The Bloom Girls

by Amy Pine

  Ethan was still standing there, stunned, as his own parents piled in behind him.

  “We’re here to help!” Ruth Harris called out.

  “I hear the turkey’s out back?” Robert Harris chimed in, and as if in a choreographed dance, he followed Alissa’s father’s trail—who had followed Matthew’s trail—out to where said turkey waited.

  Ruth Harris, much like Alissa’s mother, lowered her voice and leaned in toward Becca and Alissa with a conspiratorial smile. “I’m a little shocked by Gabi’s decision to have her friend officiate, but Ethan has assured us that our rabbi will at least be attending as a guest.”

  She straightened and glanced at her son. “Thank you for thinking of your family. I’ll just go help Alissa’s mom with whatever she’s doing over there.”

  “Oh shit,” Becca said.

  “I think you already said that,” Alissa replied.

  “You don’t think…” her sister added, but then trailed off. Because of course Matthew’s parents were the next through the swinging doors.

  “Gabi invited your rabbi as a guest?” Alissa said to her ex in-laws before they had a chance to utter a single syllable.

  Gigi pressed a hand to her own chest, a proud grin spreading across her face. “She told you?” Matthew’s mother asked but didn’t wait for Alissa to answer. “Such a wonderful girl. She even told Avi he could lead a short meditation on the dance floor before they cut the cake.” She squeezed her husband’s hand. “I think all the boys are out back with the turkey.”

  Gramps held up a bottle of whiskey in one hand and four rocks glasses in the other. “We may be a minute or two,” he said before following the invisible trail the others had left before him.

  “Oh shit,” Becca said again, this time unable to suppress a laugh.

  “Please,” Alissa said, squeezing her sister’s hand. “Go out there and make sure everyone else stays put until we have the food on the table—and until Ethan and I are done talking here.”

  Becca kissed her sister on the cheek. “You got it, sis. Plus, that’s where all the wine is, so…”

  Ugh. All the wine. What Alissa wouldn’t give to be able to drink all the wine right about now and forget Matthew saying he loved her—forget that he was on the phone right now likely accepting a full-time university position where he could hit the slopes on his days off.

  “And sorry,” Becca added on her way out, glancing from Alissa to Ethan and back to her sister again. “For accidentally spilling the beans. Or is it spilling the tea now? Which one makes me sound younger? Wait. Don’t answer that. I’m detecting high levels of snark brewing and will escape while I can.”

  And escape she did, leaving Alissa to bury her emotions and face her soon-to-be son-in-law, a flurry of dinner prep going on behind her.

  “Please,” Alissa said, both hands now resting on her pregnant belly. “I know we shouldn’t have kept this from Gabi for as long as we have, but you have no idea how complicated this situation is.”

  Ethan scrubbed a hand across his jaw. “Alissa…If I lie to Gabi about something this huge, how will she ever trust me again?”

  Alissa nodded. How would Gabi ever trust her again? “I know. But I’m not asking you to lie. Just to keep her occupied for a couple of hours so we can get through this dinner and then tell her everything. Two hours, Ethan. Please.” She brushed away a tear that didn’t seem to care how hard she blinked to keep it at bay. “I’m begging you. We need to do this right—Matt and me.”

  Ethan stared at her for a long moment, and Alissa held her breath waiting for his response. Because she realized that no matter what happened between her and Matt—no matter how irrevocably they might break each other’s hearts—Alissa would survive it. She would have to. But if Alissa lost her daughter’s presence in her life, her trust, her love? She’d never survive that.

  “Okay,” Ethan finally said. “Two hours.”

  “Thank you!” she said, on the verge of sobbing. Then she threw her arms around him and pulled him into a hug.

  Things might not be perfect after tonight, but she wouldn’t lose her daughter. And that was all that mattered.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Gabi leaned in at just the right moment and wrapped her hands around Ethan’s wrist, brutally stealing the first bite of his pumpkin whoopie pie before he had a chance to sink his teeth into it.

  Ethan gasped dramatically. “How dare you?” Then he dipped his index finger into the light, whipped cream cheese filling and swiped said filling across the tip of Gabi’s nose.

  This time she was the one who gasped, but there was no hyperbole in her reaction. “How dare you waste the most delicious part of Thanksgiving when you could have just as easily done your finger painting on my lips!”

  Ethan shrugged. “Careful what you wish for.” And then he opened the whoopie pie like it was a double-stuffed Oreo and—using one half of the treat as a sponge—spread the filling across Gabi’s lips.

  Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. Had he really just—?

  T.J. and Miriam strode through the kitchen doors to where Ethan and Gabi’s dessert-themed spat was under way.

  “Aren’t you two supposed to be bringing out the pastries rather than…” Miriam rolled her eyes when she and T.J. made their way closer to the island. “Really, Bloom? A food fight? There are tipsy boomers out there, and I was kind of hoping your mom was going to get some karaoke going, but she and your dad seem to have disappeared. Not before he gave me these, though!” She brandished what looked like computer-printed tickets, but to what Gabi had no idea.

  “What…” Gabi started, but she was quickly reminded that her lips and nose were covered in cream cheese filling.

  “I think you have a little something right…” T.J. said, then pointed to the corner of his mouth.

  Of course the corner of Gabi’s mouth was the one spot where there was no filling at all.

  She narrowed her eyes at her fiancé’s best friend and licked her lips, then swiped a finger across her nose, salvaging what she could, and sucked the filling clean from her finger.

  Ethan chuckled and bit into one of the open-faced halves of his pastry. “Never mess with a man’s dessert,” he said, then immediately pivoted out of Gabi’s way as she tried to pilfer what was left.

  “Sorry,” Gabi finally said to Miriam. “What did my dad give you?”

  She handed Gabi the stack of printouts.

  “Tickets to Lightscape,” Miriam said. “That really cool, not-cheap-to-go-see light installation tour that’s at the botanic garden over the holidays. I’ve heard it’s amazing and pretty much sold out through its entire run, but your dad gave us tickets for tomorrow night for the four of us.” Gabi tugged on the tickets, but Miriam still hadn’t let go. “Okay so he gave you four tickets, but since I’m your best friend…”

  “And I’m yours…” T.J. added, batting his lashes at Ethan.

  Gabi snorted. “You two choreographed that, didn’t you? Of course we’ll bring you knuckleheads.”

  “Aw,” T.J. said. “I like knucklehead almost as much as Wonder Dick. It’s like a term of endearment.”

  Miriam rolled her eyes and finally relinquished the tickets.

  “And what about my parents disappearing?” Gabi asked. “The house isn’t that big.”

  Miriam shrugged. “I don’t know. But I sensed some tension between them at dinner. Didn’t you?”

  “No tension,” Ethan blurted, then cleared his throat. “I mean, no more than usual when you’re eating Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by three rabbis whom you just told you do not want officiating your wedding.”

  Gabi stared at her fiancé. “What’s up with you, now?”

  “What? Nothing. Why would anything be up? I’m not up. You’re up.” He grabbed another whoopie pie and shoved the entire thing in his mouth, then shrugged.

  “Okaaay,” Gabi said. She nodded at the platter of pumpkin whoopie pies and other various desserts plated and ready to go on the
island. “Can you two grab this stuff, and we’ll go find my parents and make sure everything’s okay?”

  Miriam happily took the pumpkin pastries, which Gabi knew she loved as well, and T.J. lined his arm with a plate of fruit tartlets, another of macarons, and one more with her mom’s rendition of the famous Nieman Marcus chocolate chip cookies.

  “I don’t want to brag,” T.J. said, clearly proud of himself. “But I was a server all through college and grad school.”

  Miriam raised her brows. “And you held on to your plate-carrying talent all this time.”

  He winked at her. “You’re impressed. I can tell.”

  “Thanks, guys,” Gabi said, then turned to Ethan. “If you want to go with them and deal with whatever it is you’re dealing with, I’ll only be a minute. Just want to make sure my parents are okay and aren’t going to have one of their blowouts on a combined family holiday. I swear it hasn’t happened in years.” She winced. “Ugh. Maybe that means they’re due? God, I hope not.”

  Ethan hesitated for a second, which gave Gabi an unexplained sinking feeling. But then he grabbed her hand and said, “They’ve got dessert under control. Let’s go find your parents.”

  They followed Miriam and T.J. out of the kitchen but then cut behind the dining room table and into the small hallway that held Gabi’s room, a bathroom, and Alissa’s master bedroom.

  “Not many places for them to hide, right?” she said with a grin, but that sinking in her gut was tugging harder. Her parents seemed to be doing so well, especially with her dad finally staying put. She didn’t want it all to fall apart now, just weeks before the wedding.

  She poked her head into her bedroom and saw nothing but a pile of coats on what used to be her bed. Then she heard muffled voices coming from down the hall—from her mom’s room.

  “Please,” she heard her dad say through the crack in the door as they approached. “You have to believe me. I told you in August that I was taking the job here, that I wanted to give us a chance. The only reason I took that call was because I couldn’t just leave them hanging. They offered me a job. A great job, but I choose you, Alissa. Don’t you get it?”

  “What if a year from now you change your mind? What if you regret saying no to this—and you resent me for it?” Her mom blew out a shaky breath. “What if we fail, Matt, and you could have been happier with someone else who could have given you the world when I can only ever give you this small corner of it?”

  “Then I want you and your small corner,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “What about Brigid?” she asked softly, barely loud enough for Gabi to hear.

  Her father sighed. “I broke off the engagement, Alissa, because she wasn’t you.”

  “My dad was engaged?” Gabi whispered, surprised at how the words felt like a sock in the gut. Maybe she had always seen her parents as Princess Ann and a reporter named Joe—surviving on simply knowing the person they loved was out there even if they couldn’t be together. What else didn’t she know about the two people who created her, who shaped her into the person she was today? And why was she suddenly scared to find out?

  “Maybe we shouldn’t be here,” Ethan said.

  “You almost married our daughter’s freshman math teacher,” her dad countered, and Gabi’s jaw dropped.

  “Yeah, well, he wasn’t you.” Her mom dipped her head, crossing and uncrossing her arms over her chest, and something looked—different—about her. But Gabi was still reeling from the barrage of new information about her parents to put it together.

  “She dated Mr. Truly?” Gabi mouthed. Her bittersweet angst was quickly morphing to full-on shock. If she was a cartoon character, her eyes would be bugging out of her head on Slinky-like springs. Gabi was clueless that her mom ever really dated at all when she was younger…but how had she missed her having a full-on relationship with Mr. Truly?

  “I know you’re scared, Liss. I am too, but if we don’t even try, how is that any different from failing?”

  Alissa’s head shot up. “Have you been talking to my sister?”

  Her dad’s brows furrowed, and her mother continued.

  “You never said you wanted to stay, Matt. All those years.”

  “And you never asked me to. But now we have a second chance. A real second chance with this baby, but just because I didn’t close the door on Colorado until now doesn’t mean I’m the asshole who’s running.”

  She took a step back. “You left me the umbrella at the doctor’s office and said See you at Thanksgiving. Admit it. You were pulling away as much as I was pushing.”

  He scrubbed a hand over his beard. “Fine. I admit it. But I’ve never held back about how I feel about you. Why can’t you do the same? It should be as simple as saying Matt. I love you. I want to fight for you. Please stay. Because my answer would have been an equally simple Yes. But you know what I think? I think you’ve been running from us since the second Gabi was born, and now that we’re about to have another baby, you’re running again.”

  “I’m not leaving!” Alissa said, throwing her hands in the air.

  “Well, neither am I!” Matthew added.

  Only after they each took a few heaving breaths did they turn toward the bedroom door they probably didn’t know was open, where Gabi stood stricken beneath the frame.

  “You’re pregnant?” Gabi said, voice shaking and her throat so dry she could barely get the words out.

  Both her parents stared at her, their expressions a mix of pain and panic and something like defeat.

  “Ethan,” Alissa’s mother said, her eyes glassy with tears. “You promised you’d keep her occupied until we were ready.”

  Gabi’s heart sank all the way to her feet and quite possibly through the floor itself and deep into the foundation below. She spun slowly to face her fiancé, the printed tickets clenched in her right hand. “You—you knew?”

  She didn’t wait for him to answer. She simply dropped the tickets on the floor, strode past him—pausing briefly to grab her coat and bag from her room and after that a plate full of pastries for the road because hell if she was missing dessert—and then out the front door.

  Other than the photo outside her mom’s house before they all piled through the front door, Gabi hadn’t snapped a single one the rest of the evening, which was fine. The last thing she wanted right now was anything that would remind her of parents and Ethan—the people she trusted most—lying to her.

  * * *

  By the time she heard the footsteps behind her—hoping like hell that it was Miriam and not a stranger—Gabi had found her rhythm of eating her feelings while also hightailing it toward the train station.

  “Bloom!” she heard Miriam call out from several paces behind her, and she let out a relieved breath. “Jeez, Bloom, slow down! I’m tipsy and full and—well—running just sucks, so can you please let me catch up?”

  Gabi stopped at the corner of the next block and turned to face her approaching friend. Though, was Miriam truly her friend? Or had she known too? Gabi suddenly felt like there was some big Thanksgiving cornucopia of surprises—surprise rabbis, surprise parental pregnancy, surprise fiancé knowing about said parental pregnancy—that she wasn’t sure who was on her side anymore.

  Miriam held up a finger as she slowed to stop in front of Gabi, then braced her hands on her knees as she caught her breath, which took several seconds, allowing Gabi to finish chewing and swallowing the hunk of cookie that was in her mouth.

  “Seriously,” Miriam finally said, still needing a few extra breaths. “Not a runner.”

  Gabi raised her brows expectantly. “Then why are you running now?”

  Miriam straightened and crossed her arms, giving her friend a pointed look. “And here I thought that was what you were doing.” Her expression softened. “Honey, Ethan told me what went down. He and your parents—well, everyone’s a mess. I had to convince your grandparents that I could catch up to you so they didn’t start driving up and down the streets looking for you, e
specially after all the wine.”

  Gabi let out a humorless laugh. “Which grandparents?” she asked. “And how did you know where I’d be?”

  “Both sets of GPs,” Miriam said, abbreviating the word. “And where else would you go aside from the train? Though I’m not sure where you were headed after that.”

  Gabi shrugged. “Your place. But only if…Mir, did you know? About the baby?”

  Miriam shook her head without any hesitation, and Gabi knew it was the truth.

  “Can we sit?” she asked.

  “Where?”

  Miriam laughed. “Right here? The sidewalk is dry, and we’ve got this lovely streetlamp to create some mood lighting.” She lowered herself to the ground and patted the spot next to her. “You can’t just run out of there and not deal with this, Bloom.”

  Gabi sighed. “You mean like I ran out of your office that day when I freaked out about my career or like I’m still running from telling Ethan I want to take photos and travel for a living?” She squatted next to her friend, laying her plate of goodies carefully on the ground before dropping all the way to her butt. “According to what I just heard from my parents, my mom’s a runner too. So it looks like I got the best of both worlds—my father’s wanderlust and my mother’s avoidance of the truth.”

  Miriam huffed out a laugh. “Then get back in there and face the truth. All of it. I mean with Ethan too.”

  Instead, Gabi grabbed a piece of chocolate chip mandel bread and tore a hunk off between her teeth. “My parents are having a baby? How does that even happen?”

  Miriam raised her brows.

  “Okay, fine,” Gabi added. “I know how that happens, but how did they let it? How did they keep it from me, and how the hell do I even know what I’ve been running from if I’ve been wrong about them for all these years? Did you know that my dad got engaged to someone else a while back? Or that my mom dated Mr. Truly? Mr. Truly. Ugh. What if that’s the reason he let me retake that test I totally bombed?”