Intervention by Mia Kerick

Author:Mia Kerick [Kerick, Mia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Chapter Twenty-four

I ASKED him about it as we were driving to work. “Have you thought about what you’re going to do for Thanksgiving?”

“Yes. I think I’ve decided.”

It seemed like Jamie always cut his answers short, so I had to pester him for further information. Just a little habit of his that kind of messed with my head. “And? What are you going to do, Jamie?”

“I’m not going home to Barlow.”

Although I breathed a sigh of relief at that news, his short response forced me to have to browbeat him some more. “Are you going to come over to my house for Thanksgiving dinner?”

That was when Jamie hesitated. “Um… Kai, I wasn’t planning to do that.” And then he just came out and finished the rejection. Simple and blunt. “But I appreciate the invitation a lot.”

It was hard for me to drive after hearing that. I felt rejected, kicked in the gut. “But why not? My family will love you, and you already know that Charlie likes you and—”

“Kai, can you find a place to pull over? So we can talk.”

He was right. I needed to pull off the road. I was all worked up and shouldn’t be driving in that state of mind. So as soon as I came to a side street, I turned off the main road and then stopped the car at the end of a small cul-de-sac.

As soon as the car stopped moving, Jamie placed his hand on my arm. “It’s not that I never want to meet your family, or that I’m worried that they won’t like me, Kai.” It was like I could feel Jamie studying my face as I stared straight ahead, out through the windshield. “But for the first time ever, I’m not going to spend a holiday with my own family, and I don’t feel right just joining into another family’s celebration. I just don’t feel right.”

So, yeah, I heard what he was saying. I got it. Not to say I wasn’t disappointed as all hell. “What did you tell your family you were going to be doing?”

“I lied to my father last time he called me. I said that one of Coed Joe’s Cape Cod cafés was staying open longer hours over Thanksgiving, and they were really short-handed. Told him that I was getting time and a half for covering down there.”

“Good one.” Those words came out super sarcastic.

Jamie took offense at my snide remark. “I don’t like to lie to him, Kai. I just can’t go home yet.”

Turning to face Jamie, I took his hands in mine and then a slew of guilty words came flooding out. “You did the right thing—the only thing you could do at this point, J… and I understand why you don’t feel right coming to my house too. Really, I do, dude.”

“I appreciate that.”

“We can still spend plenty of time together on Thanksgiving weekend, right? You working a lot that weekend?”

“Well, yeah. I always need the money, so I told Marty I’d fill in for the students who are going home for the long weekend.

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