When Shane's mom said they were up early for breakfast she wasn't kidding around. Six A.M. on the dot we were chowing down on a massive feast: eggs, bacon, grits, sausage, biscuits with gravy, and coffee. Shane's older sister, Shawna, her husband and teenage daughter joined us; his youngest sister working until the afternoon. His family alternated between poking fun at Shane and feeding me stories of him terrorizing the neighborhood when he was young. He grew increasingly irritated with each passing anecdote, while my sides ached from laughing so much. They were all sweet and welcoming, with the exception of the sullen teen Georgia, who sat and picked at her food silently.
All the heavy food so early in the morning made me sleepy, so after I helped his mom clean up I excused myself to lapse into a food coma upstairs. I had passed out fully for an hour and a half when the sound of the door slamming jolted me awake. "God!" Georgia whirled around and paused when she saw me lying on the bed. "Oh. Sorry, I forgot you were up here."
"No worries. What's wrong?"
She crossed her arms, blowing her bangs out of her face. "My mom is seriously so annoying. It's like she hates everythin' about my life. She hates my friends, and my boyfriend, and my clothes. And I have cramps and my hair is frizzy and dumb looking and everythin' just sucks today."
I blinked at her, still trying to wake up and not having the foggiest idea what to do. "Um...well, I can fix the frizzy hair thing. Hand me that bag over there." She looked toward my suitcase and picked up the black make-up bag, sitting on the bed next to me. "It took me years to find something to control my hair." I sat up as I pulled out my seaberry hair serum, combing it through her strands with my fingers. I grabbed my brush off the nightstand and began running it through her hair.
"Does your mom ever get on your nerves?" she asked randomly.
"She did, right up until she died." I continued brushing her shoulder-length strawberry blonde locks. "I'm sorry she died," she responded faintly.
"Don't be, she was a horrible woman. Not that I'm glad she's dead, but I'm not really sad about it either." Whether that was true or not I hadn't quite figured out yet, but it wasn't something I wanted to discuss with a fifteen year old girl.
"I'd be sad if my mom died. She's kinda mean, but sometimes she'll let me skip school and we'll go to the mall or get our nails done or somethin'. Hey, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, Georgia, go for it."
"Do you and Uncle Shane have sex, like, all the time?"
I froze, suddenly realizing how Shane felt when I asked him a personally invasive question. "Uh...I guess, sometimes...why?"
She shrugged, and I started twisting her hair into a braid. "My boyfriend wants to have sex, and I've never...I'm, like, the only one in my group of friends who hasn't done it yet. Some of them have done it with three or four guys. How many guys have you had sex with?"
Jesus Christ.
"Just the one. Look, the only person who can decide when you're ready to...go all the way, is you. As long as you use protection. It also helps if you love the person, too. I waited until I fell in love, and though it was much,
much
later than most people, I'm glad it happened when it did."
She rolled my advice around her head for a moment. "I think I love him, and he says he loves me too...I don't know. Maybe I'll wait a little while longer."
Oh, thank God I didn't just traumatize this girl.
"Y'know, we met a couple of Uncle Shane's girlfriends before, but I like you the best."
"I like her the best, too." Shane appeared, thankfully coming in at the tail end of our conversation. "Your mama is lookin' for you, squirt."
Georgia exhaled heavily. "She's
always
looking for me." She turned around and gave me a brief hug. "Thanks, Aunt Tess."
I handed her the rest of the hair product to keep. She bounded out of the room as Shane closed the door, giving me a crooked smile. "Aunt Tess, huh? What were you two talkin' about?"
"Girl stuff." He held out his hand to help me off the bed, pulling me into his arms as I stood. "Being a teenage girl is hard. Though, being a twenty two year old girl isn't always a picnic, either."
"That's why I'm happy to be a guy. Do you maybe want to go somewhere for a while? I haven't had you to myself since we got here." He held me tightly, as if he were afraid I was going to leave.
"I thought that was the point of visiting, so I could hang out with your family."
He snorted. "It was, but they've done nothin' but talk shit since we got here. I gotta spend some time convincin' you that marrying me wasn't a complete mistake."
I hugged him back, the worry in his voice apparent. "Marrying you is the best decision I've ever made. Let's go."
"You gotta change first, though."
I looked down at my clothes, a pink ribbed tank top and jean cutoff shorts was all I could stand to wear in the balmy 75 degree weather. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"
"Your tits are hangin' out," he tried to pull the collar of the tank up to no avail, "and those shorts are
way
too short. I don't want to have to hurt someone for starin' at my wife."
"Shane, you're a crazy person, and it's hot outside, so I'm not changing."
He raised an eyebrow in response to my defiant comment. "Sweetheart, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way."
Licking my full lips slowly, I cupped his growing erection over his jeans. "Tell me, how hard is the hard way?"
His head dropped to my shoulder as he palmed a handful of my ass, pressing himself against my hand. "You keep it up, Contessa, and I don't care if there's a house full of people. I will bend you over this bed and fuck you so hard they'll hear you scream my name the next county over."
I snaked my tongue out to lick the shell of his ear before I released my hold on him and ran to the door, flinging it open and sprinting down the hall. "Damnit woman, get back here!" I heard him following chase as I flew down the stairs. I made it to the foyer and almost crossed the threshold of the front door when he yanked me back by the waist, turning me around and hoisting me over his shoulder. "Bad girl. You're gonna pay for that."
He smacked my ass and I yelped, carrying me past his father as Eli shook his head and went back to reading his newspaper. "Newlyweds." When we reached the kitchen Shane lowered me to the ground and gave me a kiss that parlayed the promise of what he was going to do to me later.
"Oh,
gross
." A sneering voice interrupted our passionate assault on each other's faces. Shane grinned and went over to hug the tall, lanky young girl with freckles and waist-long red hair.
"Tess, this is my wonderfully annoying little sister, Ellie."
I gave her a small wave. "Hi. I've heard a lot about you, it's nice to finally meet you."
She looked me up and down with a firm stare before turning back to her brother. "C'mon Shane, I wanna take you to the stables and show you the new horse."
"Maybe tomorrow, Bug, I'm gonna take Tess out for a while."
"But she gets to see you every day, and I haven't seen you in months. Pleeeease?" Shane looked over to me and I waved him off.
"You sure, sweetheart?" Ellie rolled her eyes, still ignoring me. "Oh my God, I'm sure she's fine, now let's
go
." She dragged him out of the kitchen door by his shirt as I blew him a kiss. I was pondering how to spend my afternoon when Shawna came in, a towel in one hand and a pitcher in the other. "Good, he's gone. I was afraid we'd never get to spend any time together. My brother is really possessive of you."
"I'm noticing. Hey, this may be a weird question, but does Ellie not like me or something?"
She pulled ice and a large bottle of tequila from the freezer. "Oh, well. She kind of...hates you, a little bit. Or a lot."
"Oh, good, it's not just my imagination then."
She laughed heartily as she handed me a bowl of limes and a knife, wordlessly requesting me to chop them for her margaritas. "Don't take it personally. When Shane moved away a few years ago she was heartbroken. He kept tellin' her it was just temporary, but...now that you two are hitched, looks like he's there to stay. I think she blames you."
Guilt prickled in my chest as I cut the limes in half. "I'm not trying to keep him in Connecticut. If he wanted to move back here, or anywhere else in the world, I'd do it in a heartbeat."
She squeezed the fresh lime juice into the oversized container, stirring vigorously with the other hand. "Oh honey, don't worry about her. She's a twenty year old brat, but who wasn't at that age? Now go get your bathin' suit on, it's time to go get drunk by the pool. We gotta welcome you into this family the right way."
***
After two tall margaritas Shawna tapped out to take a nap before dinner. I took a quick swim in their oval-shaped pool to cool off, then called Sydney to catch up. I told her all about Shane's family and a few of his hellraising tales, and she thought Ellie disliking me was the funniest thing in the world. "Hahaha! She just straight-up hates your ass, huh?"
"Apparently so." I leaned back in the lounge chair, crossing my freshly shaven legs and shaking my foot nervously. "Do you think I should talk to her?"
"Man, hell no. That'll probably make her hate you more. She'll either come around or she won't; besides, his parents like you. That's all that really matters."
I took another sip of my drink, setting it down on the ground next to me. "I guess. Changing the subject, are you still seeing that guy Jeremy?"
She made an exasperated noise. "We're not
seeing
each other. We have sex and occasionally share a meal together."
"Syd, I'm pretty sure that's the definition of dating."
"Ah, damnit." She was thoughtful for a moment. "I think I really like him, you know? I haven't really dated anyone in a long time, he's got me all tingly in my lady bits."
I laughed loudly, louder than I meant to when the patio door opened. Shane stepped out onto the deck and started making his way over to me. "Shane's back, I got to go. Can we have dinner or something when we get back? I need to meet this young man who's been courting you."
"Sure thing,
Mom
."
I hung up just as Shane made it to my chair on the other side of the pool. I peered at him through my sunglasses as he sat shirtless on the lounge chair his oldest sister previously occupied, curling a side of my lips flirtingly. "Hello there, handsome. Did you have fun with your sister?"
