kindred

Chapter 15 : Pecans, pies and paths

The surprise turned out to be a boy, not much younger than Elijah. Addie recognised him from the family paintings on the long hall. The boy with dark curls and grey eyes.

He was tall and wiry like the older twin's and Harry with large gangly hands and feet.

The boys all welcomed him with pats on the back and hugs whilst Addie stood awkwardly to the side. She knew he was family due to his similarities to her Uncle George and her father but she didn't know who he was, or his name.

"Ads, this is Monty" Elijah introduced her to the boy after finally noticing her. He dragged her over to the boy. "He's our cousin!"

"Do we not have any girl cousins?" She asked him with a pained look, seven brothers and now a male cousin.

"Yep." Addie grew excited. "But they live in England" There's the catch, of course it wasn't simple. All of her brother's present laughed at the groan that escaped her lips.

Before Addie could make any other complaint's, Harlan silenced her with his presence as he walked into the entry. She still hadn't spoken to him about the incident that had happened just days prior.

"Montague" He said before shaking his hand firmly. "How is your father?" Addie knew they were talking about Uncle George from the features of the boys face that he shared with her uncle.

"Good, the brain is slowly responding to more stimuli." He had a look of relief on his face as she shared the news. Addie wondered if she would get to speak to her Uncle again, in the few instances she had spoken to him she felt a genuine bond with him.

Addie followed some of her brothers into the garden at Elijah's request. Elijah, Monty, the twins and James went out to play football.

"Come on Ad's."

"I'm not playing football so that I can get tackled by six foot five boys." Addie responded with horror that they thought she would engage in any physical activity. 

"Beside's you don't even use your feet" She muttered.

"You're meannn, I'm six foot SIX inches" Elijah whined at his sister. "C'mon little girl, we need one more to make the teams equal." She shot him a glare at the name, she hated that he called her little girl, however affectionate he thought it sounded.

"Go find Harry, besides I hardly make an equal team." She whined as Elijah began to drag her to the grass where they were playing. The boys all had short sleeved tops in, Addie didn't know how, it was the end of November and it was freezing, she was wrapped in jumpers.

Addie's suspicions were confirmed, she was absolutely rubbish at football, she didn't catch a single ball. 

To be fair, none of them had actually tackled her to the floor but she was still wasn't sure they would and ended up running away from the ball half of the time instead of towards it. 

"ADAM" Addie saw a familiar red headed boy walking across the grass towards them. He had a smile on his face and opened his arms when she neared for a hug. Addie gladly accepted, burying herself in his arm's.

"Hi Addie" He chuckled at the small pile of person attached to him.

"What're you doing here?"

"I always come for Thanksgivings" He said, ruffling her hair before moving on to say hello to the boys. "What are you all doing?"

"Playing rugby" Addie groaned, stifling a laugh at the glare's she recieved.

"Its football, Ads. F o o t b a l l" Riley strained at her, anguished over her lack of correct terms and enthusiasm.