And at the end of the day, I get to come home to Abby. I couldn’t be happier.
After saying hello to everyone in the living room, I make my way back to the kitchen, where Matt is finishing up carving the turkey and arranging it on a serving platter while Hannah pulls sweet potatoes covered in golden brown marshmallows out of the oven. “Hey, guys. Need any help with anything?”
Hannah waves me off. “No, no. We’ve got it. Help yourself to a drink, though. There’s beer and hard seltzer in the fridge, plus soda and water. You know where we keep the liquor if you want a mixed drink of any kind, but you’re bartending yourself if that’s the case.”
Chuckling, I pull open the fridge and grab a beer for me and a hard seltzer for Abby, heading back into the living room to hand it to her, bending to kiss her.
She looks up from her conversation with Elena that Layla also seems to be following and gives me a big smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I brush one last kiss across her lips before straightening and turning to the room at large. “Anyone else need a refill?”
I’m greeted by a chorus of nos, so I head back to the kitchen, feeling like a loose end here. Sure, I could chat with everyone else, but I’d be butting into already existing conversations. And I’ve been wining and dining a lot of potential new clients lately, trying to convince people to start the new year with my firm, and even though I can schmooze and make small talk with the best of them, I’m not in the mood tonight. I came to hang out with my friends. And while Coopman and Carter aren’t bad guys, and I’m sure we’ll have fun once we all have a few drinks in our systems and the gift exchange shenanigans start, I haven’t hung out with Matt and Chris in ages. Chris isn’t here yet, so I’ll be bugging Matt.
Standing in the kitchen doorway, I lean my shoulder against the wall and take a pull of my beer, watching Matt and Hannah at work.
Matt glances at me over his shoulder. “Hey. I have something I want to talk to you about.”
I perk up at that. “Oh, yeah? Should I be concerned?”
He gives me a quick grin and a nervous-sounding chuckle that I think is supposed to put me at ease, but has the opposite effect. “No, no. It’s nothing bad, I swear. Just an idea I had, and I’d like to get your input.”
“Shoot.” I hold my beer bottle up, waiting for him to tell me what’s going on.
He glances at Hannah, then at me, then fusses with the last few pieces of turkey on the platter in front of him. “Nah, man. Not right now. After dinner. Food’s ready.”
My brow wrinkles, and I make a disgruntled sound in my throat. “That’s fucked up, man. You don’t tell someone you want to talk to them about something”—I point at him with the mouth of my beer bottle—“something that sounds serious based on your tone of voice, and then be like, we’ll talk about it in a couple hours when we’re all drunk and you’re too hammered to tell me no.”
That provokes a real laugh from him that still does nothing to ease my mind, and Hannah throws me a grin as she passes in front of me to place a stack of paper plates and napkins on the table next to a cup full of plastic silverware. “It’s no big deal, Lance. Really,” she says like that’s supposed to make me feel better.
“Food!” Matt calls to the living room, and a herd of elephants materializes behind me, pushing past me to get to said food.
“I’m starving!” groans Coopman.
“Hey!” protests Elena again. “You make it sound like we haven’t been feeding you.”
Layla laughs. “Evan requires food every few hours, and I wouldn’t let him have a snack before we left. His stomach’s been growling for like half an hour. He thinks he’s starving to death.”
Coopman glares at her. “I am starving to death.” Then his face softens, and he leans in to give her a kiss on the cheek. “But I’ll still let you get your food first.”
Her cheeks turn pink as though she’s embarrassed by the show of affection in front of an audience, but she doesn’t take her eyes off him. “Thank you,” she says primly, taking a plate, a napkin, and a fork and serving herself first. Carter also ushers Elena forward, letting her go before Coopman can get himself a plate. Coopman playfully shoves Carter, but Matt lets out an earsplitting whistle, putting an end to the scuffle before it goes any further.
“No fighting in the kitchen,” he declares. “Take it out back if you need to.”
“Nah, man,” Coopman says. “I’m too hungry for that.”
Abby steps up next to me, and I pull her close with an arm around her as we wait for these lunatics to get their food and get out of the way. She turns a happy face up toward me, laughter dancing in her eyes. “I think it’s safer to wait until they’re all done.”
“Agreed.” I give her a quick kiss, unable to help myself when she’s offering up her face so freely. “Do you have an ETA on Chris and Megan?”
She shrugs and leans into my side. “I think soon. She said they’re on their way, but that could mean they’re just getting ready to leave their hotel room, so it might be another thirty minutes. You know how Megan is. Soon in her vocabulary doesn’t mean the same thing as it does to everyone else.”
I chuckle. “Right. Like how ‘ish’ in relation to a time
