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“My cousin thought that was the worst until I told her my story years later. When I was thirteen,” she stops to wipe her eyes, “we were all opening gifts around the tree on Christmas morning. I took the paper off the gift from Nana to me and thought to myself that she’d used a ratheroddbox to put a present in.” She pauses for effect and looks around at everyone. “I opened the box only to discover that she’d given me half a box of sanitary napkins.”
My jaw drops.
“I closed that box so fast and ran to the bathroom to hide it in the cupboard. I was mortified. I didn’t even tell my own mother about it for months.”
“I was also not amused when she told me. I’d been a victim of her so-called ‘generosity’ my whole life,” Grammy says drily.
“It was just so wrong for a young girl of that age,” she says with a laugh. “It took years for me to see the humor in it, but I eventually did.”
“You win.” I declare as I stare at Liv. “Worst gift ever.” Then I look around at the faces of Callum’s beautiful family, and I am stuck by the absolute rightness of them being here and the affection they show one another. They can tease and poke at each other, and the love shines through it all. I know I’ve never had this in my life, and suddenly I crave it more than anything. This reality stabs me in the gut so hard I almost double over, so I quickly stand up and say, “Thank you, everyone, for tonight. This has been amazing. I’ll just get started on cleaning up now.” Grabbing a stack of plates, I head toward the kitchen before anyone can respond. Then I stop and add, “Weston, why don’t you take everyone downstairs and play ping pong for a while? Maybe you can have a round-robin tournament or something.”
When I look at Weston’s expression, I suspect he’s feeling an emotion similar to mine.
Twenty
Weston
I’m so blown away right now.Callum is amazing. His family is absolutely the best. I know I’ve been missing my own family for years and years, but the longing I have for them has never been so acute as right at this very moment. Petra just asked me something, and I didn’t even hear her; I was I caught up in my head.
“Huh?” I grunt stupidly at her.
“I said, why don’t you take people down and have a ping pong game? I’m going to start cleaning up since I didn’t do any of this terrific cooking. It’s only fair.”
“I’ll help Petra,” Liv says. “We planned to leave the leftovers here for you, so I’ll just put most of this into the refrigerator, and Callum can get the containers back to us later.”
So Callum, Declan, Gracie, and I all take off for the ping pong table, and Gracie shouts at her brothers, “I get to be on Weston’s team! He probably knows more about ping pong than you two doofusses.” The rest of the trash-talking proceeds me down the stairs, but I can hear Grammy announce, “I’ll help too.”
“Why don’t you and Dylan just relax and have a glass of wine or another beer?” Petra asks. “We have it covered.” She probably doesn’t want to wear out Grammy, although the woman does seem as though she’s still full of plenty of energy. Grammy must be close to ninety. Amazing.
“Nonsense. I don’t need another drink, and Dylan is driving us all home.” With that, she and Dylan stand and start hauling dishes and cutlery back into the kitchen too.
And we begin a hilarious ping pong tournament with lots of hollering and laughter. It’s almost as much fun as what the three of us did earlier today… but not quite. When was the last time this house was filled with so much activity and joy? Maybe never.
We play and play, getting wilder and crazier with our shots. At one point I see Dylan come down the stairs with the dogs on his tail and a bottle of water in his hand. He smiles at me and positions himself in front of the TV. After some channel surfing, he settles on something, looking relaxed and satisfied.
Each of us is sweaty and red-faced from laughter and exertion. Finally, Callum and Declan are declared the tournament champions after winning two out of three hard-fought battles, but it was certainly close. Callum and his brother high-five each other and Callum crows, “Winner, winner, chicken dinner!” at the top of his voice.
“Oh, don’t gloat. You kept serving before I was ready,” Gracie complains.
“No one likes a sore loser,” Declan says, shaking his finger at his sister. “Come on, let’s go grab a beer. This made me thirsty.”
“You’re too young to drink, Dec.” She pokes him in the ribs as he rolls his eyes at her. And on and on it goes.
I love watching them.
Twenty-One
Petra
As soon asthe guys are out of earshot, the inquisition begins. Oh sure, it’s polite and friendly, but I’m feeling pretty grilled in any case.
“Weston and Callum both seem pretty taken with you, Petra,” Liv mentions breezily. I can feel Grammy’s eyes staring a hole in the back of my head with her laser focus.
“I’m pretty taken with them too,” I admit, deciding not to hold back.
“Hmm,” Grammy says. Liv looks at her and has no discernible expression on her face whatsoever.
“They also seem pretty taken with each other,” Liv continues after zeroing back in on me.
