Just as dad had promised, Kenneth showed up on the doorstep early one morning when I least expected it. There was a series of abrupt knocks on the door, at first I wondered who it could be but when I swung the door open and was met by a tall man dressed in extremely tidy, pressed clothes I kinda figured out fast who was standing in front of me.

My first impression was that Kenneth was a bit of an ass, which made me even more glad that dad had adopted me into his home and mom had taken a liking to me. Because if I had been left with Kenneth I think I would have had a stick wedged so far up my butt that my back would be ramrod straight.

"You must be Ken, come in. Mom's just making breakfast for us, they didn't say you were coming in this early though...ugh, I'm Keelan by the way." I don't know what Kenneth was expecting but I don't think that sort of greeting was it. He frowned so deep I think he could have burned a hole in my forehead if he focused hard enough, but when I felt mom's hand on my shoulder I turned to see her smile at me while pushing me away from the front door.

"Who was at the door Keelan?" Dad asked when I walked back into the kitchen, he and mom had switched places and now dad was making the pancakes.

I shrugged my shoulders, trying not to make it seem like a big deal. "It's Kenneth, mom's talking to him I think." I smiled to myself as I managed to keep my voice even and neutral, on the inside though I was freaking out. You know how in movies they have people running around when something bad is about to happen? That's what it felt like with my insides, my heart was thudding so hard in my chest I thought it would break out and flop onto the table.

"Hey Ken, good to see you. Come in, we're just making breakfast. Kids, say hello to your uncle Ken." Dad realized too late that he'd said something wrong and turned back to the stove clenching his jaw and waving the spatula thing in the air.

"Morning uncle Ken." Nat and Corlan both said, Corlan seemed more excited to see uncle Ken than I did. For a few seconds I found myself thinking possessive thoughts of uncle Ken, he was my biological dad which meant he had to automatically feel more close to me than to Corlan. But I caught myself before I let the thought settle in my head and smiled as Kenneth sat himself down beside Nat.

"So what is for breakfast? Man I haven't had a decent home cooked meal in lord knows how long, how's school going Nat? Your mom tells me you have a boyfriend, I'd like to meet him some time." I tried not to roll my eyes at what Kenneth said, of course he'd want to meet Nat's boyfriend...he probably want to scare Cal off good and proper.

Nat just laughed, patting un...Kenneth's arm as she went.

"No offense uncle Ken, but this guy is a keeper and I'm not going to let you scare him off." Kenneth's answering laugh was something between a bellow of disbelief and a guffaw, I don't even know how to describe it. Like he was being condescending because Nat was seventeen and he was old.

"Besides, he's Keelan's best-friend and lives just next door. So he doesn't have anywhere to hide if he does something wrong." I don't think Cal would ever do anything wrong, the longer he dated Nat the more he fell in love with her and it was so weird seeing how in love a guy could get. I mean, we were only seventeen for crying out loud but Cal was that much in love with Nat that he would probably take a bullet for her even if she was holding the gun.

"Well then, if he's a keeper even I won't be able to scare him off." The laugh that followed Ken's statement kinda made me doubt if his sanity was there. The look Nat gave me too screamed for help, it would have been funny if we didn't have a questionably unstable person sitting right next to her.

"So where have you been? Which country I mean?" The laugh caught in Ken's throat at my questions, were they that unexpected? The were the tamest questions I had planned on asking him, Ilyse and her sadness at missing out on growing up with Kenneth around sorta had me thinking and I guess there was a bit of delayed anger in me somewhere.

After a few moments of heavy, awkward silence Ken cleared his throat.

At first I thought he was going to speak but he didn't, he tucked into breakfast like I hadn't even asked my questions. I gave Nat a look, she returned it with equal amounts of confusion and shrugged her shoulders before turning her attention back to breakfast.

Mom and dad kept the conversation flowing after that, Ken said something every few conversations but he more or less kept to himself. He looked relaxed and all that but he ONLY spoke to mom and dad occasionally his eyes would wander to Nat or Corlan but he didn't look at me once which kinda made me realize that I had been ignoring Ilyse the other day.

After breakfast I went around to the Thorlan's home to see Ilyse, they were going away for the day to do something so Ilyse was running around panicking about what to take and what to wear. "Stop stressing about it Ilyse, you're with Martin and Laura so you'll be okay. Just be who you are and I'm sure if you start changing that Aspin, Asher, Alfie and Martin will tell you. You know they're not shy." Ilyse stopped pacing the room and looked at me, for a few moments I thought she was going to chew my ass out and hand it to me on a plate.

But her face came alive with the biggest, most radiant smile that I had seen from her yet. She bounced towards me and threw her arms around my waist, pulling me to her.

"You always know just what to say Keelan." I laughed, I didn't always. I was still bigging holes with my stupidity but at least those episodes were less and less.

"I know, I'm great like that. Come on, you guys must be going soon if your dad is calling out now." I slung an arm around Ilyse's shoulders as we walked out of her room. I didn't tell her about Kenneth and how weird he was, she was already too worried about her day away with her family to also have to worry about my problems.

I kissed her goodbye before she climbed into Martin's SUV. Sometimes I found myself wishing that I had a personal driver but then, I think I'd be more of a d*ck if I had that luxury.

I took the long way home, stopping in at Cal's place to talk to him about Kenneth and how much he wanted to meet Cal. Cal for the most part didn't seem worried, which was funny because he'd never seen Ken before in person.

Ken looked like a hairier version of Thor.

His blond hair was kept short but he had the most unkempt beard I'd ever seen on a dude. Not to mention he was built like a damn human Hulk, not even a tsunami looked like it would knock him down. I guess to have a career in the army as long as his you had to keep yourself looking like that.

"Come on dude, he can't be that scary. Holy sh*t...is that him there?" I went over to the window that Cal was looking out and nodded, yep. That was Ken out in the swimming pool doing laps like he was strolling down the road, he was treading water about as fast as I could run.

"I've changed my mind, you go over there and tell Nat to come visit me. That guy will chop my balls off and mince them up without question!" I laughed, Cal was joking obviously but there was probably a little fear mixed in there as well.

I couldn't blame him, if Martin was as big as Ken then I'd be saying the same thing to Ilyse and I probably wouldn't have snuck in through her bedroom window as much as I had.

"Yeah alright, come over later. Mom, dad and Nat have already told him to leave you alone. He's really quiet though so I bet you he won't even talk to you. Ken's hardly even spoken to me since he's been here." Granted I had left soon after breakfast and it was almost lunch.

I left Cal standing at his bedroom window, it was like he was in a trance or something.

"Keelan, lets talk." I stopped dead in my tracks as soon as I came through the gate from Cal's place. How the hell had Ken known I was going to walk through there and then? Was he stalking me or just really really weird?

Shrugging my shoulders I went to sit in one of the loungers, Ken stayed in the pool but watched me with this really weird expression on his face. "You look like me when I was younger but you move like your mom used to." Was that meant to be a compliment or an insult?

"Ah sh*t that came out wrong. I didn't mean you look like a woman, you just do a few things that your mom used to do." Those few sentences told me that Ken probably wasn't the best at talking to people. "What I'm trying to say is, you remind me of your mom."

"Thanks I guess. So why are you here now?" I don't know what sort of talking Ken wanted to do but I wanted some answers to questions that had been forming in my head over the last few days. Questions I never really thought about until that conversation with Ilyse.

"I figured I've been hiding from you long enough, kinda owe you answers. You're less angry about everything than I expected though." That was all thanks to Ilyse, she'd done so much more for me than she would ever know and I don't think a simple thank you would ever be enough to express my gratitude.

"You can thank Ilyse for that," that's all I said. It was like Ken was more interested in hearing me talk than actually answering my questions. Either that or he was trying to p*ss me off, if he kept it up I'd be storming off back to Cal's place soon enough...questions be damned.