Page 16 of Reviving Kendall

The woman looks up immediately, but the man finishes whatever he’s doing on his gigantic phone looking thing.

“This is Kendall,” he says pulling me forward a little. “Kendall, that’s Cynthia and Steve aka mom and dad.”

She gets up and comes over with an outstretched hand, “Nice to meet you, Kendall.”

I shake her hand in return, “Nice to meet you too.” She gives me a once over with her eyes and smiles.

“Nice to meet you, Kendall,” his dad says. Before I can respond he continues, “How was practice today son?”

Teagan shrugs, “Same as any other day.”

His dad makes a tsk noise behind his teeth, “Did the coaches confirm about scouts at the game on Friday?”

Shaking his head, Teagan says, “No sir, not yet.”

He hrmphs and goes back to what he was doing before.

“We’re going to go out back to the fire pit,” he tells them as we start toward the door again.

Cynthia follows us, “Do you guys need anything?”

“Shit,” Teagan says turning back around quickly. “We forgot to stop by the store.”

“It’s ok,” I say at the same time Cynthia says, “For what?”

“I told Kendall we could make s’mores and I’m an idiot and forgot to pick up the stuff,” he tells her.

She claps her hands and reaches out for my other hand that isn’t in Teagan’s, “I bet there’s some stuff in the kitchen left over from Ryleigh’s last little get together.” I want to look back at Teagan to see if this is normal behavior for her, but she’s pulling me along before I get the chance to.

We walk into a well-lit kitchen that is covered in chrome. It looks expensive and pristine. She finally lets me go and walks into a closet that has shelves as full as a grocery store. I can’t help but to stare, even after she’s already walked back out.

She notices my attention, “Have to keep a full pantry around here. Never know when all of the boys will be here, and they eat up everything in the house. But here you go.” She hands over graham crackers and a Ziploc bag that has individually wrapped chocolate bars and a bag full of marshmallows in it.

“This is awesome, Cynth. Thanks,” Teagan says coming around me to side arm hug her.

She blushes a little, “You’re welcome. Glad I could help.”

Her reaction is strange, but I wait until Teagan has the fire roaring and we are warm and toasty before I ask him about it, “So Cynthia?”

His eyes watch the fire, “Yeah, my birth mom left us a long time ago, right after Ryleigh was born. Dad has been married four times now. I guess you could say that he’s just a hard man to live with. Cynthia is the coolest one out of all of them. She just tries a little too hard sometimes. And I get it man. It’s hard raising kids when they are right behind you in age.”

I’m curious, “What’s the age difference if you don’t mind me asking?”

“You can ask anything,” he smiles turning to look at me, “I like you knowing things about me.” Those damn butterflies are back, but he doesn’t need to know that. “There’s only a five-year gap between us. I’m eighteen and she’s twenty-three.

Damn. She’s even younger than I thought, “Ok, I have to ask. Is your dad not worried about you guys being so close in age?”

His face scrunches up in disgust and I laugh, “Not like that, but what about your friends or friends of friends.”

He shrugs, “I’ve never really asked him, so I don’t know how he feels about it. No one but the guys have ever spent time over while my parents are here and I’m not worried about them. That would be worse than sleeping with Ryleigh and they know that shit won’t fly.”

“Yeah, I get that,” I say pulling my eyes away from his.

“Hey losers, why wasn’t I invited to the party?” Ryleigh says from behind us. She catches sight of me and her step picks up. “Oh, hey Kendall. I didn’t realize it was you out here. I thought it was just the boys again.”

“Hi,” I say in return, “Nope, it’s just us tonight.”

“Hey, sprout, will you go grab the skewers inside? I forgot them earlier,” Teagan asks her.

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