Epilogue – September
“Thanksgiving is coming up,” Rachel said, eyes attached to the calendar on her laptop screen, wondering how it was suddenly mid-September and a turning point in their relationship was about to hit them:
The first major holiday together.
Love You, Maine, had plenty of festivals, craft shows, parades and fairs, but she and Kell had gotten together in February.
She’d interviewed for the director of business development and planning job in March, and broken her lease in L.A.
in April, moving to Maine that month, when Tom’s acceptance letter had arrived – accompanied by an invitation to have dinner with him and his wife, June, in their backyard.
“A cookout! Nice, warm weather is just in time for it,” he’d said as she’d gawked at the thermometer on his deck.
Thirty-nine degrees turned out to be nice and balmy in April. For Maine.
Easter had been spent with Kell’s family, Independence Day, too. While her parents had met Kell when he’d flown out to L.A. to help her move, it was time for her family to get a little holiday attention.
Which also meant disappointing Deanna.
“Thanksgiving?” Kell called out from the bathroom, where steam rose in great clouds, pouring out as he cracked the door. Unlike Rachel, who showered before work, Kell always performed the ritual at the end of his workday. Made sense, he said, if he was going to spend all day sweaty anyhow.
Kell’s evening showers were part of the new ritual in her life.
Just like living with him.
Moving in to his apartment had been a temporary arrangement, but as weeks stretched into a month, they’d both decided they were ready for the commitment.
Living with him had been a surprisingly smooth affair, and while the pressure was on to become engaged and eventually marry, for now she and Kell were happy.
More than happy.
“Yes, Thanksgiving. You know. The holiday where all the turkeys run scared, Macy’s puts on a parade, and college football gets watched by people who never otherwise look at it?”
“I know what it is. What about it?”
“Whose family are we spending it with?”
Kell came out of the bathroom, dark hair soaked, his beard nice and full again, though he’d kept his hair short.
The combination was ideal from Rachel’s perspective.
It gave him a rugged, sophisticated quality that made her want to rip her clothes off and ride him like a cowgirl at a moment’s notice.
Which was just fine by him.
Dressed only in a towel, loose around his hips, he was still quite damp as he stared at her, broad chest glistening in the warm lamp’s glow.
“Why are you asking about Thanksgiving?”
“Because if we’re going to L.A.,” she said, suddenly nervous, “we need plane tickets.”
“Oh! That. Yeah. Sure.”
“Sure... what?”
“Sure, we’ll go to L.A. for Thanksgiving.” He walked across the room, kissed her cheek, and disappeared into the bedroom. Calamine left the bedroom the second he walked in, jumping up on the back of the couch behind Rachel’s head, purring against her cheek.
“You just want me to feed you again,” Rachel groused, gently pushing Cally away. The cat glared at her, walked over to the food dish on the floor in the kitchen, and began making little noises of displeasure.
Surprised by Kell’s no-argument answer, she set her laptop on the coffee table and found him in the bedroom, naked and staring at his closet offerings. The view of his muscled, bare ass from behind set off a flurry of butterflies in her stomach, and a flame of heat that flickered between her legs.
Ah, this man.
“What are you doing?”
“Deciding what to wear.”
“Wear?”
“We’re going out tonight. Remember?”
Rachel jolted. “We are?”
“That new movie. The romantic comedy at the cinema. Parts of it were filmed here and down in Saco. You know.”
“That’s tomorrow night, Kell. And it’s a big production. You need your suit. A nice haircut and a beard trim. The state’s film commission will be there.”
“Tomorrow? Does that mean we get to stay in tonight?” The leer in his voice made her warm up even more, the urge to be naked and wrapped in his arms so great she went for it, reaching one hand around him to grab his ass, the other going around his shoulders, their mouths tangled in a kiss that made her melt.
“Mmmm, this is better than any movie,” he whispered against her lips.
“Thanksgiving?” she asked. “L.A.?”
“I already said yes.”
Lifting her in his arms, his bare chest felt so fun beneath her fingers, Rachel falling onto him as he stretched on his back on the bed.
“No fight? Won’t your mom be sad we’re not here?”
“You’re really killing the mood,” he complained.
“Can we just talk?” she said, Kell chuckling at her words, the saying a familiar one they joked about often. It had become shorthand, an inside joke, the meaning fluid.
“Are you trying to argue that we should stay here for Thanksgiving?’ he questioned. “Because that’s not happening.”
“I’m shocked! What does that mean?”
A painful look covered his face, Rachel instantly alarmed that she’d misstepped somehow. Kell sat up and took her hands in his, sadness replacing lust so fast it gave her hormonal whiplash.
“Honey. Amber died on Thanksgiving.”
“I know. It’s a tender time. Your family must want to all be together. I want to honor that, but I wanted to talk about this because my mom and dad want us out in California, too.”
“I said yes so easily because Luke refuses to celebrate Thanksgiving. Last year it was... interesting.”
“Interesting?”
“He was in mourning. Harriet was a clingy little sprite. Mom went and bought all the trimmings for a big family dinner, but two days before, Luke declared he refused to celebrate Thanksgiving, and he and Harriet weren’t coming.”
“Oh!”
“He said he’d get together with close family only, but he wouldn’t ever do anything traditional. No turkey. No mashed potatoes. No stuffing. No green beans.” Kell frowned. “I’m salivating just thinking about it.”
“He was worried about the food?”
“Not just the food. No watching college football. No Macy’s parade. Nothing that we’d ever done on Thanksgiving was tolerable for him.”
“What did you do? Your poor mom, with all that food!”
“That was fine. Mom and Dad have freezers. Colleen came up with the solution. Mountain Dragon.”
“The Asian fusion place?”
“Yes. And we watched old summer camp movies.”
“Family movies?”
“No. Hollywood movies. You know. Meatballs. Camp Beverly Hills. Friday the Thirteenth.”
“You watched horror films on Thanksgiving?”
“Only once Harriet was asleep.”
Rachel held back the fact that her mother had a speaking part in the sixth or seventh movie in that series. She couldn’t remember which. Now was not the time to talk about Portia getting “candy appled” by a knife into the top of her head as she screamed, “No, Jason, no!”
“And Luke was fine with all that?” she inquired.
“Luke wasn’t fine with anything. Luke was a wreck. An understandable wreck. It was the one-year anniversary, but we were at least together. He announced that he would never, ever celebrate a traditional turkey day again, and that everyone should just make other plans for the next year.”
Lightbulbs went off in Rachel’s mind. “I see.”
“So – Thanksgiving can be your family’s holiday forever.”
“Seriously? Because it’s my dad’s favorite one.”
“Stan’s a turkey guy?”
“It’s the one meal a year where my mother goes off her diet.”
Kell’s laugh made his broad chest shake on the bed, abs textured and tight as she came back to the reality of a very naked, very hot man under her as she straddled him.
When they’d first met here in Maine seven months ago, she’d been forced to straddle him in a very different way.
This time was not much better.
“I’m so sorry for Luke. What are Deanna and Dean doing?”
“Remember how they’re talking about Germany? Visiting Dennis?”
“Right! So soon?”
“Dennis can’t pin down his leave just yet, but they’re hoping. And Mom has a cousin who works for an airline, so they’re trying to get a deal.”
“Germany for Thanksgiving sounds amazing.”
“They deserve a fun, big trip like that.”
“I deserve something fun and big, too,” she murmured as she reached down and stroked him. “I’m so excited we’ll go home for the holiday.”
“I’m excited by what you’re doing to me.”
“Let’s be excited together, Kell.”