Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Mitch had never in his life seen anything even remotely like a Halley Thanksgiving dinner.
By the time he and the girls got there with Cam, the turkeys had been in the smokers for hours, and there was a whole brisket and a ham going besides.
“We thawed them out in the hot tub last night.” Miz Halley told him grinning fit to beat the band. “I’d forgotten to take them out of the freezer. You should have seen them just bobbing along, bubbling away.”
Somehow or another, the very thought of that had fascinated Sarah to no end, and she wanted to know if there were any videos.
Bekka proudly presented her pineapple dressing, and Rachel couldn’t have been more proud of her chocolate pie and whipped cream.
And Cam kept giving him these looks, these proud, happy looks like he was some sort of prize and that Cam was excited to have him right there in his parents’ house.
It was the weirdest feeling ever because him and Allison had never had any happy family Thanksgivings that weren’t just the four of them.
He couldn’t even say five because poor Rachel had never known anything like that.
“Mitch, hey, you want a beer?” That was Ramsey, Cam’s oldest brother.
“It’s a little chilly for me for a beer.” It had turned off a little bit cold. He kind of thought maybe he wanted a cup of coffee.
“I’ll get you a cup of coffee. Take anything in it?”
“Just a little cream.” He learned not to take sugar in it because it wired him up even more if he did.
Ramsey grinned at him, watching him watch the flurry of activity going on in the kitchen. “I’m going in. Cover me, man.”
Mitch laughed, shaking his head. He was stunned by all of it.
“Ah, Mitch, come on and sit down with me.” That was Cam’s dad who was sitting in front of the TV watching something that wasn’t the parade. They had watched that before they left the house.
In fact, he thought maybe the man was watching a dog show.
One eyebrow went up. “My team hasn’t started playing yet. I like the dog show well enough. Especially like the hounds.”
Mitch settled in one of the chairs. “I think my girls would tell me I had to root for the Rottweiler.”
Scott nodded. “Yes, I’ve heard about Rosie.”
“You have?” That didn’t surprise him. “Rachel?”
Scott shook his head, chuckled at him. “No, believe it or not. It was Sarah; she loves that dog.”
“Yes. Yes, she does.” He’d heard all about how Sarah had conned Cam into keeping that damn dog. Even though it did bite her.
Every time he thought about that, it made him a growly.
Still, Rosie had turned into a good dog—house-trained, good with the critters, and that dog loved the kids.
What surprised him most was that his gothy Sarah would be saying much of anything to Cam’s folks. She didn’t seem the type.
“I know it seems like she’s different,” Scott continued, “but she’ll find her way. She’s a good girl. She reminds me a lot of Kacey.”
Mitch felt his eyebrow lift as if he didn’t have any control over it, as if somebody had tied it to a string with a knot in the bottom. “Kacey seems like quite the cowgirl.”
Scott nodded. “Oh yeah, but she still likes her horror novels and her scary movies and dressing up at Halloween. Everybody’s needs to find their own path, son.”
Another rush of people came in, and Scott looked up while speaking, and his face lit up. He stood and opened his arms. “Diana, girl, you come here and tell your daddy hello.”
With the addition of the oldest Halley, her wife, and their kids? There were seven Halley kids, five Halley partners, and twenty kids.
Twenty.
Mitch sort of sat and stared, finding that he didn’t know what to do.
Bekka came and sat next to him, eyes going wide. “Lots of folks here, Daddy.”
He nodded. “There are.”
“It’s like a TV show, like an old TV show from the nineties.”
He nodded a bit, catching her gaze. “What do you think about it?”
“It’s loud. It’s busy. It’s kind of cool. Everybody’s grinning.” She offered him a worried smile. “Is there going to be a fight at the dinner table? Is there going to be a fight? Should we be careful?”
He didn’t follow. He rubbed his forehead, frowning. “Okay, did somebody say there was going to be a fight?”
“Well, yeah, the TV.”
“Wait, the television told you there was going to be a fight?” The last thing he needed right now was a child that needed mental health care,
“Daddy.” She rolled her eyes. “Daddy. No! You know they always have this big thing and then somebody throws the turkey?”
The light bulb went on and he shook his head.
“Oh, baby, no, this is not that. There’s not going to be a fight like that.
That’s just TV. Besides, look at how many people are here.
Do you think that there’s a table on earth that could hold us all?
We’re going to get our plates and eat, and then people will wander in and out, and there’s just going to be lots of eating and playing games and watching football. ”
He waved toward the television, and she nudged him lightly with her shoulder.
“Daddy. Those are dogs on the TV, not football.”
“Thank you. I would never have figured that out on my own.” Sarcastic girl.
“Well, I can help.” Her eyes twinkled. “You see, the dogs are not wearing shoulder pads.”
He reached over and tickled her, making her squeal. “Would you go find a friend? Will you go phone a friend, please?”
And she chuckled. “Yeah, Granny Halley got us all tons of paint-by-numbers, and it’s all set up in her great big art room. We’re all going to have a paint party. Cool, huh?”
“Extremely cool. Have fun.”
“Be good, Daddy.” She got up and left him, which was fine, because Scott settled back in just as the hound group trotted out into the ring.
That basset was adorable. So was the dachshund.
The noise was stunning. It was happy, but it was insane. “How did you stand this?” he whispered to Scott.
“Well, it didn’t happen all at once, you know.
First, there’s six years in between Diana and Cam, so that’s four of the kids.
The next two came pretty quick, but then we had a big break, so by the time Susan came, Diana was leaving for college.
By the time Susan was in school, Cam was a senior in high school, so three of the seven were gone.
Just think, we still have two who haven’t even started having their babies yet.
God knows if Lizzie doesn’t slow down, we’re going to be in trouble. ”
Jesus, all that mental gymnastics…
Scott winked at him, “But really, it’s a big house.
I come from a big family, so does Pam. We always wanted this sort of thing—a big family with big holidays, filled with all the grandbabies.
This is Mom’s holiday; we do Christmas, sure, but some of y’all come over on Christmas Eve, some come Christmas Day, usually Christmas morning.
It’s pretty iffy. So, this is the one that she claims as her own. ”
His mind was spinning—partly because they were a part of a ‘y’all’ which included him and his kids. “Well, y’all are welcome to come over to our house if you’d like on Christmas morning. We’d be happy to have you.”
He could order cinnamon rolls for seven as well as he could for five.
Scott’s eyebrows went up. “I’ll ask Pam. I would love that. Then we all could come back here to do presents with the rest of the grandkids.”
“Sounds great.”
He assumed Cam wouldn’t care, and if Cam did, he would just apologize. The kids had never had grandparents at the holidays.
Hell, two months ago he would have sworn that he wasn’t going to be able to do Christmas this year at all.
But every time he tried to pay Mark back, Mark said no. It was a gift, not a loan. Whenever he tried to repay Wilder or Scott or Pam or Lori back, they said he was family.
Then there was Cam.
Cam, who was…his heartbeat now. Like a lightning bolt from the past and the future all at the same time.
He was one lucky son of a bitch.
It stung a little that he hadn’t done this on his own. That he hadn’t been able to pick himself up by his bootstraps.
But, on the other hand, what kind of an ungrateful fucker would he be if he didn’t accept what the good Lord had offered him with some sort of grace and work really hard so that one day he could return the favor in whatever way that he could?
He guessed that was why this was Thanksgiving, right?
To remind him he was blessed as fuck, and he was loved.
Well, that, and there was the pie.