“When Harry Met Sally,” I say, simultaneously annoyed by the platitude and by the fact that she managed to reference one of my favorite movies.
“Exactly!” Cara says, blinking at me. She tilts her head, like she’s equally unnerved to discover we have this film in common.
The kids come back out with Linney, helping carry a tray of brownies and a carton of vanilla ice cream.
“Didn’t you know with Tripp?” Cooper asks Peter, grabbing a brownie off the tray.
“Oh, I knew,” Peter says, taking Tripp’s hand and giving it a squeeze.
“But you and Tripp were together for years before you got married,” I interject. “Y’all knew everything about each other.”
“It’s true, I knewallPete’s embarrassing secrets, and somehow, I still agreed to marry the guy,” Tripp says, grinning.
“Like his silent but deadly farts?” William asks, his mouth half-full of a giant brownie.
“William, I am serious now,” Linney says to him sternly. “That’s enough. Give me the rest of your brownie.” Reluctantly, he hands it to her, and I see a glimmer of the stern Southern discipline I remember from our own upbringing. “Now you run upstairs and start getting ready for bed.”
“Me too?” Anna Carol asks, disappointed.
Linney smiles and pats her head. “No, honey, you can stay up an extra fifteen minutes because you are not misbehaving like your brother.”
William scowls and stomps through the door.
My dad stands up, an amused smile on his face. “I’ll go with him and make sure we don’t have any incidents with the toothbrush this time. I’m not playing anyway.”
“Incidents?” I ask.
Linney sighs. “Thanks, Dad.” Then turns to me and adds, “Last night, William dropped his toothbrush in the toilet. He says it was an accident, but…” She shakes her head.
Then Tripp lays down another set of green trains, now forming the longest route so far on the board.
“Jeez, Tripp. You’re killing us,” Pete says, clearly trying to help steer the conversation back to the game.
Cooper leans back and takes a huge bite of brownie. “Anyway, Cara and I know all the important things,” he says, looking at me as if in challenge.
“But even the little things can end up being important,” I point out, trying to figure out how I can keep sabotaging Cara’s routes while not losing to Tripp. “Like, do you know each other’s favorite movie? Most scarring childhood memory? Favorite holiday? Does Sa—” I look toward the end of the table to where Anna Carol is in her own little world. She’s singing and playing with her Barbie, making it dance across her dessert plate. I lean forward and whisper across to Cooper and Cara. “Does Santa Claus bring all the presents, or just, like, one big one?”
“Santa doesn’t bring you all your presents?” Nate asks in a low voice.
I turn to face him. “We each got one big present from Santa, and the rest were from Mom and Dad,” I whisper.
“That’s not a thing,” Nate counters. “Santa brings all the presents. That’s his job. He literally works on them all year.”
“Mymomworked on Christmas all year.” I turn back toward Cara and Cooper. “Luckily, Nate and I aren’t getting married. But if wewere—”
“Absolute deal-breaker for me,” Nate says. “Could never raise my child in a one-Santa-present household.”
“Oh, I kind of like that idea,” Cara says. “Especially if they have friends who maybe don’t get as much as they do. It helps explain why.”
“I’m also okay if you want to label all the presents from Santa,” Cooper says.
Cara and Cooper smile at each other. “I guess we’ll figure it out.”
I suppress a groan.
“You will indeed,” my mom says. “And that reminds me…”
The conversation moves toward what is apparently her favorite new topic—the wedding—and I tune out the details.
