Page 28 of A Case of You
The closer they drew to Thanksgiving, the more nervous Stuart felt. Legally, he wasn’t Brandon and Jeff’s husband, even though Jeff and Brandon both referred to him as that.
He knew Jeff’s family accepted him.
How would Brandon’s familyreallyfeel about him?
The date of the men’s wedding had been rushed out of necessity because of Jeff’s health. This was a far less stressful situation—supposedly—but that meant more time available to talk with Brandon’s brothers and parents.
Stuart desperately wanted to put forward a good impression.
His boss, Cedro Luzon, gave them Thursday and Friday off, paid, in addition to the weekend. So at least he’d have three days to emotionally recover if Thanksgiving dinner went badly. The girls were going with Tracey to Disney for the whole weekend, an early Christmas gift, leaving from Brandon’s after Thanksgiving dinner and driving to Orlando.
That would work out perfectly, actually. Because once everyone had cleared out after Thanksgiving dinner, Stuart planned on trying to call his parents. His mom usually served lunch at one, so even with the time difference, if he called in the evening, hopefully the bulk of their guests would be gone, his dad and brothers would be engrossed in football games, and his mom would have retreated to the bedroom to relax and read while her daughter and daughters-in-law headed out to try to grab early Black Friday deals.
That was, usually, the pattern.
Stuart still left the option on the table to cancel the wedding trip at the last minute if he felt he’d be too much of a disturbance. He didn’t want to disrupt Eileen’s big day.
The Thanksgiving phone call would be his barometer.
By Thursday, he’d talked to Eileen a couple more times over Messenger, and she still assured Stuart he was welcomed to attend the wedding. She actually wouldn’t be spending much of Thanksgiving Day with their parents, only stopping by long enough to say hi before they drove over an hour away to her fiancé’s parents’ house.
Lucky her.
Thursday morning, Stuart was the first one awake and started prepping the turkey for the oven.
Their first Thanksgiving together.
Tracey’s family all lived out of state, and rather than spend the money to go travel to see them, she’d opted to spend it on making memories with her daughter and Grace with the Disney trip. She’d also volunteered to come over early in the day and help them prepare, which would take some of the stress off Stuart and Brandon and give them an extra person to corral Jeff back to the couch when he tried to do too much.
Which, of course, he tried to do from the moment he crawled out of bed after Brandon got up. Most of the guests were scheduled to assemble around one. Grace and Emma spent the night over at Grace’s house the night before and would be home before then.
At one point that morning, not long after Emma and Grace arrived, Brandon pulled Stuart aside and forced him to take a deep breath.
“This is okay. Today is fine. Don’t let your stress about later ruin today for you.”
“I’m an adult. I should be able to deal with my parents.Whycan’t I deal with them?”
Brandon pulled him in for a long, strong hug. “Because you’ve felt what it’s like having a ‘normal’ family, and you wish you could have that with your parents, and you can’t.”
Stuart blinked as he realized that wasexactlyhow he felt. “How—”
“While not as extreme as your case, ditto me and my family.” He smirked. “Living well is the best revenge, they say. Forget about tonight. Let’s have a good first Thanksgiving.”
Stuart knew he had to trust Brandon.
Correction, hedidtrust him.
“Yes, Sir.”
Chapter Eight
Jeff ended up appointed the photographer for the day, since they wouldn’t let him do anything else. His pain levels weren’t even that bad.
But when no one was looking that morning, Brandon leaned in and bit the side of his neck, hard, almost sinking Jeff deep into subspace.
“I have plans for you later tonight,boy,” he murmured into Jeff’s ear. “Why do you think I want you taking it easy and saving your energy?”
“Oh. Oh!”
