Everyone at the table stopped talking when they heard the couples walk in. It didn't sit too well with Karly who hated being the center of attention when it came to big groups. "Well girls, aren't you going to introduce us?" Their mom asked, setting the last bowl on the table. She stood right behind two of her boys, staring at the girls, a small smile on her face.
"Right," Sabella laughed nervously and turned to look at Brayden. "Mom, guys," she looked to everyone, "This is Brayden." She sent a forced smile to her family, her eyes begging them to be nice.
"Oh, so this is the guy we've been hearing so much about," Jensen, the fourth oldest smirked. "Nice to meet you, my guy," He stood up, reaching his hand out to shake Brayden's hand. "The name's Jensen." He had a friendly-ish smile on his face.
"Nice to meet you, Jensen." Brayden shook his hand, much more reserved than he normally was.
"Oh sure meet Jensen first, it's not like I haven't been waiting for this day for ages or anything," a voice from the other end of the table calls.
Sabella let out a slight chuckle, "Oh Jasper, whatever. Brayden, this is Jasper." She introduced the two.
"The one and only," Jasper gave a charming smile, "Oldest of the nine in fact. Nice to meet you, buddy." He gave Brayden a good once over before turning to his sister. "You did well choosing this one." His last comment made the couple blush, causing the rest of the family to laugh.
"I suppose we're introducing ourselves then," Cassia perked up, "Name's Cassia. Oh, and I won't hesitate to slam you if you hurt my sister. You understand?" Her grip was deathly, a sweet smile placed nicely on her face.
Brayden gulped but nodded, "Yes ma'am. I understand."
She gave him one last smile before letting Ezra take over. "Hey buddy, name's Ezra. Sure have heard a lot about you. All good though, don't worry." He gave the terrified boy a reassuring smile.
"And we're Rosaleigh," a petite blonde perked up, "And Juliet," the brunette on her right stated. "It's nice to meet you." They gave him a small smile.
"And I'm Krystal," Their mom spoke up, "It's so nice to meet you. Please have a seat." She shook his hand and motioned for him to take a seat at the table.
"Thank you, ma'am, for allowing us to come over and meet Y'all." Brayden pulled out Sabella's seat for her before taking the one on her right. Keira and Karly introduced Jude and Hudson, and they got very similar comments from their crazy siblings.
Halfway through dinner, Sabella leaned over to whisper in Brayden's ear, "After dinner, we normally go on a family trail ride, I had George saddle up a few extra horses for you boys." She watched his face curiously, her lips parted slightly.
He nodded and looked over at her, "Sounds good." He gave her a reassuring smile, which seemed to calm her fears, and she turned back to her food. He looked across the table to get Karly's attention, which was fairly easy, and mouthed 'I need to talk to you later'. She looked concerned, but nodded, letting him know she got the memo. The rest of dinner went pretty smooth, much to the girls' delight.
"Momma, do you need help cleaning up?" Keira asked once dinner was finished.
Krystal shook her head, "No honey, I'll call Dustin in to help clean up, Y'all go on and get started on your ride before it get's too late."
The kids smiled at her, "Alright Momma, be back later." The siblings and partners got up from the table and practically raced out the door. Once they were all outside Sabella hollered, "Race ya to the posts!" The girl lets go of Brayden's hand and took off at a sprint to the posts on the side of the barn.
"Not fair! We didn't get a heads up!" She heard from behind her. She laughed and sped up, trying to beat her long-legged boyfriend. She made the stupid mistake of looking over her shoulder to see where her family was, and she nearly tripped on a loose rock. That was until a steady hand caught her elbow. "Easy there, wouldn't want you to lose the race now would we?" Brayden asked, a half smirk already in place.
"How...how the monkey...?" She asked, only slightly surprised.
"Long legs Babe, you knew you wouldn't win." He laughed shaking his head at her.
"I hate you," she mumbled under her breath. The two were coming up on the posts, the rest of the family not far behind them.
"I swear I'm gonna kill you, Sabella! I already had to chase your ass once before today, I ain't doin it again!" She heard Karly yell, slightly breathless from the running.
"Doesn't matter, cuz I win!" Sabella did a little victory dance as her hand touched the first post, Brayden laughing at her the whole time. She took the few seconds it took her family to reach them to catch her breath. "Alright then, let's mount and go." She smiled at everyone before untying her gelding, Chief, and mounting. "Brayden your on Blaze, which is the bay right next to Chief." She explained, pointing to the slightly older bay gelding. All the horses on the Maycomb's were purebred quarter horses. Sabella fixed her necklace as she waited for the rest of the family.
"Where we riding to?" Karly asked, riding over to Sabella and Brayden.
Sabella smirked, "I was thinking Lover's Creek." She looked over in time to see a small blush creep over Brayden's cheekbones.
"Sounds good," Karly turned, " HEY we're riding down to Lover's Creek!" She alerted the family, who responded with grumbles, before going back over to Jude. "Ready?" She grinned over at him. 'Damn, he looks like a snack on a horse.' She thought to herself.
"As I'll ever be," He responded, urging Moonshine forward. He sent her a grin over his shoulder, causing her to laugh.
"C'mon Sassy, let's show this cowboy how it's done." She smirked to herself and kicked Sassy into a gallop, flying past Jude. Her laughter carried through the open field, causing her siblings to shake their heads at her. Pretty soon Jude caught up to her Moonshine's golden tale streaming out behind her.
"That's a bet Pumpkin," He smirked over at her, urging Moonshine on all the while.
"Hmmm IF ONLY SOMEONE COULD KEEP UP!" She yelled whilst laughing. She kept Sassy going, not taking it easy on Jude and Moonshine. "You're gonna have to go a lot faster than that Roper!" She smirked at him. All that could be heard was the fast falls of hooves meeting the hard Earth. Both horses were lathered in sweat, riders panting slightly. The two kept on, head to head almost the entire way. At the last minute, Sassy found some buried energy and flew past Moonshine, stopping even with the big willow that stood firmly on the bank of Lover's Creek. "Woooo! I win!" Karly pumped her fist in the air, looking over to see Jude pull Moonshine to a stop.
Jude laughed, shaking his head, "Where the hell did that come from?" His breathing was labored slightly from urging Moonshine on. Both horses were heaving, Sassy shook her head, her mane flying.
Karly shrugged, "I don't know, guess she found something deep inside." She smiled over at her boyfriend, reaching her hand out. He accepted it and gave a small squeeze as they waited for the rest of her family to show up.
"I reckon we have some time to ourselves, your family took this ride at a lazy trot. Why don't you give me a crash course on each of them?" He shrugged, leaning back in his saddle, the brim of his hat falling slightly over his eyes.
Karly mulled the idea over for a few seconds before shrugging, "Alright. Let's see. We'll start with Jasper since he's the oldest." She took a moment to gather her thoughts, thinking through what all she wanted to give away. "Jasper is twenty, he came back this summer to help Momma run the ranch. He's studying psychology down in Austin. He's...experimenting. Mostly likes guys though, I'm not gonna lie. He gets his brown locks from Momma, and those green eyes he gets from Papa. He stopped growing his senior year, so he's gonna stay six one forever. He's a kind soul you could say, very sassy though." She shook her head and let out a small laugh, looking at the rippling water. The sun was still pretty high up in the sky, though the heat wasn't as bad as it could've been. "Then there's Cassia. She's really not into the whole 'ranch lifestyle' we got goin on. She's nineteen, just graduated the year before. She goes to some fancy college in Seattle now. She only comes home every once in a while. She was the school's top female wrestler though, so she wasn't kidding when she said she'd slam you. Won state three years in a row while she was in high school. Real smart too. She has Momma's looks though, almost can't tell that she belongs to Papa too. She won't ever get taller than five seven. Short little thing she is." She took a moment to look over at Jude, who was listening intently, not wanting to interrupt her. He could watch her talk about her family all day. She got really passionate about it, and her eyes had a mist to them.
"Ezra's next in line. He's nineteen too. Goes to college in Austin with Jasper. Ezra swears up and down he's gonna be a lawyer, I don't doubt it either. His sass is through the damn roof most days. Between him and Sabella, there was hardly any counter space in the bathroom. Two peas in a pod those two are. He won't ranch either. Gonna move to a big city and forget all about this place. We almost can't get him to come home when he leaves. The only reason he came back this year was to look over our finances," She shook her head and looked down at her saddle horn. "He looks nothing like us. I swear he has more Mexican in him than the rest of us do. Sabella too. Jensen is the fourth oldest. Out of the boys, I figure he'll be the one that stays and runs Shady Oaks. He loves it out here. Damn good cowboy too. Still doesn't know what he wants to do when the time comes for college. He's in our grade so he's about eighteen. Sabella's next in line, but you know quite a bit about her. Rosaleigh is next. Pretty thing is gonna get out of here almost as quick as Cassia did. I'm almost positive she'll get a scholarship to some fancy college in New England. Real smart cookie that one is. She don't look much like us. Looks more like Papa if anything, 'cept she's got Momma's skin. Keira is next, but again you know all about her. Then it's me, and the baby of the family is Juliet. Man does she take after Papa. A lot of us do though. They're all gonna take off. Juliet plans on getting out of here with Rosaleigh. They're pretty close. Almost twins. Juliet get's everything from Papa, well 'cept for his Mexican coloring." She shrugged at the end, her left hand toying with the reigns.
Jude could tell that talking about her family the way she just did upset her. He couldn't imagine how hard it must be for her to hear her siblings talk about getting out quicker than lighting. "Well, they seem like a great bunch. You're lucky to have them."
Karly let a ghost of a smile dance across her lips, "Yeah, they're pretty great when they want to be." She looked up once more, a real smile on this time. They could hear the faint sounds of hoofbeats alerting them that the family wasn't far behind. "Speak of the devils," a small laugh escaped as she turned in her saddle to see the rest of her crazy family trot over the crest of the hill. "Took y'all long enough!" She hollered, her face lighting up with their presence.
"Well sorry but some of us like to take things slow," Sabella teased as she loped Chief down the hill, coming to a stop next to her sister.
Karly scoffed, "Since when do you take things slow?" She lightly punched her sisters arm.
Sabella looked behind them to see Brayden laughing with her other siblings as they sauntered down the hill. "Since we don't have much more of this left." There was an undeniable smile on her face as she watched the way her siblings interacted with her boy. Karly wanted to tease her sister but thought against it.
"Hm well, I'm hopping off and sitting on the bend, my ass hurts from the saddle." She laughed and threw a small smile to Jude, who followed her lead and hopped off. They tied the reins to the saddle horn, the horses knew better than to venture off. The couple locked hands and made their way to sit with their feet in the water. "This is nice. Spending time like this with you and my family." She smiled sweetly at him, and in response, he kissed the back of her hand.
"Hey let's play a little game!" She heard Keira exclaim as the rest of the family made their way down the bend.