He shook my brother’s hand and turned back to me. “Please call me Travis. Mr. James is my father.” He chuckled. I nodded and smiled, following him back into the giant great room that had floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked their property—a panoramic view of the lush vineyard set against the rolling hills and a winding creek that was tucked behind the property. The kitchen was attached off to the left where Addison, Ava, and Laurel were all chatting. Walker and who I assumed was Weston were sitting on the couch, both with a beer in hand, watching football.
Travis cleared his throat. “Dean and Archer are here.” All five heads turned at the same time to look at us. Addison hopped up from the stool she’d been sitting on with a glass of wine in her hand. With her family in the room and all eyes on me, I resisted the urge to scan her toned frame for too long. Her brown hair was styled in long, flowing waves. She wore a burnt orange cropped sweater with dark jeans that hugged her in all the right places. My mouth went dry at the sight of her.
She hugged me and Archer before turning her attention toward her brothers on the couch. “West, this is Dean and his brother, Archer. Walker, you’ve already met Dean, but this is Archer.”
Her oldest brother stood up, and that motherfucker was huge. I wasn’t short. I was six foot two, and I could feel some solid inches in our height difference. He had to be six foot five easy. He was ripped, his arms covered in tattoos, and he had anintimidating-as-fuck look on his face. He looked like an angry version of their father, Travis.
He held his hand out and firmly shook mine. “Hey, Dean, good to meet you,” he said with zero smile, making me wonder if it was, in fact, good to meet me. He turned and shook Archer’s hand as well.
I nodded. “Yeah, man, good to meet you too.”
Walker slapped his older brother on the shoulder. “As you can see, Weston over here is a ray of sunshine.” He laughed. “But don’t let the broody exterior fool you. He’s a big teddy bear.” Weston gave an impatient glance upward and grumped something under his breath as he made his way back to the couch.
Walker stepped up and shook Archer’s hand. “Thanks for coming, guys. Can I get you both a beer?”
Archer just stared blankly at Walker, completely starstruck. I elbowed him in the ribs. “Dude, chill the fuck out.”
Archer shook his head and cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, sorry, man. I’d love a beer. I’m sorry, I’m just a big fan.”
Walker chuckled. “No problem, glad to hear it. All right, two beers coming up.” He made his way into the kitchen. I followed behind and handed Laurel the flowers I brought her before giving the bourbon to Travis. They both thanked me for the gifts, insisting that it wasn’t necessary, but I could tell that it impressed Addison.
Archer took a seat on a stool in the kitchen, talking Laurel’s ear off while she cooked. Moms always loved the guy. I took the beer that Walker brought over to me and sat down in achair to the right of Weston, turning my attention to the game playing on the large flat-screen TV that hung neatly over the stone-faced fireplace.
Weston surprised me and spoke, his eyes never leaving the TV. “Hey, man, thanks for taking care of Cash the other night. That horse means a shit ton to my sister, and if anything happened to him, it would have been tough, to say the least.”
“No problem. I’m just lucky that Walker knew the signs, and he and Addison knew what to do until I got there.” I took a pull from my beer, also keeping my eyes on the screen.
Just then, Walker sat back down on the other side of the couch from Weston, “What did I do?”
“Nothing,” Weston grumped, which made me chuckle. Walker shrugged and took a swig of his beer. Weston then looked over at me, and out of the corner of his mouth, he whispered to me, “He doesn’t need a bigger head than he already has.” I nodded and smiled because Archer was a lot like Walker.
I think Weston and I would get along just fine.
Archer and Travis eventually made their way into the living room to watch the game with all of us. We talked about football, watched football, and drank beer. It felt easy with the James family, and I could tell that Archer was comfortable as well. It was shaping up to be a solid Thanksgiving so far.
Eating with the James family was pure chaos with the constantpassing of food, arguing, and laughing. It was loud, but I loved every second of it. Evidently, Travis was the king of dad jokes, and much to his kids’ dismay, he had Thanksgiving-themed dad jokes.
“Ugh, Dad, no more, please,” Ava groaned with her face in her hands. “We’ve got company.” She motioned toward me and Archer.
“Come on, just one more. I’ve got another good one.” Travis smirked. Laurel just sat there shaking her head, completely amused, while she took a sip of her wine.
“By all means, I love a good dad joke,” I said, egging Travis on and in return causing Ava to glare daggers my way.
“Why did the cranberry blush?” Travis looked around excitedly, waiting for someone to guess the answer.
Addison laughed. “Please enlighten us, Dad. Why did the cranberry blush?”
“It saw the turkey dressing.” Travis beamed at us. “Get it? Turkey dressing?” he asked when no one responded.
Weston and Ava groaned, Walker’s head fell back in laughter, and Addison just shook her head with a large grin on her pretty face.
Laurel patted her husband on the arm. “Wow, honey. You really outdid yourself with that one.” The whole table erupted in laughter.
“I don’t know, I’m pretty impressed you had that many Thanksgiving dad jokes, to be honest.” I chuckled before taking another bite of green bean casserole.
Addison elbowed me. “Don’t encourage him.” I reacheddown and squeezed her thigh. Her eyes widened in surprise at my touch, but she didn’t move my hand.
Everything about this day just felt good. I loved being around her family. I could see the strong connection and love between them all, and I envied it. The James family accepted you as you were. There was no pressure, nobody wanted anything from you, and nobody had ulterior motives. I could just be myself here. I hadn’t felt this comfortable being with a group of people in a long time. I could see why everyone in town loved this family. You just wanted to be around them, be in their orbit.
