"You okay now?" I looked up into Claire's deep brown eyes. Smiling slightly, I nodded.

"Yeah, thanks," I said, quietly, towel drying my hair. She sat down on the bed next to me.

"So, what do I owe this unexpected pleasure to?" she joked. I shrugged. "Family problems?" I snickered sarcastically.

"You could say that." She noticed the tone in my voice. It was somewhere between sarcastic and confused, if that's possible.

"C'mon." She grabbed my wrist and pulled my out of the room, down the steps, and out of her ranch house.

"Where are we going?" I asked, completely confused. She remained silent and continued walking. She dragged me to the stable.

"Here, take him." She handed me the reins of a purebred black stallion.

"You trust me with this thing?" I joked. She just ignored me once again and disappeared. A minute later, she came out with another purebred stallion, only it was a tanish-brown color. "Do I get a cowboy hat, too, mommy?" Suddenly, a hat was thrust onto my head, covering my eyes. "Cool!" I positioned the hat on my head. A few minutes later, we were mounted on the horses and ready to ride. We trotted until we were in the clearing, then galloped across the hillside.

"Wow," I breathed, amazed for the second time this morning.

"That's right," Claire said, mockingly, "I forgot you've never been out riding in Texas."

"I still can't believe you moved to Texas," I shot back. She laughed and tightened the reins of her horse to slow down. I did the same until we were side by side at a walking pace.

"So," she said, looking up at me, "tell me why you're here. I thought you were in the middle of a tour."

"We were, or well, they still are."

"And you're not with them, why?"

"It's gonna take me awhile to explain."

"Summarize it now and explain later." I took a deep breath and began rambling.

"It all started at the concert back in Philly. Kevin Richardson, also known as the 'Brow-boy' in Elis's words, decided to come backstage, bringing his cousin along with him. Dragging me into a dressing room, he decided to let the cat out of the bag, and keep your mind out of the gutter missy." I glared at Claire, who had an eyebrow raised like she was Miss Innocent. "Not like that. Anyways, you knew I was adopted, right?" She nodded. "Well, it turns out that I now know who my birth mother is. I happen to be the illegitimate child of Anne Richardson, the half-sister of Timothy, Jerald, and Kevin Richardson, the half cousin to Brian and Harold Littrell, and God knows what else to those other families in Kentucky because you know all those 'interfamily relationship' things go on there." I let out a deep breath and looked at Claire, who was still processing all of this.

"And Kevin just came up and announced this?" she asked after it all sank in.

"Well, he just said that I was his half-sister and that we had the same mother, who gave me away in fear that her now-passed husbands would find out about her affair and that she had dropped the bomb on them only a few weeks before he found me. I just figured the rest out on my own."

"And, yet, I'm guessing that you still don't know which side of the family relates the Littrell's and Richardson's," she said, knowing full well that I had tried to figure that out many times during high-school and could never find the information that I had needed. She also knew I would have forgotten it as soon as they appeared in front of me.

"Damn! I knew I forgot something!" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Of course, you probably also probably decided to block out that all during high-school you were fawning over your half-cousin." I glared at her.

"You always know how to find the good in conversations, don't you?" I said, sarcastically. She laughed.

"You know I'm just trying to get a rise out of you."

"And it's working."

"Why do you think I do it?" I glared at her again. "I knew there was something I'd miss about you guys when I moved out here. Now I remember what it was."