“Nope.”
“Well, at least tell me why you’re the black sheep of the family.”
“You don’t deserve the story.”
He caught one of her braids and brushed it along her cheek. “Please, my life will not be complete until I hear how you earned the title of the Powell Family Black Sheep. I’ll bet it was joyriding. You probably took the car out for a spin every chance you got.”
“I did,” she confirmed with a laugh. “But my reign as the black sheep began long before that. I probably was five years old.”
“You became the black sheep of the family atfive?”
“Will you let me tell my story, please?”
He motioned for her to continue. “I promise not to interrupt again. Unless you say something that’s completely outrageous, like you being labeled the black sheep of the family at five years old. Because that’s a pretty messed up thing to do to a kid.”
“No one treated me like a black sheep when I was five, but that’s when the foundation was laid. It started when my mom decided to go to law school.” She tucked her braids behind her ears. “How much do you know about military life?”
“The only people I know who are active duty are a couple of classmates from high school. I’m not close to them or anything.”
“The thing most civilians don’t realize about military life is that it can be just as hard on the families of service members as it is on those who are serving, whether in wartime or peacetime.”
“Is there even such a thing as peacetime? Seems as if we’ve been in one war or another for as long as I’ve been alive.”
“That’s true,” she said ruefully. “My dad has served in most of them. He received a Bronze Star and continues to dedicate his life to the military. But he would be the first to say that he didn’t reach that level of success on his own. While he was off fighting wars, my mom was taking care of the family while moving from one military base to another.
“For most people in that situation, the idea of obtaining a law degree would feel impossible. But not for my mom. She earned her degree and never missed a beat.”
“I guess those are some extremely high standards to live up to.”
“I’m not sure ‘extremely high’ is adequate to describe just how hard it is to measure up to those standards. She’s Wonder Woman, but with just a little more wonder to her. My brother and sister are in a competition to see who will reach Gail Powell status first.”
“What do they do?”
“My brother is a lawyer, of course. You only have to be in his presence for five minutes to know that nothing brings him more joy than arguing that he is right on just about every subject.”
“He sounds like a bucket of laughs,” Jamar said in a flat tone. “What about your sister?”
“Jesamyn. She’s an architect. She’s a lot more mellow than Darwin, but her analytical brain is always running at full speed. It’s intimidating to even start a conversation with her.” She gave him a playful nudge with her elbow. “I think you would do okay, though. She can be a bit of a snob, so she would automatically think you’re a dumb jock. I’d love to see you go head-to-head with her while watchingJeopardy!”
“You think I’d have a chance?”
“I think you’d give her a pretty good run for her money,” Taylor said. “And when she discovers that youaren’ta dumb jock, she would spend the next hour talking your head off. Me and Chester—that’s my brother-in-law—have this special signal we send to each other when Jesamyn gets going. You see, Chester is of average intelligence like me, which is probably why I feel more of a kinship with him than with my blood relatives.”
“Average intelligence? I think you’re smarter than you let on.”
“Hey, I’m not saying that I’m a dummy or anything,” she said. “But I know I’m no Einstein either.”
“Einstein had an IQ of one sixty. Less than one percent of the world’s population is an Einstein.”
“And probably less than that can rattle off Einstein’s IQ and the number of people who share it,” Taylor pointed out. “And there’s nothing wrong with being average. Did you know that Walt Disney never went to college? He took a few night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago while in high school, but he didn’t get a degree. I’ll bet people considered him average before he created Oswald the Rabbit and changed the entertainment industry forever.”
Jamar reached over and captured her chin with his fingers. They were warm after being tucked inside his jacket pockets.
“I repeat, there is nothing average about you,” he said. His eyes fell to her lips and Taylor forgot how to pull air into her lungs.
“Taylor.” His voice was a whisper. “We have to eventually talk about that kiss and what it means.”
Her head snapped back. “No, we don’t.”
