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“Sir?”

“You are just the strangest man I’ve ever met.”

I grunted. “Yeah, well, I’ve had a weird few days.”

“Trevan—”

“Thanksgiving’s in like two weeks. Whaddya say?”

“I say yes,” Cece chimed in, nodding. “I want everyone together.”

I turned to look at Jocelyn. “You and Hugh? Yeah or no?”

She shook her head.

“Okay, so, maybe you bring someone new, huh?”

Her eyes were leaking tears as she looked at me. “You would… that would… yeah?”

“’Course. You’re the one we give a shit about; bring whoever the hell you want. We’re a warm welcome just waiting to happen.”

“Yeah,” Landry told her, taking her hand. “You can come see my shop, and if you want, maybe you can stay. I would love it, and what’s keeping you here?”

She nodded, her voice gone.

“It would be nice,” I told her.

“I would love it,” she said.

Landry beamed at her, kissing her hand, leaning his cheek on it. Of all of them, I could tell she was the one he liked best. They actually had a chance at the brother/sister bonding thing if she visited and played her cards right.

Scott looked incensed. “What the hell is—”

“Me,” Chris said suddenly. “For Thanksgiving? Lan?”

“I gave you a bracelet, didn’t I?”

He sucked in his breath.

“Even though you thought I was a drug addict and a crazy person, I forgive you.” He smiled at his brother. “I’ll even let you sleep on my couch if Scott doesn’t want it.”

“I’m not going to Detroit for—” Scott started, but his mother cut him off.

“Suit yourself,” Cece told him. “The rest of us will be in Detroit for Thanksgiving.”

“Mother, have you lost your mind? You can’t go to Detroit!” he yelled, getting up, beginning to pace. “Dad!”

“Your mother never wants to go anywhere,” Neil Carter told his son. “She’s been too scared to leave her doctor. But now she wants to take a trip, which I hope will be the first of many.” He sighed deeply. “Oh yes, Scott, we are most definitely going to Detroit.”

Whatever Neil Carter thought about me didn’t matter in the least. His wife wanting to travel he took as a very good sign. Landry being willing to reconnect, give them a chance, was more than he could have asked for, and now he finally saw it. He was not going to miss the opportunity to be with either one of them.

“I look forward to us having an adventure together,” he told his wife.

Cece put her hand on his face, and he covered it with his own, the love in his eyes easy to see. Watching his wife want to do something, want to travel, to live, that was gutting him.

“Me too,” she told him. “Maybe afterwards we could go to New York. I haven’t been to Broadway in a hundred years.”

“I would love that,” he said breathlessly.