Peculiar Legacy of Gifts and Curses

There is a saying among the families who have lived in the town of Eversburg for generations. "Kiss a McLaren at the bridge, and they'll be yours forever." An adage that somehow always bears true. Whether born plain or a beauty, every McLaren has married the person they kissed inside the structure that an ancestor built centuries ago.
The McLarens themselves regard this as truth. A truth once known, turning into rumors through the years, until all that remains is the warning they continue to pass along to their children and the bizarre relationship with the Swavely women who live on the hill above town.
Only a McLaren who lived long ago could tell you how their descendants came to be forever linked to The Rupert Covered Bridge.