13
“And here’s to our cover story—the one we never saw coming,” Julie said, raising her plastic cup in Lexie’s direction. A chorus of “Hear! Hear!” sounded around the break room as each member of the marketing staff joined the toast.
Lexie blushed, hiding her face behind her plastic punch cup.
Magazine Drop Day was an office-wide event. Everyone took a two-hour lunch, during which the office doors were locked, incoming phone calls were transferred to voicemail, and food was served potluck-style. Everyone ate until they could barely stand, celebrating six months of hard work—the day when the magazine finally landed in mailboxes across the country. Work on the next issue would begin tomorrow; today, they would feast.
Lexie listened as the conversation gradually turned from the magazine to the Redtail’s football season and, finally, to the upcoming holiday. She felt little need to join in, especially since her Thanksgiving would include a painfully formal dinner where her father’s parents would pick apart every facet of her life and let the entire room know exactly where and how she was falling short of their expectations. Just thinking about it made her queasy.
She risked a glance across the room at Jake where he stood chatting with Andy. They hadn’t had much chance to talk since last weekend, what with final exams coming up, and she felt the distance more sharply than she’d like. No matter how her heart tried to erase Colt’s words, her brain was stuck on a merry-go-round of what-ifs.
What if she wasn’t seeing all the signs? She’d certainly missed them before.
What if her mother had been right, and life was just about accepting what you could get?
What if she’d always be the girl men loved and left and not the one worth keeping?
Jake looked up and caught her eye, offering a hesitant smile. She tried to return it, tried to feel the same excitement she’d had only a few days before, but what came out felt more like a grimace. He started her way at the same moment the phone in her pocket buzzed with an insistent staccato, demanding to be heard. She pulled it out and looked down, and her stomach lurched when her father’s name flashed across the screen.
“Everything okay?” Jake asked. He was near enough now that she could hear his voice above the sounds of the party.
Lexie swallowed hard, still staring at the device in her hand.
“Yeah, it’s just... my dad,” she said, forcing the words past the sudden dryness in her throat. She held the phone up as if to show him the evidence. “I’m sorry, I have to take this.”
“Sure, of course,” Jake said, but Lexie felt his hand graze her arm as she brushed past him. “Lex? You’re a rock star, no matter what he says. Okay?”
Lexie felt her chest tighten painfully as she looked over her shoulder and met his earnest gaze. He meant those words; she could tell. And if he meant them... if everyone in this room meant them... then why did it matter so much what her dad might think? Taking a deep breath, she nodded and continued toward the quieter hallway.
“Hello?” she said, finally raising the phone to her ear.
“Alexis, this is your father,” Dr. Garrett Preston said curtly, as if she wouldn’t have already known. “I just got off the phone with Anthony Derricks, and he sadly informed me that Colton would not be joining us in Boston for Thanksgiving this year as the two of you are no longer together. I told him he must be mistaken.”
There was a heavy pause during which Lexie was obviously expected to confirm his assumption. Instead, she took the opportunity to slip outside into the quad, away from prying ears.
“No, sir. He is correct,” she said, waiting for the other shoe to fall. If there was one thing her dad loved more than reminding her she was a waste of space, it was telling everyone else that his daughter would one day be queen of the largest pharmaceutical firm in the southeast. In his eyes, it was her only redeeming quality.
“Do you mean to tell me you managed to screw up the one profitable decision you ever made for yourself?” her father asked, his voice a dangerous rumble, like the beginnings of an earthquake.
“I didn’t screw anything up, Dad. Colt wasn’t treating me right.”
“Wasn’t treating you right?” her father echoed. “That boy has professional drive, influence and name recognition. As long as he’s giving you the time of day, you should consider yourself blessed! You’re just like your mother, expecting the world when all you give is beans and peanuts.”
“He was cheating,” she pointed out, knowing this would carry no weight with a serial adulterer.
“And whose fault is that? If he had to relieve himself elsewhere it’s because you must not have been doing your job! I mean, seriously, Alexis, what else do you have to do?”
Lexie’s blood pressure rose, both from anger and embarrassment, as her father went on.
“As if that weren’t bad enough, I also received a magazine in the mail today with your name—my name—next to a photo of a man in dirty overalls who looks like he probably couldn’t make two and two equal four! You think this is a more productive use of your time than supporting your husband?” he said, and Lexie could feel each word slice into her heart like shrapnel. “Am I supposed to be proud?” he asked. “Am I supposed to pass it around to the surgical staff? What am I going to tell your grandmother when I see her next week? ‘Your only granddaughter has decided making bricks is more worthwhile than finding a way not to disgrace her own family.’”
Lexie could feel her hands shaking as her rage grew.
“Colt Derricks is not my husband,” she pointed out.
“A formality, at best!” her father snapped. “Everything was decided. If you’re not bringing Colton to Thanksgiving, there is no reason for you to attend. You contribute nothing to this family, Alexis. Quite frankly, your decisions up to this point are embarrassing. You failed to seek an honorable profession; the very least you can do is marry well. I have done everything I can to make that happen, but once again, you have made a mess of things.”
“I’ve made a mess? What about—” she started, but he wasn’t listening.
“I expect you to resolve your issues with Colton,” he snarled. “Tell him you were mistaken. Tell him you were hysterical. I don’t care what he asks for, you make this right!”
Lexie froze on the sidewalk where she’d been pacing, and her hatred for this man filled her chest. Fathers were supposed to be heroes, protectors—but hers only cared about selling her to the highest bidder.
“How dare you—”
“The matter is closed, Alexis. We’ll speak again when you’ve come to your senses,” her father said. He hung up without waiting for a reply.
Lexie glanced down at her cell phone, her screen now black, and felt her control give way. She raised her arm, intending to hurl the device as far as she could, but someone grabbed her wrist before she could follow through.
“I don’t think you want to do that, babe,” Jake said, his voice calm as he slid Lexie’s phone from her hand and tucked it into his own pocket. He released her as she turned away.
Lexie let out a noise she’d never made before—somehow turning a lifetime of frustration and hurt into an audible sound that tore from her throat and disappeared into the empty air. “Nothing will ever be enough. Nothing!” she raged, hot tears already coursing down her face as she whirled around. He reached for her again, but she shoved him with both hands. “Don’t touch me!”
Jake held his hands up, palms out, and took a step forward. “Lex, it’s ok,” he murmured, as if approaching a wounded animal. When she didn’t step back, he closed the gap between them and folded her into his arms.
“He’s always... It’s just... I’m not...” she babbled, her hot burst of anger fading quickly into grief. She tucked her face against Jake’s neck and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the world.
“I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry,” he said as he held her firmly against his chest.
Lexie felt her adrenaline start to subside. “He told me not to come home,” she managed, barely pushing the words past the enormous lump in her throat. “I think, ever.”
Jake stood motionless, and Lexie listened to every breath he took, deep and even, one at a time.
“Come to my house for Thanksgiving,” he said finally, his voice somewhere over the top of her head.
She opened her eyes and wiped her face with her fingers. “That’s sweet, Jacob, but—”
“No buts,” he countered, leaning back to look her in the eye. “I love you, and you’re coming home with me. And I don’t care if you can’t say it back right now,” he went on, raising his voice when she tried to interrupt. “I didn’t tell you because I thought you’d say it, too. I told you because I want you to know I’m not going anywhere.”
Lexie felt herself soften, and fresh tears slid down her cheeks, though for an entirely different reason.
“I’m sorry I hit you,” she mumbled.
Jake’s chuckle vibrated through her bones as he laughed. “Hit me if you need to, Lex. I can take it,” he said.
Lexie felt another tear leak from her eyes. She couldn’t believe she had ever doubted this man—this man, who was so unlike Colt or her father or any other boyfriend she’d ever had. This man deserved better than that.
“I can wait until you know how you feel. I’m not in a hurry,” he said, toying with the ends of her hair where it fell between her shoulder blades. “But come home with me for Thanksgiving and see what family is supposed to be like.”
Lexie wavered for another minute as she thought of all the ways one weekend could possibly go wrong. Holidays with the Prestons were full of criticism and thinly veiled aggression; she had a feeling spending one with the Tanners would be another experience entirely—one she wasn’t sure she knew how to navigate.
“I don’t want to be a burden,” she said, her voice small, but Jake only squeezed her quickly and stepped back, pulling out his cell phone as he did.
“My mom is dying to meet you; she’ll be thrilled. Plus, there are so many of us, one more person won’t make any difference. Here, I’ll prove it,” he said, and he guided her toward a nearby park bench as he tapped his screen a few times.
Lexie could hear his call connect as they sat down.
“Hey, baby!” a woman’s voice said, and Jake held the phone out in front of them, putting it on speaker.
“Mama, Lexie says she can come for Thanksgiving,” he said, meeting Lexie’s eyes as he did. They both winced when an ear-splitting shriek cut the air.
“Oh, I’m so excited!” Mrs. Tanner squealed. “When will she get here? Is she allergic to anything? I’ve already got clean sheets in your old room, so you can have the couch in your father’s study. Unless you think she won’t want to share a bathroom with Ashlyn? Then we can rearrange a few things and put her downstairs.”
Jake raised an eyebrow in question as his mother rambled on, and Lexie took a long breath, willing herself not to cry anymore.
“Sharing a bathroom will be just fine, Mrs. Tanner,” she cut in, leaning closer to Jake’s phone so his mother would be sure to hear. There was a sudden pause on the other end of the line.
“Is that you, Lexie? Oh, I’m so glad to hear your voice. Please call me Kathleen. There are too many Mrs. Tanners around here; it gets very confusing.”
Jake bumped his knee against Lexie’s, beaming.
“If you’re sure it’s not any trouble, I would love to come next week,” she said, feeling her chest fill with gratitude.
“It’s no trouble at all, dear!” his mother responded. “Now, you just tell me what you like to eat best, and I’ll be sure to have a whole plate of it waiting for you.”
“I’ll have her make a list,” Jake interrupted. “Right now, we have to get back to work.”
“Oh, alright,” his mother said, sounding disappointed. “But Lexie, you come as soon as you can and be ready to stay the whole week. I’ll get out all Jake’s old photos, and we can have a hen party.”
Lexie laughed and said goodbye before Jake hung up, feeling lighter than she had in days. Maybe in years.
“Well, now I have to go,” she said as they stood. “Pictures of baby Jake? Who could pass that up?”
Jake groaned good-naturedly. “I knew there would be a downside,” he said, and Lexie cackled, her father’s words slowly losing their sting.
“No takebacks!” she said, wagging her finger.
“Never,” he said, and Lexie felt him tug on her hand.
She went willingly into his arms, tipping her face up to meet his as he settled into a kiss that warmed her all the way to her toes. His arms went around her waist, pulling her close, and Lexie suddenly realized nowhere had ever felt more like home.
Leaves of every color dusted the narrow back roads and flew past Lexie’s window as her tires bumped through the little town called Copper Hill. “Town” was probably a generous term for it—it was more a collection of farms and a four-way stop in the middle of nowhere, but it had a deep-southern charm that Lexie found soothing.
Finally, she turned into a long driveway that snaked across an open field and disappeared into a grove of towering oak trees still clinging to the last of their autumn brilliance. When Jake’s childhood home came into view, she felt another wave of nerves wash over her. What if this was a mistake? What if his family took one look at her and knew she didn’t belong?
She pulled slowly into the wide clearing at the front of the house, then parked along a fence row where three other vehicles, including Jake’s truck, already sat. The wide porch and yard were empty, but Lexie could hear the sound of a hammer coming from a barn not far away. There were flower beds around the base of every tree and along the sides of the house, just waiting for spring. An old tire swing hung from a low limb, and a set of wind chimes tinkled merrily from the eaves of the porch. She was still standing next to her car, taking it all in, when the front door opened and a woman who could only be Jake’s mother stepped outside, followed closely by a flap-eared dog.
“You must be Lexie!” the woman gushed, a blinding smile already lighting up her face. She trotted down the wooden porch steps and immediately wrapped Lexie in a hug. “Jacob has been waiting by the window like a puppy for the last hour, but of course you would pull in the second he finally goes to the bathroom.”
“Thank you so much for having me, Mrs. Tanner,” Lexie said, trying to stand up straight as her hostess studied her with warm eyes. The dog sniffed her shoes intently before licking the hem of her jeans.
“Now, now,” Jake’s mother chided. “What did I say about calling me Mrs. Tanner? My name is Kathleen, and I want you to use it.” Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “But that’s the advantage of meeting a big family—if you forget who’s who, just ask for Mrs. Tanner, and someone will come running.”
Lexie smiled, and Jake’s mother led her gently toward the house, talking all the while.
“If you’ve forgotten anything, just let us know. We girls stick together in a place like this,” she said, but if she kept talking, Lexie didn’t hear. Instead, her eyes were glued to Jake as he appeared on the porch, crossing it with long, restless strides. The front door banged shut behind him.
“I’ll let him get your bags and show you around,” Kathleen said, releasing Lexie’s arm with a knowing smile. Then she turned to her son. “You’re both expected for dinner in a few hours. Don’t get lost,” she told him, patting his arm as she passed.
He nodded obediently, waiting with his hands in his pockets until his mother had disappeared into the house. As soon as the coast was clear, he grabbed Lexie’s hand without a word and made a beeline for the nearest corner of the farmhouse.
Lexie laughed, jogging along behind him as he rounded the edge of the house with single-minded determination. He didn’t stop moving until they’d disappeared into the tree line.
“Jacob, where are we—”
But she’d barely said the words before his hands came up against her face, warm despite the outdoor chill. Jake sealed his mouth over hers, stealing her breath and all coherent thought at the same time, and Lexie tightened her fingers in the front of his sweater, holding him close. When he pulled back, it was only far enough to rest his forehead against hers.
“Hi,” he said, grinning sheepishly.
“Hi.” Lexie rolled her lips together to keep from laughing.
“I missed you,” Jake added.
“Yeah, I got that,” she said, letting a chuckle escape. “You know you saw me yesterday, right? Not three months ago?”
“That’s basically the same thing.”
Lexie brushed his bangs off his forehead, basking in his full attention. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to it. Jake leaned in again and planted soft kisses on her cheeks and along her jaw, making Lexie melt just a little more each time.
“My cousins are getting together tonight since we’re all actually in town,” he said between kisses. “We don’t have to go, but if you’re up for it, I think you’d have fun.”
Lexie bit her lip, thinking about meeting so many Tanners all at once. She knew Jake meant it when he said they didn’t have to go, but she could also tell he was hoping she’d say yes.
“I want to go if you want to go,” she said, pulling back to look him in the eye. “Just, maybe don’t leave me alone with all of them?”
Jake laughed. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
They pulled up to a sprawling ranch house later that night and parked beside a dozen other vehicles left near the fence without rhyme or reason, like discarded Jenga pieces. Jake killed the truck’s engine and jumped out, hurrying around to open her door before she had a chance. He helped her down and stole another kiss as she landed.
“Can’t help myself,” he said, and Lexie laughed. “Alright, so this is my Uncle Rob and Aunt Christy’s house, but they’re having dinner with my grandparents, so you probably won’t meet them tonight,” he explained, taking her hand and leading her across the grass. They went up another set of wide porch stairs, and when the front door opened easily, Lexie was surprised to hear nothing but silence. She glanced at Jake, but he was unconcerned. He led her through an empty living area and down the hall. A low rumble grew louder as they reached the last door, and Jake paused with his hand on the knob.
“I should probably warn you, it gets pretty chaotic when we’re all together. So, if at any point you want to go home, just let me know. Also, there’s a point system. It’s completely arbitrary, and the loser has to kiss a duck.”
Lexie snorted in surprise. “Kiss a—”
“Duck, yes. It’s harder than it sounds,” he said with a grin. “But don’t worry, visitors never lose. Well... almost never.”
He gave Lexie’s hand a squeeze and opened the door with a flourish, releasing a hurricane of noise that drenched them from head to toe. Jake led her down a narrow flight of stairs, and Lexie gradually became aware of distinctions within the maelstrom of sound—specifically, a furious clacking noise and someone screaming “Eat, you yellow devil! Eat!”
As they reached the bottom of the staircase, the partial wall ended to reveal a massive basement filled with at least a dozen people in various states of competition. There was a dart board on one wall, a pool table near the corner and a bookcase crammed with board games of every conceivable type. Two guys and two girls were huddled on the floor near the stairs, engrossed in the fiercest game of Hungry Hungry Hippos Lexie had ever seen.
“Take that, gorilla brain!” the youngest of the four players said, throwing his hands into the air triumphantly as his exhausted hippo devoured the final marble. “Sixty-eight points for me!”
“What?” his opponents shrieked together.
“Thirty, at most,” the young woman across from him amended. “Deductions for excessive trash talk.”
The group around her agreed, and Lexie watched a young man in a Tennessee Vols sweatshirt approach the whiteboard on the far wall and add thirty points to a column labeled “Sawyer.” Scanning the rest of the board, Lexie noticed Jake’s name a few columns from the left and—to her surprise—her own in the one beside it. She already had 284 points to her credit.
“Probably a newbie bonus,” Jake explained, leaning close to her ear, and Lexie smiled at how he’d known exactly what she was thinking. Suddenly, a familiar-looking girl appeared as if from nowhere and wrapped Lexie in a crushing hug.
“I’m so glad you’re here!” she exclaimed, visibly vibrating with energy. “I’m Brooklyn, Jake’s favorite girl cousin”—Lexie heard Jake snort beside her—“and I can’t believe you’re real! He’s been going on about you for so long I wasn’t sure you existed, but here you are! Okay, have you met everyone yet?”
She was talking so fast Lexie scarcely had time to shake her head before Brooklyn raised her voice and bellowed, “Hey, you guys! This is Lexie, Jake’s lucky lady. Everybody say hello!”
A chorus of welcome echoed back, but Brooklyn was already talking again, pointing to each person in turn.
“This is Sawyer, Jonah, Hannah and her husband Oliver, then over there we have Morgan, James, Drew”—the Volunteers fan scowled—“and I’m sure you’ve met Ashlyn by now...”
The list was exhaustive, fifteen people in all, including cousins and a few friends, and Lexie’s head spun with the challenge to keep them all straight, a task made especially difficult by the way they kept moving around.
“And you may have noticed that you’re on the board already,” Brooklyn said, gesturing to the whiteboard across from them. “We started you off with five hundred points for being brave enough to attend as a guest, but then the group decided coming with Jake shows poor judgment overall, so deductions were made.”
“That’s a big deduction!” Jake protested from Lexie’s side, but Brooklyn ignored him.
“Come with me, and we’ll get you started!” she insisted, all but dragging Lexie across the room.
Brooklyn was so full of enthusiasm, and everyone she met was so glad to see her, that Lexie forgot to be nervous. Before she knew it, she’d won 305 points in Jenga and lost 200 more for tanking a game of darts, though she did win back 592 points for accidentally landing one of said darts in Sawyer’s Mountain Dew. Jake had gained 619 points for sinking four balls on his first break in a game of pool but then lost 112 of them for the victory dance that followed.
Fifteen minutes into a heart-stopping game of Operation, Lexie scanned the room to find Jake sitting at a card table studying a Monopoly board. As if able to feel her gaze, he looked up and met her eyes over the heads of several cousins stretched precariously across a Twister mat. He winked, and that simple acknowledgement filled her with a warm sort of confidence—both grounding and exhilarating at the same time.
He went back to the game as his turn began, and Lexie watched him for a moment longer before dragging her attention back to the poor patient on the table. She’d already lost too many points for surgical ineptitude—a fact that would have dismayed her father—though a quick calculation said she was still well out of duck-kissing territory.
“So, what is it about Jake that brings you all the way to this madhouse?” Hannah asked later while she and Lexie held down a set of beanbag chairs near the kitchenette.
Lexie watched Jake collect another pile of pastel-colored dollar bills from Drew.
“Everything,” she said, surprised by her own frankness. Hannah gave an understanding nod and followed Lexie’s gaze.
“He’s a good one, for sure,” Hannah agreed, taking a sip of her drink. “You know you’re the only girl he’s ever introduced to us? Even when we were all in school and he was dating someone we knew, he never brought her to cousin night. I think—”
“That’s cheating!” Drew yelled suddenly, causing pandemonium at the Monopoly table. Tiny playing pieces went flying as he upended the board, and Jake dove to the ground after his substantial pile of paper money. There was a mad scramble by the others to retrieve what he couldn’t reach. A heated argument broke out between Drew and another of the boys, whose name Lexie couldn’t remember, and Brooklyn and Oliver stepped in.
When things had calmed down, Brooklyn took out her phone. “Alright! This seems like a good time for a quick tally of the standings so far,” Brooklyn said.
Everyone followed suit, tallying their own gains and losses, and the final numbers were confirmed and written below their names. Oliver was on top of the heap with 2,472 points, followed by Sawyer and then Ashlyn. Jake ranked sixth with 1,621, and Lexie claimed a respectable eighth place with 1,394. James was sitting sadly at the bottom of the pile.
As the current totals were announced, Jake wandered toward Lexie and flopped down onto her beanbag, bouncing her a bit as he landed.
“Having fun yet?” he asked, reaching to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Yeah, I am,” she answered as she looked around the room with a smile. She didn’t quite have the words to explain how a room full of strangers already felt more like family than her own. Jake must have read some of it in her eyes, because his expression softened and he slipped his hand behind her head, pulling her close. He placed soft kisses first on her forehead and then on one cheek, but he made it no farther before he was caught.
“Minus five hundred for PDA!” Drew shouted, pointing in Jake’s direction.
“What?!” Jake popped his head up and scowled.
“Another two hundred for protesting!” someone else called, and Jake watched open-mouthed as he slipped firmly into eleventh place.
An hour later, he’d fallen three more spots after heavy deductions for aggressive dice rolling, excessive mockery and aiming a dart at Drew’s backside.
“I’m being sabotaged,” he announced after surveying the new rankings. “Aggressive dice rolling? Seriously?!” He glared around the room, and Lexie was delighted to see more than one of his cousins openly smirking. A lightbulb flicked on in Jake’s eyes.
“You want me to have to embarrass myself, don’t you?” he demanded, and the laughter that filled the room brought joy to Lexie’s heart. Jake raked one hand through his hair and looked from the tally on the whiteboard to her with amused resignation.
“Well, I should probably go out with a bang,” he said, shrugging innocently. He crossed the room to where Lexie was leaning against the pool table, caught her by the back of her neck and kissed her so thoroughly there were catcalls from the cheap seats. When he let go, Lexie could do no more than tent her hands over her face and wait for her runaway grin to subside.
Hannah laughed and rubbed one of Lexie’s shoulders in friendly solidarity, while Ashlyn pretended to gag into her drink. Jake, however, gave a cocky grin and backed away, fully owning the –12,478 points that Brooklyn scrawled beneath his name.
“Well, that’s that then,” Oliver said, coming up behind his wife. “Jake’s got to kiss a duck. Might as well get started.”
The whole group bundled into their coats and scarves and drifted into the backyard, where a small pond gleamed beneath a full moon. Cracking his neck and tucking his jeans into his boots, Jake headed resolutely for the water’s edge while Lexie and the rest of his family made themselves comfortable along the split-rail fence. When he finally cornered a duck and held it aloft in a swirl of feathers, she cheered along with the rest of them.
And later, when he chased her around his truck and smeared mud from his clothes onto hers, she felt a palpable shift in her chest—as if all her jumbled pieces were finally falling into place.