At about 6.45pm, I left my room and descended into the living room. All 7 of my brothers plus Hannah and Starr were there, lounging on the various couches, chairs and on the floor. When the group caught sight of me, there were various whistles and hoots and comments on my appearance which secretly pleased me although I pretended to ignore them.

"You look real pretty, honey," Adam said to me when I reached the bottom of the stairs. "Real grown up."

I smiled at him.

"What time'd this guy say he's pickin' you up? What's his name again?" Brian asked. He was cradling Starr who, for the first time in the evening since she had arrived, was not screaming her head off.

"Josh," I said, "And I don't know exactly. I think around 7 because the movie starts at 8."

"I can't wait to get a good look at this guy," Evan said.

"Yea, I can't wait to watch Adam and Brian grill him," added Ford.

I looked at them, horrified.

"You can't ALL be here when he comes!"

Evan laughed. "Why not?"

"Because you'll terrify him is why! It's bad enough that Adam, Brian and Crane have to meet him never mind you trolls!"

"Did you hear that?" Evan said to the others. "She called us trolls."

Then he turned back to me. "You wound me, little sister, you really do."

"Now we're definitely staying," Daniel said, teasingly.

"I'm serious!" I said, starting to feel really stressed. I knew there was no other girl in the land, or at least in California that had 7 brothers checking out her date. I turned to Hannah, normally my ally against the boys in all things 'girl'. "Hannah! Please do something!"

Hannah looked at me sympathetically.

"Don't you guys have something else you can be doing right about now?"

"Nope!" Evan and Ford said the same time. They cackled.

I honestly felt like I might cry then. I was wound up enough, just thinking about going out on a date with Josh and subjecting him to my three oldest brothers. I didn't need this to be made into a theatre piece. But Daniel, good old Daniel, must have seen how stressed I was getting and decided to take pity on me.

"C'mon guys, let's give Heidi a break and go on outside. I'm sure big brothers here have it covered."

"Hah! No way!" Evan said.

But Crane too took pity on me and ordered the boys away, and because of the nature of our family, where we were used to minding our oldest three brothers, the boys obeyed, albeit with some grumbling from Evan and Ford. They begrudgingly got up and headed towards the kitchen. Guthrie though, stayed where he was. He hadn't said a word so far.

"You too, Guth," Crane said, nodding his head towards the kitchen.

I looked at Guthrie pleadingly. He gave me a sort of intense look and I knew what he was thinking. But then he sighed heavily and got up silently and trailed away.

"What's with him?" Brian asked me, "You two had a fallin' out?"

"He's fine. I forgot something upstairs," I said quickly, running back up the stairs and into my room just to avoid Brian's piercing stare. He can't let things go sometimes and I didn't want him asking me a bunch of questions just before Josh arrived.

I stayed there for some moments, trying to calm myself from the butterflies in my belly. Because my bedroom window faces the back of the house, I didn't hear Josh drive up and only clocked he was here when I heard the sound of a male voice that didn't sound like any of my brothers. I quickly checked myself in my mirror one last time and then opened my bedroom door and walked downstairs.

Josh was in mid interrogation as I reached him. Adam and Brian were standing at the entrance to the front door with their arms crossed. They didn't look unfriendly as such, but they weren't exactly exuding a welcoming warmth either. Brian had given Starr to Hannah and she sat cradling her on one of the couches with Crane on one side of her. Good old Crane: the most civilised of all my brothers in my opinion, followed at a close second by Ford and Guthrie. Josh didn't look uncomfortable though, at facing my two oldest brothers. He was just a little shorter than them and his body language was relaxed and self-assured. When he saw me come down the stairs, he flashed me his incredible wide smile.

"Hi, Heidi. You look incredible."

"Thanks, you look nice too," I said. He was wearing a burgundy T-shirt which brought out the blue flecks in his eyes.

"We were just askin' Josh some questions," Brian said. I could see that he didn't like the fact that Josh was so obviously unintimidated by him, and it made me nervous.

"Great, well I think we'll just get going now," I said, trying to usher Josh along and minimise the time he spent being harassed by my brothers.

"We're not done yet, Heidi," Adam said. He gave me a look that was plainly designed to tell me to pipe down otherwise he could be way more embarrassing.

"Heidi says you're new in town," Adam said then, turning his attention back to Josh.

Josh nodded. "Yes, sir. I moved here with my mom; we have family here."

"Okay," Adam said, "How long you been drivin'?"

"Since I got my license at 16, so about 19 months."

"You had any accidents since you got your license?" Brian said.

"No, sir."

I was amused that Josh was calling my brothers 'sir'. Neither of them liked it from us kids, but I thought that with Josh using it- well it might work in his favour.

"Your car in good shape? Tires, oil and the like?" Brian said.

"It's my mom's car. And I do all that stuff for her, so I know myself that it's fine."

Brian nodded.

"What are your plans for you and Heidi tonight?" Adam said.

"I'm taking her to see a movie, and then if there's time afterwards, I thought I could take her to the diner- grab a burger or something."

"Uh huh, well I want Heidi back here by 11, so if you can fit a movie and a burger into that time, then fine, but if not, bring her back on time."

"Of course," said Josh.

"And absolutely no drinkin,'" Brian said.

Adam nodded. "Yea, because you've got someone real precious to us in your car."

I cringed at that. I suppose it was sweet, but it was so embarrassing. I looked at Hannah and Crane to help me.

"You'd better be getting off now if you want to catch the movie," Crane said.

I made a mental note to buy him a present or offer to do his dish washing chores.

"But we're not fi-" Brian began.

"Brian, I think Starr's waking up and needs a diaper change," Hannah said getting up and quickly transferring Starr to Brian. She patted Adam's arm and opened the door.

"Have a great time you two," she said.

I decided I would buy Hannah something as well.

"Remember, back at 11!" Adam called as Josh and I walked down the stairs towards his car.

As we shut the doors and Josh turned on the ignition and changed the gear to pull out, I said, "Wow, I'm really sorry. They're way overprotective."

Josh flashed me another easy smile.

"No worries, Heidi. You get used to talkin' to girls' dads and brothers when you're a guy picking up a girl for a date. Anyway, I think it's sweet how much they clearly love you."

"Yea. They're great but it gets a bit much sometimes. I always feel like I've got someone looking over my shoulder."

Josh winked at me. "I'd better be careful then."

/

How to describe my date with Josh? It was magical. I had been on a couple of dates before, but they had been group dates with guys from my class and I hadn't genuinely liked any of them like that. Not in the way I liked Josh. At one point in the evening a thought came to me, like they had been wont to do over the past year, that I wished my mom was around so I could share these things with her, but I pushed the thought away to deal with it later.

Josh and I chatted on our way to the movie theatre about just general sorts of things- nothing too heavy although he did ask me about Starr and to whom she belonged. When I told him the story of how she had come to be with us, he said, "Wow, that's crazy. Is Brian freaking out? I would be."

I thought about it. "I don't really know," I said, "He hasn't outwardly, at least not to me. She's only been with us a couple of days; I think he might still be in shock.

"Probably."

Then I moved on to ask him how he was feeling about starting school the following week. He made a face.

"I'm not looking forward to it to be honest. Starting a new school in your senior year wasn't on my wish list last Christmas."

"At least you know Frankie and his friends."

"Yea. But Frankie's not…" Josh said, trailing off.

"Frankie's not what?" I prompted.

"Nothing. It's not a big deal. It's just that Frankie and the guys aren't like my friends at home."

"In what way?" I probed. I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say, but I wanted to hear him say the words.

"They're just different is all. Forget I said anything."

I wanted to push Josh further, but seeing as we didn't know each other that well, I felt like it would be rude. Josh might not see eye to eye with Frankie all the time, but he was still his family after all, and family sticks together.

When we got to the movie theatre, Josh bought us tickets and popcorn and a large Sprite to share since I'm not a fan of Cola. I'd like to be able to say I enjoyed the movie, but the honest answer is that there were large sections of it that neither Josh nor I saw because we were kissing. We weren't making out grotesquely like some of those couples you see where their tongues are halfway down each other's throats and their hands are everywhere; our kissing was softer and slower. Josh's hands were in my hair or on my face, and he never put them someplace I wasn't comfortable. He was a really good kisser too: not that I had a huge amount of experience. But still. Kissing him, like it had last time, made me feel electrified.

When the movie finished, it was already 10pm.

"I guess we don't have time to grab a burger and get you home for 11," Josh said mournfully as we climbed back into his car. "Next time I take you out, I'll have to pick you up earlier, so that we can spend more time together."

I felt a warm feeling spread out over my body at Josh mentioning a second date. We sat in the car for a while, at the movie theatre and just talked before he drove me home. Once again, I found that I could talk to him about all kinds of things: books we had read and liked, movies, even politics. At one point, he asked me what it was like growing up on a ranch since he had grown up on a big city.

"It was okay…" I said, "It's all I've ever known."

"But do you get involved in day to day activities?" he asked me.

"Not really. I mean I have chores that I have to complete every day like feeding the chickens which I've done since I was really small, and some days I help out my brothers with things, but if I'm honest, I've never been too interested in ranching. I've only been on a couple of round ups, and I don't see ranching in my future. And I'm a vegetarian."

Josh laughed. "You're a vegetarian on a cattle ranch?"

I nodded. "Since I was 10."

"What does your family think about that?"

"Not much, I guess. My brother Brian was put out when I announced I wanted to be one. But after a while, he stopped forcing the issue."

On our ride back to the house, we talked about our future plans. Josh told me he wanted to be a doctor when he was older and I told him I wanted to be a human rights lawyer.

He grinned at me. "I guess we've both got some big ambitions."

He dropped me off at home with 10 minutes to spare.

"There: now you won't turn into a pumpkin," he said, teasingly. Then he leaned over and kissed me again.

"Is it okay if I call you and ask you out again?"

I gave Josh a teasing smile back as I got out the car.

"I'll think about it."

I quickly ran up to the front door and opened it as quietly as I could, mindful that most people in the house would be asleep, although the kitchen lights were on which told me that someone was still up.

Starr was laying peacefully on her back in her crib. Because of her little striped Babygro, I could see her chest rise and fall peacefully. A pacifier was laying next her, as though it had fallen out of her mouth. I so wanted to go over and stroke her little cheek, but I thought better of it in case she woke up.

"Heidi," a voice whispered.

I looked up to see Brian standing in the entrance to the kitchen in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.

"Hey," I whispered back.

"Come into the kitchen so we can talk properly."

I followed Brian into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water.

"Did you have a good time?" he asked me.

I smiled. "The best."

Brian surveyed me for a moment, and I couldn't really tell what he was thinking.

"Where did he take you?"

"To the movies, like he said. We didn't have time to go for a burger afterwards."

"What did you see?"

"Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

"Any good?"

"Yep," I said, offering up no details. I was hardly going to tell Brian I had barely seen it on account of the kissing happening. I also didn't want to ask Brian what he had thought of Josh because I sensed that maybe he wasn't his biggest fan as yet, so I asked him about Starr instead and how she had been that evening.

"She was alright. She cried a bit after you left, but nothin' like the last couple of nights. She's been asleep for the last hour though."

"Oh. Why didn't you go to bed?" I asked him.

"I was waitin' up for you. Adam wanted to do it, but he seemed really beat so I said I would wait up instead."

"You didn't have to, you know," I said. I didn't say it rudely; it was more matter of fact.

Brian shook his head as though he were exasperated with me. "Heidi Mae, Adam or I'll be waitin' up for you for as long as you live under this roof."