Aubrey (Revolving With Axis)

017:

Fort Rosewood on the Flathead. That's our family affectionate name for where we grew up. Leave it to dad to build a level nine secure facility to house his enormous family in case of any and all contingencies.

There had been kidnappings, witness protections, rape, beatings, death, all kinds--- and I mean all kinds of calamities. My mom figures our family is simply accident prone. She takes it all in stride now--- doesn't pass out, doesn't go crazy and is always there to pick up the pieces when the rest of us fall apart.

And so is Kell.

After the funeral I took an indefinite leave of absence. It has occurred to me that I might really--- really be in the wrong profession.

And Kell was the first one to voice what I had already been thinking.

After the funeral, here at Rosewood, after about a week, everybody cleared out. You're talking hundreds of people. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, siblings, nieces and nephews, grandpa's and grandma.... the grandparents siblings, and cousins. We have these major family reunions in New York with my dad's family every couple of years, and there are about two hundred or more that come to that... maybe three. I don't know. I honestly don't know. And then the Crandalls. They represent another fifty or sixty. And the McCaffrey's and the Harthon's, and General Colby, and yeah---- we have far too many people in our family. You just can't know them all, and if you do know them all by name, then you can't know them all intimately.

I kept to myself.

My room was never in the teen wing. I am the baby of the family. Yes, the absolute baby. I am the youngest of twenty-five. I am it. So I never had to move my room. I just kept it. And it is in the main house, not the teen wing. Never got that privilege. Never had the need.

And that's where Kell found me. I was sitting on my bed. A rose colored bedspread with giant yellow flowers and black ladybugs. I made it when I was seventeen. One could say now it is ghastly. But I am rarely here, so I don't care. This room is deserted as is my life.

I sat there, for hours. Staring at the way the pool water reflected on my ceiling from the window to my left. And I really stared.

Kell was just there one moment. I am not in a stupor, and I am not in shock. I am just... done.

I looked up at him and tried on a fake smile. It didn't work, so I turned away and crossed my hands over my knees.

Kell shut the bedroom door, looked around at the rather bland and unlived in bedroom--- my dollies on the shelves, Lego houses on other shelves, artwork on the walls, my nick nacks all around, and frames of teenage happenings on another shelf. It was all very organized. I'd dusted twice since I'd been home, and got rid of the bean bag chairs that were leaking, and some of the stupider stuffed animals.

He cleared his throat. I rolled my eyes.

"Ashlyn is what three years older than you?"

I looked at him and didn't answer. I know he knew that information very well. He kept track of everything family.

"Has it been that long since I had to come make omelets for the mentally disabled?"

I blew out my breath. "Do you make omelets?"

He walked into the room, his presence filling it in waves of unbelievable charisma. I told you besides my dad, Rafe and Kell had the most charisma I'd ever seen.