Taylor wrapped his long coat tightly around himself. The snow was falling and it was below freezing. He rang the doorbell, hoping that it wasn't too early. He knew Kris would be awake, it was Christmas day, she had to be awake at the crack of dawn to open presents like everyone else he knew did. He just hoped she wasn't in the middle of some family Christmas ritual.
Kris opened the door with a baby on her hip. Taylor heard the yelling of a few more children behind her. Her eyes widened at the sight of Taylor. "Oh my God!" she said, and flung her open arm around him. He kissed her briefly but passionately before noticing she had some extra baggage on her. The baby girl on her hip was staring at him. "Oh Taylor, this is my niece Melanie." Kris took the girl's hand and waved to Taylor. "Say hi Taylor!" The baby smiled and waved.
"Hi," Taylor said, waving back at the girl. "You sound like you've got a full house."
"Yeah, it's a tradition that my mom has my sisters and all their kids over here for Christmas. There's my three sisters and their ten kids running around here so watch out. Come on in." Taylor walked in, but she didn't leave the front room. "I need to figure out what I'm going to say about you. I can't introduce you as my friend, someone will tell Brian and he'll figure it out." She thought. "I got it! You're my cousin from my dad's side. None of these people really know my dad, his family was never around when my sisters were growing up. My mom doesn't even know his family."
"Then how would you know me?"
"Pure coincidence?" Kris suggested. Taylor shook his head. "Shit." Kris moved Melanie to her other hip. "I can always say I know you through my dad. He was the closest to me, even if he was still distant. I did get to go with him to meet some of his family when I was real little. I could know you from then and say I kept in touch!"
"Will you think any of them will recognize me, though?" They had been on TV a lot lately, and one of the many people there would have known him somehow.
"No, my entire family is ditzy." She looked at Melanie. "Not a word to anyone about this, you got that little missy? I don't care if you won't be able to talk for another year, not a word!" Kris took Taylor into the other room, where all of the adults and the smaller children were. "Hey everyone." The people in the room turned to her. "This is my cousin Taylor."
"Who?" one of them asked.
"Dad's nephew," Kris said. "Anyway, Taylor, that's my sister Denise, her husband Mike, my sister Debbie, her husband Peter, my sister Dena and her husband Duwayne. On the floor is Kelsey and Daniel. This is my mom, Cynthia."
"Hi," Taylor said. So far the cousin bit was working. No one knew who he was, but didn't question his identity. He got his round of greetings before Kris pulled him from the room. Kris nearly ran into three more kids in the hallway.
"Yo!" Kris yelled. The three stopped and looked her way. "You three, this is my cousin Taylor. Taylor, this is Colleen, Brittany, and Matthew." The three looked at him, then ran off. Kris moved the gate blocking the stairs and allowed them upstairs. In her room were the remaining four boys. They were all older. "Hey guys." She set Melanie down and closed the door. "This is my cousin Taylor. Taylor this is Steven, Lawrence, Phillip and Donnie." The four boys said hi, but they didn't turn back to what they were doing. Melanie gripped Kris' shoe, her face pouty. Kris didn't look down. "I know you are all itching to talk like the weird people you are, but I need to talk to Taylor and this is my room."
"Fine, we'll go into another room," Donnie said. They got up.
"Donnie, take your sister to your mom for me."
"Why can't you watch her?" Kris gave him a look. He was the oldest, and the most sarcastic. He was only five months younger than her, and the others weren't more than four years younger. "Fine." He scooped Melanie off the ground and they left. Once they were gone, Kris locked the door and kissed Taylor.
"I missed you," she gasped, and pressed her lips against his again. He laid her down on the bed, opening his mouth and letting his tongue explore hers. They kissed with the passion of not seeing each other for a month, but still quietly enough so no one else would be able to hear. Their hands were exploring each other gracefully, the missing passion being let out with each passing moment. She'd never in her life be this way with Brian, and she knew it.
Kris heard thumping up the stairs and quickly pushed Taylor off her. He hit the wall, surprised that she had that much strength in her. The door opened right after Kris wiped the lipstick from Taylor's mouth. When Brian walked in, Kris's eyes grew.
"Brian!" she said. "Hi!" Brian looked skeptically at the two of them. She looked back to Taylor. "Oh! Brian, this is my cousin Taylor. He's from my dad's side of the family."
"Hi." Brian and Taylor shook hands. The minute Brian turned away enough to not be able to look at Taylor, he was given a few death looks. Kris warned Taylor silently, and pulled Brian down on the bed where the two of them had already been sitting. "You know, you look a bit familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before?"
"No," Taylor quickly said. "I don't think so."
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty positive," Taylor said. No, that's not obvious at all, Taylor, he thought. "Where are you from?"
"Denver." Brian looked at him strangely.
"Strange. You sound like you have an Oklahoma accent." Kris looked at Brian.
"Where did you find out what an Oklahoma accent sounds like?" she asked. "As far as I know you've stayed here in Chicago your entire life."
"I have family in Tulsa," Brian said. "When they visit, I pick it up." Crap, Kris thought immediately. "I don't know, I don't remember it that much. I don't know people from Denver, maybe they have the same accent or something." Kris bit her lip. Suddenly the door opened again. Donnie came walking in.
"Brian! I thought I heard you in here!" he said. Brian shook his head. Kris smiled; she knew what was coming.
"If you touch me, I swear�"
"Hey guys! Brian's here!" Kris laughed. Brian gave her a look. She just kept laughing. Taylor was clueless. Her four oldest nephews came into the room, grabbed Brian, and pretty much carried him out of the room.
"Nice meeting you!" Brian called to Taylor, somewhere in the middle of a group of boys.
"You too," Taylor said, a bit questioningly. "What's that about?"
"Brian's been my best friend for thirteen years, Taylor," Kris said. "He's practically family to them. They love him." The door closed. Immediately they began to kiss again.
"Woah, hold on a sec," Taylor said, after realizing who was there. He looked into her eyes. "Brian's right out there. Don't you think he'd be upset if he caught us?"
"They'll keep him occupied for an hour. We have plenty of time."
"I don't know�"
"Trust me on this, Taylor. There's nothing to worry about. I know my family when it comes to Brian. They'll keep asking questions about his family and everything about him until the sun goes down. He'll finally get the guts to make up an excuse to leave in about an hour."
"Alright." He kissed her again.
"The real reason why I came was to steal you away for a little bit," Taylor said, holding her in his arms. It was about a half an hour later, and Brian was still gone. "If we can convince your mom to let you stay with me for a while, we'll be home for a few weeks." Kris smiled.
"Well this cousin thing will work out great for this. My mother will be so thrilled that someone from my father's side of the family wants to see me that she won't ask any questions. We're pretty much Scott-free on this one." He took her hand and kissed it. "How long would I stay?"
"I don't know, as long as you want. We'll be home for three weeks, so there's plenty of time to stay." She smiled.
"Yeah, I'll go." He looked down at their conjoint hands. "I cannot believe Brian is here. I completely forgot that my mother invited him over."
"Is he over here often?" Taylor asked. He still couldn't believe he actually met and had a short conversation with his girlfriend's other guy. He couldn't believe that he was actually that nice.
"Not really. I try to have him over every once in a while, but it's a tradition since we were little that we're over at each other's houses on Christmas."
"That reminds me, I got you something." She gave him a look.
"What a way to make me feel bad! I didn't get you anything."
"That's okay, I don't need anything else. I have you, don't I?" She rolled her eyes. He reached into the pocket of his coat that was hanging on the back of her chair. He grabbed a wrapped package and gave it to her. She looked at it skeptically. "My sister wrapped it."
"I thought so," she said, looking at it. It was too neat for Taylor to wrap it; or any man at that. She picked at the tape, taking it off carefully.
"You're actually taking time to unwrap it? If it was me, I'd just rip it off."
"It's too pretty to rip off. The wrapping paper's pretty too, I might use it again someday."
"You're going to reuse wrapping paper?" Taylor asked.
"Maybe." She took off the clean sheet of paper and put it on the bed next to her. A black velvet box laid in her hand. "I'm afraid to open it. It looks expensive. I might break it."
"Just open it, Kris." She opened it and nearly gasped. A beautiful gold charm lay in the box, surrounded by its gold chain. It was two dolphins in a heart. It was beautiful.
"Oh my God," she said, taking the chain out of the box and examining it. "How did you know I like dolphins?" He took it from her and put it on her.
"You've told me before." She gave him a look. "Plus look at this place! There's dolphins almost everywhere." She looked around.
"There's not that many. There's a few figurines on my dresser over there, that's all." She smiled and kissed him. "Thank you, honey. It's beautiful."
"Well, Zac helped me pick it out. You have to give some credit to him." She had a devilish grin on her face. "Don't even think about it. If you make one more comment about how much you love him more than me, I'm going to have to take that back."
"Fine, I won't say anything." She put the box on her desk and put the wrapping paper next to it. "So, do you like my family so far?"
"Yeah," Taylor said. "I just hope your nephews aren't like that with me if I keep showing up around here."
"Oh they will," Kris said, smiling. "It's not that bad; they're just a bit rowdy with the people that they like."
"A little rowdy? They picked up Brian and carried him out of the room."
"You should see them when they have sugar! They're horrible! Plus Phillip has a pretty violent temper when he gets upset, so just stay away from him. He's pretty hard core."
"I didn't really notice him."
"He was wearing the Metallica shirt." Taylor nodded. "I'm sure I won't have a problem with all the people at your house. We do this often, and in total there's eighteen of us."
"There's only nine of us. But we're together all the time." Kris shrugged. "Your family isn't really that big, it's just the fact that your sisters have kids. I can't imagine what it'll be like when all of us have kids."
"That's a lot of people."
"But that'll be a while from now." Kris heard someone coming up the stairs. She got off Taylor's lap and sat next to him against the wall. "You've got a good ear."
"You kinda have to if you're sneaking around." The door opened and Lawrence walked in. "Hey kid."
"Yeah," Lawrence said quickly. "Anyway we're having lunch now." She stood up and pulled Taylor up with her. Lawrence stood next to her, a few inches taller than her. "I'm taller than you, do you think you can stop calling me kid?"
"It's not that hard to be taller than her," Taylor commented. She smacked him. "Hey!" She smiled at him and followed Lawrence out of the room.
"Denise set up the karaoke machine, she insists that we do that later." Kris stopped. Lawrence didn't notice, and he bounded down the stairs. Kris turned to Taylor.
"What?"
"Sing really bad," she said. "You're the newcomer, so they're going to put you up there first. Don't even try to sing in your I have a record deal voice, or I'll have to shoot you. No one in my family can sing anywhere near as well as you can."
"Come on, let me impress your family."
"No thank you. They'll wonder where you got the voice from. And I'm sure one of my sisters will recognize it. They may not recognize your looks, but they'll recall the voice."
"I'll just say I got my voice from my dad�or my mom. Whichever isn't related to you."
"Your mom. My dad has a brother. Who isn't married�crap! I should of thought this through. My parents were married for somewhere around thirty years before my father left, she would of noticed if my uncle got married. Crap."
"Oh well, I'll just say it was a small wedding." She made a face and went down the stairs. Taylor followed after, his hands in hers until they reached the bottom of the stairs. Lunch was being held outside on the patio deck, numerous tables set up. There were the two that had already been out there, and six crammed into each table. Taylor, Kris, Brian, Donnie, Phillip and Lawrence all sat at one table. To save seating, Kris sat on Brian's lap. She could tell it made Taylor a bit uneasy.
She leaned over to Taylor, whispering so even Brian couldn't even hear. "I know this is uncomfortable for you, but I have to make Brian think he's special." Taylor smiled. "I love you."
"I love you too."
"You know, it's not very nice to tell secrets," Donnie said. Kris looked over.
"Secrets, secrets are no fun unless you share with Kristina. So technically, it's alright." She draped an arm loosely around Brian. "But I'll share anyway." Taylor looked to her. "You see, Taylor is pretty much the newcomer here; he hasn't met any of you before. He's kinda uneasy, so I think we should throw him in the pool."
Three devilish grins appeared the boys' faces. "No," Taylor immediately said. "It's quite alright. I fit in just fine."
"No, I think he needs a dip in the pool." Taylor gave Kris a look. "What do you think Brian?"
"I think so," Brian said, smiling.
"No!"
"Hey!" Kris called out to the 'adult' table. "Do you think we should throw Taylor in the pool? He's not feeling very accepted."
"I'd actually like to see that," Dena said, smiling. The others nodded. Donnie, Phillip and Lawrence got up and grabbed Taylor from his seat.
"No! If I'm going in, you're coming in with me, Kris." Taylor grabbed Kris from Brian's lap. Taylor was flung into the pool, and he took Kris down with him. Since it was December in Chicago, it was freezing. Kris was surprised that the pool hadn't frozen over by now. When they both surfaced, Taylor pushed her underneath again.
Kris and Taylor both came out of the pool quickly after that, trying to get away from the coldness of it. They went inside and Cynthia draped a large blanket around the two of them and sat them in front of the fire. Denise decided it would be a great time to do karaoke. Taylor rummaged through the lists of songs they had, finding a few of his owns songs stuck in there. "Hmm�a few of my songs are in here," he whispered to Kris.
"Good for you!" she said. "You know you're not singing them."
"Aw, Kris, why not?" he whined.
"What are you doing now, Kris?" Brian asked, looking over to her. Kris noticed he had Melanie on his lap. Immediately after he finished speaking, he took Melanie and started twirling her around in the air, as if she was an airplane.
"Just being bossy," Taylor answered.
"As usual." Kris gave a look to Brian and squeezed Taylor hand, concealed underneath the big blanket. "You know, Kris, it probably wasn't the best idea to go in the pool. It is freezing out there. You could have gotten pneumonia or something."
"I know, but I had to do it."
"Which song you going to do, Taylor?" Denise asked.
"None," Kris answered for him. "Don't make him."
"But I want to!" Taylor said. Kris gave him a look. "I still want to. I'm not sure which one I should sing, though. I'm between two Jonny Lang songs." Kris looked over the list, realizing there were only two Jonny Lang songs on there. Neither of them she'd heard before.
"What's the tempo to them?" Denise asked.
"Well I Am is a upbeat song, but it's more of a challenge. Breakin' Me is a really good song but it's a ballad."
"Do I Am," Dena said. "I don't wanna hear a ballad now." Taylor shrugged. "Okay Denise, you know how to work the karaoke machine." Denise got up and gave Taylor a mike before doing her little thing with the machine. The song came up and Kris sat back, not really wanting any of this to happen.
He'll sing, someone will recognize the voice, they'll realize he's not my cousin, Brian will find out that we're actually dating and all hell will break loose, Kris thought. Taylor began to sing, with a bit of energy but still as good as he could.
If being in love means waiting around so you can dance with me, I am, I am�Kris almost immediately looked over. Where was this coming from? If being in love means follow the leader than this will have to be, I am, I am� She was surprised he knew the words as well as he did. He must enjoy that song, otherwise the feeling he was expressing wouldn't be shown. I am, I am, baby I am so in love with you� Kris looked around the room. Everyone was listening intently at his voice. No one was comprehending how well the boy could sing. They were amazed, and liking it. She looked back to Taylor. He winked at her. That meant he was singing for her. I am, I am, gonna get you baby if it's the last thing I do�Why was he singing this song to her? In front of everybody else? Someone would figure it out sooner or later. Why was he embarrassing her in front of her family? I used to think that a pretty face meant more than what was inside, I did, I did�
One thing she did notice was how cute he looked when he sang. He really was going out for these people. She was waiting for him to jump up and start dancing any minute now, if he wasn't too busy shivering under the blanket. If being a good man means swallowing all my pride, I will, I will� Underneath the blanket, he squeezed her hand. She looked at him, the way everyone else was. But she was a bit more loving. Brian noticed. I am, I am, so in love with you�
She realized at that point how much she loved him. Her gaze shifted to Brian. He was watching, in a bit of shock, at Taylor. I am, I am, gonna get you mama if it's the last thing I do� There was a break in the song, which Taylor knew was coming. "Sheesh, Kris, why can't you bring any girlfriends over here, I can't serenade any of you people."
"You can serenade me!" Kris said.
"Someone I'm not related to." He started singing again. I'm the one who loves you, I'm the one who cares� You can fly me to the moon if I could find you there� "Fine, you'll have to do," he quickly said, and put his arm around her, and now started to sing to her. All the riches in this world would mean nothing without you here� Kris smiled and crinkled her nose. Whoever, whatever, however, whenever, you need me I'll always be here�
"This is a long song," Kris said.
"I know," everyone else agreed at the same time. Taylor just smiled. Men killing their brothers nobody wants to go down alone�
"That's nice to put in a love song!" Kris said. "Nice to be serenaded to also."
"Did I write the song?" Taylor asked her. "No!" He took away from song of the song by speaking, but no one seemed to notice before. I'd wait outside your window if that would make you see that I'm the only one for you and you're the only one for me� "Is it almost over yet?" Kris complained. Taylor rolled his eyes but nodded. I am, I am so in love with you� "Alright!" I am, I am gonna get you baby if it's the last thing I do� The chorus went into repetition, and Taylor stopped singing. After a bit, the song ended.
"Damn that was a long song�"
"It's not that long, Kris," Taylor said. "You just happened to ruin it, that's all." She looked innocent.
"Me? Ruined it? Well I would never�"
"Shut up," Debbie said, finally getting a word it. "Just shut up Kris. We know you would. Anyway, that was wonderful. Where did you learn to sing like that, Taylor?"
"My mom," Taylor said. "She's a really good singer."
"She must have been if you inherited a voice like that. Especially marrying my uncle�this family has been cursed with flat voices." Taylor shrugged.
"I just got lucky I guess."
"Now that you completely wowed all of us," Denise said, "who has the guts to follow that act?" Kris smiled.
"I'll go. I don't care if I can't sing." She looked through the book of songs. "Ooh! I'm gonna sing Hanson." Taylor, a bit startled by her outburst, looked over. She smiled at him and grabbed the microphone.
"I thought you didn't like Hanson," Taylor whispered.
"I never said I never liked it. I just said I never listened to it." The song began and she started to sing.