Nerd and the Marine (18 page)

My sisters are the family
beauties. More than one great aunt has remarked how unfortunate it
is that I’m not prettier, like my sisters, to others in the family.
These are the things I overhear on a regular basis.

If I knew how to act, to
be different than I am, I would, but I have no idea how. I've tried
watching my sisters, but they're all so different I couldn't even
find where to start. Or whom to start with.

You
have helped me. You believe I really am special, and I can
feel that. At least around you. Whenever I e-mail you or take
pictures for you, I feel like you care. That makes all the
difference.

Thank you for letting me
be me! Incidentally, I've never told anyone these things before. I
don’t open up to anyone, even my family. Thanks for
“listening”.

Yours,

Lainy

Lainy bit her lip as she reread her
response to Mitch's last e-mail. Her cheeks burned hot and
uncomfortable until a cool breeze flowing through the window
caressed them. She wanted to send this message, but wasn't certain
she dared. She'd just poured her heart out to Mitch. Had exposed
herself. While she knew she could do so with him, she was still
terrified.

Not even her sisters or grandmother
knew the depths of her insecurities. Yet Melly's talk about her
looking to real men rather than the weenies she'd associated with
in the past had hit her hard.

And what would happen when Mitch
returned? She’d built so many walls around herself, she was
frightened of how she’d react once they were together. Eliminating
the Ice Princess was proving harder than she ever
suspected.

Had she been hiding behind jerks to
protect herself? Why had she singled Mitch out? Most would probably
consider her a candidate for mental health drugs, but she thought
Mitch understood. Mainly because he shared her feelings. She
hoped.

Lainy bit her lip and in a moment of
bravery, sent the message. She believed he'd take care of her
heart. Mitch was different. He was a real man. Maybe those other
males were mere boys. Lainy wondered if he’d realize how much she’d
opened up to him.

Did she love him?

*****

“
Oh, I almost forgot.” Ben
smacked a hand to his forehead. He dug into his pack and removed
some DVDs. “These are from Ed,” he intoned, handing the discs to
Mitch. “He didn't want them to melt in the post office, so he
arranged for me to deliver them.”

Reading the cases, Mitch
saw one said,
Lainy Cooking
and another that read
Lainy Can Fix Anything Part 1
and
Lainy Can Fix Anything Part
2
. Intrigued, Mitch wanted to watch them
right now. However, he and Ben had just gone through the four DVDs
he already owned.

The last video had shown several, what
appeared to be early shots, of Lainy offering various men a root
beer and Bentley consequently dumping every man into the lake in
his exuberance. The shots were quite similar to the pictures
decorating his wall. Ben recognized most of the men just by the
crayoned pictures, but with the video, he named each man and tapped
the corresponding picture. Mitch wrote each name on the drawing
along with the child's name Ben felt had drawn the
masterpiece.

Watching the videos with Ben proved to
be a good idea, too. He offered additional details that made each
video extra special and offered some insight into the various
personalities.

“
There goes Will, the
oldest. Now, he's big on being the oldest and doesn't let any of
them forget his exalted status, or so he thinks. Everyone either
ignores him or makes fun of him, to his face. He's pretty good
about the teasing.

“
Okay, now that's Tom, the
brother right after Lainy. He's probably the easiest going of all
of them. Mellow enough to make a really good surfer dude. He's the
blondest of the men. Tom's hilarious, and cool under fire. He has
three kids, and his wife is laid back, too. All the sketches with
the man in the loud Hawaiian shirts are Tom.”

Ben moved onto a dark
haired man. “This is Max,” he said, pointing, “Max isn't married,
but I think he has a thing for his business partner, who is
definitely hot. He's the quietest brother. And the trouble-maker.
He and Lainy are close in age, only about ten months between them,
so he and Lainy,” when Mitch sent him a raised eyebrow look, Ben
nodded sheepishly, “Okay, Max, Lainy,
and
I
, have been the three musketeers forever.
In comparison to Max though, Lainy and I are motor mouths. Compared
to Lainy,
I'm
the
motor mouth. We all took turns being the ringleader. Max will
quietly throw you into the lake.

“
He'd make an excellent
military man, but instead has a company he bought not so long ago.
I couldn't even tell you what he manufactures, but Lainy's already
designed a program to bring his systems up to par. They're
close.

“
And that leaves Ed, he's
not featured in this video, since he's behind the camera, of
course. But these pictures here,” and Ben pointed out four
drawings, “Are all him. He's the crazy one. He'll do anything for a
laugh, but is also intense and smart. If you engage him in an
intellectual conversation, which I don't recommend, your brain will
hurt. Lainy's the only one I know who can keep up with him and not
need aspirin afterwards. I think I've seen him go for some, but not
her.

“
Ed's probably the most
personable of all the brothers. Well, no, Tom is too. Ed's a human
ping pong ball. Tom's an inanimate object. Like a tree with a deep
root system. He's unshakable, and willing to go with whatever
comes. He'd be the eye of the storm Ed creates. Does that make
sense?”

“
Yeah, actually, it does,”
Mitch said, and it did in a convoluted sort of way. “So, what about
the girls?”

“
I haven't seen any of them
up close to be able to point them out.”

“
I've got a picture.” Mitch
dug the photo out from behind a lovingly crayoned picture of
Bentley.

“
Ah, that's Camille's
work,” Ben offered, pointing to the picture. “She's one of Will's
younger children and will probably be a professional artist. She's
magic, as you can see, with a crayon. I think her Mom bought her a
paint set for her birthday.”

“
It is a good rendering of
Bentley.”

“
Most of your best ones
will be by her.” Ben looked at the family picture in his
lap.

“
How did you come to be in
the Morrison family?”

“
My mom,” Ben said
gleefully.

Laughing, Mitch waited.

“
My mom was a substitute
teacher and one day while helping out at the preschool where my
group home went, she noticed me. She asked all sorts of questions
at the time. I think I was four. But she recognized the Morrison
energy and kept thinking how much I looked like her dad. And I do,
actually. Lainy's dad and my mother are brother and sister, by the
way. My dad is from a completely different Morrison family. So I’m
related to Lainy and her family through my mom, not my
dad.”

Ben took a deep breath and smiled, “My
mom said she was ecstatic when she found out I didn't have parents.
Because I was her son. She put pressure on a relative who worked
for child services to place me into their home as a foster kid and
then adopted me as soon as they could. I went there and knew I'd
come home. I kept asking my mom why she'd waited so long.” Ben
chuckled.

“
When my grandparents met
me, my granddad kept laughing. I finally asked him why and he said
my mom got a kid just like her. Of course, I didn't understand,
especially when she shot back, “No, just like you, Dad.” There's
really no doubt I'm a Morrison. Except for my skin color, I look
exactly like my grandfather.”

“
From what I can gather,
you act like them, too.” Mitch had to tease, rolling his
eyes.

He got a friendly, but hard, punch out
of the deal.

“
Okay, now the girls.” Ben
stroked the picture. “You've met Melly, she's this one with the
light brown hair and bright blue eyes. All the girls managed to get
their Mom's bright eyes. Melly is the bleeding heart. She
volunteers at the animal shelter and takes in any stray that comes
around. She and her husband, Rick, who is also a bleeding heart,
have four kids and a zoo of sorts at home.

“
Dory is the youngest,
she's probably the one classified as the beauty in the family. Of
course, all the women are gorgeous, but Dory's the blue eyed
blonde, and she's got the perfect body and personality, too. She
was a cheerleader, which her sisters teased her endlessly about, so
is pretty athletic. She’s not afraid to break a nail, and is
smart.

“
Her husband, John, and
Lainy were inseparable in college. Lainy didn't find him
attractive, but also not a loser, so she didn't freeze him out.
Instead they were practically best friends during school. He met
Dory and asked her to marry him right then and there. She said no,
but they started dating, going all hot and heavy. Lainy no longer
wondered if he was gay, and Dory said yes when he asked her to
marry him again about two weeks later. They have one kid
now.”

Ben grinned at the picture. “Let's
see, that leaves Laurie. I'm obviously not doing this in any sort
of order. Since Laurie is pregnant here, she's on the end. She's
pregnant a lot. Laurie is like the earth mother. She cares about
all children and will take care of any who cross her path. She's
also the most athletic, and even though she has all those kids,
she's thin.

“
Probably from chasing so
many kids. She'd rather be out running around with the kids than in
the house. Greg, her husband, hired her a cleaning lady, who
eventually moved in with them. She's a retired school nurse and
loved the activity of the house. She rules the roost there. Which
is good.”

“
Laurie is the mother of
Steve?” Mitch felt pretty sure Laurie and Greg were his buddy’s
parents.

“
Yeah, but Greg and Laurie
have so many kids. They love kids, and each other, and they have
difficulty keeping their hands off each other, so I imagine that's
why they have eight.” Ben stared at the picture.

“
Speaking of Laurie and
Greg, I so can't believe Lainy has been behind the detour scenes,”
Ben said, shifting gears. “I mean, don't get me wrong, I can
believe it, I'm just astounded she finally got caught.”

“
I take it she’s a
legend?”

“
Oh yeah. Or will be. I
think we've all gotten hit by her at one time or another. Have you
ever tried to make out with a woman in a walk-in linen
closet?”

“
I don't believe so,” Mitch
said, thinking. Not that he wouldn’t be up for it sometime... with
Lainy...

“
Well, that in and of
itself is a challenge. Add in various kids, someone said you called
them the herd, which works well, especially when you throw in all
their dogs. A small walk-in closet filled with kids and dogs while
you're trying to kiss a woman just doesn't work.” Ben shook his
head, but he was smiling.

“
Your date wasn't
impressed?” Mitch wanted to know. He might need this information
some day.

“
She thought it was
hilarious. She giggled the whole time, which set off the rest of
the crew and the dogs started barking. It was one of the funniest
moments of my life. Which is so Lainy.” Humorous affection tinged
Ben’s voice.

“
Oh?”

“
If a situation can be
diffused with humor, Lainy's got it under control.”

“
Lainy didn't like the
woman you were with?”

“
She loves the woman I was
with, but calling her a woman then is probably not correct,” Ben
mused, and Mitch lost him to memories.

“
You were
teenagers?”

“
She was. I was about
twenty-two or so at the time,” Ben replied, that far away look
still on his face. Mitch envied him. He’d dated, but after too many
heartaches, had joined the Marine Corps instead. His life had been
much easier after that. Then he caught on to what Ben had
said.

“
She was a teenager and you
were twenty-two?” Incredulous, Mitch wondered how he'd managed
that.

“
Yeah, she'd always had a
bit of a crush on me, or so Lainy said, and I've always thought
she's the cutest girl alive, and we were near the closet so in we
went.”

“
Is she family?”

“
Sort of. She's one of
Lainy's sisters-in-law little sister. She's probably not so little
anymore.”

“
Okay, so she's not blood
related.” Mitch managed to work out. Keeping the Morrisons straight
was a difficult process.

“
Correct. Her sister is
married to Will, Lainy's oldest brother. Rachel is Treeny's older
sister. Rachel is Will's wife.”

“
Treeny?”

“
Yeah. It suits her. She's
got all this red-gold hair with big bouncy curls. She's about
average height but tiny. Curves in all the right places. She's
smart, too. She’s a doctor.”

“
Is Rachel a
matchmaker?”