minutes?” I check with him.
“I’ll be fine, go ahead.”
I follow my mom into the kitchen, bracing for an interrogation. I love the woman, but you’d think with six other children to worry about, she’d have less time to focus on my love life.
“It must be serious if you brought him for Thanksgiving. Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone?” my mom says casually as soon as we step into the kitchen.
“It’s not serious,” I answer. “We’ve only been on two dates.” Two incredible, perfect, swoon worthy dates, I add silently. “I just didn’t want him to be all alone on a holiday.”
“That’s very sweet of you. You’ve always had a big heart.” She gives me a kiss on the cheek, leaving me sticky with lipstick.
“Gross, Mom,” I complain with a laugh, grabbing a rag to wipe my face clean.
“I’m your mother; it’s my prerogative to embarrass you.”
“Lucky me,” I grumble. She uses her thumb to wipe my cheek and then turns to put the pie into the fridge while I uncork the wine and pour myself a glass.
“Will it be more embarrassing if I ask you all of my prying questions about your new boyfriend? Or should I ask him?” she checks with a conspiratorial smile.
“Please ask me,” I say, and her smile widens.
“Where would the fun be in that?” she takes the bottle of wine from me and pours two glasses. “Everett,” she calls loudly, hurrying out of the kitchen with the drinks before I can stop her. “I’m dying to get to know you better. You know, our Watson never brings men home; you must be very special.”
“Kill me now,” I mutter to myself, taking a healthy gulp of wine and going after her.
Ev gets the full treatment—questions from my mom, embarrassing childhood stories from my siblings, requests for DIY advice as soon as my dad learns he’s in construction.
“Regretting saying yes yet?” I ask in a whisper when we all sit down for dinner.
“Are you kidding? This is fantastic. When I was growing up, I always wished I had a big family. Holidays were so boring with just me and my parents. I always wished Livi had some siblings for that very reason.”
My heart stutters to a stop and then starts beating again double time. “You…” I clear my throat. “You want more kids?”
“In the right circumstances, yeah, I could see maybe adopting or something.” His eyes flicker to mine, and I can see the hope and uncertainty shining in them. “What about you?”
“Yeah,” I answer as casually as I can manage. “I want kids.”
“Wats, pass the mashed potatoes,” Sam calls from the end of the table.
“It’s the kind with the bits of skin in it—you hate those,” I remind them, and they wrinkle their nose.
“I made a special one without any skins just for you,” my mom says, grabbing a much smaller bowl of mashed potatoes and passing it to Sam.
“You’re the best, Mom,” Sam says, and she lights up. When I was younger and she told me for the first time about how she always dreamed of having a ton of kids, I felt so sad for her that she couldn’t have more the usual way. But eventually I realized that just because you can’t birth a bunch of kids, doesn’t mean you can’t have a huge, loving family.
After dinner, we all help to clean up, and then everyone starts urging me toward the dusty old piano that is only ever touched during the holidays when I’m here.
“Come on, guys,” I complain.
“It’s a tradition,” Rava insists, and I sigh.
Ev’s eyebrows go up, his eyes lighting with interest. “You play piano?”
I nod. “And trumpet, drums, guitar, and a mean triangle.”
“Damn, you’re a one-man band.”
I shrug to play off the blush rising in my cheeks, sitting down at the piano and lifting the lid covering the keys. I crack my fingers and play a little something to get warmed up. Fine, maybe I’m showing off a tad when I start playing “Pern” by Yann Tiersen. Over the haunting melody, I hear Ev draw in a sharp breath, leaning forward on the couch and staring at me with awe.
“‘Turkey Day’,” Anthony insists, and I roll my eyes, breaking off from the beautiful flow of notes to pound the keys in a much simpler melody so they can sing their turkey day song from the Addam’s Family movie.
Ev looks stunned for a few seconds as everyone starts to sing and then quickly joins in. Of course, he