Chapter 34

Andrew

 

Cranking the stereo’s volume, I cruised into my neighborhood. The street lights were coming on, taking the day into the first minutes of dusk. After talking to Bob the morning before, every minute following had been nothing less than perfect.

Seeing Lanie again—and this time with Bob’s approval—meant that I’d been in a good mood all day long. Work had flown by, and the only time I’d felt any sense of irritation was when I looked at my phone and found no texts from Lanie.

Call me spoiled, but I wanted to hear from her each and every hour.

As the garage door opened, my phone rang as if on cue.

“I was just thinking about you,” I answered.

“Good things?” Lanie asked with a laugh.

“Bad things,” I growled. “Really, really bad things.”

“Oh. That’s, uh.” She cleared her throat, and I laughed.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Just making some dinner. Is it okay that I called? I wanted to, you know, say hi.”

“Stop. Hearing your voice is the perfect ending to my day.”

“That’s sweet,” she cooed. “So, hey, can I ask what you specifically said to my dad? I know I shouldn’t intrude, but I can’t stop wondering. Feel free to tell me if I’m overstepping any boundaries here.”

“Leave it to a therapist to mention boundaries.” I glanced at the door leading from the garage into the house. Raven was in there, and Karen would be leaving any minute. I was praying neither one of them came out and interrupted our conversation.

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Only in the best way.”

“Hm. Okay. I’m not sure what that means, but I’ll let you off the hook.”

“To answer your question, usually I would keep what happens between me and Bob secret, but this involves you as well.”

“Uh-huh?” Lanie encouraged.

“I told him the truth. I said you and I have something special, and though he is also important to me, I’m not going to give you up just because it makes him unhappy.”

“Wow,” she breathed. “You really stood up to him.”

“He took it better than you might think.” I shot another glance at the door. “So what are you doing this week?”

“Well, it’s only a half week of school.”

“Huh?”

“It’s Thanksgiving week.”

I bit back a curse. Damn. Somehow, I’d forgotten all about Thanksgiving. That meant Raven only had three days of school as did Lanie.

“That’s right,” I affirmed. “What are you doing for it?”

“Well, we usually go to my aunt and uncle’s house, but they’re going on vacation this year. They’re gonna spend the weekend at some cabin by a lake. I forget which one.”

“Sounds nice.” I was already thinking about what it would be like to take Lanie to a place like that.

“Yeah. So it’s going to be a small thing this year. I’m sure my mom will make up for it by going totally crazy on Christmas.”

An idea was forming in my head, its corresponding question sitting on the tip of my tongue. Before I even mentioned it, though, I would need to speak to Raven.

“Does that mean I’ll get to see you at some point?” I asked.

“God, I hope so.”

“You sound … what’s the word for it now?”

“I believe the kids at school say thirsty.”

I grimaced. “They shouldn’t be talking like that.”

“Tell me about it.” Lanie giggled.

The door opened, and Karen came out, a bag of trash in hand. Spotting me, she waved.

“I need to go,” I told Lanie. “Let’s talk soon and make some plans.”

“Okay. Good night.”

“Good night, Lanie,” I answered, savoring the feel of her name on my tongue. Hanging up, I imagined her in her little kitchen, probably wearing jeans or those tight leggings I’d seen her in once. She’d float across the floor, maybe put on some music and shimmy around as she chopped and stirred.

Just thinking about it had all my blood rushing to one very special spot.

A knock on the car window made me jump. Karen stood next to the door, peering at me in question.

Grabbing my car keys and phone, I climbed out of the car.

“Dinner is in the oven on warm,” Karen explained. “And Raven is upstairs doing homework. Do you need anything else?”

“No, Karen,” I smiled, praying to God she wouldn’t look down and notice my boner. “Thank you.”

“Have a good night,” she called, going for the side door.

“You too.”

With my housekeeper gone, I let myself into the kitchen, where a delicious, savory smell filled the air. I’d initially hired Karen to be a housekeeper, but her skills in the kitchen had since then proved invaluable. Cracking the oven’s door, I peeked in on a casserole. A salad waited on the counter, a little dish of croutons next to it.

Thinking about food brought my mind back to Thanksgiving and back to the proposition I had for Raven.

Leaving the kitchen, I climbed the stairs, following the heavy bass thumping down the hall.

“Hey!” I pushed the half-closed door open all the way.

Raven looked at me from where she lay on her stomach on her bed. Right away, I noticed the bags under her eyes.

Taking a few steps into the room, I turned the music off. Raven opened her mouth in protest.

“Are we supposed to mime to each other?” I countered before she had a chance to even say anything.

“You’d be bad at that.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind. Did you get enough sleep?”

“Yeah,” she grumbled, flipping a page of the textbook in front of her.

“Okay.” I crossed my arms, suddenly uncomfortable. I’d come upstairs in a good mood, expecting Raven to be in the same.

But I guess I was wrong.

“How was school?”

She shrugged and flipped another page.

“Are you a speed reader now?” I asked.

Raven glowered my way. “What’s up, Dad?”

“Dinner’s ready.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s been ready for thirty minutes. I had to wait for your butt.”

I checked my smirk, knowing she’d been about to say ass.

“I got home as soon as I could, honey. This is actually a pretty regular hour. It’s when most parents get home.”

Did I need to point out to her that I no longer worked until eight or ten each night? That I made time every weekend for us to do something together?

“Is something wrong?” I asked. “If you still feel like we’re not spending enough time together, you can tell me.”

“No,” she sighed, looking away.

“Is everything okay at school?”

My heartbeat picked up. Everything had been so good recently. I never heard from the school’s office, and Lanie hadn’t reported any upsets.

Raven hesitated. “Yeah, school is fine. I’m just kind of in a funk. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head. I almost asked if this funk had anything to do with PMS, but I checked myself just in time. No better way to get punched than to suggest a woman’s period ruled her.

“Dinner?” I asked.

She nodded and hauled herself off the bed. Together, we silently went downstairs. Karen had put everything in order, setting the table and leaving out my favorite bottle of bourbon. I carefully pulled the casserole out and served us both while Raven dumped salad on our plates.

“So,” I started once we were both seated, “I’ve been thinking about Thanksgiving.”

Raven gave me an uninterested look. “Okay. Aren’t we going to order in like always? Or go to the club?”

The country club did serve a Thanksgiving dinner. Not many people went to it, but Raven and I had been known to grace it on a number of occasions.

“I thought we might do something different this year. Perhaps have some people over.”

Raven paused in the middle of cutting her food. “We’ve never done that.”

“Which is why it might be nice. What do you think of inviting Lanie and her parents here?”

An unreadable expression crossed her face.

“Raven?”

“It’s already Monday. They probably already have plans.”

“Not set in stone ones. I already talked to Lanie.”

“Oh. You invited her?”

“No, I only asked about her Thanksgiving.” I watched Raven carefully, but she still offered no sure reaction. “Are you okay? I thought you liked that Lanie and I are seeing each other again.”

Raven ran her bottom lip under her teeth. “No, yeah. I do. It’s just why do we have to have all these people over?”

“We don’t.”

For a second, I was hurt, but then I remembered everything I’d learned about Raven in the last month. It could be she needed some special one-on-one time with me but didn’t want to explicitly ask for it.

“You want it to be just us?” I gently asked. “Like it always is?”

“Lanie can come, too. I don’t want to be around all these new people.” She shrugged.

“It would just be her parents.” I quickly spoke again, knowing there was no reason for pointing that out. If Raven wanted an intimate Thanksgiving, I would give that to her. “You know, I see what you’re saying. And I like our small Thanksgivings too.”

“But with Lanie this year,” she pressed.

“Okay,” I agreed. “Again, I haven’t asked her yet. So, if she can make it.”

“I don’t want to go to the club.”

“We’ll use that catering company.”

Raven pursed her lips, looking uncomfortable. I stopped myself from sighing in frustration just in time. Jeez, I was trying here. Getting Raven to admit to what she wanted could be like pulling teeth sometimes, though.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You don’t like that one? There’s another company we could use. Or I can probably book a chef to come in and cook here. It’s a little late, but I’m sure I can find someone.” I pulled my phone out, ready to open the search engine.

“You said no phones at the table.”

I peered at her serious face over my phone. “If we want to find a chef, I need to do it tonight.”

“Why don’t we cook ourselves?”

I guffawed. “You mean a turkey?” I could hardly say it without laughing again. “You know I can’t cook, right?”

“I saw you made Lanie something the other night.”

“Yeah, that was simple. But a full Thanksgiving meal—” I stopped at the disappointment on her face, realizing how thickheaded I was being. “You know what? That sounds like a great idea.”

Raven’s face lit up. “Really?”

“Absolutely. Except I can’t make any promises that I won’t burn everything.”

She shook her head. “We’ll be doing it together. And we’ll have recipes.”

“I’ve never cooked a turkey,” I warned.

“How hard can it be? Loads of people do it all the time.”

“Okay.” I chuckled. “I’ll give you that.”

Raven picked up her fork and knife, cutting her casserole up into little pieces as she talked a mile a minute. “We’ll have to make a list. Can we go shopping tomorrow? We have to go soon or else all the best turkeys will be gone. What should we make? I guess all the usual stuff, right? Except cranberry sauce is gross. But I guess Lanie might want it—”

“Hold it right there,” I interrupted. “You don’t like cranberry sauce?”

“No. It’s disgusting.”

“All right, this confirms it. There must have been a mix-up in the hospital because you are definitely not my daughter.”

Raven rolled her eyes. “Keep trying, Dad. Maybe one day you’ll come up with a joke that’s funny.”

“People at work like my jokes.” I grinned.

“You pay the people at work.”

“Lanie likes my jokes.”

“Yeah, I’m not going there.” She put a big forkful of food in her mouth and chewed away.

As we ate, we planned the upcoming meal in greater detail. With each dish added, my excitement grew. I couldn’t wait to ask Lanie over. As long as her joining us didn’t cause any discord with her parents, it was all I wanted.

A Thanksgiving at home, a real one, full of time spent together. It would be the opposite of the wham bam, catered holiday meals Raven and I were used to.

With Lanie there, everything would be perfect. A man couldn’t ask for more.