“Okay, the page,” I started. “It’s Thanksgiving Day. A day when we remember what we’re thankful for, and share that with people who don’t have as much as we do.”
Sadie brightened as she caught on to my train of thought. “Like with the soup.”
“Exactly.” I squeezed her cheek. “What else do we think Thanksgiving Day is about?”
Adrian’s hand shot into the air. “Oh, oh, I know. Pick me.”
“Yes?” I smiled softly.
He scooped Emma up under her arms and raced a few yards down the sidewalk where he’d have more space, then twirled her round and round until she shrieked with laughter.
“UFO rides!” Sadie clapped her hands with uncontained glee. “Me next, me next!”
The spinning went on a little longer, and when Adrian finally put Emma back down, they were both out of breath and dizzy with it.
“Thanksgiving isn’t about UFO rides,” she said, her cheeks shining with delirious joy. She tried to match that same tone of defiance from before, but it was hopeless. He’d cracked her resolve.
“No,” he replied, already picking up Sadie, who’d run over for her turn. “It’s about having fun with family.”
“Wheeeeeeee!” The ruffles on Sadie’s skirt billowed as he spun her round.
“But I wasn’t having fun at the soup kitchen,” Emma said when she’d come back to where we were standing. “I want to play and hang out with you guys.”
“Me too,” Miles said. He brought Will out from hiding and slung a lazy arm over his shoulders. “But sometimes doing all that boring stuff, knowing there’s gonna be loads of fun after… Well, that just makes the fun even better. Don’t you think?”
She gave a half-hearted shrug. “I guess.”
“My turn!” Ethan broke into a sprint.
Adrian’s eyes widened in alarm, and he ran for it, breaking down the sidewalk with Ethan chasing him. That did the trick, and all the kids descended into belly-rolling laughter, forcing us to pick up our pace and catch up. By the time we reached the house, Emma’s mood had done a complete one-eighty, and everyone was ready to settle calmly into the best part of the day.
We made blueberry pancakes together and with several rounds of hot cocoa to wash it down, played a tense game of Monopoly until Sadie literally dozed off on her side of the board.
“I think that’s your cue,” Ethan said, reclining on the living room carpet, hands behind his head. The movement made his shirt ride up just enough to show the pronounced lines of his obliques, and I averted my eyes.
It felt like we were all caught in that in-between space after the holiday high, where the world went quiet but something else pulsed beneath it. There was something in the air between us that hadn’t been there this morning. Or maybe it had, and I’d been too busy to notice. Either way, when Sadie’s head lolled against my shoulder and her tiny hand went slack, I was grateful for the excuse to stand, to move, and figure it out without the men staring at me.
I gathered the kids’ blankets, whispered promises of more pancakes tomorrow, and led the three of them upstairs. No resistance. No bargaining. Just heavy limbs and sleepy nods as I tucked them in one by one. By the time I switched off Will’s lamp, all I could hear was the steady rhythm of his breathing… and my own heartbeat. Still too attuned to what I’d left behind in the living room.
Downstairs, Miles and Adrian were sprawled across the three-seater couch, casual and relaxed, the faint glow of the floor lamps catching their hair. I dropped onto the edge next to Miles, letting him hand me a glass of wine.
“That was fast.”
“I can say the same,” I replied, and clinked my glass against his, the weight of the day sliding off my shoulders a little.
“We survived,” Miles said in the form of a toast.
Adrian lifted his glass. “Barely.”
I laughed, swirling the wine before taking a sip. Ethan hadn’t moved from his spot on the floor, and now watched me closely, a wistful smile on his face. I wasn’t sure if it was from the wine or just me, but it made my face flush with heat.
“So how did we hold up?” Adrian asked. “Was this your best Thanksgiving ever, or what?”
“Don’t answer that.” Miles sat forward to place his glass on the coffee table, in the middle of the Monopoly board that was still set out.
“Why not?” I asked with a shaky laugh. He had that look in his eye that I’d come to recognize, and my body betrayed me by responding before my mind could.
Ethan moved and was hovering over me in a flash, his mouth a breath away from mine. “Because it’s not over yet.”
