Chapter Thirty #3
I laughed. “Yeah, well, I was sixteen and made mistakes. My parents have never been together, so his first book was about him and my stepmom, and the second one is about my mom and stepdad. Now he’s wrapping up the one about my aunt and uncle.”
“Wow. No wonder you were unphased by the sex talk,” Lavi said. “You’ve already been thoroughly traumatized.”
I shrugged. “They’re all super in love. It’s kind of great to be surrounded by people who love each other as much as they do because it makes me know exactly what I’m looking for someday.
” I looked at my latte and tried to hide the sadness washing over me.
I was pretty sure I’d found what I was looking for, and I’d just found it at the wrong time, in the wrong place.
I tried to shake it off. “Anyway, what is Christmas like here?”
“We eat a lot,” Adrian said. “We’ll do snacks tonight and then a big dinner tomorrow to celebrate both Christmas and the last day of Hannukah. You will not be hungry.”
“Sounds great. And Leo said it’s just you two, right? No younger kids?” I asked, looking at Jace and Leo.
“Yep,” Jace said.
“That’s probably what I’ll miss the most. I’m used to the excited screams of kids on Christmas morning,” I said thinking of the twins. There would probably only be another year or two when my brothers acted like kids on Christmas before they turned into preteens who were too cool for toys.
“Hey, if you want to hear excitement, I can work up my best delighted screams for you,” Leo said. “You in, man?”
Jace took a sip of beer and smirked. “Hell, yeah. Been looking for an excuse to squeal about the new Tom Ford sweater your mom’s getting me.”
“Keep predicting your gifts and I’m going to change it up one year,” Sutton said with a stern glare. Leo had told me that his mother’s one single vice in life was designer fashion. I was pretty sure most of Leo’s clothes were Tom Ford and other designers that I’d never seen anyone wear before.
Jace put his hands up in surrender. “I’ll knock it off. Please never stop buying them for me. I can’t bring myself to buy them, but I need them.”
“Look at you, you rich little street rat,” Sloane said, shoving his shoulder.
“Sophia, what’s Christmas like with your family?” Sutton asked.
In a lot of ways, it’s exactly like this.
A grin spread across my face as I thought about our traditions. “It’s amazing,” I said wistfully, avoiding Leo’s eyes. “My whole family is really close, so we’re basically one huge family. I have a little sister on my mom’s side who is fifteen, and twin brothers on my dad’s side who are nine.”
I twirled the straw in my iced coffee and looked down, picturing my typical Christmas experience and avoiding looking at the one person who made me question everything about wanting to be home with my family. I may not be with them, but I was with him, and that felt amazing for a different reason.
I continued, “My aunt and uncle don’t have kids, but they’re part of everything too.
On Christmas Eve, my stepdad makes a big Hawaiian feast at my dad’s house, and we all sleep over there.
Even the adults. Everyone goes way overboard with presents because the adults buy for each other all year long.
My stepmom makes eggnog lattes, and we spend all of Christmas Day eating leftovers and opening presents. ”
“That sounds really wonderful.” Sutton smiled at me.
“It’s one of my favorite things. I hate missing it. I’ll see them all plenty when I get home for the rest of break, but it won’t be the same.”
Leo put a hand on my shoulder, giving me his mock-serious face. “I will make you an eggnog latte—even though it sounds disgusting. You will never be uncaffeinated on my watch, Hawaii.”
I snorted, instantly pulled from my memories and focusing on the here and now and his beautiful blue-gray eyes. “Thanks, but you won’t beat Kennedy’s. You’re starting with the wrong coffee.”
Adrian groaned. “Are you also a Starbucks coffee snob?”
“Worse, Dad. She’s an organic, fair-trade, special-Hawaiian-blend, coffee snob.” Leo smirked at me. “But she claims Ackerson’s is a close second.”
“If you grew up with my stepmother, you’d understand. Coffee is a big deal for us,” I said, forcing my eyes away from Leo’s again. “She owns three cafés.”
“Joe’s by Kennedy?” Adrian asked.
I nodded, surprised. “You’ve heard of it all the way over here? She’ll be delighted.”
“We’ve visited a couple of her cafés. One in Oahu several years ago, and more recently one in Maui,” Sutton said. “The last time we were there, the barista told me the iced mochas and iced vanilla lattes were their specialty.”
I laughed and held up my latte. “Yep, that’s us all right.”
“I’m confused. Your mom and dad get along well enough for him to write books about her and to have sleepovers for the holidays?” Sloane asked.
“Oh yeah, the six of them are best friends. It’s a long story in terms of how they got there. My existence is basically a result of grief and a poor use of protection.” I chuckled. “But I can give you the name of his first book if you want to read it.”
“Wait a minute.” Sloane studied me. “What’s your last name?”
“Uh-oh, she reads a lot of romance novels,” Adrian warned.
“Grimes,” I said.
Sloane’s jaw dropped. “As in Danny Grimes? That’s your father?”
I cringed. “You’ve read them?”
“Hell yeah, I’ve read them! I never pass up a good bisexual romance,” Sloane said, looking delighted with this revelation.
I laughed. “Well, that’s my stepmom, Kennedy.”
“Is she as beautiful as he made her sound?” Sloane asked.
“Yep. And according to every girl I grew up with, my father is also good-looking, but not as hot as my uncle? It’s all been very uncomfortable.” I laughed, figuring if she knew the whole cast of characters from the book, she’d appreciate the insight.
“Lav, those books are the ones I told you about! The one with the girl who loses her twin brother.” Sloane looked at Lavi who seemed to nod in recognition. “She hasn’t read them, despite my raving endorsement.”
“Well, from what I’m told just about everything in them is true—including my conception. Which is why I stopped reading them,” I said.
Sloane laughed. “Can’t blame you. Those books are steamy.”
“Hence the reason I can handle your sex jokes. None of them are about my parents so I’m good.” I finished off my latte.
“Your family sounds great,” Sutton said.
“Yeah, they are. I’ve hated being away from them for college. But I’ve come to love Boston too.” I quickly stole a glance at Leo who was looking down at his hands before looking back at his mom.
“Are you planning to move back to Oahu after you graduate?” she asked.
“Yeah, I want to be where my family is. I can’t imagine living away from them all the time.”
Leo pushed himself back from the table and walked to the kitchen while Sloane grilled me on more book-related questions.
I answered on autopilot, more worried about him than I could let on.
A moment later, he returned with an open bottle of beer and a hard seltzer.
He set the seltzer in front of me wordlessly, and I quickly picked it up, letting my fingers brush his, desperate to provide any connection point I could in the moment.
A quick stroke of his thumb over my fingers told me he knew what I was doing before he picked up his beer bottle.
I sipped the seltzer while I answered Sloane’s questions. After a few minutes of Leo pretending to be unfazed while Jace eyed him curiously and I stayed trapped in a conversation about my family, my phone rang. I glanced at the screen and saw my mom trying to video call me.
“Well, speaking of my family—this is them. Video calling me,” I said, holding up the phone. “They’re all very distraught that I’m not making it home tonight. They warned me several times when I changed my flight that I was cutting it close, but I didn’t listen.”
Leo tipped back his beer, taking several long swallows and I forced more words around the lump in my throat.
“Do you mind if I answer them? They’ll just keep calling if I don’t.” I started to push back from the table.
“Of course not, take it wherever you’d like,” Sutton said.
I walked into the living room and answered the call. “Hey, Mom.”