by Naomi Niles
I shook my head at him. “You are a charmer.”
He winked at me. “I have to be,” he said. “Otherwise, Sam will steal you away.”
I laughed. “He is a handsome boy,” I nodded. “In fact, all your brothers look like they’ve won some sort of gene pool contest. I’ve never seen so many good-looking men in one room before.”
“But I’m still the best looking, right?” JJ winked.
I smiled. “I might be a little biased, but yes, I think so.”
JJ leaned in and kissed me softly on the lips. I felt a little tingle spread through my body, and it amazed me how much I still craved him, despite getting my daily fix.
We had been in Fort Collins now for three nights, and each had been spent in adventurous sex before we finally fell into an exhausted sleep. I’d wake up the next morning, and JJ and I would inevitably end up in yet another passionate half hour of vigorous lovemaking before we joined everyone for breakfast. And after all that, I still wanted him. It was like my body was made for his.
“What were you and Sam talking about?” John asked.
“The size of your cock,” I teased. “I told him it was impressively large.”
“Good girl,” he smiled.
I laughed. “We were talking about your mother, actually…and how strange it was for him to have her back after so long.”
JJ nodded. “It’s hard for me, too.”
“Less hard I think,” I said gently. “Sam was only eight when she left.”
“I know,” he sighed. “I forget sometimes that things are a little different for Sam and Talen.”
I had yet to meet JJ’s youngest brother. I knew that Alice desperately wanted to see him, but she also didn’t want to upset him by imposing her presence.
“Have you spoken to Talen?” I asked.
“I tried calling yesterday and then again this morning,” JJ replied.
“No answer?”
“No answer,” he confirmed.
“Maybe he’s out of town?” I suggested.
He sighed. “This is Talen,” he said. “It could be anything.”
“He doesn’t know yet, does he?” I asked. “About your mother?”
“Not yet,” JJ replied. “We decided that Peter would be the one to tell him.”
“How do you think he’ll react?”
JJ smiled ironically. “I have no idea,” he said. “Talen has never been predictable. Your guess is as good as mine.”
I took his hand. “I think Alice really wants to see him.”
“I know that,” JJ nodded. “But it’s never a good idea to push Talen. And Mom understands that. Peter told her all about Talen’s past, his involvement with Maddow’s gang and the arrest that landed him in jail for a few days.”
“How did she take it?”
“She was…alarmed,” JJ admitted. “She was shocked and she was visibly upset, but she knows that Peter did the right thing. It was for Talen’s own good.”
“I know this is hard for all of you,” I said. “But try to remember that you have your mother back now. Not everyone gets to say that. I certainly never will.
“Make the most of the time you have with her – talk to her, ask her questions, and learn about her life. There are so many things I would love to talk to my mother about, if only I had the chance.”
JJ’s expression softened with sympathy and he drew me into his arms for a long hug. I felt his lips on the top of my head and then on my forehead.
“I’ll try to remember that,” he assured me. He looked down at me and kissed me softly on the lips. “I hope you’re having a good time here.”
“I’m having an amazing time,” I assured him. “And so is Haley. We’ve never had this before, a sense of family, a sense of togetherness. This trip… it means the world to me.”
“Good,” JJ smiled. “Because you mean the world to me.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
JJ
There were ten people sitting around the dinner table. Madison and Peter were on one end; Jessica and Alan were on the other, beside Haley and Sam. Mom was sitting on my left, Kami was on my right, and Madison’s brother, Victor, was sitting next to her. It was a full house and with the table laden with a proper feast, it felt like a truly celebratory Christmas.
“Damn, this looks good,” Sam said, as adjusted his position and sat up a little straight as though he were ready to dive in.
“Thanks to Peter and Kami,” I reminded everyone. “Now we have two chefs in the family.”
“I think I’ve been usurped, though,” Peter said. “Kami’s a far better cook than I am.”
“Please,” Kami protested quickly. “You taught me a couple of things in the kitchen today.”
Peter smiled at her. “That is a bold-faced lie,” he said. “But I appreciate it.”
Sam looked between Peter and Kami, obviously impatient with the exchange. He reached out to take a bread roll from the table. Peter’s hand shot out and smacked Sam’s hand away. At the same time, Mom nudged Sam.
“Hey!” Sam complained.
“What about saying grace?” she asked.
Sam smiled. “Oops…always forget.”
Mom smiled fondly at him and turned to Peter. “Why don’t you lead us in prayer, darling?”
Peter hesitated a moment. “Actually, since it is your first Christmas with us in years, I think you should be the one to lead the prayer.”
She glanced around the table as though she were scared to offend someone. “Oh… Wouldn’t JJ like to do it?”
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “I think Pete’s right. You should lead the prayer.”
Mom smiled and nodded. Then she gestured for all of us to link our hands together. We formed a little chain around the table as Mom closed her eyes. I gazed at her for a moment before I followed.
“Dear Lord, I want to thank you humbly for this gorgeous meal we are about to eat. But more importantly, I would like to thank you for bringing us all together this Christmas, so that we may celebrate this special day as a family. I have been too long without my boys and now that I find myself re-united with them, I look forward to the years we have together and the many milestones to come. Please grant us your protection, wisdom, and serenity going forward so that we may always come back together, no matter how far we might travel. Amen.”
“Amen,” the table chorused, after mum had uttered the end of her prayer.
“That was beautiful, Mom,” I whispered to her.
She smiled and squeezed my hand. “I only wish Talen had been with us.”
“Give it time,” I said gently.
She nodded and then forced a smile onto her face. “Let’s dig in then, shall we?”
The next few minutes were filled with clatter and noise, and it was only until everyone’s hunger had been satiated that conversation started to break out again.
“Geez Louise, Kami,” Sam said, with his mouth full. “This meat is amazing… What’s that glaze you’ve bathed it in?”
“It’s a special homemade recipe,” Kami laughed. “I made it myself.”
“I could drink a whole bowl full,” Sam said, giving her a sloppy smile. “When I head down to California, I’m going to be eating at your restaurant three times a day for as long as I’m there.”
“I look forward to that,” Kami smiled.
“Well then, this is a good time to tell everyone our news, Kami,” Haley said, raising her voice a little.
Everyone turned to her with interest, except for Kami and myself. We already knew what she was going to say.
“Kami and I are planning on expanding the restaurant,” she said excitedly. “Natalie’s is getting a little bigger.”
A clamor of applause rose up across the table and I joined in. “It’s a big step,” Kami spoke up. “But Haley and I discussed it, and we can’t sustain the restaurant with just the two of us for very much longer. So, I think this is the right move.”
“It is,” I nodded, taking her hand.
“And, I couldn’t be prouder of you. Of both of you.”
Haley gave me a wink and raised her glass in acknowledgment.
“Wait,” Alan said, holding his hands up. “Kami and Haley, you two are going back to California after the New Year am I right?”
“We are,” Haley nodded.
Alan glanced over at me. “Does that mean a long distance relationship is in your future?”
I exchanged a glance with Kami. “Actually, it means that I’m going to be moving to California,” I replied. “Permanently.”
“Whoa,” Alan said.
Peter looked happy but unsurprised. “We figured that would happen,” he said.
“It’s a big change, isn’t it?” I said.
“Huge,” he nodded. “I’m going to miss having you around, big bro.”
“Me, too,” I said fervently. “But let’s face it, you and Madison are going to appreciate having the house to yourself.”
Madison smiled, but I could see that she was a little emotional, too. “We loved having you around, JJ,” she insisted. “But if we’re going to lose you, I’m happy to lose you to someone like Kami.”
“I’d like to make a toast,” Sam said ceremoniously, as he raised his beer mug into the air. “To John and Kami, and to their new adventure together.”
“To John and Kami,” everyone said together.
Kami put her hand on my leg and we exchanged a little glance before we drank to ourselves and, as Sam put it, “our new adventure together.”
Mom smiled. “So many love stories around this table,” she said. “It gives you hope.”
“You know, the only love story we don’t know is yours,” Haley said. “Why don’t you share that story with us, Alice?”
I glanced at Mom. She didn’t seem upset by the question. Instead, her face had a kind of calm serenity about it.
“I was very young when I met the boys’ father,” she started with thoughtful eyes. “I was barely eighteen. I had just moved to Fort Collins and had just gotten a job bagging groceries at a local supermarket. It was the kind of job that gave you a lot of time to think, and I’ll admit thinking was not good for me at the time.
“Your father came in one day, and apparently I was the one who bagged his groceries for him. I couldn’t remember our first meeting, but apparently he did. He came back the next day and the day after that. He came back so often that eventually I learnt his name and we started having little conversations while I bagged his groceries. A month later, he finally asked me out. He took me to the zoo.”
“He took you to the zoo?” I repeated. “On your first date?”
Mom laughed. “It was unconventional,” she said. “But that was why I liked it. We had a picnic lunch in one of the zoo’s designated picnic areas. And he told me all about his job and his life. And when he dropped me off, he walked my to my dingy old door and told me that he had fallen in love with me from the first moment he had laid eyes on me.”
“He really said that?” Sam asked, in amazement.
“He did.”
“And that didn’t scare you?” Alan asked.
“It terrified me,” she admitted. “But in a good way. I was scared, but I was excited at the same time. You see… I’d never really been in love before. And I had certainly never been courted before. Your father was the first gentleman I had ever met. He was a little older, he was a little shy, and he was honest. I knew I could count on him.”
“Dad never stopped talking about you,” Peter said softly. “Even afterwards… He always told us little stories about you. But he never told us that one.”
“Your father was a good man,” she said, looking around the table at all of us boys. “He was a better man than I deserved. And I wish I could have seen him one more time before he passed.”
“He would have loved that, too,” I said softly. “I don’t think he ever got over you.”
Mom smiled, but I detected the sadness behind that smile. “He did a fantastic job with you boys,” she said. “I wish I could tell him that. There are so many things I wish I could tell him.”
I could sense the weight of memory crash down at the table. Everyone who had known Dad was remembering certain moments from our past with him.
“Does anyone remember the March Christmas we had when Talen was about a year or two old?” I asked abruptly as the memory screamed into my consciousness.
“Vaguely,” Alan said, with recognition in his eyes.
“I do!” Sam nodded. “Dad got me the blue scooter with the stars on its board.”
“I remember,” Peter laughed. “You refused to walk anywhere for the next year. You used that thing until it fell apart.”
Sam laughed and nodded.
“Wait,” Kami said. “Explain this March Christmas to those of us who weren’t there.”
“The previous year, we were all sick during Christmas,” I said. “Peter a bad flu, and then he gave it to the rest of us.”
“Apologies,” Peter said cheekily.
“That was a crazy time for me,” Mom nodded, taking over the story. “I had four sick boys and a crying toddler to contend with, and in the chaos of all that, we didn’t even celebrate Christmas. We didn’t have a tree, no presents, not even a special meal. I spent that Christmas running from bed to bed, wiping up one mess after the other.
“By mid-January, everyone had fully recovered but Christmas was well and truly done and we just…chalked it up to bad luck and got on with things. Turns out, John knew how upset we all were about missing out on Christmas, so he decided to plan a special surprise for us. He ordered a Christmas tree and picked out extra special presents for everyone. That first weekend in March, he stayed up all night decorating the house with Christmas decorations, putting up the tree, and stashing the presents under it.”
“We woke up to Christmas music,” Sam said, recollecting a detail that I’d long since forgotten.
“That’s right,” I said fondly. “He even had stockings for each of us, didn’t he?”
“He did,” Mom nodded. “And he’d special ordered a Christmas lunch for us so that I didn’t have to cook.”
“That was a great Christmas,” I sighed.
“It really was,” she said in a soft voice.
We spent the rest of the meal reminiscing about our fondest childhood memories, some of which included Dad, some of which included Mom, and some of which were just about us boys. And it was nice, for at least a couple of hours, to forget all the painful shit and just enjoy the good memories. I loved that I could share all of them with Kami.
I was in the kitchen, clearing up the last few plates when Peter found me. “Hi, bro,” he said, leaning against the sink next to me.
“Hi,” I said. “Great dinner, by the way. You and Kami really outdid yourselves.”
“It was nice to have a partner in crime to cook with,” he said. “She’s really talented.”
“She is,” I agreed wholeheartedly.
“So…you’re moving, huh?”
I smiled. “I wanted to tell you alone, but…”
“I liked the announcement,” he said, waving away my concern. “It was fitting. And it deserved to be celebrated. It’s an important step for you. I assume Zackary made you partner?”
“He did,” I nodded. “And, I have to admit, it’s a brilliant business opportunity.”
“It is,” Peter replied. “But that’s not why you made the decision to move, was it?”
I smiled. “No. In fact, it wasn’t even a factor.”
“Good to know you have your priorities in order,” Peter said, nodding with approval. “Because Kami will always be the best opportunity you will ever have. Just like Madison is for me. Try not to lose sight of that.”
“Oh, trust me,” I said fervently, “I never intend to.”
Epilogue
Kami
“Kami?”
“Hales,” I called. “I’m here. Come in.”
She poked her head through the door and gave m
e a smile. “Is Prince Charming here? I don’t want to…interrupt anything.”
I smiled and shook my head. “He just went out to set up the fireworks with the boys,” I said. “So you don’t have to worry about running into him naked or anything.”
“Damn,” she said, snapping her fingers together as she joined me on the bed. “Maybe next time.”
“You look happy,” I pointed out.
Haley’s smile got a little wider. “I am happy, actually,” she said. “It’s been a really great week. We’ve never really had a holiday like this before, have we?”
“No, we haven’t,” I nodded. “We’ve never really had friends or family to spend special occasions with.”
“That’s true,” she nodded. “And I haven’t had a one-night stand in weeks.”
“Ah…”
“What?”
“So you and Victor are...”
“Come on,” she said, rolling her eyes at me. “We were just talking.”
“I know,” I smiled. “But it was late.”
She snorted. “We just got into our childhoods and that kept us going for a while. Did you know that Madison and Victor’s mother is in prison? And their father abandoned them, just like ours did.”
“I did know that,” I nodded.
“We had a few things in common,” Haley went on. “That’s all. I think we’re on the way to becoming friends, actually. We might already be friends, come to think of it.”
“And sex is off the table?” I asked, with raised eyebrows.
“Yes,” Haley nodded. “In any case, he lives here and I don’t. It would be stupid to get involved with him, and I’m done being stupid. I’m also done with one-night stands. If you can put your fears aside and expand the restaurant, then I can certainly do this.”
“Does that mean you’re going to try dating?” I asked slyly.
Haley smiled. “Actually, yes.”
“Really?” I said, delighted by her answer. “What changed your mind?”
“You did,” she replied. “You and JJ.”
“Me and JJ?”
“I see the two of you together and… I get jealous,” she said. “I realized that if I’m getting jealous, it’s because I want that for myself. So instead of being a bitch and crying about it, I need to get pro-active. I need to find my own John.”