Page 15

There was no response while Kelly set the circles of pastry dough on a baking sheet at precise intervals. Avery knew her mother wouldn’t answer her—any more than Avery would ask the question she actually wanted to ask—but she waited nonetheless.

“No,” Kelly said finally. “People will be arriving by three, though, so do you mind giving me a hand? The crudité platters need to be prepped.”

Avery stared at her mother’s back, still chewing on a grape. If you’re so mad at him, why don’t you just pick the fight? she thought, but of course she didn’t say anything. “Veggies are in the fridge?” she asked, snagging another grape.

Kelly nodded, fussing with the pastry dough. “Cam’s mom said he was hoping to talk to you.”

Avery rolled her eyes into the bright glow of the fridge. Leave it to Kelly to bring up the thing Avery wanted to talk about the least within the first ten minutes. “He did.”

“How did that go?”

“Fine,” Avery gritted out. She didn’t want to lie to her mother, but she also didn’t exactly want to open things up for discussion.

“She says he felt very badly over how things ended with you two.”

As he should. “That’s what he said, yeah.”

“I know it’s not my business, but you two have always been able to work things out, and I was hoping this time wouldn’t be any different.”

Of all the things Avery didn’t understand about her mother, Kelly’s belief that Avery and Cameron were “made for each other” was in the top five. “Theo’s coming over for dessert,” Avery said impulsively. Theo had agreed to no such thing, but by the time Avery’s family and their guests were having dessert, he would probably be done with his family’s Thanksgiving and looking for a reason to escape from Karl’s mom, who was—to put it mildly—kind of smothering.

“Theo,” Kelly said, temporarily distracted from Cameron. “I see.”

“We’re dating,” Avery blurted. She had been planning on dropping breadcrumbs, slowly loosening her mother’s death grip on her vision of Avery-and-Cameron-forever, before dropping the hammer and severing it completely, but Avery had a hard time sticking to the plan when her mom was under her skin.

Kelly froze and very slowly turned to face Avery. “Since when?”

“Since—recently.”

“I see.” The two Nielson women stared at each other for a moment, both of them waiting for the other to say something.

Before either of them had to break, the door to the garage swung open and Jeremy Nielson came in, the rattling of the garage door closing becoming muffled when he shut the door. “I’m back,” he yelled, and Avery grinned while her mother stayed tense, focusing entirely too closely on spreading filling on the pastry.

“Dad!” she yelled, and ran back to the side entryway to hug him. Jeremy was in his usual patient-visit shirt and tie, but had showered recently, his greying sandy-brown hair still vaguely damp.

Jeremy hugged her tightly. “Welcome home, kid,” he said warmly, and then stood back. “I want to hear all the details you can spill while we help your mom with the crudité platters.”

Avery walked with him back to the kitchen, his arm draped over her shoulders and hers around his waist. “How’s prep going?” Jeremy asked Kelly. He walked over and brushed a kiss to her cheek, but Kelly’s shoulders stayed ramrod straight, her jaw tense.

“Your mother called just a little while ago. She’s only bringing one pie, because ‘the others didn’t turn out,’ so someone has to run to the Piggly Wiggly before it closes, or else we will have Thanksgiving without enough dessert.” She threw a quick glance his way out of the corner of her eye.

Jeremy sighed. “You couldn’t have texted me that before I came home?”

“She only called a little while ago, and I didn’t know you’d be coming back so soon, since you didn’t give me a time to expect you,” Kelly snapped. “Did you shower at the hospital?”

“Patient had a pretty nasty norovirus. Didn’t want to risk bringing it home.” He looked at Avery and winked. “Imagine the headlines if Thanksgiving at a doctor’s house led to a major outbreak of vomiting.”

Avery giggled and her mother sniffed. “I doubt the Itasca Daily News would phrase it that way,” Kelly said. She looked at the clock over the stove pointedly. “The Pig will be closing in an hour.”

But Jeremy was looking at his phone and didn’t respond, instead typing out a text with a tiny grin. “Sorry, what was that?” he asked Kelly.

She sighed heavily. “The store is closing soon, so if you don’t mind?”

Avery knew her dad also wanted to sigh, and she couldn’t blame him. But he didn’t, and instead just nodded. “Sure thing. Want to come, Avery?”

“Avery is working on the crudités.”

Jeremy looked at his wife’s tense back and shook his head, before looking ruefully at Avery. “Looks like I have to run out again, but I’m dying to hear all about your roommate’s quest to join a sorority, so don’t go telling the good parts until I’m home, okay?” he said.