“Yes, dear?” She kept mixing whatever was in the pot on the stove.
“It’s just us, right?”
She sighed, tapping the spoon against the rim of the pot before setting it on the rest and turning to face me.
“And your Aunt Pam, Uncle Gabe, cousins Stew, Chris, and Marisa?”
My temples throbbed as I rubbed at them. This was exactly the opposite of what I’d wanted. What would my family think of me having David here? It was one thing when it had only been Mom and Dad.
“Anyone else?”
Mom shrugged. “I might have invited the neighbors as well.”
I let out a growl of frustration. “What happened to a quiet dinner this year? David doesn’t know any of these people.”
A hand on my arm snapped me out of my thoughts, and I turned to meet a blue stare. David didn’t look upset at all.
“Malcolm, it’s all right. I love a little chaos. It’ll be fun, won’t it?”
Chaos? He’d never been in a room with my family before.
Chapter 16
David
The anxiety rolled off Malcolm in waves as he folded his clothes and stuffed them into drawers. He slammed them closed when he finished before spinning to face me. “Again, I’m so sorry that she sprung that on you. It was supposed to be just us.”
I laughed, crossing the room and looping my arms around his waist, pulling him into my chest. He usually tensed when I got physically affectionate with him, but for the first time in weeks, he caved to the touch.
“Malcolm, it’s fine. I think your mother is just excited.”
He sighed, leaning against me before finally pushing out of my hold. “She’s excited for the wrong reasons.”
There was that sting again. I had gotten so many mixed signals from Malcolm since that first night back in Chicago. He’d crawled right back into bed with me, but we were in the same predicament. I knew his job was at risk. It was foolish to think about anything different, but this was getting tiresome.
“Who’s saying she told them anything? When was the last time you were home for the holidays?”
That seemed to have him deflating a little. He sank to the mattress and held his head in his hands. “You’re right. A couple of years have passed. It all got to be so much after Marcus… and even now…” He looked off toward the bedroom door. It was closed, but I hadn’t missed the door at the end of the hall, wondering if they ever opened it. Was that what was bothering him so much?
“I get it. Trauma is hard. Especially if you all went through it for years.”
His laugh was derisive and humorless. “It was so sudden. Marcus was the life of the party until we got to college. Then it was like he became a stranger. His life was just sucked right out of him…”
I couldn’t imagine living like that. Watching someone you loved crumble into nothing. The person you thought would be around forever. Your other half.
Instead of letting him continue to dwell, I sat next to him on the bed and placed my hand on his back. He was warm and sank into my side, accepting my comfort. “So maybe give them a little more credit. They’re not bad people. I like that your mom cooked dinner tonight. If we’d gone to my place, my mother would have dragged us to a restaurant. She hates to cook.”
That earned me a genuine laugh. “Don’t tell her that. She’ll feed you until you’re stuffed.”
A playful grin spread across my face as I leaned in close to Malcolm’s ear. “Stuffed? I can think of better ways to be stuffed.”
A shiver raced through his frame, but he didn’t pull away from me. Not only was he not drawing lines in the sand again, but he was responding to me. It was the one thing that really drew me in the first time we’d met. His responsiveness was like his body knew exactly what it wanted, even if his brain didn’t.
Soft light filtered through the gauzy curtains, and I sank deeper into the warm blankets wrapped around me. When the bed shifted, I smiled. Malcolm had been so worried about the sleeping arrangements, but we’d maintained our distance through the night. Not that I would have minded if he’d curled into me.
“Morning.” His voice was scratchy, thick with sleep.
I rolled over to face him. “Hey, gorgeous.”
