Perfectly Undone: A Novel by Jamie Raintree

Author:Jamie Raintree [Raintree, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-09-30T23:00:00+00:00

11

Cooper told me he loved me on Thanksgiving Day, three months after we met. It was a cold, dreary day, and his family had rescheduled their celebration so Cooper could meet my family. It was the first time I’d brought someone home since my prom date, and though I worried my mom would scare him away with her dedication to holiday tradition, he assured me he’d love me if I came from a family of circus performers or even Republicans—the latter of which was true. The problem was, I didn’t know if I would still love me, or at least the person I turned into around my mother. I didn’t want Cooper to meet that girl. I worked hard to keep her hidden, especially from him.

The night started off well enough. Mom greeted Cooper with a kiss on the cheek, a sweeping once-over and a smile. He fell into conversation about golf and business with Dad and Charlie. They sipped bourbon on the back porch. Within the hour, he was in.

As soon as the boys had slipped out the back door in their hysterically festive sweaters—the Michels boys’ tradition adopted to counter Mom’s Martha Stewart treatment—Mom threw an apron on me and stuck me in front of a bowl of potatoes with a hand mixer. One extra guest meant three more side dishes in addition to the seven she already felt necessary for our family of four.

Family of five. Thanksgiving had been Abby’s favorite holiday.

Mom had rattled off instructions for over an hour, pointing her ragged, chewed-to-the-quick fingernails at this dish, then that, before I made an excuse to escape to the laundry room, where Mom stored the overstocked pantry items she collected on sale. With the light still off, I wiped my hands on my apron and placed them on the washing machine to brace myself for the tears that would surely come. We all tried to make up for Abby’s absence in different ways, and Mom’s coping mechanism was pretending nothing had changed, that we were not broken. But I was not perfect. I couldn’t mash the perfect potatoes or whip the perfect cream, and no amount of beautiful food would tempt Abby down from her bedroom to dip her finger into a casserole dish or pick at the corners of the corn bread. I pulled myself together in the darkness, where no one could see whether or not the turkey was the precise shade of golden brown.

The door cracked open, letting in a sliver of light. It spotlighted my face and revealed Cooper’s in the space between.

“Do you have any sweet potatoes in there?” Cooper asked.

“Sweet potatoes?”

“I don’t think your mom made enough food.”

A grin slid across his face, and I let out a watery laugh.

“I hate you,” I told him.

He laughed and said, “I know. I love you, too.” He closed the door behind him, and there in the pitch-black, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me. He pushed his body against mine until my breasts were crushed against his chest, and I tingled with his touch.

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