Just As Much Read online

  He pulls out my suitcase and lays it on the bed.

  “Start packing,” he says to me. What is he doing? I purposefully did not tell him I was staying here. I made it sound like I would be at Mel’s over break, which in hindsight, probably wasn’t the best plan when it came to him.

  “What?”

  “You are coming home for Christmas with me,” he says. “Let’s go.”

  “Damian, I am not going to go home with you,” I say rolling my eyes as I wrap Meredith’s gift.

  He comes over to me and sits on the bed with a coy smile.

  “Did you honestly believe I am going to let you sit in this dorm room and mope for a month?” he says.

  “I was hoping,” I say, letting out an aggravated breath. “How’d you know?”

  “Because you wouldn’t stay there for a month,” he says. He had me there.

  “Come on, the train leaves at five,” he says pushing the suitcase towards me.

  “Damian, your mother would want to know I am coming.”

  “My mother has known you were coming for a few weeks now.” What? He told his mother I was coming without telling me?

  “So, let me get this straight. You told everyone but me that I was going home with you and didn’t even bother to ask me?” I say shaking my head at him.

  “Because you would have made an excuse.”

  “I have plans with Mel,” I say rolling my eyes.

  “Don’t lie to me, Fee. They are going to Daniel’s parents,” he says, and I groan.

  “No. I am not going,” I say.

  He holds up two tickets.

  “You see. My mom bought us these tickets home. And then she proceeded to set it up for a service dog and go through all the red tape. She has a spare bedroom all ready for you and everything. To not go would be devastating at this point,” he says grinning.

  What a dick. Dick. Dick. Dick.

  “You can go to your mother and tell her that you did not ask me to come. Instead you assumed I would come with you because you bamboozled me into it!”

  “Bamboozled? Really now,” he says laughing.

  “This isn’t fair, and you know it!” I say shouting. I see my plans for movies and tea and no people disappearing into the distance. He is going to win this fight and he knows it. I don’t want to disappoint his mother before actually meeting her. Damn. Him.

  I start packing and he sits there with a smirk on his face.

  “If you think I am going to make this month easy on you, you’re wrong. So. So. Wrong, Damian. I swear to God I am going to kill you,” I say as I pack all the movies I was going to watch to take with me. He is going to suffer through every single chick flick on this list.

  “Uh huh,” he grins.

  “Don’t you get coy with me, you fucking bastard!”

  “Two curse words, you’re serious,” he says chuckling. I glare at him.

  “Wipe that grin off your face. You’re carrying all my shit,” I say as I put my toiletries in my bag.

  “You got it,” he says still smiling.

  I wish Zeke could bite on command.

  When we get off the train, a car is waiting for us. Damian’s mom, a tall red-headed woman who is almost as skinny as I am, gets out and immediately hugs him.

  “It has been too long! You haven’t been home in weeks!” she says hugging him.

  “Hi, Mom,” he says hugging her back.

  “And you must be Felicity,” she says hugging me to her. Instantly I freeze and then I start hugging back. I don’t like the hugging people immediately after I meet them thing. Damian grins at me from over his mom’s shoulder.

  “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Turner,” I say as she releases me.

  “Mrs. Turner is my mother-in-law. You’ll meet her later. I am Donna,” she says laughing and helping me get my bags in the car.

  “This must be Zeke,” she says. Zeke looks like he is smiling. After that trip on the train he is going to be desperate for attention. He looks up at me as if to say—that lady knows my name.

  “He’s going to need to wind down after that train ride. It was his first,” I say laughing.

  “Well, when we get to the ranch, he will have plenty of room. Lots of acreage by the stables,” Donna says getting into the car.

  I look at Damian and mouth the word acreage. He just grins.

  Ten minutes later, as Damian excitedly gives me a tour of an extremely small town without any stores that I have heard of because they are all local, we pull into a huge driveway with lots of acreage. There are horses in a field and there is a large wooden fence surrounding the property and leading to what has to be the biggest house I have ever seen.

  I look wide eyed. I am going to kill Damian. I am not going to feel comfortable here, there’s no way.

  His mother walks us in and the whole entire house is decorated for Christmas with a large tree in the biggest room.

  The house is a giant open floor plan with dark wooden floors. There’s a huge kitchen with a family room and an even larger living room as you go deeper into the house. There’s a freaking fireplace with stockings—and it’s on. I think I have accidently stepped into a Hallmark movie.

  “Now I have set up the spare bedroom for you and Zeke,” she says showing me down a hallway and up the stairs, “Damian and Matt’s rooms are on down and my room is at the end of the hallway.”

  “I’ll let you guys get settled and then we can warm you up some food? You both must be starved,” Donna says looking between me and Damian. I just smile and try not to freak out in front of the poor woman. She is like a ray of permanent sunshine and I am not on that level of happy. Not in the least. Like ever.

  I sit my stuff down and look around. You could fit the room I had at Mel’s into this bedroom twice. I just gawk.

  “You doing okay?” Damian asks.

  “What does your mother do for a living?” I ask.

  “My dad was a cardiologist. The only one in town. He would travel to the city as well. My mom is an equine therapist.”

  “Oh my God, I have stepped into a nineties sitcom,” I say looking around.

  “You’ll be fine, I am sure,” Damian says looking at me. “I am going to put my stuff away. I will meet you for dinner?”

  “Uh. Yea,” I say in a daze, but I am beyond overwhelmed. I really want my small dorm. In my big city. With car sounds. And no people I want to impress. And tea—lots and lots of tea.

  I think I need some air.

  I sneak down the steps and out a door in the back. I head over to a fence a little way from the house and just lean against it and breathe. I let Zeke off leash so he can run a bit.

  You can handle this, Felicity. It’s just a house. And parents love you. Just breathe.

  “You’re going to freeze,” a baritone voice says from behind me. I didn’t bring my jacket on this adventure. I wanted to be cold. All of a sudden, a jacket appears on my shoulders and I look to see a pair of deep brown eyes staring at my soul.

  This must be Matt. He looks like an older version of Damian—his jaw more defined and arms more muscular. Minus the eyes, this is how I would imagine Damian looking like in a few years. I gulp. This family really hit the jackpot on the genetics thing.

  “Thank you,” I say pulling the jacket closer to me. He has to be freezing now, he was only wearing a three-quartered sleeve t-shirt underneath.

  “You must be Felicity,” he says.

  “And you must be Matt,” I say still trying to reign in this panic attack.

  He moves up so he is leaning over the fence with me.

  “What are you doing out here?” he asks me, but I am still in the middle of my freak out.

  “Do you know what I am supposed to be doing right now?”

  “Can’t say I do,” he says.

  “I should be watching The Breakfast Club. It’s been what? An hour or so? I would be at about the line where Allison says, ‘when you grow up, your heart dies.’ I’d be on my third cup of tea,” I say not taking a bre
ath. I am level ten panicking. “And you know where I wouldn’t be? I wouldn’t be at my crush’s cookie cutter house, meeting his cookie cutter family, feeling like I don’t know what to do with my hands—because Matt I don’t know what to do with my hands when people are nice to me. I don’t know what to say to them. I hate small talk.

  “God how did he get me here? I wanted this break from him. I needed this break from him,” I say finally taking a breath and I hear a deep chuckle to my left.

  “Don’t laugh at me. You just met me, you aren’t supposed to be laughing at me,” I say turning towards him.

  “And you just met me, and I don’t think you’re speaking English,” he says, and I close my eyes and try to calm down.

  “Sorry,” I say a few minutes later.

  “Not a problem,” he says with a smile. Matt has Damian’s smile. Or Damian has his smile, whatever. God, I hate myself.

  “So, you know The Breakfast Club line for line?” he says.

  “It’s a gift,” I say laughing. He is shivering so I start to hand him back his coat and he stops me.

  “Cookie cutter huh?” he says bending down and petting Zeke.

  “Have you seen your house?” I say gesturing towards it.

  “Fair enough,” he laughs. “Feeling better now that you’ve got all that out?”

  “Kinda,” I say with a smile. But I am still here. With Damian. Mere exposure effect.

  “We have bets you know,” he says looking up at me. “Damian’s never brought home a girl, so we figured you weren’t just friends like he says.”

  “Oh, believe me, we are,” I say rolling my eyes.

  “You called him your crush,” he says with a smirk.

  “Matt, I am not selling what Damian is currently buying,” I say, and he looks confused. I don’t want to out Damian’s…extra-curricular activities…to his family, so I try to word this the best way I can.

  “I am not a blonde bombshell,” I say laughing and Matt looks up at me.

  “And you’ve got a brain,” Matt says, and I chuckle as we head to the house.

  We are still laughing as we walk into the house. Damian is standing at the end of the stairs.

  “There you are. I was just about to go looking for you,” he says to me. I shrug off Matt’s coat and hand it to him.

  “Thanks for the warmth,” I say smiling at him.

  “Thanks for the laugh,” he says, and I feel my face redden. I don’t embarrass easily, but Matt just got way more information than I am comfortable with.

  Matt walks by Damian and hits him on the arm.

  “What was that for?”

  “Idiot,” Matt says shaking his head. I laugh.

  “What was that all about?” Damian says looking at me.

  “Your brother is cool,” I say heading back to my room with Zeke. Damian looks none too pleased. Good.

  When I wake up in the morning I stay in my room for an hour to make sure that I don’t have an episode in front of Damian’s whole family.

  I get up and head for the kitchen and I feel awkward when I see the lights still dimmed and no one around me. I forgot what it feels like when you are a guest who is supposedly allowed to make herself at home. I always felt like a guest at Mel’s. Daniel saw to that. But what do they expect here? Can I just make the coffee and search through the cabinets for mugs? Should I wait for someone else to wake up? It’s only seven…

  I decide that coffee is necessary for any sort of social interaction that is going to make me seem like a human being to Damian’s family. I find coffee, filters, and mugs in the cabinets and stare at the coffeemaker. It would be one of those fancy ass ones. I never thought I would miss my Mr. Coffee that I inherited from Mel. Like my computer, it is probably this coffeemaker’s great-great grandfather.

  Damian’s mother sneaks up behind me and presses buttons.

  “Oh! Thank you,” I say, startled. I didn’t hear her come in.

  “You’re up early!”

  “I am a morning person.”

  “So am I,” she says smiling. We sit down together and there is a strange silence. She pours coffee into the mug I grabbed and hands it to me when it is ready.

  “Would you like to help me make breakfast?” she asks, and I smile at her.

  “Sure, but I am a novice at best,” I say, and she grabs bacon and eggs from the fridge and sits them on the counter.

  “I’ll fry bacon and start some French toast. Can you handle scrambled eggs?” she asks.

  “That happens to be my only specialty,” I say as she hands me a pan.

  I go to the fridge and look for butter and milk.

  I also grab a mixing bowl and start mixing up the eggs and milk and some salt and pepper. Donna looks at me and smiles as I heat up the skillet and pour the mixture on.

  “That technique doesn’t scream novice to me,” she says as she fries the bacon.

  “I used to cook with my Nan when I lived with her. She made me learn how to cook on my own.”

  “Sounds like a good grandmother.”

  “She was, I was really introverted, so she would have me try something new every week, learn a new skill from someone,” I say stirring the eggs.

  “So, I successfully learned how to cook, how to play the game pinnacle, how to sew, how to cook the perfect scrambled eggs, and my personal favorite, how to fold a fitted sheet,” I say smiling.

  “Sounds like you had fun doing it,” Donna says.

  “I got played.”

  Donna laughs and I take the scrambled eggs off of the stove and start another batch.

  “But, I kept doing it, even after she passed.”

  “Oh honey, I am so sorry,” she says.

  “Don’t be. She was an eighty-six-year-old woman. She lived an amazing life. I still try to learn something new when I can, but with college everything is new.”

  “Taking on a teenager at eighty-six, that woman was a saint,” a gruff voice says behind me. I look to see an older woman, probably seventy herself, sitting at the bar.

  “Actually, I only stayed with her until eighty-two, then I went to live with my sister. You must be Mrs. Turner?” I say.

  “I’m Dorothy. You can call me Gran,” she says looking at me.

  “Nice to meet you, Gran,” I say as I stir the eggs.

  “Well Donna, it looks like I have been replaced,” Gran says.

  “Oh, I can move,” I say thinking that I hurt her feelings.

  “No. No. You just keep talking. Damian never brings any of his friends around us,” Gran says.

  “Sorry, I am oversharing,” I say reading the room.

  “No! Not at all!” Donna says smiling at me, sincerely. “I love getting to know you more. Damian talks about you all the time.”

  “Oh God, don’t trust his word,” I say and they both laugh.

  “So, what was it like to live with an old person like me, child, that must have been boring for you,” Gran says.

  “Actually, it wasn’t. Nan collected movies. She had a videotape and DVD collection that spanned from the early fifties to current stuff. We would watch movies all the time. She left her collection with me,” I say finishing the last of the eggs and putting them on the plate Donna left out for me.

  “That’s why you know all the words to The Breakfast Club,” Matt says coming into the kitchen.

  “You know all the words to The Breakfast Club?” Donna asks.

  “It’s a gift,” I say shrugging.

  “What are you doing up so early?” Matt asks.

  “Making you look bad as she helps your mother make breakfast,” Gran says teasing him.

  “I am always up this early,” I say, and he shakes his head.

  “How are Damian and her friends?” he asks.

  “He lucked out,” I say shrugging and they all laugh.

  “Well, I am off to feed all the horses, since I am so unhelpful around here,” Matt says teasing his grandmother back as he kisses her on the cheek.

  “Breakfast
will be ready when you are done,” Donna says as she starts the French toast. She let it soak and the cinnamon fills the room.

  “Should I go and wake Damian?” I ask them.

  Donna and Gran laugh.

  “You can try,” Gran says rolling her eyes. I know that Damian isn’t the happiest morning person, but he has been getting coffee with me almost every day—even on the weekends some weeks. I am guessing that isn’t his usual routine.

  I go over to the counter and pour a mug of coffee for Damian—incentive. I take Zeke and we head to his room.

  I knock and he doesn’t answer—he always sleeps like the dead. So, I open the door and walk in. His room is exactly how I’d imagined it would be—a mess. There are clothes all over the floor and it looks like a tornado exploded, so different from the rest of the house. Zeke runs and jumps on his bed, licking him in the face.

  “Wake up, Dame. I made breakfast with your mom,” I say as he groans and pushes Zeke away.

  “You what?” he says sitting up.

  “I made breakfast with your mom, come on,” I say.

  “It’s only eight, Fee,” he says groaning. I take the mug over to him.

  “Bribery,” he mutters.

  “I am here because you dragged me out of the safety of my dorm room to meet your family. Get. Up,” I say sweetly, taking his covers.

  “Alright! Alright! I am up. I am up,” he says putting his arms in surrender.

  “If you think I am leaving this room before your ass is actually out of that bed, you don’t know me very well,” I say, and I hear a cackle behind me.

  Gran is standing in the doorway and I feel my cheeks heat. I just made an ass out of myself.

  “Oh, Damian. You deserve this woman,” she says laughing.

  “Enjoying this, Gran?” Damian says getting up and throwing on a sweatshirt.

  “I like her,” Gran says giving me a side hug as we walk down the stairs and back to the kitchen.

  “You got him up?” Donna says looking at us from the stove.