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“Oh,” he said, finally catching on. This his eyebrows perked as he glanced at everyone else. “Really? Are you sure?”
“They’re positive,” I answered merrily for the collective whole. “Now grab some waffles and dig in. They’re awesome.”
I watched him as he hesitantly followed my orders, grabbing a clean plate and then filling it with waffles that were piled on a platter on the counter. He was fairly boring on the waffle front, straight up butter and syrup for him. Yawn. But I wouldn’t hold that against him.
He was still nice to sleep next to, and look at, and dream about…until those dreams turned disturbing. I returned my attention to my breakfast, trying to forget the part where my dream had turned stupid.
“Are you guys heading out to your dad’s tonight or in the morning?” Paige asked Tess as Beck joined the group and seated himself at the other end of the table as me.
“Probably this evening,” Tess said. “You?”
“Us too.” Paige glanced at Logan. “My dad says he has Trace’s old room cleaned up for Logan to sleep in. It’s going to be weird, but Dad seems determined to include him as part of the family, so hopefully it won’t be too weird.”
Beckett glanced curiously between the two couples before asking, “Why are all of you leaving?”
&n
bsp; They turned to him, blinked, and then Paige kindly said, “We’re going home for Thanksgiving.”
He stared back a moment before releasing a breath. “Oh, shit. That’s right. I forgot it was…this Thursday. Holy shit,” he murmured again before turning his gaze to me. “Wha-what’re you doing for Thanksgiving?”
I could see the worry in his eyes. He didn’t know what was going to happen to him when we all took off for the holidays.
“Well,” I started slowly. “I’m scheduled to work at the shop tomorrow morning until noon, and then I have to be back again at the ass-crack of dawn on Black Friday, so I was thinking we could head out early in the afternoon tomorrow and then return later on Thursday after dinner.”
He blinked before lifting a finger. “Wait. When you say we…?”
“We.” I motioned between the two of us. “As in you and me.”
Beckett blinked again before shouting, “What? I can’t go to your family holiday with you. Are you crazy?”
I merely sighed. “Well, what else are you supposed to do? Stay here alone through the holiday? I don’t think so.”
“But…” He shook his head, gaping at me as if I’d lost my mind.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, just stop. You’re coming with me. End of story.”
He opened his mouth, only to close it. Then he sighed and frowned, huffing, “You didn’t even ask.”
Oh my God! I almost laughed and then I almost groaned. In the end, I drew in a breath before very calmly and politely saying, “Beckett, it would make me feel a million times better if you would accompany me to my dad’s tomorrow and spend Thanksgiving with us and my four annoying brothers, plus one pregnant sister-in-law. So…would you, pretty please with sugar on top, just come with me?”
Again, he faltered. I knew he wanted to decline on principle alone. We all knew how it would look to my family. Single college-age guy coming home with Bailey for Thanksgiving. None of my brothers and probably not even my dad would think he wasn’t my boyfriend. I didn’t blame him for wanting to avoid that kind of mess. But seriously, what the hell else was he supposed to do?
When an alternative hit me, I shrugged. “I guess we could just not to go to my family’s at all and stay here.”
“No,” he cried. “You can’t not visit your family for the holidays because of me.”
“So then you’ll come with me?” I pressed.
He ground his teeth and looked up at the ceiling for a moment before meeting my gaze and reassuring me, “I’ll be fine. I’ll take the truck out into the country for a few days and camp out. It’ll be fun.”
“Right,” I said slowly. “With zero cash in your wallet and zero dollars in your checking account? You’d seriously rather waste what gas you have in your truck and ration out food in the hopes you take along enough that you don’t starve than just come with me and be well fed and warm inside a house with a warm, comfortable bed at night?”
“Dammit, Bailey,” he muttered. “I can’t go with you. I don’t belong there. It would be inappropriate. And, Jesus, you can’t take care of me every second of every day. I refuse to be dependent on you for the rest of my life.”
“First of all, why wouldn’t you belong? I’ve brought friends to Thanksgiving plenty of times before.” I motioned toward my best friend. “Just ask Tess. And inappropriate? What…?” I shook my head before saying, “That makes no sense, so I’m just going to ignore that one and move on to all the stupid dependent bullshit you’re spewing. Your life flipped completely on its axis barely a week ago. And as much as I know you want to, you’re not going to get over what happened to you in a day. It’s going to take time. A long, fucking time. So excuse me for trying to help you out until you orient yourself again.”
When I stood up to leave, he sprang up from his own seat and dodged into my path. “No. Don’t. Just…stop.” He held up a hand and waited until I really stopped and lifted my brows expectantly. Then he blew out a breath. “I appreciate all your help,” he started. “You have no idea how much I appreciate it. But…”
