Chapter 52
FIFTY-TWO
It wasn’t a family dinner at the hockey house if someone wasn’t arguing over food.
The dining room was bursting at the seams—the table had never been designed for this many people, and at this point we’d crammed so many mismatched chairs around it that elbows were practically a hazard. But nobody complained.
Well, nobody complained seriously.
Drew reached over Liam’s plate before he’d even started speaking. “Pass the potatoes,” he said, already grabbing for them.
“Dude.” Liam shoved his arm away. “Use your words like a civilized human.”
“I did use words. I said, ‘Pass the potatoes.’”
“You said it while already grabbing—you know what, never mind.” Liam handed over the bowl with an exaggerated eye roll. “You’re lucky Rory’s adorable, or we’d have voted you off the island by now.”
Harper snorted from beside Drew, while Rory was sleeping nestled against her shoulder. “Don’t threaten him with a good time. He’d love the drama of a tribal council.”
“I would absolutely give an iconic exit speech,” Drew agreed, completely shameless.
I bit back a smile and reached for Liam’s hand under the table.
He caught my fingers immediately, squeezing once, and the warmth of it still sent a quiet thrill through me.
I knew he still felt bad about our breakup, but these past few weeks since we’d gotten back together had been absolute heaven.
If I’d had any concern that he still had doubts, he’d squashed them by making it crystal clear that we were together.
He refused to let go of my hand in public, and every room we walked into together, his fingers found mine like it was instinct.
Like he was making up for all those months of stolen touches and secret looks by making sure everyone in a ten-mile radius knew I was his.
Family dinners had become our thing after Foster and Abby got together. What started as an excuse to get everyone in one room had evolved into something that had quickly turned into a tradition. And while I’d always loved being included, it felt even better to be here with Liam out in the open.
“Okay, but real talk,” Liam said, pointing his fork across the table at Sam. “Sam, you have to settle this. Who makes better mashed potatoes—me or Gordy?”
Sam made a show of taking a thoughtful bite, chewing slowly while Liam watched with the intensity of a man whose entire honor was on the line.
Beside her, Gordy didn’t even look up from his plate—as if he already knew it was no competition at all.
The man had the emotional temperature of a still lake. Nothing seemed to ruffle him.
Well. Almost nothing.
I suspected that a certain blonde who was currently sampling his mashed potatoes managed to get under his skin.
“Harry,” Sam said finally. “And it’s not even close.”
And that was another reason I was convinced there was something going on with them.
No way would Gordy allow anyone else to dare call him Harry, or his full first name, Harrison.
He’d laid down that law freshman year. And yet, Sam could call him that and he allowed it.
He almost seemed to get a little twinkle in his eye whenever she did.
Liam clutched his chest like she’d stabbed him. “Betrayal. After everything we’ve been through.”
“You asked for honesty, Li. I gave you honesty.” Sam grinned and reached for her wine. “Maybe if you stopped trying to sneak protein powder into everything, you’d have a shot.”
“That was one time and it was Drew’s fault.”
“What the hell, man. Don’t even lie. It was your idea!” Drew argued.
The table erupted into laughter, and I just shook my head. I suspected this was pretty much what every family dinner would look like for the rest of my life now. Liam’s thumb traced slow circles on the back of my hand, and I leaned into his side slightly, just because I could.
“So what’s everyone doing for break?” Abby asked.
“Harper and I are staying local,” Drew said.
“We’re not ready for a Dumontier-Tinsley holiday circus yet, and if we go back to Meadowbrook, both sets of parents will demand we stay with them.
We’ll spend Christmas Eve with her family and Christmas Day with mine, but otherwise, we’ll be here in Dunridge.
We’d rather not add fuel to the fire that’s just finally started to settle down. We just barely survived Thanksgiving.”
Harper’s lips twitched. “That’s probably a generous way to describe it. Really our families are still looking for any reason to start the feud back up, and we want no part of it.”
“Ah, don’t worry about your folks. They’ll still have a son around for Christmas,” Liam said with a grin. “They like me better anyway.”
Drew glared at him. “That might’ve been true before you were dating their daughter. Now, you’re on just as thin ice as I am.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. He wasn’t wrong.
Mom had been torn between thrilled that Liam was officially family and horrified that he’d been secretly hooking up with her daughter for months.
Dad had been stone-cold and then quietly pulled Liam aside and told him that he’d withhold judgment for now, but if he hurt me again, my dad would bury Liam in the ground.
Considering his business was in construction, his threat wasn’t an idle one.
But Liam had handled it like a champ. He said it was mostly because he was too stubborn to be scared off and too in love with me to care about the interrogations.
“What about you, Sam?” Harper asked. “Big Lowe family Christmas?”
Sam’s smile was bright and easy like it always was. She had to be one of the happiest and most self-assured people I’d ever met. Sometimes I was envious of her confidence and how boldly she lived life.
“You know it. My mom goes all out—matching pajamas, way too much food, the whole nine yards.”
“Sounds nice,” Harper said with a smile.
“What about you, Gordy?” Abby asked. “Heading to Connecticut?”
He gave a small nod. “That’s the plan.”
Gordy was the hardest to read of anyone, but even I could pick up that he didn’t seem all that excited about spending time with his family.
Abby opened her mouth to ask something else, when a knock echoed through the house.
“Expecting anyone?” Foster asked.
We all shook our heads or said no.
“Who even knocks?” Liam asked. “All of our friends know they can just walk right in.”
“I’ll get it,” Sam said, pushing back from the table. “Maybe it’s a delivery guy. You guys order anything?”
She left the dining room, and for a moment the table went back to its normal chatter. But I noticed the way Gordy’s gaze tracked her until she disappeared around the corner. He stared at the empty hallway for a beat too long before looking down at his plate.
Oh yeah, he had it bad.
We heard the front door open and then, “Surprise, Sammy.”
There was a pause and then Sam’s strained voice broke the silence. “Jordan. What… How did you—”
“Who’s Jordan?” Harper quietly asked Abby.
Before she could answer, Gordy was out of his seat heading toward the door where this Jordan guy was still talking to Sam.
“Sam? Everything okay?”
There was another pause and then the other guy spoke. “I’m Jordan. Sam’s brother.”
That was all it took for the rest of us to abandon any pretense of minding our own business. Chairs scraped against the floor as we collectively migrated toward the hallway, because apparently none of us had been raised with even a shred of respect for other people’s private moments.
I’d heard that Sam had brothers, but she’d been stingy with the details like their names. Even Abby seemed surprised that one of Sam’s brothers was here, and Abby had known Sam the longest of any of us.
The man stood on the porch and was shaking Gordy’s hand. He had the same blond hair as Sam.
“He’s one of my roommates,” Sam said, her voice lacking all its usual confidence.
Jordan nodded slowly as his gaze landed on us all watching from the hallway.
“I didn’t realize you lived with…” His words trailed off like he wasn’t sure what exactly the situation was.
“Hockey players,” she said. “I live with hockey players.”
He gave her a small smile. “Right. Sounds like you. Always did like being surrounded by chaos.”
A moment passed again and it struck me that this had to be the most awkward brother-sister interaction I’d ever encountered. Drew would never be so stiff with me. And the confidence that Sam usually radiated with ease seemed to be completely gone now, her shoulders hunched slightly.
Jordan’s smile dropped and he shoved his hands in his coat pockets. “Look, Sam. I know this is unexpected. I should have called first.”
“Yes, you should have.”
He huffed out a weak laugh. “Would you have answered?”
Drew and I made eye contact, both of us clearly thinking the same thing—something was obviously going on here that none of us were aware of.
When Sam didn’t answer him, Jordan continued. “We really want you home this year. And I figured if I showed up in person, you couldn’t just”—he gave her a look and a small smile—”escape to Aunt Lauren’s.”
Wait. Sam hadn’t been going home? Hadn’t she said earlier that her mom had all these fun Christmas traditions that she was excited about? What the hell was going on?
Had Sam lied to us about her family?
She still didn’t say anything and Jordan’s smile fell. “Sam,” he said, his voice taking on a gentler tone. “It’s time to come home.”
“Why now?”
Pain seemed to streak briefly across his face. “We thought…” He trailed off and then shook his head. “We thought eventually you’d be ready to come back on your own. But it’s been five years, Sammy. And I’m tired of waiting.”
Did he just say five years?
I exchanged a glance with Liam, and from his furrowed brow, I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. Sam had never once mentioned not going home. She’d made it sound like she spent holidays with her family every year.
Where the hell had Sam been going every time she said she was going home?