“Ew, that was direct. You don’t have to tell me. Okay, what did you tell her?”
He chuckled. “I told her the truth, Kaylee. Maybe not quite as much truth as she really deserves. I told her we were the best of friends and that I hoped it worked into something more for us. I also told her we didn’t have any future plans and no matter where things go from here, I’m ready to be unmarried. A decade is long enough to test the waters, to think about it. I said I hadn’t changed my mind. And yes, she was emotional. She asked if she was too late.”
“Oh, Landry…”
“Laura is used to having her way. She’s having trouble accepting that it was too late a long time ago,” he said. “There’s no going back for me.”
“I hope you don’t regret it,” she said.
* * *
Late that night, while Landry was getting a shower before bed, Kaylee called Howard. “I hope I didn’t wake you?” she said.
“No,” he said sleepily. “No, not at all. I mean, wake me anytime. It’s good to hear from you.”
“I wanted to say thank you,” she said. “I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the girls. That was very thoughtful for you to suggest it.”
“In the end I didn’t do much but make a few phone calls. There are no plane tickets to be had on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Did you know that’s the busiest travel day of the year? So a couple of them had to drive a huge distance, but they were good sports about it. I’m going to send out some fruit or dessert baskets as a show of my appreciation.” He paused and started to cough.
She suddenly felt a chill. What if Howard became gravely ill right as she was beginning to not hate him anymore?
“It’s obvious, they love you very much,” he said. “They seemed happy I suggested the idea even though it was last-minute and a lot of trouble. Was it fun?”
“So much fun,” she said. “We ate like pigs, drank a little too much, watched movies, talked till we went hoarse. It was wonderful, Howard. If I’d thought of it myself, I wouldn’t have wanted to impose, so you doing that meant even more. But you know what was the best part? That you seemed to understand my relationship with those women. The relationship I had with Mom and those women. That you respected it and didn’t try to include yourself.”
“No, honey. I realize that’s yours. I’m so glad you were able to be together.”
“So, maybe if you’re willing to travel again, we can get together? Not on Christmas because I don’t know how I’m going to feel on Christmas. Probably like crap, considering. But maybe we can have a nice dinner before Christmas. A week or ten days before. How does that sound?”
“I would like that very much.”
“Landry has a guest room. You can stay at his house, which is right next door to my house. Would that be acceptable?”
“It would be wonderful. Just let me know when.”
“I’ll give you a call. And thanks again. Dad.”
“You’re welcome, honey,” he said, a slight catch in his voice.
12
BY THE TIME Landry and Kaylee returned to town on the second day of the tree raising, it was almost fully decorated. There weren’t as many people there as Kaylee would have expected. She found Mel sitting in a corner of the bar at a table, her laptop open.
“This is usually my position,” Kaylee said.
“Oh, hi. I was just working on a special project,” Mel said, closing her computer. “I barely talked to you yesterday. I was busy bossing Jack around most of the day. Sometimes I don’t know how he stands it.”
“I hear some men like it,” Kaylee said with a laugh. “I don’t know any, but that’s what I hear.”
“So, I met a couple of your friends and Landry said you had quite the Thanksgiving party…”
“Is that all he told you? Because my father arranged for my best friends to come up for Thanksgiving. There were six of us plus Landry, and it was amazing. We borrowed the Templetons’ house. It was a very special day. See, last year, we had my mom. She’d decided to discontinue chemo because she wasn’t sure what was worse, death or chemo, and she’d run out of time. By Thanksgiving she was feeling a little bit better so her best friend and I put together a girls-only Thanksgiving dinner. We knew it could be my mom’s last and we had the most wonderful time. This was almost a reunion.”
“And your dad arranged it?” Mel asked. “I thought you didn’t get along with him very well.”