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He shook his head. “It’s almost dark. I’d rather go with you tomorrow if you don’t mind.”
“Why did all of y’all order breakfast food?” Liner asked suddenly. “I felt peer pressure, so I ordered pancakes and waffles.”
“Because Lucian’s diner is famous for breakfast food,” I answered absently. Then turned back to Zee. “I’ll run in the morning if we can go early.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have anything to do tomorrow…or today for that matter.”
“We’re going to buy a Christmas tree tomorrow,” Carrie suddenly said, her eyes on Zee. “You can help me get it into Daddy’s truck.”
Zee looked at his mother.
“Dad’s going to kill you if he comes home and finds Christmas shit up in his house before Thanksgiving,” he told her.
Today was Halloween night, and tomorrow was normally the first day that his mom started to hound Zee’s father about putting up Christmas decorations.
It’d been the same for forever and was something that I found highly amusing.
My mom, on the other hand, didn’t decorate until the week before Christmas and had it all taken down the day after Christmas.
I wasn’t sure why, really.
Though I found it comical that two such close friends were polar opposites.
“I’m not going to put it up just yet.” She rolled her eyes. “Give me a little bit of credit.”
I giggled. “You mean you’re not going to put it up while Zee’s around to stop you.”
She shrugged. “I was planning on doing it after y’all left.”
“What’s so wrong with putting up Christmas shit?” Liner asked. “My parents put it up in October. Right around the time that it starts coming out in the stores.”
There was silence at the table, and we all turned to survey the man.
“Mom,” Zee said. “Liner’s dad does a drive through park starting in November. There’s like ten acres of Christmas decorations to drive through.”
Carrie’s eyes lit up wide.
“That’s…marvelous.”
A plate plopped down in front of me, and I smiled at Lucian. “Thank you.”
He winked.
The rest of the plates soon followed, and the next five minutes were filled with moaning and groaning as Liner, Zee, and I ate our breakfast foods—well them. I had a hamburger, too.
“I did miss this,” Zee muttered almost to himself. “So fuckin’ good.”
I rolled my eyes. “Imagine if you’d gotten something actually good instead of that mess.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have a runner’s metabolism to burn all that shit” —he waved toward my half-demolished plate— “off. Plus, I like my abs.”
And before I could stop myself, I agreed.
“Yeah, I kind of like them, too,” I admitted.
My mother snickered, and I couldn’t stop myself from turning my gaze toward her.
“What?” I asked, only then realizing what I’d said.
“It’s just nice to see you both happy—with each other,” she admitted. “I’ve always wondered if there was something there…even before Eitan and Annmarie.”
There was silence at the table as we tried to navigate around the large elephant now sitting in the middle of all of us.
Nobody quite knew what to say, so my overly large mouth said, “I love him!”
I swallowed hard, eyes wide and panicked.
Before I could so much as hide my face behind my hands, Zee’s large, rough palm smoothed over mine.
“We’re not sure the protocol here,” he admitted. “But we’re going to give this a try.”
Carrie’s eyes filled with tears. “They wouldn’t have wanted you to live the way y’all have been living.”
I hadn’t been aware that I was living poorly…at least not until I’d finally taken that last step with Zee.
Now I realized that I was living half a life, trying not to feel guilty for killing two people that should’ve been living right alongside us.
I felt moroseness start to leach into my bones, my earlier happy mood dissipating just as fast as it’d arrived.
“I don’t know what they would’ve wanted,” I admitted. “But I highly doubt they would’ve been happy that we were with each other and not them.”
At least Annmarie would have been pissed.
Even if they’d broken up, which they hadn’t, that was still a line I would’ve never crossed.
Zee hauled me close, his mouth going to my ear.
“I don’t like the direction of your thoughts,” he said gruffly.
“I don’t particularly like them either,” I admitted just as softly.
He squeezed my neck lightly.
“Don’t think about what they would’ve done. They’re not here.” He paused. “And I’m happy. Baby, I’m fucking happy.”
I felt something inside my chest start to swell at his words.
He was right.
They weren’t here.
My parents weren’t upset.
His parents weren’t upset.
And he was happy.
I was fucking happy, too.
“Well,” Liner said, interrupting our moment. “I’m fucking full. My beer’s empty, and I could use a nap or something. Where am I staying?”
“I guess that would be with me,” Carrie said, then turned to us. “Are you staying at our house, y’all, or are you staying with her?”
Carrie pointed at my mom with her thumb and wiggled her hand.
