Four Flames for Angela

Angela smiled as she hugged him back, a little surprised he’d noticed.

“I love this.” Sawyer fingered her shawl. “Perfect for the weather we’re having.”

“Let’s go. We can talk more on the way.” Hunter took her arm and started toward the truck.

“Hold on. I made a dessert to bring,” Angela said before they got to the truck.

“Mom will love it. It wasn’t necessary. She’s used to feeding all of us and cooks enough for an army. I’m sure it will be great. While you get it, I’ll get little man loaded in the truck.” Angie had told them that Todd still had to be in a booster seat, and they had assured her it would be no problem.

She ran in the house and grabbed the dish she had prepared, stopping quickly to look in the mirror and run a hand through her hair.

The Tompkins family was the biggest Angela had ever seen. It seemed like there were people and kids everywhere. The men had assured her that this was just a small family gathering. Their mother, Martha, had replied, “Honey, we don’t do nothing small.”

Martha had the same red hair as all the men, and she could see a lot of her features in their faces. Reginal or Reggie was an older version of his twin sons with twinkling blue eyes and a smile that lit up his entire face.

Angie could tell they were very much in love and laughed with everyone else when Martha chased Reggie around the yard with a long-handled fork for putting a bug down her dress. The younger kids including Todd joined in, and everyone clapped when she caught him and made him pay with a kiss.

Once Angie got relaxed from being overwhelmed at all the people she was meeting, she realized everyone was really nice. “I know you’ll never keep this straight, but here we go.” River had pointed out every person and named them, telling her how they fit in the family.

His parents had nine children, the four brothers and five girls. All of the girls were married, and there were children of various ages running around. “I told you Mom and Dad like kids,” Hunter said, chasing a little boy of three around.

There was a huge table of food and Angela was sure her little dessert wouldn’t feed everyone, but Sawyer set it with the others. “There was no way you could have made enough for everyone. All the girls bring sides and desserts. We boys help Mom and Dad with the meats. We all bring something. It will be fine.”

Todd had immediately taken off running with the other children, the puppies following behind. It hadn’t taken him long to fit in and start having fun.

The four brothers managed to be very attentive to Angela without overwhelming her. They took turns sitting with her and telling her stories about the family, helping her learn who each person was. She relaxed quickly.

After the meal was finished, the adults were sitting around talking and the children were off playing. Angie was sitting with some of the sisters talking when Rock came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. He leaned down and spoke quietly into her ear. “We have a surprise for you. Come with me.”

Angie nodded and stood, not interrupting the conversation going on around her. She silently followed Rock as he led her around the side of the house to a smaller building. “This is Dad’s man cave. When we were younger and things got crazy, he would hide out here. Now that we’ve all moved out, they use this as a guest cottage. We thought it would be a nice place for a little privacy. No one will bother us here unless it’s an emergency.” He held the door open for Angela to precede him in.

Angela walked into the large room. River, Sawyer, and Hunter were all waiting. “I didn’t even notice you were all gone,” she said, looking at each of the men.

“Good. We didn’t want anyone noticing. When we all get together it’s hard to keep track of everyone.” River stepped forward and took her hand, leading her to a large sofa that was against one wall. He sat down and pulled her onto his lap. “We wanted to spend a little time with you. If you get uncomfortable you can always walk out. We thought this would be a good time to get to know you a little better.” He slid one arm around her waist and pulled her back against his rock-hard chest.

“Oh,” Angie said as she leaned against him. “I like your family. It must have been fun growing up in all this.”

“Yeah, it was,” Rock answered, sitting down beside them and pulling the shawl from her shoulders. “I’ve been wanting to do this all day.” He leaned down and brushed his lips across the bare skin of her shoulder.

Angie felt goosebumps rise against her skin and gripped River’s arm around her waist.

“Did you like that?” Sawyer knelt down in front of her and cupped one hand over her knee. “We’ve all been thinking about talking to you and touching you all day.” He ran one finger around the neckline of her dress, skimming the tops of her breasts.

“Angie, I don’t want to pry, but have you had much experience?” River asked, serious now. He didn’t think she was still a virgin but also didn’t think she’d a lot of experience.

“It’s okay. There was Henry. He was my high school boyfriend. After Mom and Dad were gone, I was put into foster care. At first, I got to stay in my home town and go to the same school.” Angie leaned back against River and let his body support hers.

“When we found out I was being moved into my second foster home and it was going to be out of state, I snuck out, and Henry and I went on one last date. He borrowed his dad’s car, and we got takeout and ate in the car.”

River could see Angie was starting to tear up, and he didn’t want her to be upset. “It’s okay, baby, you don’t have to tell us if you don’t want you. “

“We can talk about it another time if you want to.” Rock didn’t want to ruin what time they had with hard memories.

“No. I need to tell you.” Angie took a deep breath and continued. “We decided that we didn’t want to take the chance of never seeing each other again. We thought if I got pregnant then they would have to let me see him. So we fumbled around in the car, and by the end of the night neither one of us were virgins anymore.”

Angie wiped a tear from her face before she went on. “I didn’t get pregnant, and the next day I was moved out of state. Henry and I talked on the phone every day for a while, but the house I was in was strict and Glenn, the father in that home, decided I was spending too much time on the phone and not enough time helping and doing homework.

“He took my phone away and wouldn’t let me talk to any of my old friends. I found out eventually that when Henry couldn’t talk to me anymore he started dating someone else. I’m not sure how long we would have lasted even if Glenn wouldn’t have been involved.