Healed (11 page)

He raised his hands up, pleading with me. “I know. I think I was just nervous about you spending today with my family.”

“Why the hell would you be nervous?” I asked, placing most of my weight on one foot, while I waited for his answer.

That was when he started to pace, fidgeting with his jacket every pass. “It’s . . . it’s just . . . your family does this huge Christmas, and I’m afraid that you’ll be disappointed spending the day with my family.”

What?

“Whoa. You have got to be kidding me,” I said, enunciating each word as it left my lips. “Do you honestly believe that all I care about are the fucking presents?”

“Well . . . umm . . .” He looked down and away again. “No,” he eventually said with more conviction.

Good answer.

“Then why would I be disappointed?”

“I don’t know. I’m sorry, okay. I should have talked to you about it more last night, but I was just completely overwhelmed by the whole thing.”

That was understandable. My parents were completely overwhelming.

Against my better judgment, I felt the tension start to leave my body. “So that conversation we had a while ago about not keeping things from each other, that was . . . what? Just empty words?”

“No.” He walked over to take my hands in his, unwinding my arms. “Please forgive me, sweetheart. We’ll go to my parents, have a wonderful time, and enjoy this Christmas together.

As much as I wanted to still be mad, he was right. It was the first time we were spending Christmas together. Why ruin it over something stupid. “All right, but you’re gonna pay for this tomorrow.”

Bending down, he captured my lips in a too brief kiss. “I know, but let’s go enjoy today and worry about tomorrow when it gets here.”

“Okay.”

And with that, after a half an hour of drama, we were on our way to his parents’ house.

What he was worried about, I wasn’t exactly sure. Their house was beautifully done. The sky cloudy enough that even though it was daytime, I could see the all-white lighting clearly, giving it a very welcoming feel. There were pine garland swags hanging from below each window, a red bow in the center, and a large wreath hanging from the front door. Even the long winding driveway was lit along the sides. Not that the house needed to be decorated, but he said he was overwhelmed by my parents place. Okay, so his parents did a much calmer version— it didn’t make it any less festive.

“It’s beautiful. I can only imagine what it’ll look like when the sun goes down.”

“Thanks,” he smiled. “Mom loves to decorate.”

“I’m still not sure what you were worried about.”

“I was just being stupid. You have to stop listening to me when I get like that.”

“Oh and that’s real easy—especially when you know how to push all the right buttons.”

“True. Okay, enough of this. Let’s go inside. I’m sure Mom’s waiting for us.”

Nodding, I got out of the car and made my way to the back to help get the bags out of the trunk when, out of nowhere, my stomach gave a huge rumbling growl.

“Hungry?” Andrew asked with a smirk.

“Yes, I hope your mom has something good to eat.”

He wrapped his free arm around my shoulders. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Your parents may go overboard on the presents, but my mom does it with food. There will be more food and sweets in there than even
you
can handle.”

My sweet tooth was never-ending. It was part of the reason I loved to bake this time of year. It wasn’t too hot to have the oven on, plus you were stuck inside anyway. For a person like me, who loved the summer, winter was way too cold. The downside was all of the extra time I’d need to put in at the gym to make up for all the extra calories.

Andrew led me up the stairs and the closer we got to the door, the more amazing the smells became. And then the door opened.

Oh—my—God.

It was like stepping into heaven for a sugar junkie, like myself.

“Yay, you guys made it!” Andrew’s mom squealed, coming around the corner from the kitchen.

“Really, Mom? I told you we were coming today.” He bent down and placed a kiss on her cheek. “Merry Christmas.”

“I know. Merry Christmas. I’m just so excited that you’re here. I made extra cookies for you guys.”

“Extra?” Andrew said, eyes widening a bit. “I’m pretty sure we would have been good with the normal amount.”

“Yeah, but I found all these new recipes to try.”

“Shit, we’re going to be eating cookies for a month.”

Sarah smacked the back of his head. “Watch your mouth.” She looked over at me and opened her arms. “Merry Christmas, Emily. I’m so happy you’re here.”

I took a step forward into her embrace. “Me too. Merry Christmas, Sarah.”

My stomach chose that moment to growl again, extra loud this time.

Turning to me, Andrew put his hand out. “Here, I’ll take the bags. You get your coat off and get something to eat.”

“Absolutely,” Sarah agreed.

With my tummy making all kinds of noises, I couldn’t really deny how hungry I was. All of the extra-curricular activities this morning had burned up all my energy. Passing the bags to Andrew, I pulled off my coat and handed it to Sarah, who had her hand out waiting. Okay, so things were a little more formal than at my parents’ house. That didn’t mean it wasn’t going to be a good day.

“Let me hang this up and I’ll be right back.”

There was a loud banging coming from the stairs. I should have known who it was before two arms wrapped around me from behind.

“Yay! Em’s here.”

“Hey, Jess. Merry Christmas. When did you get here?”

After a moment or so she let me go and I was able to turn around and look at her. Jessica, Andrew’s younger sister, was in her first year of college up in Hartford, CT. She had the same blonde hair that Andrew had, but her eyes were a deep blue, instead of the sky blue of Andrew’s, and she was closer to my height than his. Not only did they share the same hair color, but Jess shared his crazy personality as well.

“Merry Christmas, and about a half an hour ago.”

“How’s school going?”

“Oh, man, it’s awesome,” she said, practically jumping up and down in her excitement. “My roommate is really cool, plus there’s a ton of stuff to do right on campus.”

“That’s how I met Angie—she was my roommate freshman year. What about your classes? How are they?”

She shrugged. “My Biology class is a little harder than I thought it would be, but that’s okay because there’s this hot guy who helps me study.”

“Oh no, no, no.” Andrew came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. “There will be no studying with—”

Sarah chose the perfect moment to come back and break up the argument between the two of them.

“Andrew, go put all of that under the tree and meet us in the kitchen. Jess, ignore your brother. He’s just being overprotective.” Sarah wrapped her arm around me. “Come on, sweetie. I’ve got a ton of food in the kitchen.”

Sarah led me into the kitchen and I almost stopped dead in my tracks. There were no words to describe what was in front of me. It looked like a bakery or restaurant that was getting ready for some kind of banquet.

So—much—food.

“Um . . . Sarah, who else is coming for dinner?”

She led me over to the table in the kitchen, which was almost completely covered with dishes and dishes of deliciousness.

“Oh, just my sister, her husband, and her kids,” she answered, moving farther into the kitchen.

My eyes practically bulged out of my head. With the amount of food on the table, I was expecting at least twenty more people. Andrew’s aunt only had two kids—I’d met them at a barbecue last summer. What she was going to do with all that food, I had no idea.

“What do you want to eat? How about a piece of spinach and feta quiche?” she asked, searching around the kitchen.

I’d been so distracted when I walked into the kitchen that I hadn’t realized Jess had followed us, until she took the seat across from me.

“Hey, Mom, what about the cinnamon buns you made?” she asked, giving me a wink. I think she was trying to save me from the quiche, but I was so hungry everything sounded good.

“Oh! Good idea,” Sarah said. She was standing at the counter, already loading two plates with quiche when, suddenly, she turned and made a beeline for the other side of the kitchen, returning with a plate overflowing with the most delicious looking cinnamon rolls I’d ever seen.

“So tell me about the wedding plans,” Jess demanded.

Switching my attention from Sarah and whatever she was putting together at the counter, to Jess, who was practically bouncing in her seat, I answered. “There’s not much to tell really. We chose a date, the first Saturday next April and . . . well, that’s about it.”

“What about bridesmaids? You have to have picked bridesmaids. Or colors? What about colors?” She continued to ramble, her eyes gleaming, not once giving me the chance to answer.

I laughed. Her excitement was infectious. It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought about it, but there hadn’t been much time to do anything other than schoolwork recently.

“You already know them. My sister is going to be the maid of honor, and you and Angie will be the bridesmaids. Besides that, I was really waiting on Andrew to decide how many guys he is going to have so the numbers would be even.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “You mean he hasn’t decided yet, either?”

I shrugged. “He might have, but between both of our schedules we haven’t had a lot of time to sit down and talk about it.”

She looked at me for a second. “Andrew!” she yelled, making me jump.

A second later, Sarah set a plate in front of me, overflowing with food. It was insane, but looked wonderful at the same time. There was no way I was going to be able to eat all of it. “Don’t worry about the little things right now, you have time. It’s the venue that you should start looking for.”

“What do you want? I was talking to Dad in the other room,” Andrew said, strolling into the kitchen.

Although he had a close relationship with both of his parents, Andrew and his father were cut from the same cloth. They liked the same jokes, the same sports teams. While Andrew respected his father as a parent, he also saw him as a friend, a person he could go to with his problems. He talked to his dad a lot. He’d been the first to know that Andrew planned to propose.

Andrew must have seen the incredulous look on my face because he started laughing.

“Mom’s feeding you, I see.” He tipped his head indicating the enormous plate in front of me, his smile a mile wide.

“Yeah,” I answered, completely bewildered about what I was supposed to do with all the food.

“I made a plate for you too,” Sarah said, bringing over a plate with more on it than mine, setting it in front of the seat next to me. Andrew’s eyes snapped back and forth between his Mom and the plate.

“Mom, I think
your
eyes are bigger than
my
stomach.”

“I gave you a little bit of everything. There’s some quiche, a cinnamon bun, a piece of muffin, and a small sandwich,” said Sarah, pointing at each thing on the plate.

“Oh, is that it?” he said, sarcastically. He turned to me. “Do you want something to drink to wash down that
little bit
of food?”

“Drinks. I knew I’d forgotten something.” His mom looked like she was ready to hit herself in the head, yet she still managed to give Andrew a quick swat on his arm.

“Ow!”

“Behave,” she said, turning toward the cupboard with the glasses in it.

“Always, Mom.” He pressed a brief kiss to her cheek before taking his seat next to me.

“What would you like to drink, Emily? We have orange juice, ice tea, lemonade—”

“A glass of ice tea sounds perfect, thank you.”

“Hey, Mom, aren’t you forgetting someone in this whole ‘let’s make plates and serve people food’ thing you’ve got going on here?”

She peeked her head around the door of the fridge. Taking a step away, she grabbed another plate filled with as much food as mine, brought it over and set it in front of Jess. Jess looked it and laughed. “Mom, you’re out of control.”

Sarah placed her hands on her hips. “I am not. I just want my babies to be well fed.”

“We’re definitely that.” Andrew laughed, earning himself another swat to the back of his head. “Mom,” he groaned. He was still staring at the enormous plates in front of him and me.

Jess wasted no time digging into her food. “Back to you,” she said between mouthfuls, pointing her fork at Andrew.

“Jess, don’t talk with your mouth full,” Sarah scolded from the other side of the room.

While all of this was going on around me, I remained quiet, deciding to stay out of it and simply eat. The growling of my stomach was getting louder and louder with each minute that passed. Taking a bite of the cinnamon bun I almost groaned out loud. The first bite melted in my mouth. It was warm and sweet and so good.

“Sarah, this is delicious.”

Jess swallowed what was in her mouth and returned her focus to the wedding.

“Have you decided on your groomsman for the wedding?”

There was a devious glint in Andrew’s eye. He was up to something. Then he smirked at her, and I knew this was only going to end badly. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Yes. Yes, I would. Hence the whole reason I’m asking.”

In a move out of my own playbook—reserved for when my sister demanded something from me—Andrew stared back at Jess, but said nothing, lifting his fork to his mouth.

“Tell me before I kill you,” she snapped.

He shrugged and pointed to his now full mouth as he chewed. He shook his head, eyes bright with restrained laughter. Jess’s eyes flashed, and I thought she was going to kill him.

Taking pity on her—mainly because if he’d done shit like that to me, I probably would have killed him—I elbowed him the side to prove my point.

“Stop being a jerk and tell her what she wants to know.”

“Fine,” he pouted. “You’re ruining all my fun. I can’t believe you took her side.” He looked over at Jess. “Nick is going to be my best man, and then Caleb and Josh will be the groomsmen.”

“Oh,” Jess squealed. “You both have three.” She was clapping her hands like a little kid who’d just won a game of Chutes and Ladders.