Chapter 26
“You missed breakfast,” Jason announced as Trevor stepped inside the large kitchen filled with Bradfords.
“That’s fine. I’m not really hungry,” he said, barely aware or caring that all activity in the busy kitchen suddenly stopped as every Bradford in the room stared at him in disbelief.
Even one-year-old Cole stopped trying to climb onto the counter to get at the large platter of cookies his mother made to stare at him.
“You’re not hungry?” his aunt Megan asked, frowning as she wiped her hands on her pale green apron. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine,” Trevor answered automatically as he stole the vegetable peeler out of Jason’s hand and started working on one of the three ten-pound bags of potatoes needed for today’s meal. Right now, he needed something to focus on instead of how pissed he was.
“Trevor, sweetheart, do you want to talk?” his aunt asked, and he didn’t have to look up to know that she was probably twisting her hands nervously in her apron.
She was a worrier and a babier, and on a good day, all her fussing was hard to take and today sure as hell was not a good day.
“Why don’t I make you up a quick plate of eggs and bacon and we can go into the living room and-”
He shook his head. “I’m fine, Aunt Megan. Really.”
“But-”
“He’s fine, honey,” Uncle Jared said. “But I could use a hand finding the cranberry sauce.”
“Wasn’t it on the counter?” Megan asked, leaving him to go help Uncle Jared and hopefully forgetting all about him for the rest of the day, which he knew wasn’t likely to happen. She’d just bug the hell out of him until he told her what was wrong.
“You want to talk about it?” Jason asked quietly so that the rest of their family wouldn’t hear.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Trevor said, taking out his anger on the potato in his hand since he couldn’t spank Zoe’s ass at the moment, and not in the good way.
Why didn’t she want to take things to the next level with him?
“I’m fine. Great even.” But he wasn’t. He was dying to hunt Zoe down and spank her ass until she agreed to live with him, no, begged him to live together.
“You know where to find me when you’re ready to talk,” Jason said, sounding so damn sure of himself and further pissing him off.
“I don’t need to talk to you,” he snapped, grabbing another potato.
“Uh-huh,” Jason said, yawning. “Whatever you do, don’t kidnap her, that’ll only piss her off more. Believe me, I know.”
“Whatever, just go away and leave me alone,” Trevor said, stealing the potato out of Jason’s hand.
“Fine, I’ll go see if my little grasshopper needs help setting the dining room table,” he said with a shrug.
Trevor watched as his cousin snagged a large chocolate chunk cookie from one of the platters and gave it to his son, who happily took it and settled himself on the floor and out of the way.
After giving the boy a wink and Trevor a meaningful glance, Jason headed out the swinging kitchen door to help his wife.
He watched with bored interest as his Aunt Megan stormed over to the door and shoved it open. “Don’t you dare try to drag her off, Jason Bradford!”
Thirty pounds of potatoes, twenty pounds of butternut squash, three trips to the convenience store down the street, a hundred bucks poorer and four hours later, Trevor was pushing his food around on his plate, wondering if Zoe was giving his idea any thought and wondering why her hesitation felt like she was pulling away from him.
For the first time in his life, he couldn’t eat and didn’t want to. What he wanted to do was hunt Zoe down and force her to see his side. He would already be heading out the door to drag her home except for one little problem.
He had absolutely no idea where she was.
The few times he’d tried to get her to talk about her family, she’d quickly changed the subject.
Her family never visited or seemed to be involved in her life at all, which actually pissed him off.
What kind of family stood around and let someone as great as Zoe struggle? And where the hell have they been?
He could name at least a half-dozen times when she could have used her family in the last few months, but not once had he heard anything about them showing any concern for her.
When he’d asked her about her Thanksgiving plans, he wanted to demand that she come with him, but the way she spoke of her Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions and how much she looked forward to them every year put a stop to that.
They might not be close, but at least they made sure she was taken care of during the holidays.
That was something, Trevor thought, not much, but more than they’d been doing for her.
“Haley, why did you make a pumpkin pie with a ‘Z’ on it?” Jason asked as he walked into the dining room with his daughter happily sleeping in one arm.
His son Cole was wrapped around his leg and he was carrying the second platter of turkey Aunt Megan had asked him to get a few minutes ago.
Trevor was actually surprised there was any meat left on the plate or that his aunt had actually trusted Jason, or any of the Bradford men for that matter, to go into the kitchen unsupervised after what happened last Christmas.
As Haley struggled to pull Cole off Jason’s leg, she said, “I was hoping Zoe would come, but just in case, I figured I’d send the pie home with Trevor.”
Jared snorted at that. “It will never make it to the house,” he said, although he did throw Trevor and his untouched plate a curious look.
“It better make it there,” Haley said, giving him what she probably thought was a stern look, but even he had to admit she was really too damn cute to pull it off, not like his Zoe. Now, that woman knew how to glare, Trevor thought with a wistful sigh.
“I tried to get her to come, but I think she’s still mad at me,” Uncle Jared grumbled, sounding truly unhappy.
“She’s not mad at you. Besides, you did what you had to do,” Trevor said, knowing it was the truth, but he knew that his uncle felt bad for making Zoe cry.
It didn’t matter that Zoe went out of her way to show his uncle how much she’d appreciated him taking the time to talk to her or the dozen cupcakes that she’d bought him, the man simply couldn’t tolerate a woman crying.
“She has no family or anywhere to go for the holidays. If she wasn’t mad at me, she would have come,” Uncle Jared grumbled, sighing as he pushed his food around his own plate.
The fork in Trevor’s hand dropped with a loud clink as his uncle’s words sank in. “She doesn’t have any family?” he asked, wondering why she’d never told him.
“She grew up in foster care,” Haley said softly.
Trevor shoved away from the table, holding back several choice words as he shared a look with an equally stunned Jason.
“Well, let’s go get her then,” Jason said, handing his baby girl over to his father and swiping a roll off of Haley’s plate before heading for the door.
Trevor was about to tell him that he didn’t need any help, but then he realized that having a witness just might stop him from throttling Zoe’s pretty little neck.
“Don’t worry, I ordered a little something special for the two of you,” Zoe said as she hung up the phone. Toby and Max gave her little puppy barks of approval as she gave them each a quick pat and headed back upstairs to grab a pillow and a blanket off her bed.
As she came back downstairs, her stomach growled loudly, demanding food and making her groan.
She really hoped she was able to keep down her special Thanksgiving lunch.
It was something she looked forward to every year and the one thing that she allowed herself to have whether she was on a diet or not.
P.B. Chang’s was the best Chinese food in the area.
It was also something that she normally didn’t allow herself because she usually couldn’t afford it, which was why she only treated herself to it twice a year.
It also didn’t hurt that the two days she allowed herself the treat were also the two days P.B.
Chang’s automatically doubled the amount of food for free.
While other people were going to be eating turkey for several days, she’d be eating Chinese food.
“Let’s get set up, guys,” she said cheerfully, earning several barks of approval.
After depositing her blanket and pillow on the couch, she took the dogs out for a quick walk and quickly changed into a Red Sox tee-shirt, baby pink flannel pajamas, and a pair of Trevor’s thick white socks.
She was just sliding the first disc of her “X-Files” DVD collection into the DVD player for her Thanksgiving Day “X-File” marathon when a knock sounded at the door.
She grabbed her wallet and headed to the door, giving the dogs a stern look to stay put.
With small groans, they did just that. As she opened the door, the aroma of fried chicken fingers, pork fried rice, and beef teriyaki hit her hard and made her mouth water.
She couldn’t wait to tear into her food, which was a good thing considering how much food there was.
Maybe she’d ordered too much, Zoe thought as she frowned down at the two large brown paper bags that were overflowing with food.
She may have gone overboard ordering this year, forgetting that they’d double whatever she ordered, but that was okay because she was starving.
It was only after the delivery boy left that she’d realized that he didn’t bring her orange soda, not that she would complain.
She paused the movie. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed two cans of Coke, knowing that she’d go through them, and returned to the living room to find her boys sniffing around the bags.
“Be good and I’ll give you something yummy,” Zoe said teasingly as she opened the bags and quickly found the beef and broccoli, she’d ordered for them. After she split the small carton between them, she sat on the couch, pulled the coffee table closer, hit the “Play” button, and got comfortable.