One Bride for Nine Brothers

Love has bloomed

This one was either going to be kind of short or really long, so I made it kinda short. Please forgive me. Enjoy!

Sang was seated in the restaurant, folding napkins in preparation of supper. The door bell jingled as Erica walked in. She smiled at Sang and made a beeline to where Jessica was mending a tablecloth. They spoke for a while, nothing that concerned Sang so she didn't pay attention, and after a few minutes, Uncle came bounding out of the kitchen with a small basket of muffins. He handed them to Erica, rather shyly. As they struck up a new conversation, Jessica came over to sit by Sang.

"Uncle's been sweet on Ma for a long while. Ever since he moved here five years ago. Kota, Uncle's nephews, and I keep hoping that one day he'll ask her to marry him, she fancies him too, you know. But," Jessica sighed, returning to her sewing, "any time we try to talk to them about it, they brush it off or make excuses."

"Uncle has nephews?" Sang asked, the question sounding a bit queer.

"Yes. Two of them. Luke and North, they're Kota's friends, so I'm sure you'll meet them eventually."

"So, Uncle and your ma?" Sang asked as she looked over her shoulder at them.

"One day we'll get it to happen," Jessica replied with a sly smile.

The door bell jingled again, and two men wandered in. One had black hair, and the other had blond. "Uncle! Are you ever going to ask Ms. Erica to marry you? Or are we going to have to live forever without a Mrs. Ben Taylor?" The blond one proclaimed, pulling out a chair at the large middle table.

"Ben?" Sang whispered to Jessica.

"Uncle's first name. But don't call him by it, he hates it, says there's too many bad memories connected to it. He lets Ma call him Ben, but no one else. One time I said it and it was the angriest he's ever been at me. Even more than that time I spilled an entire pot of soup all over the customers," Jessica replied.

The two men spotted Jessica and Sang. "Jessica! How's my favorite not-really-related sister?" The blond man cried, pushing the chair back in and moving to sit at the girls' table. "And who might you be?"

"I'm doing well, Luke. This is Sang, she's new to town, just moved here last night." Jessica smiled when she realized that Luke was just as enamoured with Sang as Kota had been.

"Howdy, Sang. It's a pleasure to meet you." Luke reached out to kiss her hand.

Sang giggled, "And you as well, Luke."

"Grumpy over there," Luke gestured to the dark haired man, "is my brother, North."

"Hello, North," Sang gave a polite smile. North intimidated her.

"Hello, Sang." His voice was gruff. "We came to talk to Uncle about the incident last week."

Sang was curious, but said nothing. It wasn't her place to dig into other people's business, even if they offered information, which they hadn't.

Erica and Uncle had ended their conversation after Luke's initial outburst, so Uncle was quick to corral his nephews into the kitchen. Erica had a blush to her cheeks, and mumbled a goodbye before disappearing outside with her basket of muffins.

To give the men more privacy, Jessica offered to show Sang around town a bit more, and they shouted a quick goodbye to the men before leaving.

~*~

The rest of that day passed quickly and uneventfully, as did the remainder of the week. On her first Sunday in town, Sang wore the new dress that Gabriel had gifted her.

Rather than find a job, since Sang was now more seriously considering Gabriel and Nathan's offer, she spent a few hours everyday helping Erica with the chores. Jessica would help when she could, but she mostly worked at the restaurant. Erica was thankful for the help, and it gave Sang a chance to see Kota and his friends, because at least one of them would stop by every day to check on Erica and the boarding house, and to flirt with Sang.

Yes, Sang acknowledged that things between her and Kota and his friends were moving quickly, but she knew that things were different here than in some of the eastern states. She also knew that if she were married she would be safer should her father send someone to look for her. She hadn't even met all of Kota's friends yet! Two of them still remained mysterious to her.

She was folding the seemingly never ending pile of laundry linens when Kota came in. He was accompanied by two men. They always come in pairs, Sang mused.

Kota leaned in to kiss Sang's cheek. "Good Morning, Sang. This is Sean and Owen, two of my brothers. Owen is a banker, and Sean is a doctor." He pointed to each as he mentioned them.

"Good Morning, Kota. Sean, Owen, it's nice to finally meet you." Sean and Owen smiled at Sang.

"We came to ask you to supper tonight, what with what you had mentioned at the tailor's shop about... and we knew you hadn't met Sean and Owen yet..." Kota became nervous, rubbing the back of his neck.

Sang took pity on him, he looked so nervous, "I'd love to come to supper tonight. Will it be all of you?"

"Yes." Owen gave Kota a short break to compose himself. "All nine of us will be there."

"And we'd be happy to escort you there. We'll have to walk, however. But it's only a mile away," Sean added.

"I look forward to it," Sang smiled. And she truly did, she'd had time to think about the pros and cons of marrying a man, or rather, multiple men after only knowing them for a short while, and her thoughts were very positive towards it. Especially this group.

"Wonderful, we'll meet you here at 4:30," supplied Owen.

The men bid farewell, each of them had something else to do in town. Sang remained and finished folding the linens. She was nearly shaking with anticipation and excitement.

~*~*~
Word count: 1002
Uploaded: 14 August 2019