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I was having fun in Oregon, and I loved meeting all the important people in Alex’s life, but I wasn’t ready for our bubble to include others. Even the thought of telling my aunt and uncle that we were getting married made my stomach tighten into knots. We’d be congratulated and celebrated, sure, but after that it would be a constant barrage of questions and planning for a big wedding that my aunt expected and I dreaded.
The longer dinner went on, with people laughing and joking and food being consumed in mass quantities, the more I relaxed into my chair.
This family reminded me of home. The camaraderie and inside jokes and love that were apparent in every word spoken, even when they argued. It was like sitting down at my aunt’s table in New York. I let the feeling wash over me.
“You have to go with us,” Ani said, pointing at me as the men got up to clear the table and bring out dessert.
“Where are we going?” I asked. I hadn’t been paying attention to whatever she and Ellie were discussing.
“Black Friday,” Liz said, setting down a stack of newspapers filled with advertisements. She passed them around the table. “We leave at three in the morning and hit all the best stores.”
“You can look up the sales online,” Ani said, digging into her paper. “But it’s our tradition to look through the ads in the Thanksgiving paper.”
“Be sure to set aside the comics for me,” Ellie said, glancing up from her ads. “Christmas is coming up.”
“She uses them as wrapping paper,” Liz explained.
“I don’t just shop for the holidays,” Ani said, waving at us to get started looking through our own ads. “I get Arie stocked up on clothes, too, and get stuff for the house.”
“We’re not going to the home stores this year,” Liz said. “You took hours last time.”
“I needed good blinds.” Ani rolled her eyes.
“And now you’ve got them,” Ellie replied. “I’m not going in a single hardware store this year.”
“You can wait in the car?” Ani said hopefully.
“Dream on,” Liz murmured. “Oh, the sweaters at Macy’s are fifty percent off.”
I opened up my stack of newspaper ads and started browsing, but I wasn’t really looking for anything. We still had to fly home on Sunday, and there was no way I was going to ship a bunch of stuff home—it would completely cancel out any deals I found while we were shopping. There were mumbled thanks handed out as the men brought coffee and pie to each of the women, but no one looked up from their papers.
“We’re dragging Morgan and Sarai with us tomorrow,” Ani announced. “Just so you know. Trev, you’re on Etta duty.”
“Sounds good,” Trevor said, kissing the top of Morgan’s bent head. “Get some new towels for the bathrooms, yeah? Ours are too scratchy for the baby girl.”
“Our towels are fine,” Morgan replied, sending him a soft smile.
“Get new ones anyway.”
“Get the towels,” Ani ordered. “Don’t ever argue when they tell you to buy something.”
“I’ll remember that,” Morgan said with a laugh.
“They’ve welcomed you into the coven,” Alex teased softly in my ear as he set a piece of pie and a hot cup of coffee to the side of my newspaper. “You gonna go in the morning?”
“Do I have a choice?” I joked.
“We’ll lock the bedroom door. When you don’t open it, they’ll leave without you so they don’t waste time and miss any sales,” he whispered conspiratorially.
He walked away, and I focused on my paper again. Well, maybe I’d just get a few things…
“We’re going out to smoke cigars,” Dan announced proudly.
“Cigars?” Liz’s nose wrinkled in distaste.
“Got a few from a client,” he replied, grinning. “No better way to end a meal.”
“Don’t come back in this house smelling like smoke, Daniel,” Liz said, raising one eyebrow.
“Aw, baby,” he said, still grinning. “You know I won’t.”
“You better not.”
I glanced across the table to where Alex was standing with his brother, and our eyes met in amusement.
I felt the heat in my belly first, then in my chest, and up my neck, until I felt my face warm. This was why I’d agreed to marry him. I wanted to spend the rest of my life feeling this indescribable, inexplicable feeling when our eyes met across a crowded room. Actually, I couldn’t imagine anything else.
No one ever imagines the absence of that feeling. If they did, they’d avoid it altogether.
* * *
“It can’t be time to go already,” I mumbled against Alex’s shoulder, trying to ignore the alarm I’d set for two thirty. It was pitch black and raining outside. I groaned as I threw myself to the side and slapped at my phone. We’d been up until midnight, visiting with Alex’s family and playing dice around the kitchen table. Even the two little girls had stayed up late, finally falling asleep in family members’ laps. I felt like I hadn’t slept at all.
