Chapter 15
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
Harry Young finished writing down the last title of tonight’s movie. With so many different personalities in the Young family, and all of them somewhat opinionated, he’d learned early on to have a system where one person’s preferences were not put above another’s.
In the days leading up to cousin movie night, he would take any suggestions for movies, write them on little slips of paper, and put them in his cowboy hat. A different person got to pick every month, and Harry tapped on his phone to get to the list to see whose turn it was tonight.
“Liesl,” he muttered. Then he got up from the desk, collected the slips of paper, and went out into the main living area of his house.
Belle had already arrived because they spent most of their days together, and Harry couldn’t wait until they woke up in the same house, in the same bed, and truly merge their lives together.
In the New Year, when she would become his wife—and Harry’s mind blanked there. He’d never been married, and he actually had no idea what life would be like after January eleventh.
He had told her Belle could move her cats in at any time, as they would be living in his house once they got married.
“Popcorn,” she said, turning from the small counter next to the microwave.
“Smells great,” Harry said. “Salty and sugary at the same time.” Belle loved white chocolate popcorn and had been making it for cousin movie nights for the past couple of months. “They should start arriving any minute.”
“Did you put in the order for the burgers?” she asked.
He shook his head and sank onto a bar stool to do that.
“Did you invite Adam?”
He looked up, his eyes locking onto his fiancée’s. “I couldn’t make myself do it.”
“Bryce and Codi come, right?”
“But Bryce and Codi are married,” Harry said. “We don’t even know if Joey is dating Adam, and I’ve never invited him before.”
Harry had no problem with his cousins bringing their significant others, but only he and Bryce had them—that he knew of. Cash lived in Jackson Hole and would not be attending, though Joey, Beth, and Boston had all confirmed. Cole and Rosie would be there with Corinne, Eric, and Liesl.
All of the other cousins were under the age of twelve, and Harry didn’t invite them. Of course, at this point, he could have invited Melissa and almost OJ, who would turn eleven next month.
At the same time, Harry wasn’t sure he would ever invite those cousins.
He loved them, and they loved him. He enjoyed his time with them, but in reality, he’d been inviting the older kids who’d come from their daddy’s first marriages, and that did not include Melissa or OJ or Lars, who had just turned twelve very recently.
“Do you think I should start inviting OJ?” he asked.
Belle turned back to the fridge with a sigh.
She started pulling out twelve-packs of soda and bottles of lemonade and sweet tea.
“I don’t know,” she said, a bit of grumpiness in her tone.
She started making coffee and kept her back to him, which was her way of telling him she didn’t want to talk about this.
Her family lived far away, and Belle still struggled to spend a lot of time with a large group of people at all.
In the end, Harry liked it best when it was just her and him, and he knew Belle did too.
She sighed again and faced him. “I don’t see how you can invite OJ and not invite Melissa. Her feelings will be incredibly hurt.”
“I know.” Harry looked back at his phone to finish up the burger orders. “I’m getting a ton of fries,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll get eaten.”
Belle rounded the island and sat down next to him. “Harry, baby?” she asked in a gentle voice. “It’s not your job to unite them.”
“I know that,” he said. “But I still feel like it is. And Melissa doesn’t feel left out of the family the way the group of people coming here tonight do. And I just think OJ probably has some of those feelings. He’s adopted, you know.”
“We all know that.” Belle looped her arm through his and gently took his phone from him. “Let me get this order in before you forget to do it completely.” She grinned at him, and Harry let her take the device and finish up.
Then the doorbell rang, the front door opened, and people entered his house. Someone, probably Rosie or Boston, kept ringing the doorbell over and over until Harry turned away from the island and yelled, “All right, enough with the doorbell!”
Sure enough, Rosie cackled like she was the funniest person alive, and she entered the house last and closed the door.
Harry opened his arms to his younger cousins, Liesl and Corinne.
They both lived up in Dog Valley and often drove together.
They’d brought Eric with them this time, as Morris had just relocated his family to the border of Coral Canyon and Dog Valley.
He didn’t see Bryce or Codi, but he moved on to hugging Cole and Rosie and Beth next.
“I told her not to ring the doorbell,” Beth said in a very practical voice. She’d been raised by a very proper mother in Jackson Hole, though she’d split her time between there and Uncle Mav’s house.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Harry said. “I knew it would be Rosie or Boston.”
“Hey,” Boston protested good-naturedly. He stepped over to Harry and gave him a hug, complete with pounding on the back.
“How you doin’, brother?” Harry asked.
“Good. Well, good enough.” Boston smiled as he stepped back.
“Have you found a job yet?” Harry asked.
“Not yet,” Boston said. “I’m actually going to talk to Adam this weekend about being a reference. You’re still okay to do it?”
“Absolutely,” Harry said. “Any place in town would be lucky to have you.”
Boston had worked with Harry on his online concert series, and he had proven to be a good manager of details. He learned quickly, and he took direction well.
“Looks like we’re just missing Joey, Bryce, and Codi,” he said, and just as he turned away from the front door, it opened again.
“Howdy-ho,” Bryce called, and Harry turned back to watch him twist to help his very pregnant wife up the step into the house. Joey followed, and she carried an enormous tray of cinnamon rolls.
“Howdy, guys.” Harry hurried forward to relieve Joey of the heavy tray. “You are a goddess,” he said. “Look at these things.”
“I only did the frosting,” Joey said. “Grams made the rolls while I was at work this morning.”
“Then they’ll be doubly good.” Harry grinned at her, hoping he could simply see how her date with Adam had gone over the weekend. He couldn’t, and he turned away before Joey caught him staring.
“I ordered the burgers,” he yelled to everyone as he entered the kitchen. He slid the tray onto the counter and faced them all.
“They should be here in about fifteen minutes,” Belle said.
“Which is just enough time for us to go around and get caught up on things.” Harry’s eyes locked onto Joey, but not a single muscle in her face moved, though he was at least expecting an eye twitch or a blink. She was a solid rock, and Harry found himself chuckling.
“We’ll pick the movie too,” he said, sweeping the papers up off the counter, plucking his hat from his head, and dropping them inside. “Who wants to go first?”
The Youngs weren’t well known for their ability to let one person talk at a time, and when they all got together, the noise could awaken the dead.
But of all the people that Harry invited to cousin movie night, they were definitely the quieter ones, the ones on the fringes, the ones left behind, the ones left out.
The ones left over.
He knew they each felt like that in some regard, though some had said it out loud and some hadn’t.
“I’ll go first,” Beth said. “I’m applying for a graduate program at a college in Maryland for my MBA.” She beamed around at everyone. “So I’d appreciate your prayers that I’ll be able to get in and get a scholarship.”
Harry knew full well that Mav would pay for anything Beth wanted to do, but he simply nodded and said, “I’ll pray for you, Beth,” along with several others.
“I’m looking for a new job,” Boston said. “In event management, hospitality, or customer service. If you hear of anything, let me know, would you?”
Winter wasn’t the greatest time to be looking for such a job, but Harry knew Boston didn’t want to go back to college, and he was fine to stay in small-town Coral Canyon if he could earn enough money to move out of his parents’ house and have his own life.
Of them all, only Boston was not a Young, and Harry knew it plagued him in ways he wished it wouldn’t.
“They’re going to induce Codi on Monday next week,” Bryce said. “Apparently, the baby’s getting really big, and they’re worried she won’t be able to deliver him if we don’t take him a week early.”
“Oh, that’s great news,” Joey said, grinning at Codi. “A week early—you must be thrilled.”
“I can’t wait,” Codi said, and she rested both hands on her pregnant belly. “I feel like a one-humped camel, and I can’t move.”
Bryce grinned at her and put his arm around her as they looked around at the group.
“I’m auditioning for a cello solo in the orchestra for the spring concert,” Corinne said.
“Oh, that’s great,” Bryce said. “I’m sure you’ll get it.”
Corinne shook her head, her dark curls bobbing. “I’m sure I won’t, but it’s just part of my New Year’s resolution to do something every month that makes me uncomfortable.”
Harry grinned at her because he didn’t like doing things that made him uncomfortable either.
“My daddy thinks I’m going to kill us all when I get my driver’s license.” Liesl grinned out at everyone. “He makes Momma go driving with me because he said it just makes him too nervous.”
Harry chuckled, though he knew the reason Uncle Gabe didn’t like driving with Liesl was because it reminded him of how grown-up his daughter had become.