Page 21 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Nothing.”
“I can tell it’s not nothing. You have that look in your eye like you want to say something.”
She smiled. “You know me so well.”
“Then spill it.”
Kelli sipped her cider and then put it down, swapping it for a lemon square. She took a bite, closed her eyes as she chewed, and swallowed. Then she opened her eyes and met my gaze. “It’s the fifteen-year Westview High reunion tomorrow night.”
“What?” I asked. “Why? The reunion isn’t supposed to be until the middle of June.”
“I know, but nobody came to the ten-year one because so many people have moved away. They figured this year, they would have it around the holidays when people were already coming back to see family. Clever, isn’t it?”
“So is not telling me about the reunion before you swindled me into coming back here,” I said.
Kelli laughed. “I knew it would deter you, and that’s no reason not to come spend Christmas with your family.”
“I don’t think I’m too keen on the idea of meeting up with everyone from school. It’s been so long. And to be honest, I don’t know if I care enough to see those people. Is that rude?”
Kelli shook her head. “No, not really. But how can you not be the least bit curious? Did Leo marry Jordan? Who has kids? How old are they? Who’s working where? I just… I don’t know. I can’t help myself. And I don’t want to go without you.”
I frowned. “What if Cal is there?”
“Cal who?” Kelli asked innocently.
“Don’t play dumb.”
Kelli smiled into her cider. “Sorry. Just pulling your leg. I doubt he’d show up. He’s a big shot lawyer downtown now. He doesn’t have time for the little folks like us. Well, little folks minus you. The jewel in the rough.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop it.”
“I can’t help it. You bring out my worst side.”
I shook my head at her and leaned forward to grab a Nanaimo bar from the plate. I took a bite. “Your mom has to teach me how to make these things. They’re so good.”
“I’m sure she’d be happy to. She’s been trying to teach me for years, but you know how I am in the kitchen.”
“Useless?”
“Exactly. I just create a big mess making something that’s going to taste like ass. So why bother?”
“Fair point.”
“So you’ll come to the reunion?”
I sighed. “I’ll think about it.”
9
CALLUM
“What’s this?” Asher asked as he lifted up my paisley patterned pocket square from where it lay atop my bed. He turned it in his hands, studying it the way a chemist might study a blood sample, and then set it back down.
“It’s a pocket square,” I told him.
Asher looked up at me. He was standing right at the edge of my bed to look at the suit I’d chosen for the reunion. “What does it do?”
“You wear it in your pocket. Like an accessory.”
