Back Forever by Karen Booth

Author:Karen Booth [Booth, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00IIF8LIM
Publisher: Turquoise Morning Press
Published: 2014-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dressed for dinner in a warm sweater and the one pair of nice jeans I could still squeeze into, I rushed down the hall, hair still damp from my shower, only to be stopped by the sound of music from Sam’s room. My shoulders dropped out of frustration. Seriously?

I knocked. No answer. I knocked again. “Sam? Honey? Are you going to set the table?”

The music stopped and there were heavy footfalls. She opened the door. “What?”

“The dinner table? I asked you to set it?”

She cast her eyes away. “I sorta hoped Grandpa would just decide to do it since he’s such a busybody.”

Take a breath. “He and Chris are watching TV. Come on. We can talk while I finish dinner.” It was a miracle I hadn’t snapped at her. I’d stopped just shy of it. It’s Thanksgiving. And this is what you wanted.

She stormed past me and down the stairs. By the time I arrived in the kitchen, she’d put the four chocolate brown linen placemats into position atop the ivory tablecloth I’d ironed that morning.

I straightened one of the placemats and smiled. She didn’t return the gesture. “Silverware next?”

She purposefully set down each piece of cutlery with a thud. First, the knives, around the table she plodded, head hung low. Then the forks in another skulking rotation, during which there was copious grumbling. Lastly, the spoons made their trip. “Am I done yet?”

She wants me to argue with her so she can be mad at me about Bryce. No way was I going to take the bait. “Water glasses and dinner plates, please.”

She groaned. “Yes, ma’am.”

Sam continued with her task, while I placed my mother’s favorite candlesticks on the table. They weren’t the most attractive things in the world—brown ceramic with splashes of brick orange and cobalt blue, from a vacation to Mexico she and my dad had taken when Julie and I were kids. My mother had always put out those candlesticks at Thanksgiving and I’d nearly come to blows with Julie to get them after Mom died. The whole thing was stupid sibling rivalry. Julie was a cut crystal kind of person.

Glasses and plates in place, Sam stood before me. Hand on hip, she glared.

I sighed. “Is this really how you’re going to be all night? Because it’s going to make Thanksgiving significantly less fun.”

“I don’t see any way I can have fun.”

“Honey, we’ve been over this a dozen times.” I set down a half-peeled potato and took a peek at the turkey, a perfect golden brown except for one frustrating pale area due to the cold spot in my decrepit old oven. “It’s our first Thanksgiving with Chris. It’s our last one in this house. We’re moving in a week and you’ve spent every Thanksgiving of your entire life in this house. I wasn’t willing to give up this holiday so you could spend it with your boyfriend.”

She shot me an indignant stare. “His name is Bryce and I only wanted to spend it with him because his mom invited me.

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