Shane leaned over, ruffling Danny’s short, brown hair. “Well, we all know Danny didn’t actuallycookanything.”
Danny laughed and jabbed him with her elbow before reaching for the salad.
“Do you remember your first Christmas with us?” Shane asked her. “God, that turkey couldn’t have tasted worse if it came out of the dishwasher. Dom even told Tracey not to give any to Madison. She was only a year old at the time and he didn’t want to be racing her to the hospital on Christmas.”
Jordan exchanged looks with Kevin and he knew exactly what she was thinking about. Perry had suggested that they make better use of Danny’s horrid turkey and they’d hidden their dry, shriveled pieces of meat under Jordan’s pillow. Torturing Jordan had always been their favorite childhood pastime.
“You said that, Dom?” Danny asked.
“It was awful, Danny,” he replied with a laugh, “and parents are always paranoid with their first born. If it’s any consolation, I would definitely feed your cooking to Makayla.”
“Really?”
“Well…no. Max says you’ve gotten progressively worse over the years.”
Kevin rolled his eyes when Shane started blabbing again. The guy could just not shut up.
He glanced over at Jordan. Her face was a masked front and he could guess the reason why. Her new boyfriend wasn’t there. After hearing how she swooned over Tyler, Kevin had expected her to invite him to spend Christmas with the family. The factthat Tyler wasn’t there could only mean one thing; a bad break-up. He was an expert at reading the signs now. She was hurting and trying to hide it from the rest of the family, but he saw it. One broken heart could sense another.
He said nothing. He didn’t even look at her, but he dropped his hand palm up onto her lap and kept it there until she was ready to take it.
She accepted his small method of comfort, wrapping her fingers around his and squeezing them tight. “Love you, Bink,” she whispered.
Sentimental shit. He smiled to himself. He’d always taken these little moments with his family for granted, but after meeting Jasmin, he was beginning to see that they weren’t small at all. These were moments that needed to be cherished.
He glanced up to look at Max and he was staring adoringly at Danny. Max had been in love with her for seven years and Kevin couldn’t understand how he could be with her twenty-four-seven and still be stuck in the friend zone. His brother was a nerdy guy, shy when it came to the opposite sex. But fuck, seven years? And the way Danny looked at him made it obvious that she liked him too. Why couldn’t they just open their eyes and get a clue?
“God, they’re so sickening,” Kevin whispered with a groan.
Jordan looked across the table then too. “They are sickening,” she agreed.
“You two should just bone and get it over with,” he said loud enough for them to hear.
Danny giggled and the bright red that rose up to her cheeks told Kevin that maybe his brother had finally taken a hint and made a move. He’d always wanted them to get together but somehow the thought of them having sex was…nauseating. Especially when they were looking at each other like that.
“Ugh, you did?” Kevin said, not hiding his disgust. “That’s gross! I think I just lost my appetite.”
“But don’t worry, Danny,” Shane’s voice interrupted their private conversation and he seemed completely oblivious to the fact that no one had been listening to him. “It’s better that you two are just friends. My little brother is too moody. Both of them are.”
Kevin didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but it was obvious that Shane was also unaware that Max had finally crossed over thefriendline. He didn’t bother to find out what Shane’s verbal jab at them was all about. He just rolled his eyes and looked over at Max with complete disinterest. “Blah. Blah. Blah,” he mouthed, using his hand as a flapping mouth. “Fucking Virgos.”
“Speaking about Virgos,” Max said with a small chuckle. “Did that girl on the road trip end up driving you crazy?”
Kevin shut his eyes as memories of Jasmin flooded his mind. Their entire trip together was a series of flashing images, starting from when they’d first met to the point where he felt completely lost without her. He was an obsessive stalker now. Crazy didn’t even begin to describe it. “You have no fucking idea,” he whispered.
He kept his head down, hoping his siblings wouldn’t ask for more details. He didn’t want to talk about Jasmin, especially after seeing all those pictures of her and Dalton together. Thankfully, they dropped the subject.
The next few hours passed by and he couldn’t account for the time. After that comment about Jasmin, he couldn’t stop thinking about her and everything else faded into the background. He sat with his family as they exchanged gifts, but he barely paid attention to the hugs and happiness. His thoughts kept going back to when he’d hung up his snowflake next to hers on the Christmas tree. He just wanted to go back in time to that point and do things differently, but he’d learned a harsh lesson in the last few months. It was impossible to change the past.
After exchanging gifts, Debbie laid out dessert in the dining room. Jordan cut a few slices of the cake she’d baked and handed one plate to Max while Kevin scooped out a large helping of vanilla ice cream and covered it in chocolate sauce. He poured on extra today, taking Perry’s share as well.
“Kevin, don’t you think that’s too much chocolate sauce?” Max asked.
He was too overwhelmed with melancholy that he barely managed to force a smile. “You can never have too much chocolate sauce.”
The three of them took their usual seats at the table and Kevin ate his ice cream in silence as he watched his nieces chase each other around the dining room. He zoned out, trying not to think about Jasmin or Perry, but that was short lived. From the corner of his eye, he could already see the looks being exchanged between his siblings and when Max cleared his throat beside him, he knew an interrogation was coming. Both of them knew about Jasmin and their questions were unavoidable, but this wasn’t a discussion he wanted to have right now. He was on edge before his brother even said one word.
“So Kevin…” Max hesitated, as if he was thinking twice about it. “What happened with that girl?”
