“Ah, don’t worry about your folks. They’ll still have a son around for Christmas,” Liam said with a grin. “They like me better anyway.”
Drew glared at him. “That might’ve been true before you were dating their daughter. Now, you’re on just as thin ice as I am.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. He wasn’t wrong. Mom had been torn between thrilled that Liam was officially family and horrified that he’d been secretly hooking up with her daughter for months. Dad had been stone-cold and then quietly pulled Liam aside and told him that he’d withhold judgment for now, but if he hurt me again, my dad would bury Liam in the ground. Considering his business was in construction, his threat wasn’t an idle one.
But Liam had handled it like a champ. He said it was mostly because he was too stubborn to be scared off and too in love with me to care about the interrogations.
“What about you, Sam?” Harper asked. “Big Lowe family Christmas?”
Sam’s smile was bright and easy like it always was. She had to be one of the happiest and most self-assured people I’d ever met. Sometimes I was envious of her confidence and how boldly she lived life.
“You know it. My mom goes all out—matching pajamas, way too much food, the whole nine yards.”
“Sounds nice,” Harper said with a smile.
“What about you, Gordy?” Abby asked. “Heading to Connecticut?”
He gave a small nod. “That’s the plan.”
Gordy was the hardest to read of anyone, but even Icould pick up that he didn’t seem all that excited about spending time with his family.
Abby opened her mouth to ask something else, when a knock echoed through the house.
“Expecting anyone?” Foster asked.
We all shook our heads or said no.
“Who even knocks?” Liam asked. “All of our friends know they can just walk right in.”
“I’ll get it,” Sam said, pushing back from the table. “Maybe it’s a delivery guy. You guys order anything?”
She left the dining room, and for a moment the table went back to its normal chatter. But I noticed the way Gordy’s gaze tracked her until she disappeared around the corner. He stared at the empty hallway for a beat too long before looking down at his plate.
Oh yeah, he had it bad.
We heard the front door open and then, “Surprise, Sammy.”
There was a pause and then Sam’s strained voice broke the silence. “Jordan. What… How did you?—”
“Who’s Jordan?” Harper quietly asked Abby.
Before she could answer, Gordy was out of his seat heading toward the door where this Jordan guy was still talking to Sam.
“Sam? Everything okay?”
There was another pause and then the other guy spoke. “I’m Jordan. Sam’s brother.”
That was all it took for the rest of us to abandon any pretense of minding our own business. Chairs scraped against the floor as we collectively migrated toward the hallway, because apparently none of us had been raised with even a shred of respect for other people’s private moments.
I’d heard that Sam had brothers, but she’d been stingywith the details like their names. Even Abby seemed surprised that one of Sam’s brothers was here, and Abby had known Sam the longest of any of us.
The man stood on the porch and was shaking Gordy’s hand. He had the same blond hair as Sam.
“He’s one of my roommates,” Sam said, her voice lacking all its usual confidence.
Jordan nodded slowly as his gaze landed on us all watching from the hallway.
“I didn’t realize you lived with…” His words trailed off like he wasn’t sure what exactly the situation was.
