Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
It was ridiculous, but I liked the sound of our names together. It had gone from everyone being single to our friends pairing off into duos, and now I was part of one with Josh.
“I’m right here. You didn’t have to yell,” Knox said from the living room.
“Eh. It’s more fun that way.” Logan waggled his eyebrows.
“You’re gonna be trouble, aren’t you, kid?” Josh ruffled his hair.
“Nope. I’m the good one.”
“Whatever!” said Knox’s daughter, Charlie, as Knox took the pies from Josh.
“Welcome to the madhouse. Make yourself at home.”
We headed into the living room. Josh and I went straight for Kellan and Chase. Remy, Law, Natalie, Miguel, Callum’s mom, Mary Beth, and Knox’s ex-wife, Carol, were all already there. I hadn’t realized his ex-wife was staying for the holiday as well, but I wasn’t surprised. She and Knox were close, and Callum loved her.
“Hey, babe.” Josh and Kellan hugged the way they always did, but there was something stiffer in the way they did it, in the sound of their voices too.
“Hey, you…how are the two of you doing?” Kellan asked.
“We’re good, Kell,” I replied before Josh had the chance.
“You better be.” His tone was playful, but I knew the seriousness behind it. If the situation were reversed, Kellan would have told me to mind my own business, and I would have deserved it. He did too, but maybe he saw now that it wasn’t as easy as he thought, when you loved and worried about people. I knew he just wanted what was best for us the same way I had when I’d first found out about him and Chase.
“Stop being a butthead.” Josh nudged Kellan.
“Hey, what a coincidence. I say that to him often,” Chase added.
“I’m feeling very ganged up on here, and I don’t like it.” Kellan smiled at Josh. “Sorry. Still getting used to the fact that you’re banging my brother.”
I rolled my eyes. “Nice, Kell.”
“He speaks the truth.”
“I think I might have approached this conversation at the wrong time,” Remy said from behind me.
“No, you didn’t. Save me from these guys,” I teased, and luckily, the tension began to melt away, which was a relief since it definitely wasn’t what I wanted for today.
“Mary Beth, will you play Uno with me?” Charlie asked from the other side of the room.
“Of course I will,” Callum’s mom replied. It was nice to see her involved. She looked happier than I’d ever seen her.
“She seems to be all about the grandma life.”
“She is!” Callum approached. “And…well, I helped her sign up for online dating. She’s been talking to a woman who lives on the Eastern Shore. I’m hoping it goes somewhere.”
Warmth spread through my chest. Everyone was falling into place, where they were supposed to be.
I looked over Remy to Josh. He smiled and winked, but I saw how the corners of his eyes wrinkled the way they did when he was a little down. It wasn’t something I recognized until the past few weeks, but I felt like I knew Josh’s moods now. “You good?” I mouthed, and he nodded.
We stood around and chatted for a while. Knox and Callum went back and forth to the kitchen a lot, preparing the meal. The rest of us all brought a side dish, but Knox made a turkey, and Callum made, in Knox’s words, some of his healthy shit.
Eventually, dinner was done. They’d set a long, folding table with chairs in the living room so everyone could fit. It was the only space big enough for all of us, this makeshift family we’d created together.
“You missed the clumpy cranberries,” Josh told me as I was making my plate. “Don’t you really like those? I feel like you eat a shit ton of them every year.”
“Clumpy is much better than can-shaped, but yeah. I do like them. You know that?” My nose wrinkled. It was such a small thing. I couldn’t remember us ever making a joke about my love of cranberries, but he knew. It was something Josh had noticed about me over the years, and that truth settled around me like a warm blanket.
“It’s not a big deal.”
Everyone else was busy and not paying us much attention, except Remy, who stood beside me. “It’s always the small things that matter. Law’s good at that. It’s one of the things that made me fall in love with him.”
Law was standing on the other side of Remy, but talking to Knox. As if sensing Remy was talking about him, he leaned over and kissed the top of his head before continuing his conversation. I’d never seen two people who sensed what the other needed as much as they did.
My gaze darted toward Josh to see how he was reacting to Remy comparing us to them, if that’s even what Remy was doing. He just grinned and said, “I’m good at the small and the big things, man.”