Page 57 of The Catch

“Okay, fine. So, you prepared Josh then? For Thanksgiving.”

“Josh can handle them. He’s good at that stuff. Probably better than me, and they’re my family.”

“Are you worried about Maria?”

“What about her?”

“That she’ll have something judgmental to say.”

“To Josh? She’s too proper to risk offending a dinner guest. Besides, Prince Charming, right? What could she say?”

“I meant to you. Every time you see her, you leave feeling bad about some new thing. Remember when she told you your highlights made you look like a stripper? Or when she saw that picture of you in the paper for work, and she said you had too much Roday in your ass to wear pencil skirts? Or—”

“Okay! Yes, Maria thinks I’m a perpetual loser, I get it.”

“You’re not a loser, and I don’t like how she makes you feel like one. You should tell Josh you two have a messy relationship so he won’t be surprised when you turn into a fire-breathing dragon by dessert.”

“I’m not going to complain about a stupid sibling rivalry to Josh of all people.”

“Why not?”

Cat stared at Dani for a few beats until her furrowed brow shot up in recognition. “Oh, because of the fact that he has no family, and you have an army?” Dani bit down on her straw and pouted. “You think it’s going to be weird for him?”

“I don’t know. He’s probably used to it.”

“You should ask him.”

“Wow, we’re really racking up the heart-to-hearts before this one dinner. Can’t we just go eat turkey and watch football and not make it weird?”

“Being in a relationship is about the weird stuff, Cat. That’s what makes it different from hooking up. If it were the other way around, would he ask you about it?”

“Probably. He’s like that. I’m not.”

“Like what?”

“Open. Nothing scares him; he’s like this bombproof horse galloping into the middle of tough conversations.”

“Well, maybe it would be nice if you did that for him for once in a while. Love is a two-way street.”

“Listen to you with the relationship advice. Did Emma leave you her file on me when she and Adam went home for the holiday?”

“I’m just saying.”

Cat rolled her eyes and took a big gulp of her drink, but something niggled at her. “He knows I love him,” she said. “I tell him.”

“Yeah, but ‘Oh my God, Josh! Don’t stop! I love you!’ is different than ‘I love you. Let’s talk about holidays as an orphan’.”

“He’s thirty-three. Can we really call him an orphan?”

“Fine. Next topic. What are you wearing?”

“To Thanksgiving?”

“To your first Thanksgiving as a couple.”

“God. Emma really did put you on her payroll.”

The November wind whipped around Josh’s face as he stepped out of Cat’s car and met her on the sidewalk. Cars were crammed side by side in the driveway, more lining the little side street where her parents lived in a bright red, oversized colonial. Cat wasn’t exaggerating when she said holidays at the Rodays’ were a really big deal.

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