Candle In The Wind

Chapter Fifty Four

Happy Thankslying!

“Let’s go around and say what we’re thankful for,”

Laine said.

Ardley sighed loudly and Callum pulled his lips into a thin line, and I turned to stare at Clay in his high stroller—he was just sleeping.

He was lucky he couldn’t speak yet. I wished we could switch places to avoid saying what I was thankful for. It reminded me of foster homes, but I knew things were different. This Thanksgiving dinner alone was enough to feed a truckload of people. It was a medieval feast.

I stared at all the food intensely. Once we said what we were thankful for I wouldn’t even know where to start.

“I’ll start,”

Laine said. “I’m thankful for Ardley who had an amazing recovery, and I’m grateful for Callum finally finding love and I’m thankful for my very first and cutest grandson. I’m a happy grandma now, there’s not much I can ask for now,” she said as she smiled.

I felt Callum’s eyes land on me. “Not to sound like a broken record, but I’m thankful for Ardley who’s doing fine, and I’m thankful for Juliette and Clay.”

He grinned as he ran a hand through his hair. “Um, thank you for coming back into my life.”

I smiled.

I could seriously live a million lives and never deserve him—I’d never ever had anyone treat me with such grace and love. I always looked for Callum everywhere, his warmth and kindness was hard to let go. His love for me had truly nurtured something in me and it taught me so much and I never once thought I’d ever be able to love someone as much as I loved him.

There was this myth—when a guy was in love, when he stared at you he didn’t smile much, but he’d have the look of love in his eyes and it tended to be serious and full of tension because they wouldn’t be able to grasp the idea of how much they loved you. Yeah, that…I think it happened to me. Callum laughed and smiled at me. I could see the look of love all over his face, not just his eyes, but I didn’t smile. I just looked at him intensely, trying to understand how much I loved him—so, so much my heart could burst and it becomes very hard to breathe and it felt like I could cry at the same time. And at times I caught myself smiling with him, only because he was smiling. Unintentionally, it didn’t matter how I was truly feeling, I smiled when he smiled.

Like now, I was smiling.

Rob cleared his throat. “And I’m thankful for my business which isn’t tanking or will be tanking anytime soon, and for Ardley who is alive and well,”

Rob said as he raised his glass of wine up then took a sip. Laine glared at Rob with a look that was both disappointed and annoyed.

The room was so quiet I could hear a pin drop.

Then it was my turn. Callum smiled and tilted his head with a slow nod of encouragement. Even now, when he was so far away from me, I felt his warmth.

I cleared my throat. “I’m thankful for Clay, giving birth felt like a rebirth—”

I chuckled, “if that makes any sense. And of course I’m thankful for Ardley, who’s healthy again, and I’m thankful for Callum who’s done more than anyone could ever imagine. And I’m happy to be here spending Thanksgiving with you guys…who love Clay so much.”

After a beat, we all turned to look at Ardley who slowly looked up at us with furrowed brows.

He swallowed. “I’m thankful.”

And we all knew that would be all he’d say.

“Happy Thanksgiving everyone!”

Laine quickly added.

Everyone raised their glass of wine, and I raised my glass of water.

We cheered.

Everyone started eating while I froze, still figuring out what I should start off with.

I blinked back to reality when a spoonful of baked macaroni hit my plate. I looked up at Cal who then added a spoonful of baked string beans on my plate.

I smiled. “Thank you.”

He nodded as he added a piece of bread on my plate, still examining everything on the table to figure out what he thought I might like or not.

I hummed with my first taste of the baked macaroni, the food tasted amazingly.

“I hope the food is to your liking, Juliette,”

Laine said.

I immediately nodded. “It’s delicious.”

She smiled, “I’ll give your compliments to the chef then, he did fly here from New York just to cater to us.”

My brows shot up, “oh,”

I mumbled as I ate some string beans.

“Next year,”

Cal said as he looked at me, “Clay will be old enough to actually sit at the table and eat with us.”

I chuckled, “he’ll be in a highchair, and he’ll have like…three teeth.”

“If he has half of the appetite you and Ardley had, he’ll be eating in no time,”

Laine added as we laughed.

“How’s everything? Or how’s that thing you had to do?”

Laine asked as she looked at Ardley who was sitting right next to me.

Callum was sitting across from me next to Laine, and Rob was at the head of the table. On my other side, Clay was in his stroller.

“It’s fine,”

Ardley said as he forced on a smile. It was the same kind of smile people wore like uniforms to be polite or to signal to other people that they were uncomfortable.

I looked down at my plate.

“Actually, no,”

Ardley said as he leaned back in his chair, “I’m leaving tomorrow, um—” I turned to look at him, I was almost frozen as everyone else.

“I think it’s for the best. I know how much you guys want me to move on—”

“No, it’s not like that at all, Ardley,”

I cut him off, “everyone processes loss in their own way and it takes time.” I placed a hand on his thigh. “I’m also not saying it’s a bad idea to leave, that’s of course up to you, but there’s no deadline to anything—”

“I think Juliette is trying to say we’re not pressuring you to be happy and pretend like everything is okay—”

Laine spoke up and I turned in her direction as I started nodding along.

“Son, if you need to talk to someone there’s no shame in that, but leaving is a little—”

Callum sighed loudly, “if that’s what he wants to do, Dad, then that’s what—”

“Okay, are we just going to pretend like you aren’t happy to hear this?”

Rob’s brows furrowed as he glared at Callum.

I blinked, then swallowed watching the expression on Cal’s face turn sour by just the comment his dad made.

“What?”

Callum glared at him.

“C’mon, Cal, everyone knows how thrilled you must be to hear that Ardley is leaving, you’ll finally have Juliette all to yourself, and you can start a family with his goddamn kid. It’s what you wanted all along, isn’t it?”

Callum scoffed, “what the fuck do you know about what I want?”

I squeezed my thigh under the table then dug my nails into my skin, trying to find some way to release the pressure.

“I can see it in your eyes, Cal.”

“See what?”

Cal exclaimed as he dropped his fork on his plate angrily. The sound of the harsh silver cutlery made me jump and my eyes snapped at Cal as he continued to glare at his father.

“What the fuck are you seeing? Please elaborate, explain it to the rest of us. I’d really like to know.”

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest like he was really waiting for Rob to start explaining himself.

Then, in less than a second he pulled himself back up to lean over the table and pointed at Rob with the butter knife. “And don’t ever talk about Juliette, or Clay, or Ardley, any of us, Dad, you don’t know shit about us so don’t—don’t pretend like you know anything. It pisses me off.”

Rob leaned over to make eye contact with Laine. “That’s your son, Elaine? That’s who you raised him to become?”

“Don’t bring Mom into this!”

Cal snapped.

I leaned forward and Ardley immediately brought me back against the chair. “Don’t,”

he whispered, “you’ll only make it worse, they’ll stop,” he said, like this has been a recurring nightmare.

“When?”

I whispered back. It didn’t seem like there was any comeback from this.

“Eventually.”

“There’s nothing wrong with him, Rob, why do you keep antagonizing him?”

Rob scoffed as he shook his head, “of course you’d take his side.”

Laine’s brows furrowed. “There is no side here,”

she said plainly, “there’s you who’s…angry because your son is making his own decisions that aren’t influenced by you in the slightest bit so you’re lashing out on him—you’re punishing him for it and it’s affecting us all now.”

Rob laughed.

He was a bully. Or maybe he was habitually cruel because Callum was everything Rob wasn’t and he no longer had any control over the kind of person Callum chose to be. Rob was a narcissist who could only think of himself so of course he couldn’t wrap his brain around the fact that Callum was a different person, that he had different interests and different dreams and has a different idea of life and success. Most importantly, he didn’t seem to care or even be considerate of Callum’s feelings over anything.

He brought a hand to his neck as he laughed, he tilted his head back and ran the same hand through his hair then glared at Laine.

“Do you think he’ll ever become a man if you keep coddling him like this?”

“I mean there’s a limit, honey,”

he started speaking in that annoying condescending tone, one that sounded sweet but meant that you were stupid. “Laine,” he paused as his brows shot up, “he’s at his limits. He just doesn’t have what it takes, can’t you see—” he looked around the table, glaring at all of us, “can’t you guys see—” he chuckled awkwardly, “I’m just trying to help him here.”

Laine sighed as he she closed her eyes. “Rob, can we please just try to get through dinner? You’re gonna wake the baby.”

“Yeah, Ardley’s baby, who he seems to be okay leaving behind in the hands of a stranger—”

“Don’t you dare call Juliette a stranger, she is Clay’s mother above all—”

Rob laughed. “Look at you, so eager to come at her defense, does she look like someone who needs defending, Cal?”

Rob glanced at me and looked back at Callum, “I mean, she’s not stupid, she must’ve known what she was getting herself into, or was the money all she thought about?” Rob glanced at me again, “are you stupid, dear?”

“Dad!”

Cal shouted.

“Rob!”

Laine snapped.

“You can say anything you want to say to me, I can take it, but don’t ever talk to Juliette the way you talk to me.”

Cal sounded so angry it moved me.

“You have to treat her with respect and kindness, she’s not me and like you said, you don’t know her, she’s a stranger to you so don’t you dare—”

“It’s okay,”

I whispered as I leaned over and placed my hand on top of Callum’s.

His eyes softened when he looked at me, “no,”

he grumbled under his breath, I could tell his anger was slowly fading but he was too stubborn to let it go.

“It’s not okay, Julie,” he said.

“Awweee would you look at them—”

“Stop it!”

I screamed.