A Wolf Affair: Chapter 9

The day of the picnic came around and I was both sad and frustrated. Not only had my mother invited a few dozen people that I barely knew or didn’t know at all to it, but I hadn’t seen Kenton since the night I’d asked him to come and mom scared him away.

I did my best to be pleasant and amiable to the guests as they arrived, but, let’s face it, they were my mother’s guests, not mine. To add to my angst, Michael Jefferson arrived with his two sons and his niece in tow. I was definitely not in the mood to meet and entertain people of my own age.

My mother’s voice grated every nerve I possessed as she walked up to me with Michael and his offspring following like baby ducks. “Missy, honey, this is Michael Jefferson. His farm is on the other side of the reserve. I’m sure you’ve seen it while riding.” Michael vigorously shook my hand while mom continued to introduce me to the newcomers. “That handsome young man behind him is his oldest son, Ethan, and the equally handsome man behind Ethan is his other son, Wally.”

Wally’s face turned pink in color. Not so for Ethan. He smiled an arrogant smile and said, “This is our cousin, Cynthia.”

“Cindy,” the girl corrected him with a scowl.

“Okay,” he smirked, “Cindy.”

“Does he not know what to call you or was he picking on you?” I asked, good naturedly, in a low voice meant only for her as I shook her hand.

“He’s an ass,” she replied in an equally low voice.

I stifled a giggle while I studied Ethan as best I could without being obvious. I had to agree with her. From what I could tell, the guy was totally full of himself. A real jerk. I couldn’t believe my mother expected me to like and want to entertain someone like him.

Cindy and Wally, on the other hand, seemed decent enough. Neither was full of themselves and they both acted sincere in their efforts to get to know me.

We let the “old folks” head off to the food area while I took the younger guests to show them the stables. I wasn’t sure if they were genuinely interested in the horses or just looking for an excuse to get away from the picnic, but it didn’t matter. I was happiest at the stables – when I wasn’t visiting with Kenton, that is.

It turned out that Cindy and I had quite a bit in common. It was actually surprising. We were close in age; with her birthday a few months behind mine. Her father left her mother and they moved in with her uncle just about the time we moved into my great grandmother’s place. She’d also completed school a year early and was an avid rider, like me.

After discovering her love for horses and seeing how confident she was around them, I suggested that she ride with me the following day. She hummed and hawed and locked eyes with her cousins before finally saying that she’d ask her uncle for permission. I was shocked at such a statement. It definitely made me more appreciative of my own homelife.

When we returned to the picnic, I spent a good deal of time studying Michael Jefferson. I guessed him to be in his mid-forties. As older people went, he was handsome enough with his square chin and dancing brown eyes. I watched as he stood in a small group, next to my mother, enjoying the conversation. His smile was infectious and his laugh incredibly alluring. I could see that he had my mother under his spell just by the way she was absent mindedly leaning into him while they chatted gaily.

It was easy to imagine them as a couple. They ‘fit’ each other. My mother was tall, like me, with shoulder length dirty blonde hair and a killer hourglass figure. She was in her mid-forties, but could easily pass for mid-thirties. Michael stood about three inches taller than her. He was handsome with broad shoulders and narrow hips. His thick brown hair matched his close-cut beard and mustache. He looked like a sexy lumberjack model.

His sons, Ethan and Wally couldn’t have been more opposite from each other. Wally was close in looks to his father. Although not as developed, he showed potential to give his father a run for his money in the physique department. He also had his father’s dancing brown eyes. Ethan was muscular and fit, but he was fair haired with serious, almost moody, brown eyes and his face had more of an oval shape. It was as if he got his body from his father and his looks from his mother; as happens quite often.

Cindy looked more delicate, but still toned. She shared my curse for thick wavy hair, but hers was waist long and jet black. I almost asked her how she managed to care for it and then thought better of it. There are times and places for all conversations. That topic was better left for girl talk. She’d inherited those dancing brown eyes, but, where Ethan and Wally stood a few inches taller than me, I towered over Cindy by an easy four inches. Her natural beauty was enough to make me feel inferior without my abnormal height adding to the situation.

It was a struggle, but I did my best to move past the fact that I felt like the ugly duckling next to the beautiful swan.

We spent the afternoon learning about each other. They were eager to tell me about the area and the school in the small town where mom would be teaching.

I asked them about their farm - mentioning that it always looked abandoned - and got mixed responses. Cindy and Wally acted like they wanted to talk about their home and its history, while Ethan clearly didn’t want them to say a word. At the risk of ruining the mood of the day, I quickly changed the subject. When Josh appeared out of nowhere, I was actually glad to see him.

“Hey,” he said as he sauntered up to us while doing his best to look manly and masculine for Cindy’s benefit.

Although I kept a straight face, my eyes couldn’t hide my amusement at seeing my brother trying to flirt. I introduced him to the group and, to my surprise, they accepted him graciously; especially Wally. Had we been back in Chicago and he’d walked up to a group of my peers, they would have shunned him unmercifully. I was impressed by these people.

It wasn’t just the way my peers received Josh. So far, the entire community was open and welcoming. It was refreshing and nice, but it would take some getting used to.