Page 60 of The Ghost of You

He shoots daggers at Noah before turning back to me. “I thought you might want company is all.”

“Well thanks for inviting me. Noah wouldn’t let me not show up.”

I look over at Noah and he has a strange look on his face.

“Hi Anna May. I’m Carson, nice to finally meet you. These two idiots are always talking about you. I feel we may need to have a gauntlet over who is going to win your affection.”

That blush that was on my cheeks earlier just came back full force. “Umm, there isn’t—we aren’t—”

“Geez Car, don’t even let the girl catch a break before you start saying shit,” Asher interrupts. “Besides, we all know she enjoyed my drunken ride on her. We have a secret relationship. Been keeping it hidden from all of you.”

The Taylor brothers all burst out laughing before arguing over sports.

“They are a handful. Took me some time to get used to them.” Carson’s girlfriend says as she walks over to me.

“That’s for damn sure,” Marlene answers as she walks out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel.

“I’m Tiffany, by the way.”

“Anna. Nice to meet you.”

“Will one of you boys get your father?” Marlene asks, cutting off the argument they all found themselves in. “He insisted on getting work done this morning but since you all are here now, he needs to come out. Just close his laptop.”

“I’ll do it, Mom,” Noah says and disappears down the hallway.

“Carson, can you please offer drinks to the ladies? Mason and Asher, I need you to bring the appetizers out. Your uncle will be here any minute and he will be easier to tolerate if he has food shoved in his mouth.”

Tiffany tells Carson to grab us champagne then grabs my hand and drags me over to a large, fluffy couch right by the massive windows.

“Those boys can be so obnoxious.”

I nod in agreement.

“Last year was my first Thanksgiving here and I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to come back. I thought Sunday dinners were rough. When even more Taylors gather, it’s like being on a pig farm. There is so much testosterone in the air. We girls need to stick together.” Carson comes over with two glasses of champagne and we each take one before he walks away. “Just wait until Dottie gets here.”

“Who’s Dottie?”

“Their grandma. She is as wild as they come. Carson told me she has strip poker parties at her house. Hell, she is in her eighties!”

“What about her husband?”

Tiffany sips her champagne. “He passed away ten years ago.”

“Noah told me his grandparents come by.”

“Dottie is Marlene’s mom. Pops and Grams are Mr. Taylor’s parents.”

I sip my champagne and nod as Tiffany loads me in on the family drama. It’s not so much drama, to me it sounds like regular family dynamics but it’s good to prepare me for what’s to come today.

From the corner of my eye, I see Noah walk back into the room talking to his mom. He looks over at me and smiles and I can’t help but smile back.

“So how long have you and Noah been seeing each other?”

I nearly spit the champagne out of my mouth. “Excuse me?”

“You two seem pretty close. Thought you might be secretly dating.”

I shake my head. “Umm no. We are just friends.”

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