Page 82 of Going the Distance
Chapter 20
I smoothed down my skirt, but really, it was an excuse to wipe the sweat off my clammy palms. I was breathing shallowly, like I’d been running. I’d been feeling really great this morning, while I was getting ready. I’d been feeling so good, in fact, that I’d almost managed to convince myself that I actuallywasover Noah, and it didn’t even bother me to think I’d be seeing him today.
I was in the bathroom at the Flynns’ for the hundredth time in the last hour, since Matthew had gone to get his son and his son’s probably-girlfriend from the airport. I lifted my arms to check I didn’t have pit stains. That was the last thing I needed today.
I checked my messages again, even though my phone hadn’t buzzed since Levi had texted me a few hours ago to wish me good luck seeing Noah and Amanda today.
I kept hoping that a text would appear on my phone from Noah. Nothing serious, no big apology to tell me that he wanted me back, no explanation that he and Amanda were just friends.
All I wanted was a message from him that said:Just to let you know, I’m bringing Amanda home for Thanksgiving. Thought you should know.
Because, really, that was only polite. Wasn’t it? He had to have known that I’d heard about it from Lee; I couldn’t help but be alittlepissed that he didn’t even have the courtesy to text me and warn me about it himself.
There was a knock on the bathroom door, making me almost drop my cell. “Just a sec!”
I opened the door and forced a smile for Lee. His face was just full of pity. “Shelly, seriously, you need to stop worrying. It’s going to be fine. You’ll see him with Amanda and realize he was a dick to you and you deserve better, and you’ll be fine.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“Plus, you lookhot,” Lee told me. “He’ll be wondering how he ever let you go for some boring, preppy Goody Two-shoes.”
I managed an actual smile at that and hugged Lee. “How do you always know what to say to make me feel better?”
“I guess our minds are just so in sync, I can’t help it. If I were a girl, too, I bet we’d even have our periods at theexactsame time.” I pulled away from the hug to see Lee grinning at me, his blue eyes gleaming. His freckles weren’t so prominent anymore, I noticed. They’d faded away a bit. He’d built up more muscle lately, being part of the football team. (He’d also stopped going to their parties so much, which seemed to help him not act like such a jackass.)
I ruffled his hair, which he’d painstakingly artfully messed up with product this morning, and he yelped in protest, batting me away.
“Mercy, mercy!” he exclaimed, and I laughed, backing away.
“Are you seeing Rachel today?”
“I’m going over this evening, after dinner. But only if you’re okay. I told her I might not, if you want me to stick around here, if things are weird with you and Noah. And Amanda. She totally understood, though.”
I shrugged. “With any luck, it won’t be. And then you can go see Rachel.”
Lee smiled at me, but it wasn’t impish anymore; it was sad. “You know I’m always here when you need me, Elle.”
“I know.”
I hugged him again, and then we heard, “Oh, not interrupting anything, am I?”
It was one of Lee’s aunties, Maureen, who was raising her eyebrows at us like she’d just caught us making out or something instead of hugging. Lee crossed his eyes at me, and I bit back a giggle.
“Can I just get through to the bathroom, dear?”
“Sorry,” I said, stepping away from Lee and out of the way of the bathroom door. “All yours.”
Maureen smiled at us conspiratorially and shut the bathroom door behind her. Maureen had been convinced for years that Lee and I would end up married with a dozen kids. She told us so, every Christmas.
“I guess we should go downstairs, see if your mom needs any help,” I told Lee.
June always said she found making Thanksgiving dinner fun, but from the stressed-beyond-belief look on her face when we walked into the steamy kitchen, you’d never have guessed it. She snapped at us to make sure the table was laid properly, that there were enough knives and forks and plates and chairs, enough place mats and empty glasses and napkins. And was the wine in the fridge? Couldsomeoneplease check?
The usual crowd was here. On Matthew’s side of the family: Lee’s grandparents; Aunty Maureen; Uncle Pete and his new wife, Linda (but not Pete’s kids because they were spending this Thanksgiving with their mom in Nevada). On June’s side of the family: Lee’s grandma and Aunty Rose and Uncle Colin, as well as their kids, Hilary (who was fifteen and going through what her mom called a “goth phase”) and Liam (who was Brad’s age and happy to spend all day with Brad talking about video games, but kept trying to persuade him that reading was just as much fun).
Thanksgiving was always totally chaotic.
There was no other way to describe it.
