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There were voices talking downstairs, and every once in a while, he heard someone walking down the hallway outside the room. It was barely light out as Math pulled on jeans and a T-shirt and went downstairs to find Tess.
Half a dozen eyes greeted him as he walked through the living room into the kitchen. Tasha was pouring a mug of coffee with a toddler on her hip when he walked in. The table had seven half-grown kids around it eating waffles. Tess wasn’t around.
“Morning.” He tried not to sound as exhausted as he felt.
“Morning, Mathias. Tess is outside if you are looking for her. She didn’t think you would be up early.” She poured him a cup of coffee with a smile as if she had gotten a full night of sleep.
“I didn’t think she would be up so early either.” He took it from her, nodding thanks.
“Tess doesn’t get much sleep around here.”
“Are these all yours?” He waved at all the kids.
“No, I have three of Ilya’s. She went early to the hospital to be with Grandma, and Mike has to work this morning so can’t be at the hospital,” Tasha said.
“Did Tess go with her?” he asked.
“No, she is helping AJ with the morning chores. She usually does that. Tessa, do you want to take Mathias out to find Tess? I think he is missing her.” She laughed as the teenager at the table got up.
“Sure, Mama, this way.” He followed the girl out of the house. She looked a lot like her father, like Tess. He wondered if the baby Tess was carrying would look like this. Or would it look like all his other kids?
“So, you are named after Tess?”
She smiled. “I am named after everyone. When you don’t know someone’s name in this family, call them Terezilya, and you will probably be right.”
“I will keep that in mind. So, have you lived your entire life?” He asked as he looked at the run-down farm. The house and barn both needed paint, and the garage was falling down.
“No, we have only been here about five years. Once Mom had the last two, and Mike and Terezilya’s youngest mostly moved on, we got this place. I think that Mom and Dad will move when I go to college in three years. Then they will only have six at home again, and someone with a bigger family will get the big house.” Math looked back at the house she considered big. His parents’ house was bigger than it, and it was just the two of them in there.
“You just get moved when your family size changes?”
“Yup, except Ilya since they own their home. Her husband Peter bought it before they got married,” Tessa said, then turned toward a grove of trees on the edge of the property. “That’s where Tess’s mom and dad live.”
“Always?” he asked, looking at the small old trailer house in need of some repairs.
“No, they used to live with the boys, moving around a lot. But Tess used to either live with Ilya or Mom’s parents. She didn’t like moving and put her foot down at some point.” Tessa chuckled.
Math opened the barn door as they got there and heard Tess talking somewhere inside, her voice carrying from the depths of the barn. At the sound, he told the teenager, “I can find her from here.”
Walking into the barn, he saw her at the end, looking over the fence at pigs on the other side. A teenage boy was looking at the pigs as well and pointing at some. He was probably telling Tess the names of the pigs.
Today Tess was dressed in blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt that had seen way too many washings, with mud boots on her feet. Math smiled at the sight of her being relaxed in an old barn, looking at pigs. Miss Bank President in hog poop.
She turned around when she realized he was there. “Morning, Mathias.”
“Morning, Tess, you’re up early,” he said as the boy left them alone.
“I do not get a lot of time here, so I do not waste it sleeping,” she admitted.
“You should come more often.” He walked toward her.
She gave him her typical excuse. “It is a long drive.”
“I know, I just drove it.” He grabbed the fence on either side of her and kissed her upturned mouth. Had he even gotten to kiss her yesterday? No, he couldn’t remember kissing her at all. He hoped to make up for that today.
Raising his lips, he whispered, “I think you have been lying to me about what your name is. Say it like your family would say it.”
With a half-grin, she replied, “Terezilya Aleksandrina Zsophia Aleksandrov.”
