, but her apartment was empty.
