Chapter 9 #2
“I love your new song! Birthstone baby, baby, birthstone baby.” She mimed some of the choreography from the music video while singing to a part of the chorus, making me cackle with genuine laughter. Her husband popped up from his spot by the oven, smiling at his wife before his eyes found me.
“Happy to have you, Alistair!” The patriarch of the McKendrick family said to me from over the oven, oven mitts covering his hands as he went inside the oven to retrieve the turkey I knew must be waiting to be cradled.
Before I forgot, I stepped out of the way and waved a hand toward Van. “This is Van.”
“Ooh, very handsome.” Meredith cooed, stepping forward to shake the hand that Van outstretched. She looked to me as they shook hands. “New boyfriend?”
My eyes flared in surprise. I hadn’t expected for her to say that. Van let his smile form into a wicked smirk as he gave me a quick glance before setting his sights back on the matriarch of the home.
I stammered to find my words. “Uh, what? No, Van’s not my…my boyfriend…”
Why the fuck was that her first thought? Was it everyone’s first thought when Van had sauntered through the door? More importantly…did he look like my boyfriend?
My body seemed to invisibly vibrate at the idea. Van’s hands roaming over my bare skin, his lips locked to my neck, his strong, thick thighs helping to pin me down to the bed as I tossed my head back and moaned louder than I’d ever moaned in my life.
Fuck. I shook myself. I didn’t need to get a fucking boner right now.
Alright, it was already happening, but I needed to cut off this line of thinking.
I’d done so well at keeping my thoughts about Van strictly professional and one comment from a family friend and I was completely coming undone, unraveling at the very irritated seams.
I didn’t know what to say, or if I should say anything more. As they pulled their hands apart, Van saved me from Meredith’s lingering question. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. McKendrick. I’m Alistair’s security.”
“Security?” She echoed, locking her eyes on mine. “Such a handsome man.” As Kit reentered the kitchen, she tossed him a pointed glare. “Now why can’t you bring home a man as handsome as Van here?”
The blush that ran across Van’s cheeks was adorable. He cleared his throat, but smiled. Even though the comment might have made him uncomfortable, he didn’t ridicule Meredith for mentioning how attractive he was.
“Jesus, Mom.” Kit scoffed, shaking his head like a baby’s rattle, aimless and full of vigor. “Johnny was pretty cute.” A sigh fell out of my best friend’s lips, one so heavy that I thought I heard it hit the floor before he spoke again. “Until he cheated on me, the bastard.”
Meredith ignored her son’s attempt to satiate her claim, facing me once more. “So that interview on the Night Show was just the beginning! I saw the interview on TikTok.”
“Ugh, Mom, get off TikTok.” Kit sighed from the sidelines, picking up a bowl of mashed potatoes and lifting it off the counter to, presumably, set it in its rightful place on the dining room table.
“You hush.” She rebuffed, waving a hand in her son’s direction. “Anyways, Alistair, I made the cranberry sauce you love so much.”
I set a comforting hand on her shoulder. “So I’ve heard, thank you so much.”
Kit made his way back into the room at the same time, giving Van a hand to shake. They quickly greeted one another, lighting my happiness on fire, as I got a loving look from Meredith.
“And don’t you worry about that mother of yours,” She dismissed, waving the pot holder in her hand like it was a white flag of surrender. Leaning in closer to me, underneath the noise of the others surrounding us, she added, “You don’t have to be ashamed to come home anymore.”
Her words lacerated me way more than I’d expected, certainly more than she had intended when she’d unleashed them on me.
In that moment, it hit me all at once how much power I’d given my mother by letting her steer my reactions to coming back to Phoebe.
Granted, I could only do so much because of the restraining order, but now that she had fled Phoebe?
I needed to brush up on the wording of the protective order to make sure I was within my rights to explore the idea of moving back.
Even though it hadn’t dawned on me right away, but the thought of being able to move back to Phoebe excited me.
Did I know how the hell I was going to continue my star on the rise from a small town in North Carolina?
No. Did I understand how I was going to keep working with Blue and the label when they were comfortably stationed in Nashville?
Not a chance. But for the first time in my life, I had a choice to come back home.
I’d never entertained the thought of actually coming back because my mother had lived here her entire life. But she was gone.
Gone.
That word ripped a whirlpool through me.
I wasn’t sure how the fuck it was going to work, but I wanted to transfigure my memories of Phoebe.
This was the kind of place some people only dreamed of being from.
It was the coolest place to grow up, objectively.
I just needed to rewire my brain. No, more than that?
I wanted to. And now that she was gone, I could do that if I so wished.
And oh how I wished.