It felt good to think of her mom.Thanks, Bogs.
“One brother, right?” he asked.
“Yep. Carter, he just turned eighteen. He graduates from high school in June.”
“You get along with him?”
“Yeah, better now that we’re older. He was a pain in the ass when we were kids.” She chuckled and smiled thinking of her brother that she didn’t see too often.
“Most little brothers are, just ask T and Stone.”
She snorted with a vision of a young Bogs popping in her head. “I bet you were super annoying.”
He burst out laughing, “That’s putting it mildly. Man, the shit I used to pull with them, it’s a wonder they didn’t kill me and hide my body behind the house.” Bogs lifted his brows with a cocky grin. “Once they started dating, that’s when the real fun started.”
Kenzie laughed imagining all the shit he must have pulled. “So, you’re the youngest?”
He reached for his water and shook his head. “Of my brothers. Ethan’s the oldest, and I got a little sister, Roxanne.”
Rox would be short for Roxanne. There was a burst of relief spreading over her chest. The purchaser of the placemats wasn’t an ex, it was his sister.
“Five kids? Damn...” She smirked. “You mom and dad are troopers, huh?”
“Troopers, saints, glutton for punishment. All of the above. There’s only seven years between E, the oldest, and Roxanne. We were a handful, lucky for them they missed the toddler years. That would have been brutal, I think.”
Missed the toddler years?
“Wait, what do you mean?”
“We were all adopted when we were around ten to twelve. Except Rox, she was five.” He was quiet. Then he continued. “I was nine, almost ten, when I was adopted.”
“Oh.” She almost cringed at her response. She didn’t know what else to say. He caught her off guard. She had never met anyone who was adopted. What was the protocol? Could she ask him questions or would it be awkward? He didn’t seem uncomfortable talking about it but it was kind of sad. If he was adopted that meant his real parents weren’t around. Did they die?
“I’m sorry.”
A wide grin, spread across his face. “Why ya sorry?”
She shrugged feeling extremely awkward. She wasn’t sure why she’d even said it. “I don’t know, I mean…” She stammered to think of the right way to put it but now it seemed whatever she said would come out wrong. “I j-just mean…I don’t know what I mean.”
Bogs chuckled. “Kenzie, it’s fine. No need to be sorry, but I think I get what you’re trying to say.”
“Really, ‘cause I’m not sure I even know.”
“Are ya sorry that I was adopted because I don’t have my biological parents?”
She slowly nodded. Why the hell couldn’t she have just said that instead of looking like a complete jackass who couldn’t form sentences? “I’m sorry.”
“I feel ya. You feel bad ‘cause I didn’t have my real parents like you did but the thing is, mine weren’t good like yours. Don’t even know my dad, not even sure Cheryl, my biological mom, knew who he was. She was really young when she had me. I was raised by my grandparents until they died when I was about seven.”
“You never lived with her?”
“A short stint when I was about three. I don’t remember much but she came for me, wanting to give the mother thinga shot. Two months later I was back at my grandparents. And right after they died, I lived with her. Part of the will, she only got the money if she took custody. I guess, it was my grandparents’ way of a last-ditch effort to be a mom.” He shrugged and looked off at the sidewalk as a jogger and dog passed by.
She got the impression he was avoiding looking at her because he didn’t want her to see it bothered him.
“You don’t have to talk about it, Bogs. I wasn’t trying to pry or anything.”
His head jerked back to her. The corner of his mouth curled. “I didn’t think you were. And it doesn’t bother me. Not anymore.”
