“Let me just put it this way, son.” Dad could barely contain his amusement. “You know the old saying, ‘If you put your mind to it, you can do anything’? Well, you can’t. None of you boys can.”
Keith rolled his eyes. “You talk an awful lot of smack for a guy who falls over while he’s putting on his underwear.”
“I fall over because I have big feet.”
“Then angle your damn foot.” Keith laughed. “It’s not rocket science. Jesus, old man. Don’t make me put you in a home.”
The laughter was like a rolling thunder, getting louder and louder as it traveled through the gathering of my relatives. The key to Dad’s humor was to never take him seriously. He was as good as a stand-up comedian in our family. Clearly Elliott, laughing beside me, didn’t take him seriously. It was one thing I loved about my counterfeit boyfriend—soon to be ex-boyfriend once his visa expired. Elliott’s lightness was what had attracted me to him in the first place. He was fun and easygoing, like my father.
Wait. Oh, shit.
Was he… was he… my father? Had I picked a man just like him? If so, that wasn’t so bad. My dad was the best man I’d ever known. Loving. Kind. Funny. And despite his jokes to the contrary, he would never do anything to put his kids in harm’s way. Ever. I should be so lucky to have a man like him.
“To answer your question, Kyle,” Jake said, returning to his seat after being relieved of his childcare duties, “you kept failing your driver’s test because you couldn’t get out of the parking lot.”
“The curb!” I yelled, giggling.
“Not the curb.” Keith palmed his face. He was the first to discover it, failing his inaugural driver’s test because his tire went up and over the concrete edging. The raised sidewalk at the right turn out of the DMV parking lot had been the killer of thousands of teenage cruisers’ dreams. If your tire even grazed it, you were done for. Automatic fail. It got Keith twice, Emma once, and Jake once. But Kyle… Poor Kyle. He hit that curb over and over and over, forcing my father to drive him to another city where he could at least get out of the parking lot. After Kyle, Dad took Quinn directly to a curbless DMV in the other city, and he passed on the first try.
Me? I didn’t want to take the easy way out. I wanted to be the first McKallister to conquer the curb. I’d always been determined like that, making decisions quickly and sticking to them. Which explained Rory and the risky choices I’d made right after meeting him. Sometimes, I looked back and wondered what I was thinking, if it had been worth the risk. An image of Beats in his youth popped into my head—that wild hair, that confident smirk, those sticks spinning in his hands—oh yeah, he’d been worth it.
“I don’t think Grace gets enough credit for passing the curb challenge,” Emma said.
I raised my hands in the air and did a little victory dance.
“She brought it for this family,” Keith agreed. “I wish we had an old participation trophy we could offer her. Quinn, you probably have a few.”
Quinn scoffed, flipping Keith off with his good arm. Even he knew not to verbalize his displeasure with the scores of my siblings’ kids running around. I glanced around at the hectic scene. Once my siblings started having kids, it was happy chaos all the time. I loved being Auntie Grace to the rowdy pack of rug rats, but I loved just as much to shut the door behind me at the end of the night.
I think maybe that was the first sign that Elliott might not be compatible for me because as soon as he saw my siblings with their kids, he began talking about ours—the fictional ones he seemed convinced we would have. It made me realize that the two of us were at very different places in our lives. While I was just starting out, Elliott was ready to settle down. It was true he was still in college, but he’d been a successful day trader for years, earning a strong income right out of high school, and only later enrolled in college to bolster his resume. By then he’d already set himself up nicely, owning a home back in London and even contributing to a retirement plan like such a big boy.
If anyone was ready to settle down and start a family, it was Elliott. But I wasn’t there yet. Songwriting was my passion, not marriage and kids. I wanted to work with other musicians. Travel with the band. All I knew was I wanted to be free. And I couldn’t do that with a husband and kids waiting back home for me.
Dad tapped a spoon to his glass to get the room’s attention.
“Everyone, raise a glass to my baby girl. Or a Capri Sun—except for you, Slater. You lost your juice packet privileges.” Dad cleared his throat, sincerity taking hold. “Grace, honey, I think I speak for all of us when I say how proud we are of you. You always work hard and never need congratulations. You just put your head down and make it happen with a smile on your face. It’s hard to believe my baby is old enough to hold a diploma in her hand—or I guess you won’t get that until May—anyway, my point is, you make all of our lives better. You always have. From the moment I laid eyes on you in the hospital, I was a goner. So, to my precious daughter, always keep your spirit burning bright because that’s how good things will find their way into your light.”
Dad nodded his head toward Elliott before redirecting his gaze to me. “Congratulations, honey. I’m a proud, proud man.”
I dislodged from Elliott and crossed the room, flinging myself into the arms of the best man I knew. But as I buried my head in his chest, a frown took hold. How could I love this man so much, yet not his doppelganger over there on the sofa? Maybe I was making a mistake. Maybe I needed to try harder to love Elliott.
“Wow, as always, your father upstages me,” Mom said, laughing. “I can’t follow that, but I can second the motion. You are everything your father says and more.”
The rest of her speech was blubbered into my ear as she hugged me to her. I understood none of it, but the message was clear: I was loved. The rest of my family piled on the affection until it dissolved into a roast of sorts, with a smattering of favorite memories to make it somewhat nice.
“Okay,” Emma laughed. “Remember the time she sneezed and then looked up at me with her innocent little eyes and said, ‘Emma, I think I have the bless yous’?”
“My favorite Grace memory was the time we were watchingAvatarand she asked how the Smurfs grew up so fast.” Keith reached over and punched my arm. “God, you were so dumb.”
“Okay, but in her defense,” Quinn said, “I actually had the same question. She just beat me to it.”
“And what was up with that imaginary friend of yours?” Kyle asked. “What was his name again?”
My throat tightened on a sharp inhalation.
“Oh, yeah. The Reindeer Man. Where didthatcome from?”
I cast an unintentional glance in Jake’s direction. Don’t know why; I just did. To my shock, he was staring back. Our eyes met for a split second before we both looked away. A chill rattled my bones. Did Jake know who the Reindeer Man was?
