Chapter 6
“Please pass the yams.”
I turned to see how Sophie would respond to that, but she laughed and picked up the big casserole dish. “Here are the sweet potatoes, Dion,” she announced as she gave it to him, and he laughed, too.
Even with all the food we’d eaten and with more sweet potatoes/yams disappearing into Dion, the table was still bending under the weight of our Thanksgiving dinner.
It had gotten bad enough that before we’d fought for our seats, Nicola’s husband Jude had crawled underneath to quickly nail on some support pieces.
I had crawled under too, hoping to learn more about construction, and he’d talked me through what he was doing.
He was a woodworker, not a contractor, but he knew a lot so I’d also asked him questions about Theo’s house.
“Grace, don’t get stuck under there,” Nicola had called, but I had gotten back out ok.
There was no room for everyone at the big table anyway and some of us had been shunted to my grandma’s old card table, which Addie had found in the garage and hosed off.
I was there because I was the youngest, and so was Brenna as the sister just above me.
If there was going to be an auxiliary area during the holidays, we were always stuck in it, and her husband had sat in the folding chair next to her.
Today, Juliet was also stuck with us, as was her husband Beckett.
I didn’t mind the card table, but not because of their company.
It was because Theo was seated right next to me and I was so glad that he’d come.
Nicola had grilled him and Sophie had apparently done background research because she had a lot of questions about his education, various addresses, and history of employment.
But he answered everything and hadn’t appeared to mind at all.
Over dinner, Juliet also grilled him, but it wasn’t about his life. She had a lot of medical questions about carbon monoxide, leaf mold, heavy metals in water, pesticides in broccoli, air-purifying plants, and many, many other issues.
“JuJu, it’s Thanksgiving,” Brenna finally broke in. She sounded exasperated. “Do we really need to talk about cell phone radiation?”
“Let’s let Dr. Winter eat,” Beckett said. He took his wife’s hand. “He’s not on call tonight.”
“Sorry,” Juliet told Theo. “I’m very sorry.”
“That’s ok.” He’d answered all her questions very calmly and in the same way that he talked to his patients, which was also very honestly.
I found that comforting, even when he was saying things that were bad.
Like, who knew all that about antimony? But even as he’d discussed rashes and nosebleeds, I hadn’t been concerned.
Brenna’s husband had looked a little green, but he’d also been nodding as if he was interested.
Theo continued talking to my sister. “I can understand why you’d be worried about your pregnancy, given everything that’s been happening.
” His eyes flicked to Beckett, his patient.
“I don’t know your medical history and I’m not trying to minimize your concerns, but from everything you and your husband have said, things are going great.
I’m excited to meet your healthy baby in a few months.
” Then he smiled at her, and it was so warm and sincere that I was totally convinced that everything in the whole world was going to be fine, from JuJu’s baby, to the dancing pole that my mom was trying to install in her yoga studio, to the sturdiness of the second floor of the cabin.
Juliet smiled back at him. “Thank you,” she said, and she started eating like it was going out of style. She must have felt better.
After dinner, we all helped clean up. There were a million dishes, or maybe close to a trillion, but there were also a trillion guests so things went quickly. “Grace, be careful with those knives,” Nicola said anxiously as she watched me wash. “Are you using soap?”
I was, and I was also being careful so I nodded. Then I dropped my mom’s silver pie serving thing and the handle went into the garbage disposal, which Campbell had just turned on. It was always so loud when that happened.
When Mom was calmer about her pie server and the dishes were done, we gathered in the living room for our traditional post-Thanksgiving activity: choosing names for Christmas gifts.
There were too many of us to try to buy for everyone, so we each picked a single recipient instead and I was hoping to get one of the kids because their presents were fun.
For her birthday, I had given my niece Esme a bugle that she loved and that my brother had said was really, really something.
I chose a paper from the basket and unfolded it to see “Brenna.” We weren’t supposed to tell once we drew the name, but I looked up and caught her eye and she sighed dramatically.
“I guess I’m getting a box of leaves this year,” she said, and most of my family laughed.
I had a feeling that Addie got me because I was watching everyone carefully and she—
“Mom, what is this?” Sophie demanded. She waved the slip of paper that she’d just unfolded.
“Hm?” my mother asked. She was busy braiding my niece Esme’s hair.
“Why did I just draw this name?” my sister asked loudly. Her daughter got fussy on her lap, probably from her tone, and she stood up to bounce her. As she did, Addie took the paper from her hand.
“Frank,” she read to us. “Mom, really?”
“Who is Frank?” Theo asked me quietly.
“My dad,” I whispered back. “We should go.”
“What?”
I was already moving quietly toward the door as Sophie started up again. “Are you planning to invite Dad over on Christmas? Why? The divorce will be final by then.”
“There’s no need to be cruel! Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday and you’ve now ruined it,” my mother answered, and JuJu and Dion sprang to her defense.
I slipped through the door and breathed deeply.
It was cold out tonight and it felt almost Christmasy, except that there was no snow and everything was dead and brown, and there were no decorations except on the house across the street where they hadn’t yet removed the Halloween stuff.
I heard the door close again and Theo joined me.
“Do you always take off when they fight?” he asked.
“I don’t like to hear it,” I admitted, “but sometimes I leave because I like to be alone. No, not you,” I added when he stepped back. I’d grabbed his arm to stop him, and then I kept holding on because he felt so comforting.
“What’s happening in there?” he asked.
I looked up into the dark sky. Clouds were moving quickly through it, making the blurry light from the stars fade in and out of view.
“Mom doesn’t want to give up on my dad. He was the one who wanted to separate and he moved out, but I think that she always believed that things would go back to the way they were.
Nicola says that they weren’t ever right for each other. ”
“They both picked the wrong person for a partner?”
I nodded again. “I’m glad that Sophie drew his name so that Nic can put a stop my mom’s game about Christmas. By the way, who did you get for the gift exchange?”
“That’s a secret. It seems like there are opposing factions in your family regarding the divorce,” he noted. “Dion and Juliet are in one, and Sophie is in the other.”
I nodded. “Sophie is clearly on Dad’s side and JuJu and Dion are pro-Mom.
Not Brenna, but she doesn’t like our father either.
Nicola tries to be neutral, but if it came down to it, she’d be Team Dad.
Patrick will always choose our mother. He’s her favorite.
Addie wants to agree with everyone, but she has her limits and she’s told Mom that the marriage is done.
She does it in a nicer way than Sophie has. ”
“What about you?”
I considered more. “I’ve been pretty mad at my dad, but if he doesn’t love her anymore, then he shouldn’t stay and trick her into believing that things are fine.
But she’s very unhappy without him. Her life was totally disrupted when he left, and she was always proud of how much he loved her and how he used to go along with all her ideas.
So it’s also a blow to her ego that he walked away. ”
“That’s very insightful.”
“It’s obvious,” I corrected him. “I can see…oh, now I can see that the party’s over.”
We both watched as various people began to stream from the house.
First Sophie and Danny came with their kids, then Nicola and Jude, Addie and Granger, and Brenna and Campbell.
Patrick was at his girlfriend’s house for dinner so he’d missed all this but would hear when everyone resumed the fight in our group chat, and Dion would probably tell his girlfriend so that the argument would expand.
“It’s so dumb,” I heard Sophie say. “Why can’t she give up on him?”
“She loves him. You can understand that,” Danny told her.
“It’s not only love,” I said. “It’s her pride and also that she doesn’t know everything that he was doing.” But they didn’t hear me.
Theo and I left, too. We had come together, which had made Nicola get worried. “You’re living with him?” she’d asked as I’d mixed the green salad earlier this afternoon. “Watch out.”
“He’s nice.” She wasn’t aware of how well he treated the fish, so I had started to tell her about how he had taken on aquatic care but she’d interrupted me.
“I mean to watch out, because you’re not paying attention and you’re spilling all the almonds onto the counter. You also have to be careful with guys, Grace.”
I had eaten the nuts and said that Theo and I were roommates, but she hadn’t been appeased and I was counting on a visit from her in the next few days so that she could assess the situation for herself. I smiled when I thought of it because I liked seeing her.