Chapter Thirty-One
Dad was already waiting for me when I pulled into Micah’s driveway. He hopped out when he saw my car and gave me a small wave.
I smiled as I turned off the car, noting the other vehicles I saw. No doubt Justin’s aunt’s car and the other one was Bryan’s. It looked like we were going to have a full house.
My stomach flipped in excitement at spending a holiday with so many people.
“Ready?” Dad asked as I got out of my car. He went to the back seat and grabbed the pies, passing me two of them while he took the other two. We had really made all the traditional pies. He’d wanted to make more, but I was able to put a stop to it. I had a feeling if I hadn’t stopped him, he would have tried to bake through the night.
“I can’t remember, have you met Micah’s parents?”
“In passing when you were young. I think the first year you went to camp. And I got that phone call that the two of you were causing trouble.”
My face heated as he chuckled. We really had caused trouble. Because we’d been in two different groups, we’d opted to skip activities to play with each other instead. Since the moment we’d met, we had bonded.
As soon as we reached the front door, Micah and his mom were there.
“Oh, there you are!” Bayley practically tried to tackle me. It took everything I had to keep my pies safe. She realized almost too late that I held precious cargo and pulled back, looking down at them. “These look amazing!”
I smiled at her enthusiasm. “Dad made them.”
“Don’t let her fool you,” Dad said. “Cadence added her special touch to it.”
I rolled my eyes. “If adding too much salt is a special touch.”
Bayley laughed. “Well, let’s add this to the table. Food is almost done. Just waiting on the turkey to finish.” She managed to keep up a constant stream of chatter as we headed inside.
It was like walking into a wall of scents. Sage tickled my nose first, followed by the warmth of butter and onions. That had to be freshly baked bread. My mouth watered instantly as we put the pies in the kitchen. The counter had been completely covered with bowls and dishes of food ready to be served.
“This all looks delicious,” my dad remarked as we added our pie to a section filled with some other desserts. There looked to be a cake cut into small squares, and some kind of apple crisp, but with cranberries in it. There were some cookies too.
“Mom likes to try to feed an army,” Micah said.
“Shush.” Bayley glared at her son. “I love cooking and Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. The concept of thankfulness and family coming together.”
I shared a glance with Micah, knowing exactly where her thoughts were. As someone who thought they weren’t going to live much longer, each year was a blessing, each dinner with family a reason to celebrate.
Bayley’s thoughts must have aligned with ours because she suddenly stopped talking, closing her mouth in a firm line as she glanced over at her son.
I reached out and grabbed her hand, not thinking too hard about it. “This will be my first Thanksgiving in a long time.” I glanced at Dad before giving Bayley a smile. “I have a lot of things to be thankful for, the first one being that you’re letting me join you and your family for such a precious holiday.”
“You are too good,” Bayley said and pulled me into a strong hug. “Any time, any day of the year, you’re invited to come over. I wasn’t lying about giving you a room.”
“Mom,” Micah said. “Let her breathe.”
“Sorry.” Bayley jumped back, her eyes shining as she blinked furiously. “Now, go off. The others are in the living room. Let me finish this up. We should be ready to eat in like thirty minutes or so. And thank you for all the pies. They look delicious.” She turned away from us. I knew it was to gather herself together. She had cracked and she needed the moment.
“Looking forward to it,” Dad said before herding us out of the room.
Micah led us into the living room, where it seemed his dad, Justin, Bryan, and Laura were already in the middle of some kind of game.
“What are you playing?” I asked.
“Thanksgiving danger word,” Bryan answered as he glared down at a card in his hand.
“He’s going to explain something and we have to guess what it is,” Justin said. He had a few cards in front of him, flipped down.
Micah’s dad had some too. Bryan only had two. There were more cards next to Micah’s dad and once Micah sat down, I realized it was his cards.
“Let’s start over,” Bryan said. “So Cadence and her dad can join us. We aren’t doing teams. Just the person with the most at the end wins.”
“Simple enough,” I said, finding a spot between Bryan and Justin. My dad sat next to Micah’s dad, both of them giving each other friendly smiles.
Micah gathered all the cards and discarded them. “We already did these so I think it’s fair we don’t do them again. There’s a bunch of cards here anyway.” He grabbed an amount that looked to be about two decks worth of cards combined and quickly mixed it up.
“I’m going to opt out for this one,” Laura said. “I’ll go help Bayley.” She stood up, squeezing Justin’s shoulder before leaving the room.
“Cadence can go first,” Bryan said after he put the stack of cards face down in the middle of the table.
“You just want to see me flustered,” I said, giving him a friendly glare.
“You aren’t wrong. Now pick a card and get us to guess. We have thirty seconds. If we don’t get it, the card is discarded. If you accidentally say the danger word, you have to discard one of the cards you’ve won as punishment.”
“All right.” I gave everyone a suspicious look as I picked my card. Sugar. That one wasn’t too hard. I cleared my throat and nodded at Graham since he was holding a stopwatch.
“And go!” He started it.
“It’s grainy and sweet,” I started.
“Sugar!” Justin called out.
I gaped at him. That was practically instant. Everyone chuckled as Justin held his hand out. I sighed and handed the card over to him.
Bryan went next. Before I could even process the fact that he had said starchy root vegetable, Micah had called out potato.
“You guys think too fast,” I grumbled.
The game continued just like that. All anyone really had to say was a handful of words before someone was guessing it. There were only a few times when no one could guess the word.
“All right,” Laura said from the doorway. “Come eat.”
“I win!” Micah cheered as he fanned out all the cards he had claimed. Justin came in second, with Graham a close third. Then Bryan and my dad. I came in last place. I poked at the one card I was able to guess: pumpkin pie. I probably only got it fast enough because it had already been on my mind from the baking yesterday.
Bayley truly had gone all out. I gaped at the dining room table big enough to seat ten with its simple decorations—the middle of the table covered in food ready to be passed around. This felt all too traditional. The kind of meals I’d only ever seen in movies.
Bayley sat at the head of the table. I almost expected Graham to take the other end, but instead he sat next to his wife, giving her a warm smile, eyes twinkling. Micah sat on her other side.
I sat next to Micah, Dad taking the seat next to me. Justin and Bryan sat on the other side by Graham, with Laura sitting next to Justin.
Bayley was grinning massively as she looked at us, so much love and happiness in her expression. My chest felt warm and heavy as I stared at her.
“I don’t want to drag this out too much. I can hear growling stomachs from here.”
The guys all chuckled.
“I just wanted to say that I’m thankful for everyone coming to have Thanksgiving with me. These past couple of years have been the hardest.”
Graham reached over and squeezed her hand. She swallowed hard, blinking furiously.
“I truly didn’t think I’d get another Thanksgiving, but it’s different now. Not only did I get another Thanksgiving, I was told I get to have many more in the future.” She glanced at her son. “I get to watch my son graduate. I didn’t think that was going to happen. This year is especially special and I’m so damn happy.”
By the time she was done, there were a lot of shiny eyes at the table. It was weird to feel thankful about being able to go to high school graduation. I felt the same, frankly.
“All right, let’s eat before the food gets too cold.”
She grabbed the plate of already cut up turkey and put a small piece on her plate before passing it to Micah. Slowly our plates filled with food. It was a weird experience, a bit out of the world, frankly. But it was sweet too. Every time Graham grabbed a platter, he made sure to put food on his wife’s plate before giving himself some.
As soon as everyone had a plate piled high with too much food, we dug in. I almost expected Bayley to want to say prayers or something, but instead she picked up a piece of ham and took a huge bite, letting us know we could do the same.
It wasn’t long until Bayley, Graham, and Laura were talking with my dad, asking him a lot about his life in Vegas.
“So Cadence?” Graham asked just as I began taking a bite of bread.
I coughed, trying to clear my airway so I could respond.
He chuckled. “Sorry, I should have waited until you didn’t have a mouthful.”
Bayley playfully glared at her husband. “Admit it, you did that on purpose.”
“I would never.” He feigned being offended.
“It’s okay.” I took a drink of water. “Yeah?”
Graham chuckled. “Now that your dad is around, are you going to move in with him?”
My eyes bugged out. “What?”
“Honey.” The table shook briefly as Bayley glared at her husband.
“What?”
My dad had completely stiffened, doing his best not to look at me. I swallowed hard, trying to process an answer that wouldn’t make this any weirder. Even Bryan and Justin were staring at me with big eyes, as if waiting for my answer.
“That isn’t any of your business,” Micah finally spoke up.
“I just thought there was no reason for her to have to live alone anymore. She’s too young to have to do that.” Graham was still determined to get a response.
“You don’t have to answer him,” Bayley said, still glaring. “Graham needs to learn to know when to stop.”
Dad cleared his throat. “I asked her, but she turned me down.”
“You live in Nevada,” I finally said. “Graduation is right around the corner. I have friends here. Connections. Lindie is still here and needs my help.”
“I know,” Dad responded in a lower voice. “And I’d never ask you to give all that up. I was actually waiting for a better time, but I guess maybe now is good.”
“Good for what?” I asked.
“I found an apartment. I’ve rented it.”
Shock slapped me. “What?”
Dad’s chest expanded as he drew in a breath. “I found a place to rent. A nice little two-bedroom house on the outskirts. As you said, you have roots here. You’re going to be graduating in almost half a year and I want to be here for it. It was better than spending all that money with hotel rooms. So I rented a house. Finalized it yesterday, actually.”
“You’re moving here?”
He gave me a tight smile. “Pretty much. It was why I walked out on you when we were meeting and talked about Thanksgiving. Just before, the realtor got back to me about a showing, but it was a lot sooner than I thought and I didn’t want to miss it. I want to have a place here so I can make sure you know you aren’t alone. I’ll still have to go to Vegas sometimes since my business will remain there and I’ll need to take care of things, but the majority of the time, I’ll be here.”
“Holy shit,” someone whispered.
It was hard to tell who said it as my brain only had room to replay what Dad was telling me. He was sticking around for me. I hadn’t expected that. I hadn’t expected him at all, not like this. I’d kept believing that eventually he’d go back to Vegas. Kept telling myself that so it wouldn’t hurt once he did go back.
But he kept proving differently. Kept coming back.
Bayley and Laura saved the awkward flow of conversation the rest of dinner. As soon as I finished eating, I excused myself and went for some fresh air.
They had an expansive backyard since they lived more on the outskirts. It was nicely coming along with a pretty view of the sun as it settled behind the trees off in the distance. I sat down on the porch steps and took in a deep breath. The cool air felt good in my lungs.
“Are you okay?” Bryan asked, sitting next to me.
“Yeah, you?”
“Cadence, don’t lie to me, please.”
I licked my lips. “I’m really fine. Just floored by the news. I didn’t think he’d move here. He was so quick to move out of town, I guess I just thought he had no intention of coming back. And to actually stay here.”
Bryan wrapped his arms around me, sharing his warmth and making me realize I had been growing cold sitting outside. I leaned into him.
“Are you in trouble with your parents?” I asked, not wanting to talk about it. There wasn’t much to talk about anyway.
Bryans snorted. “I’m always in trouble with them.”
“Well, even more then. Aren’t you missing an important dinner tonight?”
“They’ll only notice once they try to show me off. Other than that, they won’t care.”
“Bryan,” I said softly.
He squeezed me. “Don’t worry. This is by far one of the better Thanksgivings I have had in a long time. It’s fun. Especially since you’re here.”
I snorted. “I’m not a good determining factor for if something is fun or not.”
“You help the people around you relax. And that’s huge for events like this. You make us want to let down our guard. I love that about you.”
My stomach flip-flopped from his words.
“I really don’t get you guys,” I said. “Why you like me so much.”
Bryan chuckled. “You stir up trouble,” he said. “Make things more interesting. We fell into a routine and it was a good one, but it was stagnant, always the same. You came and stirred it all up, especially when you started kissing some of us.”
“Bryan…”
“Don’t worry about it, Cadence. I get it. I do.”
Something bitter seeped into his voice. I sat up and stared at him. “Get what exactly?” I asked, suddenly feeling a little defensive.
He looked away from me, his body stiffening.
“Bryan,” I snapped out as the sourness of fear curled inside of me.
“I know you kissed some of the others. I know you asked them to date you too.” He finally looked at me. “And I get why you haven’t asked me. Why would you? I’m not much of anything other than a family name.”
“What the hell?” I barked out and pushed at him, needing to make sure his attention was on me. “Where the hell is all this coming from?”
“It’s simple to see. We’ve only ever really argued. We don’t get along like you do with the others. With them, you’re all smiles and laughter. Joking around. Happy. With me, you’re grumpier.”
“Are you seriously telling me what my feelings are right now?”
“Well am I wrong?”
“Yes!”
“Then why haven’t you asked me?” he finally blurted out. “You’ve asked all the others. They’ve talked about it. You went on a date with Seth. But why haven’t you asked me yet? Do you even want to date me? Or am I the odd man out? Because I like you a lot too, and I’ll admit, I don’t think I can watch you with the others. I can barely even wrap my head around it. I try to not wrap my head around it. But it still sucks that I’m not a consideration. It’s fine. I’ll get over it. It just sucks.”
“Who the fuck said you aren’t a consideration?” I asked. “I just didn’t have time to ask you. Or found a comfortable moment to ask.”
“What?”
I slapped his arm. “Why are you so impatient? Do you know how hard it is to go around to five different boys and ask them all to date me while I’m dating others? It’s scary. It’s mind blowing. I can’t believe it half the time. I was already planning to ask you today, but suddenly you’re acting like a jealous asshole.”
“I am a jealous asshole,” he said softly.
I snorted. “No shit.”
He blew out a breath and leaned forward, resting his head against my shoulder. “Damn. I fucked up again. All I ever do is fuck up with you.”
I relaxed. “Well, that makes two of us. Why is it so hard for the two of us to not argue with each other?”
He chuckled. “Because I’m an asshole.”
“I don’t disagree.”
“Cadence.” He groaned. “Please, just put me out of my misery and ask me.”
I wanted to get back at him for acting like that, but I pushed that away, finally giving in to him. “Bryan, will you go out with me? Even though I already have other boyfriends?”
“As long as I get a chance.”
“That’s a yes?”
“Of fucking course it is. What took you so damn long?” He sat up to glare at me.
I rolled my eyes. “You could have asked me. Toby did.”
“I needed to know,” he said, insecurity back in his voice and in his expression.
“To know that I genuinely like you?” I asked.
“Yes. Not just for my name, but for me. I’m not that easy of a person to be around.”
“I know.”
He chuckled, finally relaxing completely, his face softening as he stared down at me. “I do care about you a lot. It’s hard for me to show it, but I really do. It’s different when you’re around, like I can finally breathe. Like I don’t need to care about all the stupid shit with my parents.”
“I know you do. You show it differently than the others, but these last couple of months, I got the message.”
He smiled, all boyishly adorable, not that I was going to tell him that. “Good.”
We snuggled together as we kept watching the sun. November was always weird as it got darker so much earlier. And colder.
“Ready to go back inside?” Bryan asked.
“No, not yet. I need the space.”
“Need me to go away.”
I squeezed his arm. “No. I need you here with me.” I almost wanted to laugh at how it changed. I had been his date to one of his fancy parties, and we had snuck away from all the chaos. I had been his buffer that night.
Tonight, he felt like my buffer against my dad and Micah’s parents. A buffer against all the changes I didn’t have the brain capacity to fully absorb. At least not right at the moment.