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The rest of the hour passes with each of us telling our parents some story from our week, my dad looking on with a happy smile, my mom chattering and asking a thousand questions. Poor Sheila is struggling to keep Jacob and Ada happy as the clock ticks toward seven. She’s been on mute for the last thirty minutes, occasionally holding Ada up to the camera, mostly miming to Jacob to shush so she can hear.
My mind drifts back to Julian as they talk. Does he have a big, ridiculous family like me? Or is his family normal? Being the middle of seven kids isn’t like being a normal middle child. It’s like the Richter scale measuring earthquakes—each extra kid equals a hundred times more feelings of being overlooked, unseen, ignored.
I’ve never heard him talk about his family. But then again, I’ve never heard him talk about himself much at all. The only reason I know anything about him is because Sophie has a knack for getting everyone to spill their life’s story to her.
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
Ells: Will you tell me when you finish? If I go down before the end, we’ll all be stuck on longer while I rehash why I broke up with Aaron. Again. Mom can’t let it go.
I grin before I can stop myself. She’s not wrong.
Me: She can’t help herself. It’s in her DNA to want one of her kids to marry a pastor.
Ells: I don’t think being a Sunday School volunteer counts.
Me: Close enough for her. Sheila married a financial analyst, and Mom’s given up on me. You and Bianca are next up.
Ells: She’s gonna be waiting a long time then.
“Ooooo, who’s got you smiling like that, Frankie?” Reid, Colin’s gossip-loving husband, catches me. “Anyone we should know about?”
“What? Um, no.” I cover up my mistake as quick as I can, but it’s too late. Reid’s caught my scent and, unlike my mother, he remembers everything. “Is it Derek?” Like that.
“It was one lunch, Reid.”
Colin grins, snuggling Albert’s furry head against his cheek. “Yeah, but he’s hot, Frankie.”
“And a jerk,” I mutter, but thankfully my laptop’s mic doesn’t pick it up. “He’s my boss, Colin. It was never a good idea. I should have known better.”
“I thought your boss was the handsome one?” Mom can never keep my coworkers straight. I’ve given up correcting her. I spent half my life being called Grady, Sheila, Colin, Bianca, Eleanor, or Megan—how can I expect her to remember the names of the people I work with that she’ll never meet?
The torture drags on for another fifteen minutes—my non-dating life quickly swallowed up by the news of Megan’s latest soccer win, Grady’s possible multimillion-dollar listing, and the cute new worship leader at my parents’ church. I ignore another buzz from my phone, assuming it’s Eleanor again, but then a Discord message pops up in the corner of my screen, distracting me.
Emma: Hey, I tried your phone, but you didn’t answer. Do you want to come to the movies with me tomorrow night?
I type back while Sheila tries to get Jacob to stop running in circles for long enough to answer my dad’s question about the superhero on his shirt.
Me: Family zoom time. What movie?
Emma: The new Final Destination?
“Dad, it’s not a big deal…” Sheila’s exasperated voice pulls me from the conversation with Emma.
“What’s not a big deal?”
“That Mark isn’t here. I told you guys he’s working late.”
Emma: Please??
Me: Your mom said you have to have an adult, didn’t she?
Emma: I also kinda need a ride.
Emma: But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hang out with you! Please, Frankie? Pretty please?
Of course she does.
When Sophie and Lauren took me out to lunch that first day and declared they’d “adopted” me, I had no idea that a few weeks later I would also have picked up another younger sister. But Emma fits between Megan and Eleanor in age, a junior to their respective sophomore and senior, and it’s impossible not to like her.
