Page 1 of Something New

Chapter 1

John-Michael Kennedy

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Raleigh, North Carolina

Late August

"I need to hear all about this date," Molly said, getting into her brother's truck. "I hope he didn't tell y'all already."

Molly was the last of his three sisters that John-Michael had to pick up. She was working at the mall and she came out to meet them when he texted her.

"He hated it," Jenny said, answering Molly's question from the front seat next to their brother.

He was driving and he turned to look at Jenny when she said it. "I didn't tell you anything about it yet."

"Yeah, but I'm the one who set you up, and I talked to Lizzy. She said she doesn't think you're going to call her back."

"She's right. I'm not going to call her back," John-Michael said.

"See, I told you. He hated it," Jenny complained, talking to Sara and Molly in the back seat.

"He won't tell us anything about it," Sara said, turning to Molly. "We've been in the truck with him for ten minutes, and all we got was 'she was nice'."

"She was nice, JJ?" Molly said. "That's all you have to say? It was your first date with a woman in two years."

"No one's keeping track of that," he said. "I'll meet someone when I'm supposed to… if I'm supposed to."

"See how jaded he is?" Jenny said.

"He's not jaded. He'll find someone," Sara said, reaching up and rubbing her brother's shoulder from the backseat.

"She couldn’t get over trying to figure out why Jenny calls me JJ when I told her my name is John-Michael."

"Did you tell her Joseph is your middle name?"

"Yeah, but she couldn't understand John-Michael being my first name. She said I should just go by John-Michael and tell my family not to call me JJ because it's too confusing."

"She said that? That's weird," Molly said.

"She's fine," Jenny said. "She didn't even say anything to me about his name."

"Where's my nephew?" Molly asked.

"He's with Mom," John-Michael said. "She watched him while I worked this morning. They spent the day up at Camp Eden."

"He's going to be so tired," Molly said

"No kidding, he's been there twice, and both times, he came home filthy and exhausted."

"So, she made one comment about your initials and you don't want to see her again?" Jenny asked, clarifying about her friend.

"Her comments about my name were not what made me feel that way. I just said that as a side note."

"Was there anything you liked about her?" Sara asked from the backseat.

"What about you guys?" John-Michael said. "None of you are going out, trying to look for dates."

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