by Gina Wilkins
Brynn was stunned. Michelle seemed so close to her siblings, at least according to the first impression Brynn had received. She remembered now that Michelle had acted oddly when Brynn made a comment about how nice it must have been to grow up with so many siblings to play with. “I didn’t know.”
Joe shrugged. “They probably would have mentioned it tonight, anyway. Michelle actually met Tony when she hired him to find her family.”
Brynn was still thinking about the story of Michelle and her siblings when Joe escorted her to the door and rang the bell. She thought of the kind-eyed, stern-mouthed man who had sat with her during Kelly’s surgery. Had Jared been adopted, too, or had he grown up in foster care, as Brynn had? Maybe that explained the immediate bond she’d felt with him that night in the hospital waiting room.
The woman who opened the door looked very much like Michelle, only a few years older. She had the same glossy hair, though hers had more gray threaded through the brown, the same dark-blue eyes, the same warm smile. Perhaps there were a few more lines on her face, but she was still a lovely woman.
“Layla, this is Brynn Larkin,” Joe said. “Brynn, meet Michelle’s elder sister, Layla Samples.”
Brynn held out her hand, only to have Layla cover it with both of hers. “I’ve heard so much about you,” Layla said. “The children have been telling me how nice you are.”
Brynn smiled. “The children only met me for a short while.”
“Trust me, they form opinions very quickly. And they know who they like.”
Joe chuckled. “You must be thinking about Mrs. Webster.”
Rueful laughter lighting her eyes, Layla nodded. “Exactly.”
“Mrs. Webster?” Brynn repeated curiously.
“A housekeeper Michelle hired a couple of years ago. The little ‘angels’ took one look at her and instantly disliked her. They ran her off in less than two weeks,” Joe explained, his expression wry.
“That doesn’t sound like the well-behaved children I met in Michelle’s hospital room.”
Joe and Layla shared a glance and a smile.
“Let’s just say they have a lot of their father in them,” Joe murmured.
Brynn wrinkled her nose at Joe. “I don’t suppose they have any of their uncle in them?”
He grinned, even as Layla’s hands jerked around Brynn’s.
Brynn looked questioningly at Layla, who was studying her with a frown.
Layla shook her head, and released Brynn’s hand. “Sorry. For a moment, you reminded me of someone. When you wrinkled your nose that way. But I can’t...”
“Brynn!” Two little girls in matching pink playsuits pelted through a door and rushed toward Brynn.
She held out her hands to them, a smile spreading across her face. “Carly. Katie. Don’t you both look pretty this evening.”
Carly patted her dark curls. “Aunt Layla brushed my hair. Mommy was busy with Justin.”
Joe cleared his throat loudly. “Excuse me, but have I suddenly become invisible?”
The girls looked at him and dimpled. “Hi, Dr. Joe,” they chorused, and then threw themselves at him.
He caught one in each arm, hugging them warmly. “It’s about time you noticed I was here.”
“We’re supposed to talk to company first,” Carly lectured him gravely. “Brynn’s company. You’re fam’ly.”
Joe chuckled and ruffled the hair Layla had brushed so neatly. “Is that right?”
Mentally replaying the little girl’s words, Brynn thought how much nicer it sounded to be “family” rather than “company.”
Layla smiled at Brynn and motioned toward a doorway. “The others are waiting in the den. Shall we?”
Swallowing a sudden nervous lump in her throat, Brynn nodded and followed Layla, aware that Joe and the girls were close at her heels.
There were several people Brynn didn’t know in the den. Her fingers locked together in automatic reaction to the wave of nerves that hit her when they all seemed to turn and look at her in unison.
She tried to count faces, telling herself there couldn’t possibly be as many people in the room as her overanxious imagination made it seem. Tony and Michelle were there, of course—Michelle holding court from a chair in the center of the room, Tony standing nearby. A white wicker bassinet rested beside Michelle’s chair.
A chubby, pleasant-faced man stood beside a young teenage girl who looked very much like Layla. Husband and daughter? Brynn hazarded.
Four boys sat in one corner of the room, gathered around a board game that apparently required intense concentration. Brynn recognized Jason D’Alessandro, who, at nine, seemed to be the oldest of the group. Two of the boys were probably twins, since they looked almost exactly alike and wore matching shirts and jeans.
The boys weren’t the only twins in the room. Two men sat side by side on a couch facing Michelle’s chair, looking so much alike Brynn almost questioned her vision. Same light-brown hair, slightly frosted with gray at the temples. Same pale-blue eyes. Same ruggedly attractive, fortyish faces. Same tall, slender, muscular build. Only their expressions were different, one man looking very serious and a bit intimidating, the other smiling broadly and warmly. They stood when she entered, and even their movements were the same.
Two women were the final occupants of the room. A blonde and a brunette of approximately the same ages—late thirties, Brynn would have guessed—they hovered close to the bassinet, the better to admire the sleeping baby inside.
“Brynn.” Michelle broke into Brynn’s rapid mental assessment of the group. “Come in and meet everyone.”
She felt a touch on her shoulder and didn’t have to look around to know that it was Joe, and that he was trying to reassure her. Was her attack of shyness so obvious, or was he coming to know her better than she had realized?
Whatever his reason, she appreciated the gesture.
Michelle continued her role as official hostess. “Everyone, this is Brynn Larkin. You’ve heard us talk about her. Brynn, you’ve obviously met Layla. This is her husband, Kevin, and their youngest daughter, Brittany.” She pointed to the chubby man and the teenage girl, proving Brynn’s theory correct as to their identity.
“And this is my brother Ryan Walker, and his wife, Taylor,” Michelle. continued, pointing to the smiling twin and the brunette, “and my brother Joe Walker, and his wife, Lauren,” she added, indicating the serious twin and the blond woman. “The boys with Jason are Joe and Lauren’s son, Casey, and Ryan and Taylor’s twins, Andrew and Aaron.”
Four-year-old Katie seemed to think Brynn needed a bit more clarification. She tugged at Brynn’s skirt and pointed to Joe D’Alessandro. “Dr. Joe,” she said gravely, then turned her chubby finger toward Joe Walker. “Uncle Joe.”
Joe Walker’s formerly serious face creased with a smile, making him look even more like his twin. The other adults chuckled.
Brynn tried to answer as seriously as the tot had spoken. “Thank you, Katie. That will certainly help me keep them apart.”
Katie nodded, satisfied that her job was done.
Everyone greeted Brynn politely, and with varying degrees of curiosity. From the way they eyed her, she guessed that Michelle had mentioned she was being considered as a nanny to the D’Alessandro children. She suspected the aunts and uncles were trying to judge her suitability for that position.
“You have the most unusual coloring,” the woman who’d been introduced as Taylor Walker mused, studying Brynn’s face. “That dark hair and crystal-blue eyes—such an uncommon pairing. Your eyes...”
When Brynn flushed self-consciously, Taylor smiled ruefully and made an apologetic gesture with one slender hand. “Forgive me. I spent several years working as a fashion photographer and now I’m the art director of an advertising agency. I tend to see people in terms of models.”
“I think I’ll take my family home now before my wife further embarrasses your dinner guest,” Ryan said wryly to Michelle, laying his hands on Taylor’s shoulders in
an affectionate manner that belied his words.
Brynn wasn’t sure if he was joking or serious. “You certainly don’t have to leave on my account. I’m not embarrassed.”
Taylor chuckled. “Ryan’s teasing. We weren’t planning to stay for dinner, anyway. Joe and Lauren and Ryan and I are taking our boys and Jason to a movie tonight.”
At the word “movie,” the boys sprang to their feet. “Space Warriors. Way cool!” one of them proclaimed.
“I’m sorry I won’t be eating with you, Brynn,” Jason said, looking a bit conflicted. “But my aunts and uncles invited me to the movie and then we’re all going to spend the night at Casey’s house...”
“I’m sure you’re going to have a wonderful time,” Brynn assured him. “You and I will visit another time, okay?”
He smiled up at her. “I’d like that.”
“So would I.”
Ten minutes later, the two Walker families were gone.
Michelle looked at her remaining family members and smiled. “Everyone ready to eat? After three days of hospital food, I’m starving.”
The dinner was more comfortable than Brynn might have expected. With so many people gathered around the big table in Michelle’s dining room, there was rarely a quiet moment for awkwardness to set in.
Carly and Katie, who demanded to sit on either side of Brynn, chattered like magpies throughout the meal. Thirteen-year-old Brittany Samples, while less vociferous, was persuaded by her aunt to talk about the tennis day camp she would be attending during the summer. Joe and Tony carried on what sounded like habitual bickering throughout the meal, exchanging good-natured insults in English interspersed with fluent Italian.
Refusing any assistance, Layla served the excellent meal, which she had prepared on her sister’s behalf. She and Michelle talked to Brynn when Carly and Katie gave them a chance, asking questions about Kelly, about Brynn’s initial impressions of Dallas and about the work she’d done in the day-care center in Longview.
“I loved the children there,” Brynn told them, a lump forming in her throat as she remembered the day she’d had to tell them goodbye. “But I had some differences with the owner of the center. I don’t think children should ever be seen as a commodity or their welfare dictated in terms of profit and loss. When she began to serve less nutritious meals and snacks to save money, I spoke up, and that angered her. She didn’t want to fire me, because the parents liked me, but she told me in no uncertain terms that I was to do my job and leave the decision making to her.”
“Did her budget cuts endanger the children?” Layla asked with a frown.
“No,” Brynn admitted. “They were all perfectly legal, within national and state guidelines. They were just... unnecessary. Gloria—my boss—made a good profit off the center. The cuts she made were strictly designed to earn her even more. Little things, like replacing fresh foods with processed ones. Counting ketchup as a vegetable, rather than a condiment. Serving more fried and packaged entrees on the pretext that the children would eat them more readily, when it was my experience that they would eat most of what was served as long as they were hungry and the food was attractively presented.”
Layla nodded. “That’s what I found when my three children were growing up. Even now that they’re teenagers, they will generally choose vegetables and healthy food items when given a choice over fried or packaged selections.”
“I like vegetables,” Brittany agreed, sticking her fork into a tender, steamed baby carrot. “Of course, I like a burger or pizza every once in a while, too,” she added, apparently compelled to be honest.
Brynn smiled. “So do I. The trick is to make them occasional treats, rather than everyday staples. They’re much more enjoyable that way, don’t you think?”
Brittany returned the smile and nodded, looking pleased that her input to the conversation had been taken seriously. Seeing that Katie and Carly had finished their desserts and were beginning to get restless, she volunteered to take them into another room to play. They accepted eagerly, dragging her off to admire their toys. The adults lingered at the table over coffee, while baby Justin slept peacefully in the bassinet Tony had carried into the room for him.
“You said you’re working toward a degree in elementary education, Brynn?” Layla asked, encouraging her to converse with them more.
Brynn nodded. “I like children,” she said simply. “And I’m good at it. On the rare occasions when we’d get very young children in the foster home where I lived, I was always the one who seemed to take care of them.”
There was a moment of silence and then Layla asked, “Did you live in only one foster home?”
Her eyes on her nearly empty plate, Brynn shook her head. “Several. But only one from the time I was thirteen until I graduated high school at eighteen.”
“And were you happy there?”
“Reasonably.”
Layla nodded, accepting Brynn’s guarded answer at face value. “I spent most of my childhood in a foster home, as well,” she said. “Our parents died when I was only ten, and no one wanted to take seven children, so we were split up. I was fortunate to be placed into a very good foster home, where I was able to remain until I was on my own. Very kind people, who treated me as their own daughter. Michelle and Lindsay, our youngest sister, were adopted by different families, and both were very close to their adoptive parents. The boys weren’t as lucky. Their foster experiences were unsuccessful. Jared was eleven when we were separated, and was never able to form bonds with his foster families. The twins were so unhappy they ran away at sixteen and have been on their own ever since. Miles was placed in so many different homes and institutions that he probably never felt truly at home.”
“Miles?” Brynn frowned, trying to remember faces to go with all the names. She hadn’t met Lindsay, and didn’t even remember hearing the name Miles before. In fact, she would have sworn that Michelle had said there were only six siblings, not seven.
“Miles died young,” Michelle said sadly. “Before the rest of us were reunited. I never had a chance to meet him. I was so young when our parents died that I have no memory of the time we all lived together.”
“But you have each other now,” Brynn mused, thinking that the sad story had a happy ending after all. “From what I’ve seen, you’ve become close.”
Michelle and Layla exchanged somewhat misty smiles.
“Yes,” Michelle murmured, “very close.”
“We’ve been blessed,” Layla agreed.
“It’s really amazing that you were able to find everyone. I know a few people who have been looking for their birth families for years,” Brynn murmured.
Michelle turned her proud smile in her husband’s direction. “We had an excellent investigator on our case.”
Tony deflected the lovingly given compliment. “It’s gotten a lot easier since computers have become so common. Reunions of biological family members are becoming almost commonplace.”
Brynn nodded thoughtfully. “I’ve seen many stories in the newspapers and on television about reunited families lately. One that particularly interested me rather recently was the story of two brothers who actually worked at the same company and became close friends before they discovered they had the same birth parents. It seemed like such a bizarre coincidence.”
“It happens frequently,” Tony repeated. “Although not all the reunions are as happy or successful as Michelle’s have been.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters, Brynn?” Kevin asked.
“No. My mother told me that my father died before I was born. He had no other children, and neither did my mother, who died when I was thirteen.”
“And what about other family?” Layla wanted to know. “There was no one to take you in when your mother passed away?”
Knowing Layla was remembering her own circumstances, Brynn shook her head. “My parents met in an institution for orphaned teenagers. Neither had families. They hadn’t been on their own very long when my father die
d in an accident. My mother raised me on her own, for as long as she was able. When she became... ill...she had no choice but to place me in foster care. I lived in several homes when I was very young, leaving each when my mother felt well enough to care for me. And then she... died when I was thirteen, and I went into the home I told you about. The same one Kelly moved into a couple of years later, when her own single mother was diagnosed with cancer. We’ve thought of ourselves as sisters ever since.”
If the others noticed the hesitations in Brynn’s story, they didn’t comment..
“As our sister Lindsay, who adores her adoptive family, can testify, not all family relationships are formed by blood,” Layla murmured.
It was nice to be among people who truly understood, Brynn mused.
Matter-of-factly, Layla began to gather dirty dishes. “I’m going to clean the kitchen now. Michelle, why don’t you and Tony take Brynn into the den, where you can talk.”
“Oh, let me help you with the dishes.” Brynn sprang to her feet, both eager to help and wanting to stall that talk.
Kevin snatched up a bowl. before Brynn could touch it. “No problem. I’ll help her.”
“So will I,” said Joe, gathering silverware. “We’re quite capable of taking care of this. Go talk with Tony and Michelle.”
Brynn gave in gracefully and followed her hosts to their den.
It was nearly nine by the time the evening came to an end. Brynn, who had been holding little Justin, handed the baby back to his mother and moved toward the door with Joe.
“We’ll talk more soon,” Michelle assured Brynn, seeing them off with a smile.
“Yes. Thank you again for inviting me for dinner. I really enjoyed the evening.”
Tony punched Joe’s shoulder. “See you, fratello—next time you beg a free meal out of us, most likely.”
Joe grinned. “I’m going to take any chance I get for a home-cooked meal. Why d’you think I spend so much time with you married guys?”