“Can I make one?” Kai asks as he sits next to me and puts Amari in his arms.
My heart picks up its pace when I see him in a pair of sweatpants and a plain white T-shirt; he definitely isn’t dressed in his normalgoing outclothes. I turn my face away from him, hiding the smile on my face.
I can’t believe he’s staying.
“Let’s make a family one,” he says.
“Okay,” I say with the same smile on my face.
He knows I’m happy. And I know he knows why I’m happy.
I dip my right hand into the purple and place it on thepaper. Kai dips his left hand in the blue and places his print next to mine, connecting my thumb and his pointer finger. It creates a small triangle in between our hands. Kai reaches for Amari’s hand, dips it in pink, and places her print inside the small triangle. Her hand fits perfectly in between ours.
“I love it,” I say. It’s so cute. I don’t even want to add stems to it.
“Do you care if I add something?”
“No. Go ahead.”
He grabs the paintbrush, dips it in yellow, and writesforever and everabove our hands.
“Aww. I love it even more. And I love that you stayed home with us.”
His face warms up with a smile.
“How about we go get a pizza and watch a movie?”
My stomach growls at the wordpizza. I haven’t eaten all day. That’s what usually happens on the weekends. I don’t eat as much because of how anxious I get.
A short while later, the glow of the TV illuminates the living room. We’re nestled together on the couch watchingThe Ugly Truth. After we ate our pizza, we bathed Amari together and put her down to sleep. I’m enjoying this whole evening together. We’re relaxed. Just us. We’ve even had some moments of laughter as we watch the movie. This creates such a bond for us that it’s hard to explain what I feel in moments like these. Every time Kai crushes me by going out, it hurts more than it should. I can’t help how much I love this little family we have. And I love the way our family dynamic is when it’s like this.
This is what I want for us.
For our family.
Thanksgiving 2010
“I can’t believe you made a turkey,” I say to Kevin as he pulls the turkey out of the oven.
Emily went out of state for the holidays. She said she was going to her sister’s house. She still isn’t doing good and commented that everything here reminds her of her late husband. I’m not sure if that meant that Kevin and Kai remind her of him. I’d assume so. When Kai told me what she said, that was what popped into my head. I didn’t want to say anything in case they weren’t thinking what I was thinking, and I didn’t want to put that thought into their heads.
Kevin frowns at me. “Why is that such a surprise to you?”
“You don’t seem like the cooking type,” I say while mashing the potatoes.
“There are many things you don’t know about me.”
I give him a side-eye.
For obvious reasons, we are having Thanksgiving dinner with just the four of us—Kevin, Kai, Amari, and me. Kevin said he would make the turkey, and he pulled through. At first, I was surprised and hesitant about how it would come out. But now that he has pulled it out of the oven, I’m impressed.
“Kai, the food is ready.” I walk into the living room. Kai andAmari are lying side by side on their backs, playing with toys that Kai holds in his hand above Amari’s head. She sways her arms around, trying to grab the toy. Every time she grabs it, Kai says, “You did it. Good job!” Amari's smile gets bigger each time he cheers her on.
“Let’s go see if this food is edible,” he says to Amari and picks her up.
“Hey, I helped cook, too. Are you sayingmyfood isn’t edible?”
“I know yours is. But Kevins? I’m not so sure.” He looks toward the kitchen at Kevin, who is cutting the turkey.
