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Sally-Ann bowed her head. “Of course. I’m so sorry. Forgive my lack of manners.” She pushed open the screen door. “Come inside. We’ve made lunch…” She looked past me and Torrence. “Oh my. I didn’t realize you were bringing company.”
I realized I hadn’t even made any introductions. I’d just rocked up with two stony-faced men who were ready take down anyone who breathed near me wrong. “Sorry. Now I’m the one with no manners. This is Kian and Vaughn.” I gave the two of them a ‘smile please’ sort of expression.
Neither of them smiled.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes and turned back to Sally-Ann. “I’m sorry. They appear to have swallowed something sour. Please ignore them.”
She nodded and moved deeper into the house. “Kids! Please come down here and meet our guests.”
It wasn’t lost on me she didn’t call me their sister. I tried not to let the hurt from that show.
The stomping of feet thundering down the stairs left no time for bruised feelings. A little girl who was maybe eight landed at my feet, and a moment later, three older kids joined her. Two appeared to be in their late teens, the other maybe slightly older. They were all neatly dressed, in clean, if not particularly stylish clothes. They looked like they’d come straight from church, with freshly scrubbed faces, hair neatly combed and tied back with ribbons.
They all had dark hair like I did, and brown eyes. All the older girls were an inch or two taller than me. The younger one super cute and mischievous-looking.
I gave them a wave. “I’m Rebel,” I announced since no one else was introducing themselves. I wanted to call myself their big sister, but I wasn’t sure what Torrence and Sally-Ann had told them about me, so I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to create an uncomfortable situation. I really wanted this to go perfectly.
Torrence cleared his throat. “Go on then. Introduce yourselves to your sister.”
My heart squeezed. I’d never been called that in my life, and it felt really damn good. There were some little similarities between me and the girls. Their noses turned up at the end, the same way mine did. Their bottom lips were full and pouty, same as mine. They were petite like I was too.
The eldest of the four stepped forward. “Hello. I’m Alice Elizabeth. This is Samantha Jane, Naomi Melissa, and Jacqueline Kay. We all go by our first names, except for Jacqueline. She’s always Kay. Only our parents full name us.”
I smiled at her. “It’s really lovely to meet you. Thank you for coming down to greet me. I’m sure you’d all rather be chatting with your friends or watching YouTube, right?”
Torrence shook his head. “Oh no. We don’t have Wi-Fi out here.”
I blinked at him. “What do you mean? How do you order Uber Eats at three in the morning?”
He chuckled, leading me into a living room where a tray was laden down with a pot of tea, mugs, and some finger food. “Even if we did have Wi-Fi out here, there’s no one around to deliver anything at that time of the morning. We only get deliveries of supplies once a week.”
I gawked at him. “There’s no shopping mall? We didn’t see one in town, but I just figured there was one somewhere else nearby.”
“Nope. Not unless you drive over an hour. Not much out here other than the freeway and farms.”
I stared at the kids, baffled. “Where you do you all go to school?”
The younger kids all turned to Alice as their spokesperson.
“We’re homeschooled,” Alice explained. “We do a few hours every day. But we learn a lot being out here on the farm.”
“Indeed,” Sally-Ann replied. “They learn how vegetables grow and animal life cycles and all sorts of wonderful things. There really is a lot to be learned without ever stepping foot off the property.”
A weird feeling settled over me. There was nothing wrong exactly. Of course, people homeschooled their kids, especially when they were super rural, like this family was. But something felt off about Sally-Ann. I glanced at Vaughn and then Kian, but their faces gave nothing away. I didn’t want them thinking they were right about my dad or his family. I was being ridiculous.
The woman had strangers in her home. She didn’t have to fall all over me with open arms, just because I shared DNA with her husband. She didn’t know me, nor did she owe me anything.
I sat on the couch, and Torrence sat next to me, proudly listing off each of his children’s achievements. The older girls were both gifted artists, and Torrence pointed out each of their artworks, framed on the walls. I gawked at how good they were while sipping on the tea that was shared around.
“You did this?” I asked Samantha. She couldn’t have been any older than seventeen.
“Yes, ma’am.”
I blanched at the term. “You don’t need to call me that. We’re sisters.”
The girl looked at her mom, who nodded.
Samantha gave a small smile. “Yes, Rebel.”