Chapter 16 #2
Ellis came wandering in, sniffing the air. “Smells great in here, Ichabod. Love it. Anything I can do? Your Pop and Michael are with Chrissy.”
“I am tearing up bread because I am the best at it. Daddy said so.”
“Rock on, rock lobster.” Ellis winked at her, and she scrunched her face up and closed both of her eyes in her own version of a wink.
Ellis winked back.
“So, Ellis. Are you from Aspen?”
“No, originally I’m from the Front Range, but I’ve been here a number of times, and this is one of my favorite places on earth.”
“Oh, I love it too. It’s so chilly.” His mom waved her hand in the air in a breezy sort of manner, which made him grit his teeth.
“I think it’s pretty,” Allie stated.
“Do you think it’s nice out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“It’s not nowhere. We go to school. I have friends. I had Girl Scouts and dance and gymnastics.” Allie nodded as if that was that. And maybe it was. She hadn’t done anything different in the city.
“What do you think, Zane?” Mom asked when Zane came in to grab another cold water out of the fridge.
Zane stared at her, then gave Ichabod a glance as if to say, “How good do I need to be?”
He smiled and jingled the keys in his pocket, encouraging his eldest to remember that it was more fun to be positive than to be in trouble.
Zane shrugged, the move absolute diffident teenager. “It’s okay. I’ve got some good friends now. And the school’s nice.”
Mom’s eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and it was a total one-eighty from what Zane would’ve said even a couple of months ago.
“And I think maybe there’s a girl.”
“Dad!” Zane shook his head. “There’s maybe a girl, maybe.”
“Okay, so there’s maybe a girl. Maybe.”
“Yeah, I mean, it could be that we’re just friends.” Zane rolled his eyes. “Girls are so slow to act.”
“But the fact that you’re willing to wait for her to act tells me that you really like her,” Ichabod teased. “I’m proud of you, son.”
“Dad, don’t be gross. Can I have something to eat?”
“Sure, what do you want? There is going to be pre-Thanksgiving pizza tonight. Just don’t eat anything that’s meant for Thanksgiving, and you can have whatever you want.” He pondered it. “There’s chips and dip?”
“Perfect, I’ll take that.”
“Don’t make a mess,” he whispered.
Zane waggled his eyebrows and whispered back. “Promise.”
Mom blinked at him as soon as Zane left. “He seems happy.”
“I think he is. He has a group of like five or six kids that he’s friends with at school. There’s this girl. He seems like he’s willing to start over, and I couldn’t be happier.”
“That’s wonderful, honey. It really is.” Mom came to give him a kiss on the cheek. “I know it was tough the last little bit there in Denver.”
Ichabod breathed a sigh of relief, even if it was inaudible. It looked like they were willing to bury the hatchet now. That was fantastic.
“This is a good place to be. The girls love it, the guys love it, we’re all good here.”
She glanced at Ellis. “And you seem to love—”
“Yeah, I’m very happy,” he admitted. Ellis did it for him.
“Well, then. That’s great.” Mom turned back and started chopping celery again. “Do you have chicken stock to put on this?”
“I bought extra.” He wasn’t going to go there. He wasn’t going to say that he’d already used a good portion of it to make his own stuffing. This was Thanksgiving, this was family, this was good feelings. Oooohm.
He was thankful that he had his mom and dad. He knew Ellis didn’t get along with his mom, and the kids didn’t have their other dad. So he was quite lucky.
“I was thinking about making some nachos or something to let everybody munch on. Does that sound good?”
He nodded to Ellis, smiled. “That sounds amazing. You know how I feel about nachos.”
Mom cleared her throat, just a bit. “Right. Do you mind doing some that are not so spicy for Dad? He has a thing with heartburn.”
“You got it. I’ll pull some queso out before I put the spicy stuff in. Chrissy can eat it with him.” Ellis winked.
Mom offered him a warm smile. “Perfect. Thank you.”
Allie nodded to Mom, “Yes, me too. Bell, I want to share with Pop-Pop too.”
“You got it, kiddo. I’ll do half and half.” Ellis moved around his mom like he was some sort of crazy ballroom dancer. It was great to watch because even if Mom wanted to get upset, she couldn’t.
He had to admit that it was kind of amazing. He was stupidly in love.
He hadn’t felt so much in love since Chris. And he didn’t know how to process all these emotions. He went with it, because that was who he was.
And Ellis seemed to be right there with him.
The man treated him like a king, adored his kids, and was being incredibly polite to his parents, even though this was their first Thanksgiving together and it had to be weird.
Maybe it wasn’t. Though Ellis was a cowboy, right?
Cowboy folks, according to Ellis, anyway, adopted people like crazy and invited them in for their holiday celebrations.
“Daddy, does this look good? The bread, did I tear it good?”
He made a show of going to Allie and looking it over, digging through a little bit. “I think it’s perfect. Good job!”
She beamed at him. “Thank you, Daddy. Can I do something else now? I can do things.”
“I know. How about you help Ellis cut up the Velveeta?”
“Oh, good idea.” Ellis put the block of cheese in front of her with the plastic knife they used for bananas and soft veg.
“Granny! Do you see? I will cut up the cheese!”
“I see, sweetheart. Good job.”
“Love you, Granny. Love you, Daddy. Love you, Bell.”
His mom snorted, but he could see Ellis and how that hit him right in the gut.
“Love you too, kiddo,” Ellis said, ruffling her hair. “Now, let’s make us some chile con queso.”
He couldn’t stop beaming at them.
This was going to be the best Thanksgiving by far since Chris had died, and he sent up a thank-you to his husband wherever he was now for letting him be well-adjusted and not feeling guilty.
He was happy.
Hell, even his mom was coming around, he could tell.