Chapter 37

Lanie

The light turned yellow, and I slowed the car down, not in any rush to get to my parents’ house.

“When are you leaving?” I asked Erica.

“First thing tomorrow morning,” she answered, her voice coming through the car’s speakers. “Traffic is going to be a bitch.”

“You’re not complaining about the romantic weekend your boyfriend is taking you on already, are you?”

“Never.”

I smiled to myself. Each time we’d talked since the interaction with Dirty Pirate Guy, aka Troy, Erica had gushed about Matt in one way or another. It seemed that having another guy ask her out was all it took for her to remember she was, as she put it, one of the luckiest people in the world.

“And when are you back?”

“Sunday night. It’s the full, extended weekend, baby.”

“Sounds nice.” The light changed to green, and I sighed as I hit the gas. “I’m four blocks away.”

“Don’t be afraid. You’ve already told them you’re sleeping with Andrew. Telling your parents about Thanksgiving will be a piece of cake.”

“Just to clarify, I never specifically said I’m sleeping with him.”

“Right. I’m sure your mom and dad think you’re a virgin.”

“Maybe.”

“With my influence rubbing off on you for the last twenty-three years? I don’t think so.”

“True.” I took a turn onto my parents’ street. Three more blocks to go.

“By the way, Andrew’s inviting you to dinner only confirms what I already thought. He wants you. In more than one way.”

My tummy grew warm at that, but I was used to not getting my hopes up and so couldn’t readily agree with her. “It might have been Raven’s idea.”

“Really? That’s so sweet.”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “It is. She’s a great girl.”

“Are you two going to braid each other’s hair while you’re there tomorrow?”

“Do you have to turn everything into a joke?” I countered.

“Sorry. I’m trying to distract you from what you’re about to do.”

“Ugh.” I grimaced. “One more block to go.”

“Ten. Nine. Eight.”

“Can I put you on speaker and bring the phone in with me? That way, there’ll be a witness if my parents murder me.”

“Gruesome.”

Slowly, I pulled up the driveway. With staying later at school and then driving nearly all the way across town, the sun had set half an hour ago. The fake candles my mom had placed in the front windows glowed, a misleading welcome.

“I should get this over with. Have fun this weekend.”

“You too!” Erica squealed. “I’ll send pics.”

We hung up, and I hurried across the cold driveway, noting that my dad’s car wasn’t around.

“Hello,” I called, letting myself in through the open door.

“In the den!”

Unwinding my scarf, I followed Mom’s voice into the main room and found her sitting in the middle of the floor, boxes of ornaments and Christmas decorations surrounding her.

“I can’t find Grandma’s angel,” she cried in despair.

Settling on the floor next to her, I looked all around. “Which boxes have you looked in?”

“All of them.”

“Hm. Okay. Well, it has to be somewhere. The boxes have been in the attic all year long. I doubt a squirrel went up there and stole it.”

“Their paws are too little to open these lids.”

I tried not to laugh at my mother’s agony. “Don’t worry. We’ll find it.”

Happy to have a task to distract myself with, I pulled a big red box to me and began to carefully pull everything out of it. Tissue paper, shiny orbs, popsicle ornaments I’d made in grade school, and more tissue paper. No antique angel.

“You’re coming to put the tree up on Friday?” Mom asked.

“Yeah.” I paused. This was the segue I needed. If I could only gather the necessary bravery.

“And tomorrow. What time are you coming over?” She looked at me expectantly, sparkly tissue paper in both hands.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.” I swallowed. “Since Thanksgiving is pretty small this year, I was thinking you and Dad wouldn’t mind if I spend it somewhere else.” I bit my lip. “Not here.”

As if that needed clarification.

Mom tilted her head in confusion. “With Erica and Matt?”

“No, they’re going away for the weekend. Andrew and, um, his daughter Raven invited me to their place.”

“That’s nice.” She put the tissue paper down and started on the next box while I stared at her.

That’s nice?

“I’m going to go,” I said. “But I’ll be back over here on Friday—”

“You should go,” Mom encouraged.

The room literally started to tilt. “Um.”

“Lanie, I know I gave you an earful about this before,” she matter-of-factly explained, “But I’ve had some time to think about it. If your father is all right with you and Andrew dating, then so am I.”

“Really?”

“Mm-hmm. Look in that little silver box.” She pointed to my right. “It might be in there.”

I obediently opened the box and discovered the angel resting on some cotton.

“Goodness me, I must be losing my mind,” Mom exclaimed. “I swear I already opened that up.”

I handed her the box. “You’re not mad about me not being here for Thanksgiving?”

She moved her head in some kind of tilt, shake combo. “It’s just Thanksgiving. You know it’s Christmas that really matters.”

So said my mother’s living room full of Christmas decorations.

“Okay. I just wanted to make sure this was all right with you.”

Mom straightened the dress on the angel. “The way I see it now, Lanie, your father knows Andrew much better than I do. If he trusts the man, that’s good enough for me.”

I nodded, liking where the conversation was going more and more.

“Also,” she continued, “His ex-wife is dead, so that’s good.”

“Mom,” I gasped.

She pursed her lips. “Oh, stop. You know what I’m saying. Her death was a horrible thing, especially with Raven being so young. But at least you won’t have some ex meddling in your affairs, trying to interfere with Raven all the time like if Andrew was divorced.”

“Right,” I nodded, looking at my reflection in a red ornament.

“What are you making to bring?”
“Um.”

“Lanie!” Mom’s eyes were wild. “I thought I raised you better than that.”

“You did. I haven’t decided what I’m taking yet, that’s all.”

Mom gently set the angel on a bed of tissue paper. “I assume you want things to work out between you and Andrew.”

“Um, yes?”

“Yes with a question mark or with a period?”

I bit on the inside of my cheek with frustration. How come it felt like everyone was grilling me on the seriousness of our relationship? The only people not obsessed with our future seemed to be me and him.

“I like him,” was all I said.

“What you mean is it’s not just a fling?”

“Right,” I answered, hoping that was good enough.

“Then you need to help make the meal. Just bringing a dish won’t be good enough. Offer to get there early in the morning to get everything started. If you want Andrew to see you in a long-term way, you need to show him all the aspects of your womanhood. I didn’t send you to those etiquette and culinary classes for nothing.”

And … Janice Jacobs, ladies and gentlemen.

“I’ll see if they want my help,” I said. “But I don’t want to intrude on their father-daughter time.”

Mom clicked her tongue. “Nonsense. They invited you to dinner. They want you there. You can’t sit around in your apartment all morning.”

“I’m pretty good at that.”

She gave me a sour look.

“When are you getting the tree this year?” I asked, eager to change the subject.

“Friday morning. Remember? I’ll pick one up for you as well. Do you think Andrew and Raven would like to come with? We could all go. The five of us.”

I thought about that, me and my parents and Andrew and Raven all together. Seeing Dad and Andrew in the same room once had been enough of a shock. I wasn’t sure I was ready to make a big excursion out of their knowing each other.

“I’ll see,” I noncommittally answered.

“They celebrate Christmas, right?”

“I think so. We’ve never talked about it.”

Mom went on, going through the ornaments while talking about all the plans she had for the holidays. The coat drive at church. Taking a night trip to see the big light display at the farm outside of the city.

As I sorted through the glitter and glass, I zoned out, enjoying the peaceful state her chatter put me in. My mother could talk to a wall. It might have been annoying for some people, but I’d learned long ago how to make the best of it.

When we finished picking out the ornaments for that year and put the rest away, I waved away Mom’s insistence that I stay for dinner and went out to the car. It had only been a three-day week, but it wore me out, and I was ready to curl up on the couch.

First, though, I had to make a call.

Sitting in the driveway with the engine idling, I dialed Andrew’s number and put him on speaker.

“Hello,” that perfectly deep and silky voice answered.

“Hi.” Though I was sitting, my legs still shook. Every time I heard Andrew speak, I remembered the things he did to me in bed. Basically, one word from him and I melted.

“What’s going on?”

“I just talked to my parents, and it looks like I’m coming to your house tomorrow.”

“I thought that was settled.”

“Kind of.” I looked back at the dark house, wondering if Mom watched me from between the curtains. “I had to check and make sure they were okay with me skipping out on them.”

Andrew’s tone changed to a deadly serious one. “I don’t want to do anything that will upset them.”

“Surprisingly, Mom was understanding. She, uh, encouraged me to go to your house.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

I’d save the subject of my mother’s need to see me married for another conversation.

“But, hey, I would like to come and help you guys cook tomorrow. If you want me to. It’s such a big job, and I’d hate to leave you hanging.”

“Yeah?” he pleasantly asked. “Hold on a sec.”

The phone went to mute, but I could make an educated guess and say Andrew was asking Raven if my helping would be all right.

“Can you come around ten?” he asked a minute later.

“Yeah. Ten works for me.”

“Great.”

“Cool.” I smiled, feeling giddy thinking about it. I really wanted to spend time with both of them, but perhaps Andrew and I would get a chance to sneak off for a few minutes.

We said goodbye, and I cruised out of the parking lot, the cloud I floated on carrying me the whole way home.