Neither seemed like a great option. We were both too comfy on my couch. Instead, I rolled onto my back and pulled her so that she was basically lying on top of me with her head on my chest. She sank against me. “Why aren’t you spending Thanksgiving with your family?” she asked as we lay there.
“We aren’t close,” I said with a shrug. “My mother was the holiday gal, and when she passed, my brothers and I tried for the first year to make things festive, but it just seemed like a farce, you know? We weren’t able to recreate the magic like she could, so we stopped trying and decided to preserve our memories of those holidays instead.”
She made a smallhmmin her throat. “So, why celebrate Thanksgiving this year?”
“In the nearly twenty years or so that I’ve been Jake’s friend, he has never invited us over for the holidays. I don’t think he’s ever thought about them, but having Ryan back in his life, having a grandkid, havingyou, it’s making him want to do the holiday stuff that he hasn’t gotten to do before.”
“Makes sense.” She rested her chin against my chest. “What kinds of things would your mother do for the holidays? I’ve always liked hearing about other people’s traditions.”
I tried to think of one that was unusual for her. “On Christmas Eve every year, my mother would make the same soup. I don’t even think it has a proper name, but she would dump almost everything from our fridge and pantry into it. She wanted to start the new year with a ‘clean sweep’ of her cabinets.” I laughed, and her body shook against mine. “Some years, it was the best thing we’d ever eaten, and we’d be done with the whole pot that night... and then some years, it was downright vile, and we’d slog through eating it for four days.”
“But you ate it all,” she said, and I nodded.
“My mother worked hard over that soup,” I said. “We couldn’t disappoint her by telling her that it was disgusting.”
“You are a good son,” she said, smiling at me fondly.
“I did try.”
“You succeeded.” With a little groan, she hopped off me and reached out her hand. “Come on, we need to get a move on if we’re actually going to be productive this afternoon.”
I sighed. “Who cares?”
“You do,” she said. “That’s why you keep checking your phone, to make sure Trevor is getting what he needs to do.”
I took her hand and let her pull me up. “Let’s get our work done,” I agreed, “then I’ll make you dinner.”
18
ALEX
We weren’t meant to be meeting at Jake’s until noon for dinner, but when I pulled into the driveway at nine o’clock, planning to help with the meal prep, there were already cars there. Nerves I didn’t even know I had echoed in my belly. “You were literally at their wedding,” I told myself. “Get it together.”
When I opened the door of my car, I could hear kids. It was such a bizarre sound after coming here when it was perfectly still. I grabbed the pies from the back—literally the only thing that Jake would allow me to bring—and headed to the porch and hit the doorbell with my elbow.
Tinsley answered it, and I squealed to see how cute her pregnancy belly was. “You look gorgeous!” I said and bumped my cheek with hers.
“Thanks,” she said, grinning from ear to ear. I hadn’t seen Tinsley since the wedding, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed her. “Come on in,” she said. “Pies can go in the kitchen.” She pointed politely. “It’s through there.”
I bit my lip. How did I tell her that I was well acquainted with the house? “Thanks,” I said awkwardly and stepped into the house. I could feel her eyes on me as I made my way through the house, trying to make it seem like I was looking for a place I already knew how to find.
Jake was standing in the kitchen with Ryan and Kai. They were getting the turkey ready to go into the oven. “Look who’s here,” Tinsley said, and they turned. Jake’s eyes went wide when he saw me, and the grin grew on his face. I could see that he wanted to come over, but he held himself back. “You’re here early,” he said instead.
“I wanted to offer my help to prep things,” I said, setting down the pies on the counter. My arms ached to hug him, but I was very aware of his family all around us. “But I can see that you’ve got it covered?”
Tinsley slung her arm around my shoulders. “So, that means we can catch up,” she said and steered me out of the kitchen and back into the living room. Tinsley and Ryan’s son, Lucas, was watching the Macy’s Day Parade with his stepdads, Thiago and Michael.
“Mom, can I have a snack?” Lucas asked.
“Sure, kiddo,” Tinsley said. “Go ask your dad and Grandpa for somethingsmallin the kitchen.” Tinsley pushed me onto the couch. “So, tell me about working for Jake,” she said.
“He’s great,” I said.
“A better boss than me?” Tinsley asked.
I shook my head. “No one was a better boss than you, Tins,” I reassured her. “But doing paralegal work is a lot different from being an assistant, and I couldn’t ask for better coworkers.”
“You don’t miss working with the Hollywood elite at all?”