Her pulse quickened. “I could definitely get used to this.” getting on her tippy toes, she puckered her lips to receive Donny’s kiss. And just like that, the butterflies teetered over the edge.
“Where’s Bruce, Janice, and Trey?” she asked when they separated.
“Bruce and Janice traveled to her parents back in Seattle for Thanksgiving, but Trey will be here a little later.”
“Okay, that’s nice. Well, I gotta go back to the kitchen to finish preparing the food for later. The men are outback setting up the patio or playing a hand of poker.”
“Or I could just stay here…kissing…you.” Donny planted a kiss on her lips with each word he said.
Andrea smiled in between the smoothes. “As…tempting…as…that…sounds, I need to get back to the kitchen. We can finish this up later when we’ve fed the hungry mass.”
Donny chuckled, following her into the house. When they made it to the kitchen, Andrea took the casserole and sent him on his way.
“All right now. Everything is ready. Now it’s time to go get ready for this shindig,” Cora said, shimmying. The others laughed, but as Cora continued shimmying out of the kitchen, they followed suit, mimicking her movements.
“I’m taking a quick shower.” Drea announced, then disappeared.
She was relieved to get under the head of the shower, water cascading down her head and running over her body. The time was cold with the autumn breeze that had been blowing, but the kitchen had been considerably warm, especially after spending so many hours in there. Twenty minutes later she was out of the shower, she dried off and donned a pair of blue jeans and a mustard turtle neck sweater before heading back downstairs.
“Ready to get this show on the road?”
She looked over at her sister with a smile and a nod.
“All right then, let’s get this show on the road.”
Andrea grabbed a few foil pans and stacked them on each other and proceeded to take them out back. The others did the same.
“Yay! Food time!” Sophia, Kerry’s daughter, cheered.
Andrea chuckled when the others started to cheer.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hi, sweetie,” Andrea smiled at her daughter, who came over to give her a hug over her shoulder.
“James, no greeting for me?” she quipped with a raised brow at her son-in-law.
“Hi, Mom,” James smiled, leaning over to give her a kiss on her cheek.
“That’s better,” she smiled, earning a low chuckle from him.
“I saw Erin and Tracey; I didn’t know they were coming.”
“Your aunts weren’t sure if they would be here either,” she replied. “Did you talk to them?”
“Yeah, yeah. It was great catching up with them, plus I think Jules is really happy that her sister is here. She’s smiling more— talking.”
“That’s great to hear, sweetheart,” she smiled.
“All right, everyone. Everything’s been settled. Now it’s time to eat. Here comes the turkey.”
Cora came down the porch steps carrying the turkey. There was another loud cheer as the bird was settled in the middle of the two heavy tables joined together.
“Time to eat.”
“Hold on, before we go any further, let’s say grace,” Aunt Maria rose to say.
There were low murmurs of approval before they all joined hands.
