I turned to see a group of people who looked to be around our age walking towards us. There were five of them, three guys and two girls.

"Don't stop on our behalf. It was just getting good." The same male voice said, walking up to us. I could tell he must be related to Ezra, their voices were similar and they carried themselves the same way. This guy was a lot shorter but had the same dark hair that ran in his family. His Mom's side of the family must have really strong genes.

"Hey, Ezra." One of the girls waved at him sheepishly. She looked like the shorter dark-haired guy. She waved at me too and I smiled back at her. The other girl was standing there with her arms folded across her chest. She scowled at me and I didn't really know why. I sent her a smile and she bit the inside of her cheek. She didn't look friendly at all.

"Fuck. Not today."  My blue-eyed boy whispered against my skin.

Ezra sighed and untangled himself from me. I smoothed out my clothes before turning to face the group.

"Riley, these are my cousin's Jake and Mandy. They are both Charlie's kids." He pointed to the guy who was talking and the girl who was polite enough to wave at me. "That's Milo, Austin, and Amber. We all went to school together." He pointed out the other two guys and the bitchy girl hanging in the background.

"Hey, I'm Riley." I smiled as I introduced myself. The Amber girl huffed in my direction. I narrowed my gaze at Ezra curiously and he shrugged like he had no idea what that was about.  I had a feeling there was more to this story that he wasn't willing to share.

"Are you his new girlfriend?" Mandy asked me, smiling. She seemed really nice and I instantly liked her.

"No, Mandy, she's in the house. This is just some random chick he found on the side of the road and decided to screw." Jake cackled.

"Wouldn't be the first time." The same stink-eyed chick staring me down said in a nasally high-pitched voice. I looked back to Ezra and raised my eyebrows. He had some things he would be explaining to me once we were alone tonight, whether he wanted to or not. He smiled and blushed, knowing what I was thinking.

Mandy grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the house. "Let's go. Aunt Luanne might need some help in the kitchen. We'll let the boys catch up and we can get to know each other."

I smiled at her and fell in stride. Mandy was a little taller than me, but I was able to keep up pretty well. We walked into the house and I opened the door to hold it for her so she could go in first. I turned just in time to see Ezra getting patted on the back and high fived. He pushed his hair off his forehead and looked up at me on the porch. I pulled my mouth into a smile and blew him a kiss. He bit his lip ring and sent me a toothy grin before turning his attention back to his cousin and his friends.

When we got back in the kitchen, Charlie was telling some crazy story about some woman he met at a bar. He was holding his hands out in front of him, trying to demonstrate how big her chest was. He saw us walk in and smiled, reigning the story back in.

"Hey, Dad." Mandy greeted the Ezra look-alike, hugging him warmly.

"Hey sweetie, where's your jackass brother?" My eyes opened a little bit in surprise. I had never heard a parent talk about their kid that way.

"He's outside with Ezra. He brought Austin, Milo, and Amber with him." She said, sticking out her tongue. I saw Luanne stiffen when she mentioned Jake and his friends. I was relieved to find out Mandy wasn't the type of person to have that Amber girl as her friend.

"Is there anything we can help with?" I asked Luanne. I had done my fair share of cooking when my Mom was at work, so I knew a couple of things around a kitchen.

"How are you at slicing onions?" She asked me and I bit my cheek, trying to hide my smile. Somehow, I was always stuck with the onions.

"I can handle onions." Ezra was going to die laughing when he heard his Mom asked me to cut the onions. She handed me a knife and cutting board while explaining how she needed them sliced. She wanted to add them to her soup beans to spice up the flavor.

I started cutting them and watched Mandy, who was placed on potato duty, potato as in the food, not the dog. She was struggling to slice them thinly enough for the fried potatoes. Luanne came over and corrected her multiple times. I felt bad for Mandy, she had good intentions, but it seemed like she might be a little off. I wondered how this beautiful and sweet girl ended up this way.  She looked very put together, but it was like she acted younger than she really was.

I finished with the onions, which Luanne said were perfect and then asked Mandy if she wanted me to take over so she could take a break. I encouraged her, saying potatoes were hard to cut and your hand gets tired quickly. Luanne jumped in and asked her to fill the salt and pepper shakers. With our backs turned to Mandy, Luanne came over and squeezed me, thanking me for saving the potatoes.

"Mandy tries really hard, but she is slow to get things sometimes." She whispered. "I can tell she really likes you. Thank you for being so nice to her. She doesn't have a lot of people around her who are. Most people don't understand her."

I looked up and saw Charlie watching his girl fill up the salt and pepper shakers. He was trying to tell her how to do it without spilling it everywhere. He was smiling and encouraging her as her hands shook. Charlie may be a dog with the ladies, but he looked like he was a good dad to Mandy. He looked back over at me and smiled when he saw me watching her. I felt so at home with Ezra's family.

I heard the front door open and the hooting and hollering broke the kitchen silence. Jake walked in; first, he looked like the ringleader of this unruly pack. Milo and Austin were right behind him, with Amber and Ezra strolling in last. I was slightly jealous he was standing next to her until he broke off and came around the kitchen counter to wrap his arms around me. He kissed the top of my head.

"What's for dinner, Ma?" Ezra asked as he stood behind me, watching me slice the potatoes.

"Soup beans, ham, fried potatoes, steamed broccoli, and cornbread." She said, smiling. "With Cherry pie ala mode for dessert."

"Sounds awesome, Aunt Luanne." Jake picked a slice of ham chunk up from the plate and shoved it into his mouth. Charlie looked at his son in disgust. I didn't understand how good-natured Charlie could be so mean to his son when he was a big softy with his daughter.

"Hey, princess," Jake said, looking up at me. If he wasn't looking directly at me, then I wouldn't have known who he was talking to. "I invited you and your man to a party tonight, but he said you wouldn't want to go. Want to party tonight with us? You can come alone if he wants to be a pussy."

I looked at Ezra and he shook his head no. I began to answer when Mandy chirped in.

"Jakey, can I come too?"  She asked sweetly.

Jake sneered a bit before turning and saying. "Yeah, Mandy, convince Riley to party with us and you can come too."

"Oh, please Riley! We will have so much fun." Mandy begged me.

"Mandy, I don't think you should go out tonight." Charlie said gently to his daughter. I was missing something here and I hoped Ezra would fill me in soon. I looked to Ezra and he closed his eyes; he was fighting hard to control his temper.  There was way more to this weird family dynamic than I was aware of.   

"Riley will stay with me. Won't you?" She looked like she was about to cry and I felt sorry for her. Ezra saw the look on my face and knew how badly I wanted to help her. He sighed before giving in.

"Yeah, Mandy, we will go. Uncle Charlie, is it ok if we take Mandy with us?" Ezra was sweet to his cousin and I leaned back into him to show him how much I appreciated his kindness. Ezra was a better person than most people knew; it was just hard to see it under all the hurt and anger he put up as his wall to protect himself.

"You'll keep an eye on her?" Charlie asked nervously.

"She can hang out with us. It's no trouble at all." I said, smiling. I looked over at Jake, who was whispering to his group. He turned his head to smirk at me. I didn't like Jake. There was something dark lurking under the surface of his smile. 

"Then it's settled. We'll eat dinner and head out. You'll have fun tonight, Princess, I promise." Jake said, rubbing his hands together.