* * *
I pull the Batmobile up in front of the small but cozy-looking two-story house and feel instantly nervous, which is insane.
"Come on already!" Penn commands, before practically bouncing out of the car. I wish I could inhale some of her excitement. When she invited me for dinner with her family, I said yes, but now that we’re here, I’m so nervous.
This new world of mine has come with so many new parts, but one thing I don't think I'll ever get used to are the family meals and the big extreme that everybody seems to go to.
We reach the door and Penn pauses, turning to face me with a grin. "Oh, and I should probably tell you… I’m adopted."
My jaw practically hits the floor, but she doesn’t give me a chance to ask questions. Instead, she just opens the door and loudly announces our arrival before pulling me in behind her. The shouts of hello are loud, the people a little overwhelming as they hug her before she gets yanked off into what I think is the dining room with the crowd, and I end up standing there like a lost cause.
I walk further into Penn’s parents' house, wondering why the hell I agreed to this, despite the fact that I'm supposed to be acting normal, because people are so not my thing.
And there are so many of them here.
"Briar? You must be Briar! I'm Camila, Penn’s mom. It's so lovely to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you. Please, come in, come in." I blink at the golden-skinned, dark-haired woman who positively glows with warmth as she greets me. Yep, I’m glad Penn told me she was adopted, because well… this is a trip and a half. I mean, sure, I know Dante, and I know they look nothing alike, but cousins don’t have to.
I shake my head so my insanity doesn’t spill out of my mouth and refocus on Penn’s mom, who is still waiting on me. Camila waves as she pushes me further into the hall, and I hear cheers in the dining room, or what I assume is the dining room, where Penn went. The laughter is loud and there are so many voices. The sound of children laughing and playing as they run through the house. It's so… different.
They may not have much in the way of money if I go by what Penn has told me, but it's very obvious to me that these people are rich in ways that the Kensingtons are not. They have love, they have family. And honestly, it's more than a little overwhelming.
I have never experienced something like this in my life.
Even when Iris was alive.
Most of the time, it was just the two of us. Three if Mom could sober herself up long enough to join us. But that was all the family I ever had.
Seeing the way the Kensingtons work, while it’s not familiar, is closer to what I've always known. But this… this is a whole other world.
I enter the kitchen at Camila’s insistence and find what I can only assume are more of Penn’s family. There are half a dozen women of all ages in here, and I get lost in a whirlwind of introductions and names that I'm never going to remember, because Penn fully abandoned me the moment she was swept into the dining room.
Once the introductions are finished and I'm sitting at the table, I’m given a bowl with dough of some sort to knead. I have never kneaded dough in my entire life, so I have no idea what I'm doing, but I smile and I nod, listening to the exuberant sounds that go on around me from the chatter of the women in the room that bounces between Spanish and English. Half of which I have no understanding of because Spanish is not something I'm fluent in. Despite every attempt to the contrary in my education, languages are just not my thing.
But there is something about the love and warmth of this house. It might be small and crammed full of people, but I have never felt so instantly accepted andprotectedin my entire life.
Penn eventually comes to find me, having extracted herself from the insanity that is her very overwhelming family, and sits down beside me. Taking the ball from in front of me, she rolls her eyes as she grabs more flour and adds it to the sticky mess that I've created in the bowl.
She speaks in Spanish to what I assume is her grandma, because the word ‘abuela’ sneaks in and that's one word that I actually recognize.
Thank you, TV.
I sit and listen while trying to pick the sticky dough from my fingers before giving up and finally washing my hands, just enjoying feeling like I’m a part of something so healthy and warm.
"Briar, I didn't expect to see you here." I turn at the sound of Dante's voice, smiling instantly. He grins back at me from the doorway he’s leaning against.
"I could say the same about you," I counter as I move toward him. It’s only when his stare glances over my shoulder that I realize the chatter in here has stopped.
"This is my family, Briar, of course I'm here." His smile is still wide and he’s playful, but from the hiss behind me, I get the feeling he’s just fucked up while I stand here baffled.
Penn turns and glares over at him. "It's her family now too, idiot."
All of the women in the room stop, turning to also stare at Dante, whose eyes go wide, and he holds up his hands in surrender. "I didn't mean anything by it. I was just coming to say hello because Grandpa's asking when food is going to be ready and is too much of a coward to come and ask himself."
I laugh and shrug it off as I take my seat back next to Penn. It's all good. I'm not offended. I'm very aware that I stick out like a sore thumb here. This crazy, loving insanity is beautiful, but it’s not mine.
"It will be as long as it takes," their grandmother says, heavily accented in Spanish, before saying something else that goes completely over my head, but from the look on Dante’s face, he got sotold.
I send him a look of apology, and he gives me a small smile before he hightails it out of the kitchen, back to the fun of the other room, where moments later there’s a huge roar of laughter.