She was thankful that his greetings to everyone seemed genuine. He hoisted Josh up on his shoulders and gave his mother a peck on the cheek. He hip-checked Sophie on his way to the refrigerator where he grabbed beers for himself and Charlie and James. Ty was on call.
Luke avoided eye contact with her, which was fine with Harper. She breathed a sigh of relief when he headed upstairs to shower again.
Joni arrived at the same time as Gloria, Aldo, and Mrs. Moretta. Thankful for the chaos of a full house, Harper stayed in the kitchen and directed her new team of helpers. Luke mainly stayed in the living room with everyone else.
She couldn’t tell if he was avoiding her or Joni. Or, more likely, both.
She caught him watching her once. Joni handed over her green bean casserole and a handwritten recipe card. “It was my mother’s,” Joni said with a sentimental smile. “I’d like another generation to continue the tradition.
Overcome, Harper hugged her. Her first family recipe during her first family holiday. She saw Claire smiling at them across the island and felt another gaze leveled in her direction. Luke stood in the doorway, a look of shock on his face.
Their eyes met and held. Harper released Joni from the hug and Luke grabbed another beer out of the fridge before hightailing it down the hallway.
No one else seemed to notice the tension. Not even during lunch when Harper chose a seat at the opposite end of the table from Luke.
While everyone went back for seconds — and, in James’ and Ty’s cases, thirds — Harper pushed turkey and mashed potatoes around her plate. It all tasted like gravy-covered packing peanuts to her.
Luke didn’t touch much on his plate, either, preferring to refill his wine glass instead.
Conversation flew around them.
Gloria and Aldo teased each other with forkfuls of stuffing while Mrs. Moretta and Sophie argued good-naturedly about organic vegetables.
“When Aldo was growing up, he ate all the pesticide-laden broccoli I put in front of him and turned out just fine,” Mrs. Moretta, in her best turkey sweater, snickered.
Charlie and James took turns sneaking into the living room to check the score of the game.
As the action around the table died down, Joni, on Claire’s left, cleared her throat. “I just wanted to thank Harper and Luke for inviting me today. It’s been a hard few years, and it means so much that you still treat me like family. It’s good to be reminded of what’s really important in life, and you all have done that for me. So thank you for that. And Happy Thanksgiving!” She raised her wine glass.
Everyone raised their wine glasses. “To family,” Charlie said, winking at Harper.
“To family,” everyone echoed.
Aldo patted Harper on the back and winked at her. “Nice job, Harp,” he whispered.
She snuck a glance at Luke who was frowning into his empty glass.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
They decided to leave the dishes for later and run off some of the food with a friendly football game. As with all Garrison games, the friendly pick-up fun quickly turned into a skirmish.
Harper, Luke, Aldo, and Gloria squared off in the backyard against Ty, Sophie, and James while everyone else hunkered down in front of the TV to watch football or fall asleep.
After a few leisurely jogs down the “field,” Harper felt her spirits lift.
Safely out of Claire’s earshot, the siblings trash-talked playfully. James scored an early touchdown, and Luke criticized Harper’s defense. So on the next long bomb Ty threw, Harper was ready. She jumped on James’ back and hung on for dear life as he caught the ball.
With his free hand, James spun her around to his front and tossed her over his shoulder. He took off, unhindered by the extra weight, and didn’t stop until he was in the end zone next to Harper’s garden.
He spun her around in circles as she laughed.
“Oh my God, put me down or I’m going to barf on you,” she gasped.
Her feet no sooner hit the ground then Luke slammed into James like a runaway school bus. He shoved his younger brother back a pace.
“What the hell, man?” James shoved back. In the span of a second, they were on the ground wrestling.
“Luke!” Harper’s sharp tone did nothing to break it up.
