“Aunt Helen had a really good idea—”
“Mom, let’s focus on the tree, okay?” I interrupted quickly, shocked that she was going there. “I don’t feel like talking about work stuff.”
“Okay, fine,” she sniffed and pulled a knotted red and green beaded garland from the box.
Taylor wobbled over to grab another ornament. “Tell us about your Thanksgiving with a house full of strangers. I’m sure it was a million times better than ours.”
I felt my face go hot at the mention of being with Andrew, and Taylor shot me an odd look.
“What? What happened?” she demanded, studying me.
“Nothing,” I said, suddenly very focused on finding the perfect spot on the tree for the long-legged elf ornament in my hand. “It was great. Better than I expected.”
“Where were you again?” Ryan asked. “Taylor said something about a guy you went to school with?”
I nodded. “Yeah, Andrew was my friend Nolan’s roommate. He opened a gym at the other end of my building so we sort of reconnected.”
I wondered if they could see me blushing at the mention of “reconnecting.”
“He’s hot, right?” Taylor asked. “I met him once and I remember that he was really good-looking.”
Taylor’s type was exactly who she’d married, so the fact that she considered Andrew attractive came as a shock to me. Of course, it was impossible to ignore his sheer animal magnetism, but still.
“He’s very handsome,” my mom agreed before I could answer.
I shrugged. “If you go for that sort of thing.”
“What sort of thing?” Ryan asked as he turned to give me his full attention. “What kind of competition am I up against?”
I laughed at him. “He’s, like, a... a gym guy. It’s obvious he works out. He’s big. Muscular.”
“ ’Roided up?” Ryan asked, holding two sparkly ballerinas in his hands.
“No.” I shook my head and frowned at the thought. “Not like that. He takes up space in the world, but not just because of his body. He’s got this super-friendly, outgoing personality.Everyone loves him. He’s one of those people who has, like, anauraaround him. He draws people to him.” I shrugged and hung the elf haphazardly. “It’s hard to describe.”
“Are you two hearing this?” Taylor glanced between Mom and Ryan. “She’s totally into him!”
“Oh, God, no! Absolutely not.” I laughed unconvincingly. “We aresodifferent.”
“Well, your father and I were different,” my mom said as she brushed past me with the now untangled garland. “Opposites, even.”
I frowned at the thought and watched her rise up on her tiptoes to start threading the garland through the branches. “That’s not true. You guys were perfectly matched.”
“You don’t have to be exactly the same to have a wonderful match, Chels,” she chided.
I had a flash of my dad telling a story during a dinner party with every eye on him while my mom watched him with a small smile, probably because she’d already heard the story a dozen times before. He was always the one speeding toward glory on the track while she was his faithful pit crew.
“Well, it doesn’t matter because I’m not looking,” I said. “And he probably isn’t either.”
“Yeah, why would youle rushinto anything?” Taylor shot me an evil look. “I’m sure your calendar is simply buzzing with activity.”
I grabbed a plastic bulb from the box and chucked it at her head. She ducked and it bounced off the window.
“Girls,stop! You’re going to break something.”
We all laughed and got back to the job at hand: staying focused on anything but the missing bright star in our lives.
•••
