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“I got you something, Maxi,” Avery said, walking Max toward the living room with her arm wrapped around his back. They were the same height.
“Dad?” Max looked back on his way to the living room.
“I’ll be right there,” Finn said. He then looked at her.
A chorus of “You have to stay,” “It’s like the whole family is here,” “It’s been years,” and “Don’t disappoint the boy,” was heard from all four over seventy year old people.
“You, too, Anne. We’re not giving up on you now that we’re all here. You’ll just have to cancel your other engagement.”
“Stay,” Finn mouthed to her above the heads of the shorter elders who were too busy clamoring around him to notice the gaze they exchanged.
She bit her lip and tilted her head in a are you kidding?
“Please,” he mouthed again. “Anne, will you stay, too?” he then asked out loud when she didn’t respond.
“You see, you have to! Even Finn wants you to. And how long has it been since you’ve seen him? You’ll have a lot of catching up to do,” Darian said victoriously.
She gave Finn an I’m-gonna-kill-you look then said, “Yeah, okay, but I’ll have to leave early.”
The moment all four cleared to the kitchen and the excited chatter between Avery and Max was heard from the living room, Finn took a step toward her. They were still at the entrance.
“Jane,” he whispered. “Baby, I’m sorry. Max heard his cousins weren’t coming, and that it was gonna be just him and the five of them”—he signaled with his head toward the interior of the house—“and, knowing that the mood was probably not great, he asked me to walk him in and stay for a few minutes. I just saw your texts now.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
He skimmed his eyes down her body. “You look …” He ate her up with his eyes. “Fuck, I can’t wait to get that dress wrapped around your waist and—hey, Max, buddy, what you got there?” he suddenly called, taking a quick step back.
She turned back. Max was approaching from the living room. “Mom got me the Oculus VR I wanted,” Max called enthusiastically.
“That’s great. Come on, show me how it works.” As he passed by her, Finn gripped her hand and brushed his palm over it from her wrist to the tips of her fingers.
Even that quick caress of his was enough to make her feel it between her legs. She had no idea how she was going to live through dinner.
She busied herself with helping in the kitchen as much as possible. She couldn’t possibly love Finn more than she already did, but every time she saw him with his son, she loved him more. Which was sort of ironic, given that a child was what got them to that place.
Linda was with them in the living room, and it crushed Anne’s heart to watch her mother enjoying the grandchild she never had. She looked at Avery, Finn, and Max as if they were the young family that she had hoped her own daughter would have one day. It seemed that her mother was oblivious to the fact that Avery and Finn didn’t even bother to look at each other. Linda seemed gleeful to have them all in the same room.
“Janey, why are you standing there?” Linda said, catching her stalling there with a salad bowl in her hands. “This is turning out to be a great Thanksgiving after all. Of course, I wish Noah and Jill were here … It reminds me of that year you brought Tom.”
Oh God. That year … Maybe she should have taken acting rather than painting because she was obviously better at hiding her feelings.
“Yeah, I remember that,” Avery said. “Are you two in touch?”
“No.”
“And we only got to meet him once. Your longest relationship. Such a pity.” Avery said.
“Relationships end, Avery. Others begin. I don’t regret anything,” she said. Her eyes crossed paths with her mother’s.
Did Linda really think her presence could cushion this? Or Finn’s presence, for that matter? The two people Avery either spent a lifetime competing with or divorcing from? The only good thing that came out of it was that she felt she was ready to open her mother’s eyes and tell her the truth. Maybe not the whole truth, but some of it. The present part of the truth, at least. She didn’t think her mother could handle the past.
“I agree. That’s the right approach,” Finn said. “There’s no use in looking back.”
She looked at him. He was delectable in a dark pair of pants and a light blue dress shirt that his shoulders and arms filled so well. He had cuffed the sleeves and opened the top two buttons. She couldn’t wait to get him home.
They managed to somehow make it until dinner was served. She helped with the serving, and Finn was called to help cut the turkey. It was heartbreaking to see how Darian and Fernando held on to him in the absence of their son. In some bizarre way, she felt like she was robbing him from them. Logically, she knew it wasn’t so, but when had logic ever had anything to do with family dynamics?
Because they set two places for them at the last minute, they found themselves sitting next to each other. Given that they had hardly managed to take their hands off each other in the last month whenever they had the chance to be together, it required everything in them to not touch one another.
