It was such a warm and relaxed atmosphere at Brynn's grandmother's house, that Kenny didn't even feel put on the spot by the comments her family made about wanting to see her have a baby sooner than later. It was easy to see that comment as just conversational and not directed specifically at him or the relatively new relationship that he and Brynn were in. Could he imagine someday asking her to marry him? Sure. They've only been together a few months, but there was potential. He already had some serious feelings about her, they felt compatible, they had tons to talk about, they've read so many of the same books, they enjoyed working out together, the sex between them was outstanding. Even his dog, Bob Barker, seemed to have taken a liking to her already and he wasn't easily impressed.
Which stood to reason that he couldn't not ask her to come to his sister's wedding with him.
"Have I told you that my sister is getting married?" Kenny squeezed Brynn's hand in his while they walked back to her apartment after the Easter gathering with her family.
"I think you've mentioned that she's engaged." Brynn squinted against the afternoon sun to look at him.
"The wedding is about a month and a half away and I was wondering if you'd like to come with me." He felt overly formal asking the question as if he was asking a girl out to the prom. The corner of her mouth turned up in a smile.
"Yeah, sure. Where is it?"
"In Connecticut," Kenny sighed. "It's at the Country Club that my parents belong to." Brynn's eyebrows arched slightly.
"Oh, are you in the wedding?"
"No, I'm not. I'm invited to come to the rehearsal dinner the night before and the brunch the morning after, but I don't have to actually be up there," he gestured with his hand, "during the wedding. I barely know her fiance." He shrugged.
"How long have they been together?" Shit, did he even know the answer to that question? He thought about it, trying to think about how many Christmases he had seen Abby bring Henry over.
"I don't know for sure," Kenny shrugged again. "Three or four years?"
"Oh," Brynn looked surprised. Her gaze switched to look out in front of them.
"I told you, I'm really not that close with my brother and sister, or my parents for that matter. We just don't get along. We're very different." Kenny drew circles with his thumb inside Brynn's hand. "I'd honestly advise you not to come to this thing because there is likely going to be a lot of uncomfortable shit being said, but I don't want you to feel like I'm hiding something from you, like I don't want my family to meet you. Because I do. I think you're amazing. But they are not. They are just... not warm and fuzzy like your family is."
"Warm and fuzzy?" Brynn chuckled, looking up at him again.
"Yes, warm and fuzzy. Hanging out together, reminiscing, greeting each other with hugs. Everything is very... formal, everything has to be a certain way." Kenny thought about an example for a moment, looking out down the sidewalk towards the street corner. "You know how you said you were getting full and Sawyer just reached over me and snagged the bacon strip off your plate and it wasn't a big deal, no one said anything, it was just normal, right?"
"He does that all the time," she narrowed her eyes, shrugging a shoulder. "He's my brother."
"Right well... it would be like a huge deal at my house if I did that to my brother. Or sister. There would be so many things wrong with it. Using my hands, reaching over another person, taking things from someone's plate. There just isn't the same sort of... familiarity."
"Ok, I'll be sure to remember that." She smirked as if what he said was trivial and unimportant. On the one hand, he wanted to prepare her for what his family would be like, and on the other hand, he wasn't sure that she really needed to know it all ahead of meeting them. Wouldn't it be fairer to let her form her own opinion, to let her like them if she wanted to?
He wrestled with the idea of how much to prep Brynn for this event over the next several weeks. Kenny decided that Brynn should probably know, going in, that his dad was the owner and CEO of an investment company in the city, the same one that his brother worked for. Yes, he told her, part of the hard feelings within the family was in fact Kenny's decision not to go into the family business. His mom worked too, he told Brynn, she was the director of acquisitions for an art gallery.
"Oh my God, you had like a nanny and a housekeeper when you were little, didn't you?" Brynn's eyes widened. He sighed, nodding.
He told Brynn about the fact that his dad had an apartment in the city, for when he worked late and didn't want to commute all the way back to Connecticut, but decided to omit the details about what else dad used that apartment for. She didn't need to meet his dad for the first time with the foreknowledge that he's had girlfriends or mistresses over the time that he's been married to Kenny's mom. He warned her that his family aren't huggers, so that wouldn't be a standard way to greet anyone, not even his grandmother or his sister. He prepared her for the fact that Billy might actually hit on her, which made her laugh.
"I'm serious, Brynn," he glanced over at her, his forehead creased, before returning his eyes to the road. They were less than an hour out now, despite the heavy traffic on a Friday afternoon in May. "He's a jackass. He made my girlfriend in high school so uncomfortable that she wouldn't come over to my house anymore." Brynn stopped laughing, her smile diminishing. "He made comments about her body, tried to grab her ass, said something to her one time about thinking about her while jerking off," Kenny shook his head. Brynn's face was more serious now.
"But he was what? Sixteen, seventeen then? I'm sure he grew out of it by now, right? He wouldn't do that now." She shifted in her seat, looking at him.
"I don't know," Kenny shook his head. "I wouldn't put it past him. Yes, he's older now, but he is not all that different."
"He's not bringing a date?" Brynn asked after a short pause.
"I don't know. I don't think I've talked to him at all since Christmas. But he doesn't usually date, he doesn't have girlfriends. He's a player and the thing is, I've seen him blatantly flirt with other women while he is with a date too, so... just an FYI." He rubbed circles with his thumbs on the wheel of the rental car they had gotten. "Abby is nice though." He added, as if it was a consolation. "We are not close like you are with your brothers, but she's a decent person. Probably the least likely one in my family to say something really uncomfortable."
* * * *
He looked at her as if she were some sort of a supermodel or an angel. There was something in his eyes that made her feel as if he saw her as so much more than she actually was. His eyes related something deep, almost disconcertingly so.
"You look absolutely stunning," Kenny told her, shaking his head slightly. He had looked up from checking something on his phone when she walked out of the bathroom after finishing her makeup. She wore a deep purple cocktail dress, which actually made her look like she had some cleavage, and a pair of heels. With the additional three inches on her feet, she was almost at eye level with Kenny, though he still had an inch or two on her.
"Thank you," she smiled. "You look very handsome as well." Kenny wore a navy suit with a crisp white shirt and no tie. His hair was neatly parted and combed - his usual clean-cut, put-together look, with just a touch of stubble along his jaw. Kenny let out a breath, coming close and wrapping his arms around Brynn's waist.
"Last chance to back out." He leaned his forehead against hers. "We can just... I don't know." He shook his head.
"We can do this, it will be ok. I am a pretty likable person, I think." Brynn smiled, feeling pretty confident.
"You are an incredibly likable person. You are beautiful and smart and interesting and they are going to be stupid assholes if they dare to overlook it." He shook his head. Brynn felt a touch of heat cross her cheeks.
"Come on," she broke away. "We don't want to be late."
Kenny drove. The country club was a short distance down the road from the hotel. There was valet parking and Kenny handed the rental car keys over to the attendant before they headed inside. There was a sign directing them to the area of the restaurant for the Livingston-Winthrop wedding party. People were standing around, chatting quietly with cocktails in their hands. Kenny held onto Brynn's hand as they approached a woman in a black, knee-length cocktail dress with a wrap around her shoulders. She was a few inches shorter than Brynn, her auburn hair was in a short bob hairstyle and she had a similarly excellent posture to Kenny's.
They made small talk with Kenny's mother, then his father, he seemed to be very stern and critical, even if he hadn't said anything particularly ostracizing. Yet his disappointment and distaste were somehow palpable. His sister greeted them and introduced them to her fiance before everyone sat down to dinner.
They sat down to dinner at the long table, surrounded by some of the wedding party, whom neither Brynn nor Kenny knew, and made small talk with strangers. There were speeches and toasts and groomsmen and bridesmaids were presented with gifts. Brynn had almost forgotten the fact that she didn't seem to meet Billy yet when a pair of hands appeared on Kenny's shoulders, causing both him and Brynn to look up.
"That fucking traffic out of the city, huh? When the hell did you get here, bro?" Billy asked. He looked strikingly similar to Kenny. The resemblance was more than Brynn had expected, even though she knew that they were identical twins. He had a different sort of hairstyle, though also short and professional and slightly thicker arms and chest inside his suit jacket. He probably spent more time on weights and less on cardio than Kenny did, Brynn thought.
"We've been here a while, I left Brooklyn at like three o'clock." He had taken the afternoon off and picked Brynn up from work on his way out of the city. Billy's eyes darted over to her, widening in surprise.
"Well shit, Kenny, I didn't know you were bringing a girl." Brynn could feel his eyes sliding up and down her.
"This is my girlfriend Brynn," Kenny seemed to sigh, reluctant to make this introduction. "Brynn, this is my brother Billy."
"You look really familiar." Billy narrowed his eyes. "Have we met before?"
"No," Brynn shook her head. There was absolutely no chance she'd ever met him before. Billy stood up tall, rubbing a hand over the stubble on his chin.
