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“By the way, we’re thinking about doing something together for Thanksgiving. I don’t know if Ava told you, Libby, but if the houses are ready by then, Ava wants to invite everyone. And you’re coming, too, Roni. How that’s for a family?”
“She hasn’t told me yet,” Libby said, just when Roni went with, “It should be ready.”
“I know you guys might think it’s too soon for mutual holidays and everything, but when you know, you know. You know?”
Again, they spoke in tandem. Roni with, “Oh, Hope, I missed you. No one can make sense like you do,” just as Libby said, “We know.”
They laughed at their synch.
“I don’t think it’s too soon,” Libby completed.
“You guys are so right for each other, it’s obvious. And thank you. We’ll be happy to,” Roni said.
They clinked their glasses and took a sip.
“Oh, look. No, don’t look,” Roni suddenly said. “I’ll tell you when you can look. Seems like we’re not the only ones who thought to check out the taverna.” When a new place opened in town, everyone came for a test drive. And a Greek taverna sounded promising. “Avery just came in, and I think she’s on a hot date. She’s all dressed up on a Monday, as is the guy she’s with. Okay, carefully, you can look now, but quickly. Any idea who that is?”
Hope and Libby snuck a glance at the table that was on the other side of the floor from them.
“He looks vaguely familiar,” Libby said.
“Does Avery know about you and Jordan?” Libby asked.
“Yes.” Hope drew her mouth to the side. “Rumors travel fast here, and there’s a limit to the number of times we can be seen together in town, or kissing on my doorstep, without it reaching her. But she hasn’t said a thing, and that’s unusual for Avery. So, I take it as a good sign.”
“She found someone else to keep her busy,” Roni muttered.
“By the way, with everything that went on, I didn’t get a chance, but I’m still up for inviting Anne to join us.” Hope looked at her friends for approval.
“Worth a try,” Libby said. “She’s so different than her cousin over there. They don’t even seem related.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The evening at Ava’s was great. Everyone brought something, and the table that was set in an L shape, to accommodate everyone, was full to the point of collapse. Joe Delaney brought the biggest turkey that Hope had ever seen and kept bragging about it all evening, while Libby brought salads and kept apologizing that this was all the cooking she was capable of.
Hope couldn’t have been more thankful than to see her daughters playing with Roni’s kids, as she sat at the same table with her two best friends, and have the man her heart belonged to raising a toast of the special cocktails that he had prepared and say, “To family, and to all the elements lining up to create the best compound.”
When they went next door to his house, to put boxes of leftovers in his fridge, the girls went outside to the backyard that was just a plot of crushed lawn. It was next on Jordan’s list.
The house still smelled of new paint, and as he closed the door of his fridge, and Hannah’s drawing, magnetized to it, flitted with the motion, Hope came in through the door that led to the backyard. In synch, they both reached for the other, and Jordan encircled her in his arms and kissed her.
“By your fridge, like the first time,” she said, smiling.
“We’ve had many firsts in the past few weeks, and seconds, and thirds, and … I want to have all those moments with you an infinite number of times.”
“Me, too.”
“Hope?”
Something in the way he said it made her heart skip a beat. “Yes?”
“I know it’s just my kitchen and fridge, and nothing romantic like you deserve, but … Will you marry me? I don’t have a ring on me, though I know which one I wanna get you, and I would drop on one knee if Hannah wasn’t facing me from the yard, and you might think it’s too soon, and we need to prepare everyone, and you can take all the time you need to think, decide, and—”
She crashed her mouth on his and kissed him until her head floated in a daze. He gripped her hard, and only the playful voices of Hannah and Naomi outside prevented them from going further.
“Yes,” she said, panting, when they broke the kiss.
“Yes?” His smile was so wide that the dimples became caverns.
