AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did you need something?” he said quickly. “I’m at the office and I’m really busy.”
The faint sound of a moan made my heart break.
“I was just trying to see if you had plans for Thanksgiving. I would love to see you and the girls,” I said, asking the world for patience because if I said one wrong thing, he would dodge me for weeks. It had already been almost six weeks since I had last seen them.
“Oh, my parents are hosting and then we have to go see the in-laws,” he said, when another giggle came through the phone.
“Maybe we can have dinner today or…”
“Vin, I have to go. I’ll text you.”
He hung up before I could say anything back.
I clenched my jaw looking out the window of my office, trying to reign in my anger. Patrick had always been cold towards me. It didn’t help that his mom didn’t tell me about him until I was twenty-one and had heard I had made good money. When we had slept together, she thought I was older and I was ok with that, but she ended up getting pregnant and when she found out I was sixteen, she decided not to tell me about the baby.
By the time she reached out to me I immediately helped her out, thankful for my real estate investments, giving me a chance to provide for them. I got her and Patrick into a nice apartment, paid for him to go to a great school, and I even asked her to marry me because I thought that was the right thing to do. She was a great woman and I felt like I had to make up for lost time.
But work was demanding, I worked a lot in the beginning, and she hated me for that. By twenty-five, I was divorced and paying a lot in child support. Patrick was nine and only came to me when he wanted something. Pretty soon she remarried and his step- father became his father. I know I should have made them a priority, there are a lot of woulda coulda shoulda’s, but I was in my early twenties, and I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
I regretted a lot of things, and I hated that I couldn’t make things better with Patrick. At this point, I didn't know what else to do, no matter what I did, he only saw me as a source of money. I loathed that.
Tomorrow was Thanksgiving, Easton and Noemi had left already to go to her sister's house early to have more time to visit with her family. It looked like I was going to spend it alone again. Grabbing my phone, I made a few calls before I left work, not wanting to go to an empty house, but I wasn’t up to being around people either, so I went home.
As soon as the doors opened the house smelled delicious, like pumpkin pie and something sweeter. Walking into the main living area, I saw Noemi dancing to some music I didn’t notice before. She was singing in Spanish, moving a dish out of the oven, and putting it on the island. Her hands ran up her body, singing with a big smile.
I smiled with her, letting her dance for another minute, easing all the tensions I was feeling before I walked into her line of view. Noemi was absolutely breathtaking, and I was so glad she hadn’t left for Colorado Springs yet. She had her back to me when she turned around singing, stopping when she saw me.
Her cheeks grew crimson with embarrassment, but she quickly smiled.
“Sorry, I decided to drive down tomorrow so that I could bake tonight and Easton got held up at work so it all worked out,” she said, looking sheepish.
“It’s ok, I’m glad you're still here,” I said honestly.
We walked to each other, she wrapped her arms around me like she knew I needed her comfort.
“Are you alright?” She ran her hand through the hair at the nape of my neck.
“Yeah, just having a hard time with my son, he’s dead set on not seeing me,” I answered honestly. “We have a rocky relationship and I was hoping to spend Thanksgiving with him and my granddaughters.”
“I’m sorry, babe,” she said. “You can still come with us if you want to, but you don’t have to. The invitation is still open.”
I relaxed a little bit more, hoping I could come with her. Spending another holiday alone sounded like the worst thing ever, but spending time with her family felt like it would bring more questions than I was willing to answer.
“And what will they say when you bring home two guys with you?”
“They saw our photo in the Denver Voice and well, they have their speculations, but I said we were just friends,” she said, pulling away to go back to the kitchen.
“Are they fine with this speculation?” I took my jacket off, laying it over the back of the sofa.
“More than I would like them to be,” she laughed. “My sisters don’t care what I do with my life as long as I am happy. I’m pretty sure my sister, Samantha, and her wife shack up with another woman on the occasion and I wouldn’t be surprised if Rosa dominated her husband with a strap-on on the regular.”
“They sound fun,” I said, sitting on the barstool.
“My sisters are amazing. I could have a sex change tomorrow, announce I’m a furry and they'd still love me. I’m their sister no matter what.” She put a pie in the oven.
“That's amazing, not many people have families like that,” I said, looking at everything she had baked so far.
“Nope, I’m lucky. I might have lost my parents when I was younger, but my sisters have been there for me no matter what.” She grabbed a few trays and put them by the sink. “It’s one of the reasons I wanted to invite Easton. He deserves to have people around him who won’t judge him.”
