Come Back for You

“I can multitask,” she says, and I snort out a laugh. There’s a knock on the door.

“Come in!” I holler and Ranger lets out a loud woof, skittering to the front door to see who is here. Dean is out with the guys and the girls are all on their way to bake cookies.

“Girl, is that your new car?” Lex asks from the hallway and I smile. I called her the other day and told her all about it, except the part about Avery. If that’s something she wants people to know, she’ll tell us when she’s ready.

“Isn’t it pretty?” I say, unbagging another bottle of liquor. “Jesus, Clarissa,” I remark. She just shrugs her shoulders.

The door opens again and this time it’s Avery and Lainey, who rode together. Lainey is starting to get more comfortable around us girls, which is hard because we’re a rowdy bunch.

“Oh my god, someone pour me a drink,” Lainey exclaims, seating herself at the island and exhaling. “My kids are on some other shit this week.”

“I hear you on that,” Lex says, uncorking a bottle of wine and pouring three glasses. “I forgot to move that damn elf last night and you should have heard Aria this morning.”

“Elf?” I ask and Lex rolls her eyes.

“Someone somewhere decided it would be a good idea to create an elf, that ‘magically’ travels to the North Pole every night to report to Santa, and then when it arrives back home, it has to be in a different spot than it was when it left.” Lainey explains, downing her glass of wine and sliding it back to Lex for a refill.

“I don’t get it,” Clarissa says.

“Me either, honestly. But you would have thought I killed the cat by how dramatic Aria was this morning when she found Sprinkles, yes that is his real name, still in the same spot he was yesterday. I had to make up some lie about how Santa was sick and didn’t want any of the elves near him last night.”

I laugh and turn the oven on to preheat it, pulling out a stack of recipe cards I stole from mama’s last week. I’ve got her recipes for sugar cookies, spiced shortbread, gingerbread cookies, thumbprint, and a lot more. Avery drags her Bluetooth speaker out and turns on some Christmas music before makin’ her way over to me.

“Whitley,” she starts, and I cut her off.

“We don’t have to do this,” I say, making myself busy pulling eggs and butter out of the fridge. She places her hand on my arm to stop me and I meet her eyes for the first time. They’re full of unshed tears. She pulls me into a hug and bursts into tears. I sigh and rub her back.

“Really honey, it’s not a big deal.” I say and she pushes back, punching me in the arm. “Ouch! What the hell?”

“What’s happening?” Lex asks, her brow furrowed.

“What’s happening is, Dean sold his car and paid my rent for a year,” Avery says over her tears. Lainey gasps.

“Oh my gosh. Seriously?” Clarissa asks and I nod my head.

“Yes, but I swear, I had no idea he was doing it.” I can’t tell if Avery is mad or happy that he did what he did, so I’m trying to tread lightly.

“Jesus,” Lainey says. “That couldn’t have been cheap.”

“He sold his mustang,” I whisper, and Clarissa’s jaw drops open.

“Damn,” she whistles, “that had to bring in a pretty penny.”

“He must have overheard us talking at Friendsgiving and he decided he wanted to help.” My comment has Lex’s face covered in confusion.

“What conversation?” She asks, her eyes on Avery, who is swiping tears from her face.

“I was telling Whitley that I’m having a really hard time right no

w and I wasn’t sure that I would be able to buy the kids anything for Christmas.”

“What the hell, Avery?” Clarissa snaps. “You know we would have helped you if you asked.” Avery shakes her head.

“I could never ask anyone for a handout. Genevieve and Blake are my responsibility.”

“They’re not, they’re your piece of shit mom’s responsibility,” Clarissa says, anger lacing her voice.

“Riss,” Lex murmurs.