Page 60 of Dearly Unbeloved
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ROSE
Four whole days off for Thanksgiving!!! However will we pass the time? - S
P.S. Olivia Newton-John is feeling pretty neglected these days.
Sierra hasn’t stopped talking since we left home to drive to Maggie and Cal’s place for Thanksgiving dinner. For my benefit, I suspect. She knows family dinners are hard for me.
Thanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday, on account of the shitty origin story, and the fact that my parents force us to have a formal meal every year. But last year, Jazz put her foot down and said she wasn’t coming, inviting us to the Michaelson Thanksgiving dinner instead. My parents threw a hissy fit and refused to go. I assumed Xan would refuse, too, but when I showed up at their place, the epitome of a dutiful daughter, it was just me. Xan andJazz spent the holiday surrounded by laughter, and my parents and I sat in silence.
This year is different. My parents haven’t been invited to family dinner since the night Sierra and I announced we were married, and when they texted me a couple of weeks ago to ask about Thanksgiving, Sierra plucked my phone out of my hand and declined their invitation before I could work myself up about it.
“Thanksgiving is for family,” she told me, typing out her reply. “And they can be included when they start acting like one. We’re going to Maggie and Cal’s.”
I’ve never been so grateful to have my phone stolen.
And she’s right. Thanksgivingisfor family. Which is why I stoleherphone while she was sleeping a couple of weeks ago and got her mom’s number.
I was nervous as hell calling, but Andrea Hayashi is not my mom. She was thrilled to hear from me, acting like we’d known each other forever and not like it was the first time she’d ever spoken to her daughter’s wife.
Sierra holds open Maggie and Cal’s front door as I carry our overnight bags. They insisted we didn’t bring any food, because Liam’s mom, Danisha, had so much planned and they were already worried about how we were going to eat it all.
I close the door as Sierra chatters away about the new hay she wants to try the bunnies on, corralling her toward the living room. She walks in and stops in her tracks, gasping.
“Oh my god!” Sierra rushes forward, wrapping her arms around her parents, who are standing by the fireplace.
Sierra’s dad holds her tightly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “We’ve missed you, sunshine.”
Any jealousy I’ve been feeling about how close she is with her family disappears when I see her step back with a wide smile on her face. My stomach flutters.
“How are you here?” she asks, hugging her mom, Kyo, and both of Kyo’s partners in turn.
“Rose invited us,” her mom says, turning to smile at me.
Shit. I forgot inviting them here would mean I also had to meet them. I steel myself and cross the room, dropping the bags on an empty chair as I go.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” I say, but the words are muffled as I’m pulled into hug after hug, finally ending up, somehow, in Sierra’s arms.
“You called my family?” she murmurs in my ear.
“You said you missed them.”
She pulls back, and I know her well enough at this point to recognize the surprise and confusion in her eyes as she takes me in. “Thank you,” she says, pressing a smiley kiss to my cheek. Blood rushes to my skin, and I barely even notice how nervous I am as she introduces me, officially, to her parents. All I can think about is how much I like making her smile like this.
I force myself to swallow one more bite of Danisha’s incredible cinnamon cheesecake and push my plate away. I don’t remember the last time I ate so much—or sowell.
The Hayashi family fit perfectly with the Michaelsons, though I’m not surprised. It’s like everyone has been friends for years. Rylan is obsessed with interior design, and a big fan of Maggie’s work, and Sierra’s dad, Kento, and Lina are obsessed with the same reality show as Jazz and Cal. Sierra and her mom talk about seemingly everything and nothing, and, though Sierra tries to include me in the conversation, I give her space to catch up with her mom.
From my other side, Xan reaches over me and spears the last bite of cheesecake from my plate. “You, Jazz, and Maggie really hit the jackpot in the in-law department,” he says through a mouthful of cheesecake. I wrinkle my nose.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full. But yeah, we did.” I nudge him with my shoulder. “Kami’s dad’s pretty great.”
“He is, but A, he’s not my father-in-law?—”
“He might as well be,” I mutter.
Xan ignores me. “And B, he hates me.”
