I paused. “Have I given you any reason to believe we’renot?”
“Well, I guarantee I’ve been through worse holiday dinners.” He swept a hand toward the house. “So leadon.”
* * *
Not a firing squad,but awhirlwind.
My mother claimed my attention the moment we were inside, needing me to mash potatoes and stir gravy simultaneously, while Daniel was given a polite greeting and directed to the living room where Sam, Theo, and Constantine, along with my Aunt Teresa and cousin Marina, were watching football andchatting.
Once my tasks were done, I escaped the kitchen under the pretense of delivering a new tray of cheese and crackers to the living room and went in search ofDaniel.
He was sitting on the end of the brown leather sofa closest to the kitchen, hunched forward on the edge of the seat with his knees on his elbows, staring at the screen like the announcers were giving out winning lottery numbers rather than calling plays. It was odd; I’d never known he was interested in football. He didn’t even have aTV.
But as I set down the cheeseboard on the coffee table, I noticed Marina was sitting on the sofa, squashed up right next to him, despite there being plenty of room on her other side, where Sam was sitting. Her hand was laying on the side of her thigh, which meant the backs of her fingers were resting against Daniel’ship.
My boyfriend’ship.
Well, myfake-boyfriend’s hip, but Marina didn’t knowthat.
Marina had never been close to my brothers or me. She was somewhere between Theo and Constantine in age, meaning she was possibly old enough to purchase the beer she was holding in her left hand, but not by much. I didn’t know her very well—I only saw her once a year when she and her mom made the trek up here for Thanksgiving, and she always made it clear that one day a year away from all her friends and the exciting life she claimed to have in the city wasplenty.
Looking at her cuddling up to Daniel, I was thinking one day a year might be toomuch.
I wondered for a second if Daniel was enjoying it. Marina was pretty, all dark eyes and sleek dark hair curling just beneath the curve of her ample breasts. She was youngish, and her full lips were arranged in a permanent pout, but a straight-until-five-minutes-ago guy still had to be flattered by the attention, right? He had to appreciate the way her boobs were all but smushed against his bicep, like his arm was a magnet and her bra was fuckinglined with iron. Didn’the?
Outwardly, Daniel didn’t seem to notice. He was sitting as close to the arm of the sofa as possible, and his attention was focused firmly on the television, like the buff guy in the black jersey hawking bundled home and car insurance was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. At least, until I walked byhim.
“Hey,” he said, snaking out a hand and pulling me down to sit on the arm of the couch next tohim.
“Hey. Exciting game?” I nodded at thetelevision.
“I guess.” He shrugged. “Need help in thekitchen?”
His right hand rubbed circles on my back while his left rested on my knee, meaning he was effectively turning his back on Marina, who didn’t look particularly pleased to beignored.
I tried to smother mysmile.
“Nope. Mama’s got everything mostly under control and I’m her assistant. How are you doing?” I tentatively rested a hand on the back of his neck and he leaned into it. His muscles seemed knotted withtension.
“Better now,” hesaid.
“Let me fill you in, Jules. Bears are up, so the side of truth and justice is winning,” Sam said, turning her attention from the TV for two seconds. “Constantine won’t stop texting whoever’s on the other end of that phone and he blushes when I ask him who it is. Theo’s on his fourth beer because he thinks no one has noticed. And Daniel is about to be very sad because he unwisely bet against me and he’s going to lose. When’sdinner?”
“Julian! The gravy!” my mother called from thekitchen.
“Tsk. Your poor mother,” Aunt Teresa sighed, grabbing her wine glass from the coffee table and leaning back into one of the side chairs, where she was tucked with her Kindle. “I keep telling her she doesn’t need to outdo herself everyholiday.”
“Next year, you should all come down to the city for the weekend,” Marina said, linking her arm with Daniel’s excitedly and pulling him back towards her. “I mean, assuming you and Jules are still athingor whatever. We could eat at one of my favorite restaurants and I could show you all the coolestplaces.”
Not fucking likely, I thought. But what I said was, “Thanks, but I doubt that will fly. I think Mama likes having her family under herroof.”
“Julian!” she calledimpatiently.
I sighed and Danielwinked.
“I’m guessing you can’t tell her you’d rather take a break and hang out here?” he asked. I sighed and Daniel’s mouth twisted wryly. “Didn’t thinkso.”
It took an incredible amount of effort to peel myself away from the couch, and my hand lingered on Daniel’s skin until I had to breakcontact.
