Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Aaron
“Colin couldn’t stop talking about you,” I tell Jenna on the phone that night. “He wants to have you over for dinner.”
“He does?” She sounds totally surprised.
“Yeah. That way you can try out his Magna Tiles. I think he might want to have a head-to-head match up where you try them and Legos and see which you like better.”
She laughs. “That’s adorable.”
I chuckle along. “I agree.” I’m glad she thinks so.
Even though she’s only ever been supportive when I’ve talked about Colin—never acting bored or annoyed that I bring him up a lot—and has been nice to him the couple of times they’ve interacted in person, some part of me is apprehensive at each new opportunity for her to be the opposite.
Like when he invited her to join us for a cookie.
I’d held my breath waiting for her answer.
It would’ve been understandable if she’d said no, given that she was at work.
But I was really glad she said yes, even if she did get called away before taking more than a couple of bites.
And now there’s this dinner invitation. The two of us together? We work great. Colin and me together? We work great. But the three of us …?
I don’t know how that works. I don’t want to force anything, but I also don’t want to artificially separate them.
That might make it harder to transition to more than that in the long term, and while I’m not so invested that I couldn’t end things with Jenna if it doesn’t work out, I’d really like this to be something long term.
“So what do you think?” I ask, trying not to sound as tentative as I feel.
“About dinner with you and Colin?”
“Yeah.”
“Uh, when were you thinking? Like, after Christmas? I know he’s at his mom’s this coming week, which works fine since it’s the last week of ChristmasFest. I was going to try to go home to visit my parents the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
Would it be too long to wait until after that?
Or …?” She lets out an uncertain laugh. “Sorry. I don’t know how this works.
I’ll have a lot more time come January.”
“Of course,” I say, obviously. Is she blowing me off? No. I don’t think so. She really is slammed this week, and if she’s out of town to visit family, it’s ridiculous to see that as a blow-off. Right?
Right.
“Well, I do have him on Christmas Eve. And while yes, ChristmasFest runs that day, it closes at six, right?”
“Yeah.” She draws out the word.
“Would you be interested in doing Christmas Eve dinner with us?”
She’s silent for long enough that I realize I’m holding my breath waiting for her answer and force myself to breathe.
“Would that be okay with you?” she asks at last. “I don’t want to interrupt your time with Colin. I know we’re planning on spending more time together this week since you’ll be free, but I also know how hard it’s going to be having him away. I figured you’d want that time to yourself.”
I grunt. “I’ll miss him, and it’ll be weird having him gone, it’s true.
But I have him pretty much all the rest of the time.
I don’t mind sharing a dinner with you. My mom’ll be joining us anyway, so it’s not like it’d be just him and me.
And I know you won’t get to see your family for the holidays.
Since you’re planning on doing Christmas Day with me already, why not Christmas Eve too? ”
“Alright,” she says, letting out a breath. “I’d like that. Thank you for inviting me. Can I bring anything?”
Laughing, I shake my head, even though we’re on the phone. “No. You won’t have time for that anyway. You’re not even taking Monday off this week, are you?”
“Good point. No, I’m not. I’ll get Thursday off and the rest of the week, so it seemed like the better plan to be on site on Monday even though that means I’ll be working nine days in a row.”
“Oof. That’s rough. You’ll definitely earn your time off afterward.”
“It’ll be weird,” she says almost wistfully. “I’ve been so busy for so long, I’m not sure I’ll know what to do with myself.”
“Pretty sure you said you’re going to sleep.”
She chuckles. “After that.”
I hum. “I can think of a few things we could do before you head down to visit your parents.”
“Oh yeah?” I can hear the smile in her voice. “Do tell.”
“Well,” I hesitate, but then decide to go for it.
“If you’re open to the idea, I’d love it if you stayed the night Christmas Eve.
You can still sleep in as much as you want Christmas Day, but we could have breakfast or brunch together, then my mom’ll come over in the afternoon for Christmas Dinner and presents. ”
“Ooooh, how could I say no to that?”
I let out another relieved breath. Between planning dinner with Colin and then inviting her to stay the night, I feel like I’m putting myself out there a lot more than I’m used to.
“You also mentioned spending the evenings together while you don’t have Colin. Do you want to come over to my place? I’m just about to eat something, but I could wait if you want to join me.”
Some part of me thinks I should force myself to stay home alone tonight.
To experience what it’s like to be alone in the house without Colin all night long knowing that he won’t be coming home tomorrow.
Sure, I’ve been alone in the house during the day plenty of times—while he’s at school, when he’s at a friend’s, when he’s at his mom’s for a dinner or an overnight.
But why? I don’t get some kind of reward for forcing myself to be bored and alone.
“That sounds great. Give me about fifteen minutes?”
“Perfect. See you then.”
I arrive at Jenna’s door fifteen minutes later. I briefly considered bringing along a toothbrush or a change of clothes, but decided that might be too forward. Yes, I invited her to stay the night at my place in a few days. That doesn’t mean I’m being invited to sleep over tonight.
And if things go that way, I can always do the walk of shame in the morning. It’s not like I have to be anywhere at a specific time. It’s the weekend.
Jenna, of course, has to be at ChristmasFest. But it opens later on Sundays—noon instead of ten, though it still runs until eight at night.
That was one of the things she thought was silly at first—why not run ten to eight every day?—but I think now she appreciates those extra couple hours of free time.
She greets me with a smile, stepping back and inviting me in as soon as she opens the door. “Hey,” she says, holding a hand out for my jacket as I shrug it off.
“Hey,” I respond, folding her into my arms and kissing her thoroughly. “I’ve been wanting to do that for ages.”
Laughing lightly, she says, “You saw me earlier today. And we kissed then.”
“True,” I murmur, kissing her again. “But it wasn’t enough. And I didn’t get to kiss you how I wanted.”
Reaching sideways, she drapes my coat on the back of a dining chair, then wraps her arms around my neck. “I have to agree. It wasn’t enough. And I didn’t get to kiss you how I wanted to either.”
She kisses me, and this one is deeper and lasts longer. “I’m glad you’re here,” she whispers when we break apart.
“Me too.”
If I was apprehensive that things would be awkward between us after this afternoon, this has quickly laid that to rest.
Her stomach rumbles, and I laugh. “You mentioned you hadn’t eaten yet. What’re you making?”
“I haven’t had anything since that cookie this afternoon.
It was big enough that it kept me going for a while, but it’s almost nine.
I’m starving.” She steps into the kitchen.
“It’s nothing fancy. Just a frozen pizza from the grocery store.
” She gives me a sheepish grin. “I guess I should’ve asked before you came over. Is that okay?”
Shaking my head, I grin at her. “It’s perfect.”
“Perfect seems like a stretch, but I appreciate that you can tolerate my low-effort dinner choices.”
Propping myself in the doorway to her kitchen, I survey her with narrowed eyes. “You said you were about to eat when we were on the phone. But the pizza’s still in the oven. What were you going to eat if I hadn’t come over?”
She looks around like a kid caught doing something she’s not supposed to—a look I’m intimately familiar with.
Colin’s a good kid, but he’s still a kid, and sometimes he likes to test boundaries.
Or decides that saving the treats for after dinner isn’t that important.
Instead, he’ll eat them all when he gets home from school.
“Uhhh …”
I laugh, shaking my head. “Just spit it out.”
Facing me, she plants a fist on her hip and cocks her head to the side. “I feel like I’m in trouble with my dad.”
Shrugging, I grin at her. “Were you planning on having cookies for dinner or something?”
“No!” she protests, a little too vehemently. When I laugh some more, she rolls her eyes. “Fine. I was going to have more cookies, it’s true“—she points at me—”and if you’re not nice, I might decide not to share them with you.”
I hold up my hands. “I’m being perfectly nice!”
“Uh-huh,” she says doubtfully. “I was going to have some almonds and a piece of cheese and …” She opens the fridge and rummages around.
“An apple. Maybe some toast.” Straightening, she closes the door to her fridge.
“And then I was going to have another Christmas cookie. Austin caught me on my way out today and gave me an ornament and a tree. He said they were the only ones leftover today and it wasn’t worth packaging them up to sell for half off tomorrow. ”
“Score.”
“Exactly. And see? It was going to be a fairly balanced low-effort dinner.” She holds up her fingers and ticks off her points, “Nuts, cheese, fruit. Seems alright to me.”
Grinning still, I shake my head. “If you say so.”
“I do.” She sniffs. “But I’m sure that wouldn’t be enough for you, so frozen pizza it is. I did have a handful of almonds already to take the edge off. Would you like some?” She picks up a container off the counter, peels back the lid, and holds it out to me.
I politely pick out a few and pop one in my mouth. “Thank you,” I mumble around the almond.
“You’re welcome.” She picks one out and crunches on it before putting the lid back on the container and setting it down. “So how was your day?”
Chuckling, I reach for her, pulling her close and kissing her cheek.
“I had a good day. Colin and I had a lot of fun together, and he’ll be excited to show you his Magna Tiles on Christmas Eve.
We wrapped his presents for his mom, and then I took him over there at six.
I’ll do presents with him after he comes home from his mom’s. ”
She gives me a quizzical look. “Not on Christmas Eve?”
I shrug. “Nah. I might give him one thing that night—we traditionally do Christmas PJs—but I don’t want to risk stepping on his mom’s toes.
She’s …” I hesitate, not sure how to phrase this so it doesn’t sound like I’m blasting Amelia.
“Motherhood wasn’t something she really wanted.
If I hadn’t been willing to raise Colin, she was going to terminate.
She could’ve anyway, of course, and I’d never have been the wiser, but she said she kind of liked the idea as long as she didn’t have to do it alone.
So she gave me the opportunity to be involved with the understanding that she didn’t want to quit her job.
She’s a good mom, but she’s always been more focused on her career.
While we’ve always alternated holidays, she’s never asked to have him for this long before.
I want to support and encourage her to spend time with Colin, even though it’s hard to let go sometimes.
I’m used to being the primary parent—and I still am—but it’s good for Colin to spend time with his mom and create traditions with her.
If she wants to give him PJs on Christmas Eve … ”
Jenna listens to all of this intently, then tilts her head to one side. “Couldn’t you just … ask her? Let her know it’s a thing you’ve been doing with him for a while and see if she wants to do it since he’s with her this year or ask if it’s okay to give him PJs when he comes for dinner?”
I blink at her, the obviousness of her suggestion walloping me up the side of the head like my dad sometimes did when I was about to do something stupid. “I could, yeah.”
She chuckles. “Well, there’s that problem solved then.”
Chuckling too, I kiss her until the oven timer beeps, alerting us that the pizza is ready. And even then, the only reason I reluctantly release her is that I know she needs to eat, and more than a handful of almonds.
We have all night, though—or at least as long as she wants me to stay. There’s no need to rush anything.