The Kinsley Family

I don’t think I will ever be as happy to see Frankie’s shitty run-down house as I am right now.

I allow my breath to return as I head in through the unlocked door. I sure hope that was left open for me, or I will be investing in some bedroom security.

I need water and some food in my stomach so I can wake up feeling human. The small light comes on as I open the bare fridge. The chilliness that escapes from it feels nice on my wet face.

There’s food plated from the dinner Frankie made. I had refused to eat it earlier today, but now I am feeling braver—and I’ve had worse things in my mouth tonight—so I pull the plate out and take a seat at the table.

I haven’t a fucking clue what it is, but it’s tasty and it feels nice to be finally having some proper food in my stomach.

“You enjoying that?” Frankie asks.

I hadn’t noticed him sitting on the old chair by the window.

“Why are you sitting in the dark?” I ask.

“I was checking you got home. Why are you all wet?”

“It’s raining,” I reply.

“Didn’t you catch a ride back?”

“Yeah, but I was at Tobias’s place.”

Frankie starts to get up out of the chair. He moves toward me and leans on the old wooden table I am eating from.

“You don’t want to be getting involved with the men around here,” he warns. “Tobias is a good man, honest and hard-working, but he is also very familiar with the ladies.”

“I know he’s a jerk, if that’s what you mean.”

Frankie looks at me. I reckon he is trying to figure out if I have fucked Tobias yet or not.

“And I wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole,” I add.

The laugh that comes from Frankie makes him sound relieved.

“You sure do remind me of your mother,” he says as he heads up the stairs cackling to himself.

I hate all these strangers talking about my mother. I don’t know anything about her, and being here makes it worse. Everyone around here seemed to know her so well—it feels odd and frustrating.

“Set your alarm for eight,” Frankie shouts from upstairs. “We have church tomorrow at nine.”

“Oh no, Uncle Frankie, I don’t believe in God,” I yell back.

“While you’re in this house you will attend church,” he states, and I hear his bedroom door close.

I pull my phone out—it’s 3 a.m. I’m never going to be up for goddamn church!

I finally collapse in bed after stripping my makeup off and changing into some nightclothes. My hair’s still wet and I dread to think how it will look in the morning after drying in my sleep.

***

I wake to the sound of Frankie shouting my name, and my hands instantly go to my head.

There is a loud thud drumming in my skull, and my heart is racing. I know I have the alcohol anxiety, and I just want to go back to sleep until it passes.

“Isobella,” he shouts again.

The old man isn’t going to give up until I get my arse out of bed and attend his fucking church!

After fifteen minutes of trying to convince myself to get up and ten more struggling to locate my flip-flops for the shower, I finally go into the bathroom.

The sound of the water drowns out Frankie’s every-two-minute reminders that we’re late. It’s well after nine by the time I get downstairs, still looking half dead. I had to wash my hair and tie it back wet, which I hate doing.

“Thanks for making the effort, but we missed morning service now.” He sounds irritated.

“Does that mean I can go back to bed?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No, that means we might as well go with the others for the afternoon service.”

“What? There’s an afternoon service just in case you miss the morning one?”

“I prefer the morning one, but yes, we can head up to Antony’s. All the family will be there before they go off to church for the afternoon.”

“Great,” I reply. “Can I at least go dry my hair now, then?”

He shakes his head again.

“What about some food?”

“Nope,” he says. “Dawn will have cooked up a feast. Let’s head out.”

We climb into the truck and my varsity jacket from last night is still on the seat. It now smells of old man and oil, so I’ll need to air it before putting it on.

“It might have worked out better, this—you get to meet the rest of the family here on the ranch now.”

“Okay, so apart from the three brothers and the dad, who else is there?”

“Well, there’s Dawn—she’s Travis’s wife—and their two girls. Tanner’s baby might be around, then Antony, the dad who you haven’t met yet.”

“Wait! Tanner has a baby?”

Frankie nods his head. “I’m just surprised he only has the one,” he chuckles.

Wow, that’s a shocker. I assume he isn’t with the mother after seeing him act like a dog in heat last night.

After the short ride, I follow Frankie up to the house. It’s the scruffy big house I was around yesterday. It’s close to Tobias’s place, and I hope he’s still in bed.

Maybe after I left, he got with Lynn and spent the night making love—fingers crossed.

I hear children giggling when Frankie opens the door—no knocking around here, which I think is a massive invasion of people’s privacy.

“Uncle Frankie,” a pretty little girl squeals as we enter.

My hand goes to my head as the noise makes it pulse. A friendly lady with a pleasant smile approaches us from the kitchen, where she is setting out food.

“Frankie,” she says. “Oh, this must be Isobella?”

“Ella is just fine,” I add as I smile.

“Well, welcome. I hear you were shown a good old-fashioned Southern welcome last night.”

~If that’s what insulting someone then kissing them is, then yes, I was shown just that!~

I smile and nod to be polite. No one needs to hear about the sweaty, rude brother who has been a thorn in my side since my arrival.

“This is Antony,” Dawn adds. “He’s the daddy around here and the chief babysitter.”

He smiles as she pulls her arms around his shoulders. He looks tired and like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Something about him makes me feel sorry for him, and I can’t figure out what it is. He’s nice enough, though—he asks about my life in England and the course I will be studying.

I’m still talking to him when the room erupts with testosterone, and I have a feeling the cavalry have arrived.

“Ella, you’ve met my boys Travis, Tanner, and Toby,” Antony says as his sons all hover around him.

“Hey, old man,” Tanner wails as he pats his dad on the back.

The old dad looks happier now that his boys have arrived, and I figure that’s what I couldn’t put my finger on earlier. He had looked lost, but now around his sons, he looks complete with his proud smile.

“Nice to meet you, Ella,” Travis says as he shakes my hand. “I have heard a lot about you,” he adds, and my eyes go to Tobias.

If he has told everyone about that stupid drunken kiss, I will slit his throat as he sleeps!

I force a smile and refrain from saying anything.

Dawn passes Tanner a baby, and I assume that’s the one Frankie was talking about. He looks strange with the baby but seems comfortable.

“I can’t believe you have a baby,” I say to him when the others start talking between themselves.

“Yup, he’s Dylan. Ain’t he cute just like his dadda?”

“He is cute, but I take a wild guess he looks like his mother.”

Tobias leans in, too close for comfort. “Well, he doesn’t know who the mother is, so we wouldn’t know,” he spouts.

“Haha,” I reply as I narrow my eyes at him.

He smiles and playfully narrows his eyes and screws his nose up like a child.

What’s he playing at? I think I prefer his insults.

“Do you wanna hold him?” Tanner asks.

I back away, shaking my head.

“No thanks, I would drop him. Babies aren’t my thing.”

He holds the baby close to me teasingly. “What woman says babies aren’t her thing?”

Tobias leans over me, brushing me with his strong muscles as he takes the baby. I’m pretty sure there is enough room for him not to touch me with his fine, tatted arms.

“Isobella isn’t like the women around here,” he says. “Did you not know? She’s only here because she has to be and will be away from us hicks as soon as she can.”

I throw him a dirty look and purposely bang his shoulder as I stride past him.

Dawn has put amazing food out, and she gestures for me to help myself, so I dig in. It all looks and smells so good.

Tobias is still hovering around with the baby, looking all innocent and friendly when I head back to the food for seconds.

“I didn’t think princesses ate anything other than carrot sticks and lettuce?” he comments.

If he didn’t have that baby in his arms, I would bounce him right out of here, but instead, I pull a sarcastic smile and sigh loudly to indicate how fed up I am of his bullshit.

“Can you just never speak to me please,” I say as I turn away from him. “Like, just stay the fuck away from me.”

“My pleasure,” he adds, and I turn back to him. His eyes burn into mine and my heart starts to beat more intently.

I fear the anxiety from the alcohol is coming back, so I pull my eyes away and grab a glass of water.

“So, Frankie, we don’t usually have the pleasure of your company at afternoon mass,” Travis says, and all ears wait for Frankie’s reply.

My cheeks flush before he even responds.

“Well,” he says as he looks directly at me, “Ella here was still in her pit when my service began.”

~Thanks, Uncle Frankie, couldn’t have just said we fancied a later show, could you?~

“Well, we’re just glad you’re joining our church, really becoming a part of the family,” Dawn says to me.

~Do I tell them all I don’t even believe in God?~

~That the one and only time I ever went into a church I was thrown out for eating peanuts?~

No, maybe now isn’t the time.