I immediately blushed at his assumption, despite knowing it was a joke. “Okay, okay, I [i]might[/I] have not exactly been honest about my family and its size. Yes it’s just my mother’s parents and her brother but then they have children, and some of them have children…” I shrugged, nervously looking back toward the house. “No, not all of these are related to me but you know how it is. Kids want to bring over other kids, and if there’s a big meal then why not invite others? The more the merrier, right?”

I assumed this wasn’t exactly his style, but perhaps for one night it wouldn’t be so bad. Everyone needed human interaction and got lonely, so I hoped one day he would look bad at this as a good memory to chuckle at. As I’d already dropped Sammy off earlier in the day he was there too, but too distracted with a three year old on his back to come say hello.

“Is this him?” A woman with the same narrow face and bright smile as Alice came down the steps, immediately pulling her daughter into a half hug while still looking at Peter.

“Yes, this is Peter MacDonald. Peter, this is my mother Julia. Um…over there on the porch is my Uncle Kevin. My grandpa is the one in the plaid shirt, his name is Benjamin but I just call him Papaw. And my cousins Claire, Meagan, and Josiah are the ones that just ran in the house… Uncle Kevin’s wife Abigail is somewhere around here…” I said, looking through the mess in front of us. It wasn’t worth going through the ones that weren’t related to me, he probably wouldn’t remember the names I ‘d just given him.

“She’s in the kitchen with your grandmother,” Julia said, reaching out to shake Peter’s hand. At least she didn’t go straight for the hug like some of my family did.

“Now Mom he’s just here to see a few pictures, eat, and hear a little history on this place. Please don’t-“

My mother just rolled her eyes, gently pushing me toward the house I’d grown up in. “Why don’t you go help in the kitchen, we’ll all be in there to eat soon. The table needs to be set too. We have the big one in the dining room, then I set up a couple card tables in the living room,” she told me.

‘I’m sorry,’ I mouthed to Peter with an apologetic smile before leaving. On my way in one of my nieces tugged on my dress, forcing me to pick her up before going inside.

“I promise we don’t bite. I just figured why fix all the food for only a few people? Besides, the kids were so loud that the neighbors knew something was going on. Nothin’ picture worthy here, but Alice thought you could use some company after working all week,” Julia said, bringing him to the porch. “I take it by the look on your face this isn’t what you expected,” she smirked, looking at him kindly. “I can make the kids eat out on the picnic table in the backyard, it’ll help with the noise.”