He chuckled and walked away.
I pressed my hands against the vanity and stared in the mirror. My days fluctuated between thinking about the baby constantly to trying not to think about the baby at all. Just in case. Butthis really was a good sign. A great sign. I smiled. The baby was healthy. I removed one of my hands from the vanity and ran it over my stomach.
This Thanksgiving was going to be perfect. It was going to erase the Thanksgiving 16 years ago from my head.
I was glad we’d decided to do our rehearsal dinner tonight and our wedding tomorrow. It felt like we were fixing a wrong from our past. I didn’t regret what I’d done in my time apart from Matt. But I wanted to fix this wrong for him. I wanted to erase the last words he spoke to me back then. I wanted to erase all the hurt. I wanted to move forward.All four of us.I couldn’t stop smiling.
And Rob hadn’t even texted me once about the silly prank he said he was going to pull. So hopefully that meant he was ready to move forward too. There was no way I still owed him a favor from back when we were teenagers. There were time limits to that kind of thing. And this favor was expired.
I quickly washed my face and brushed my teeth. Matt had a cup of tea waiting for me downstairs on the kitchen counter. Jacob was sitting on the counter next to the cup.
“Mommy, Mommy!” he said. “We get to go to Abuelo’s castle!”
“Yes we do.” I tickled his side. I was very curious about Tanner’s apartment. He must have had very medieval decorations or something.
“We can still play football today, right?” he asked and looked up at me.
It was a family tradition. And I wanted to keep those traditions alive. But this Thanksgiving was a little different from most. “Tanner doesn’t have a yard to play in,” I said.
“Yes he does.”
I shook my head. “He lives in an apartment.”
“No, he lives in a castle.”
I smiled. “Okay, but…”
“We are going to play,” Matt said. “It’s tradition, after all. And we’re not leaving for a few hours. We’ll play right now.” He smiled over at me.
I’d told him about our tradition of playing football all morning, eating way too much turkey, and watching the football games.
“Just you and me though, kiddo. Your mommy needs to drink her tea.”
I laughed. “Oh, I’m playing too.” I took a quick sip of my tea and helped Jacob off the counter. “Race you to the back yard!”
Jacob started running, but Matt stopped me, pulling me into his arms.
“Shouldn’t you be resting?” he asked.
I shook my head. “And miss out on one of my favorite traditions? Never.”
“You sure?”
“I promise that I’m fine.” I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him. “Now you better bring your A-game. Because we take our Thanksgiving football very seriously.”
“Oh, game on.”
I patted his chest and spun around, making sure to sway my hips.
He groaned behind me.
I laughed and sprinted the rest of the way to the door.
***
“You look beautiful,” Matt said when I walked into the living room. He stood up from the couch. He was wearing a fitted black suit. We were dressed way too fancy for Thanksgiving dinner. But we’d agreed to go all out for the rehearsal dinner. And Matt looked so yummy.
“You said the same thing a few hours ago when I had leaves in my hair,” I said.
