Page 33 of Teach Me to Laugh

That’s why I trained my eyes to Maddy, who sat on Kai’s other side. Maddy was surprisingly comfortable with Kaiden, even though I was told he looked remarkably like his little brother, whom Maddy had loved and lost. “You having another?”

“I don’t think I can,”

“Nachos!” Raina’s hands thumped on the table. “We’ll order food so we can drink more.”

“Need to take her out more often, Kai.” Beckett teased. “She’s never gonna wanna leave if you’re always keeping her cooped up in that tiny apartment.”

“It’s an awesome apartment, man.”

“I know,” Beckett nudged me. “Amara likes the shower in the middle of the room.”

“Oh,” Raina leaned into the table and whisper-yelled over the music. “The shower is becoming my favorite part of it too.”

Tipping my head back, I let my eyes fall to a grinning Beckett. “You think you’re funny, don’t you?”

He shrugged. “If the shoe fits.”

“So funny.”

He laughed and I felt the low rumble in my belly. I really liked the sound of his laugh, even though I knew I shouldn’t.

It was later, after we’d ordered and devoured two platters of nachos and a few more drinks each, that Beckett leaned back with the neck of his beer between large fingers. “Christmas is coming around soon. Are you lot planning on heading back home?”

His question was directed at our three friends across the table. They were all from the Spruce Grove area, a city just west of Edmonton, Alberta. I knew he was directing his question at them and not me, because I didn’t have a home to go to for the holidays. I’d never had that.

Raina glanced at me. “Actually,” she smiled at Kaiden. “We don’t really have plans yet. But we’d like it if you spent the holiday with us, no matter what we do.”

“Me?” I was surprised, and even though I felt the warmth of her offer, I also felt the burden.

Beckett didn’t let me feel it for long, as his big hand came down on my shoulder and he squeezed. “I was actually thinking we could make plans for this Christmas. My parents are alwaysbusy and I usually spend the day alone so,” he glanced down at me. “I was hoping I could convince Amara to save me from loneliness this year.”

“Oh,” Maddy lifted her hands. “Don’t let us interfere.”

I could still hear his words echoing in my mind, “Hoping I could convince Amara to save me from loneliness this year.”

Wow.

“That’s just it,” Beckett continued and I blinked myself back to awareness. “I was thinking we could pool our resources and spend a week in Banff. We could ski, or whatever,”

“I think that’d be awesome.” Kai put in, grinning.

“Yeah, then we’d all be together and no one would be lonely.” Beckett chuckled, and I felt his thumb start to move gently over the bare skin of my shoulder. The sensation was—too much. “It’d save my lonely ass, anyway.”

“I don’t know,” Raina winced. “What about our parents?”

“They love skiing. We’ll invite them.” Kai proposed. “And Maddy, you can invite yours.”

“I’m not sure if they’ll go for it, but I’m in either way.”

My eyes sliced to Maddy, who was being a lot more accommodating to the proposition of being without her parents for Christmas than I would have thought. Even Raina looked surprised as she leaned into the table to look around Kaiden.

“Really?” She asked, “You’d be good with ditching your parents during Christmas?”

She shrugged. “If they don’t want to come, it’s not like I can’t head home after the holiday for a visit.”

There was something fishy about this. I was thinking that if I hadn’t drank half the bar, I might have been able to put my finger on whatever that fishy was—but unfortunately, I had drank half the damn bar and at the moment I was good for putting my finger on absolutely nothing. Therefore, I did nothing but squint across the table at my friend.

“Will you come, Mar?” Raina asked a little hesitantly, and I startled.

---