The Saddest Song - By Susie Kaye Lopez Page 0,40
greeted her with a hug. Dad followed close behind.
“Caitlynn, join us for dinner. My turkey is a work of art!”
“I hate to miss it Mr. Martin, but I have to get home, my cousins are coming over. Hey Rainey, do you think I could borrow your blue sweater?”
“Sure, come up to my room.” We ran up the stairs and while she plopped on my bed I dug through the closet for the sweater.
“Rainey, Hudson invited me to have dessert with his family tonight.”
“Whoa, are you going? That sounds kind of serious, meeting the family on a big holiday.” I sat down next to her and folded the sweater.
“I know, that’s why I need the sweater. I can’t find anything in my closet that I want to wear. Mom made a pie for me to take over too. She told me to say I made it myself.”
I laughed, “That will impress them. Your mom should open a pie shop.”
“Don’t laugh. She would love that. Hudson’s mom actually knows mine. They worked together on the fall fundraiser at school. Mom says she is super nice.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Not about meeting his parents, I’m good with parents. Hudson makes me nervous.”
“What? He’s great, why are you nervous?”
“It’s just the way he treats me. He acts like I am fragile or something. He is so considerate of everything I do or say. It’s just that he’s so intense.”
“He has it bad, that’s all. You like him too, huh?”
She nodded and laughed. “Let’s change the subject. How are you doing today? Has it been tough?”
“No, not yet. The McKinley’s are coming over, that will be the hard part.”
“Are they coming for dinner?”
“Yeah, actually they came last year too. So my mom felt they had to be invited this year. I was worried it would be too much for them, but they said yes.”
“What do you miss most?”
Trying to keep things light, I said, “well, today I miss Garrett and his appetite! He loved to eat so much.”
I felt the ache moving into my throat, and my heart felt heavy. This was never going to get easy, I thought.
Sensing my eminent breakdown, Cait stood up and picked up the folded sweater. “You are going to be fine, Rainey. Garrett would be so proud of you.”
“Thanks,” I said hugging her, “and Cait?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m really thankful for you.”
“I love you Rainey.” She hugged me again and waved as she headed out the door. I stayed behind to get ready for Max and his folks, thankful that if I couldn’t spend Thanksgiving with my boyfriend, I got to spend it with his family.
Max
I texted Rainey and told her to make the cocktails strong, we would see her in a few minutes. I was only half kidding, and she would know it. She would also know the drinks weren’t for me. It had been a rough morning around our house.
My mom’s family was Danish so our traditional Thanksgiving breakfast was to have Kringles. Kringles are flaky pastries shaped into a large ring with different fillings. As far back as I could recall we would have pecan, cherry and raspberry. My parents loved the pecan, I loved the Raspberry and Garrett, the cherry.
Well, Mom always ordered them from a special bakery in Wisconsin. They shipped them overnight and on Thanksgiving morning she just put them into the oven to warm. When I walked into the kitchen, it smelled great and the table was set with glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice for me, coffee for mom and dad. Mom was actually smiling as she cut and served the Kringle. As soon as I took a bite I realized that there had been a mistake. Mom had ordered Garrett’s flavor instead of mine. No big deal. I would just eat it and nobody would be the wiser. Only two things were wrong with this plan. One, I hate cherry anything, and two, my mom could read me like a book, even when I was trying to fake it. I saw her eyes widen in concern and then she put two and two together.
“Oh no! Is that Cherry?” She reached over and pulled my plate closer to examine the filling that spilled from the pastry. She had a look of horror on her face.
I took a big gulp of juice, “Mom, it’s okay, please don’t worry about it. This is great.”
“Max Alexander, you hate Cherry and we both know it. I am so sorry sweetheart, I must have ordered the wrong one. I know you