In Full Bloom (Second Chances 1)

For the next few minutes, she listened on as they discussed his brothers and sisters. She had no experience with a large family, so she considered this almost educational. They had discussed Maureen’s latest boyfriend, who was apparently a jerk, Christina’s twins, Donnie’s new house, and a number of other topics.

Jane finally stood, and made her way toward the door. Citing the need to wake up early for a meeting of her stitch and bitch group, she had only stayed about an hour. That was more than enough time, though. That woman was a force of nature.

After Jane had given her another hug and reminded her once more about Thanksgiving, Taryn watched as Evan walked his mother out. She closed her eyes and slumped back against the seat of the couch, exhausted.

When Evan opened the front door of his apartment, she opened her eyes and said, “Wow.”

He winced and asked, “So on a scale of one to ten, how awkward was that?”

“Uh,” Taryn calculated, “I’d give that a seven. It could have been worse, though. At least we weren’t completely naked. And she was incredibly nice.”

Evan moved forward to flop down next to her on the sofa and said, “When I walked her downstairs, she apologized for interrupting.”

“Never mind. Let’s make that an eight point five,” Taryn said.

“No kidding,” he said. “She still manages to make me feel like I’m fifteen sometimes.”

“She’s a bit intimidating,” Taryn agreed.

“She liked you, though. Hell, she invited you to Thanksgiving,” he said, grinning.

“That was sweet of her to do that. Can you wait a couple of days and then make my excuses?”

“I don't think I can,” he said.

Taryn tilted her head in confusion and asked, “Why not?”

“She's a human lie detector, for one. Also, because I want you to go with me.” he said, his voice steady.

Taryn blinked at him and then said, “We've been dating for like a week. It's a bit early for family holidays, I think.”

He gazed at her and said, “There’s been something going on between us since I almost knocked you down the stairs, Princess. I was planning to ask you myself when it got closer to time. She just beat me to it.”

“Really?” she asked.

“I want to spend Thanksgiving with the people I care about. That includes you. Come with me. It’ll be fun.”

“I don't know, Evan,” she said, unable to articulate why the idea of meeting his family frightened her so much. “It's just a little soon.”

“If you don't want to go with me, then we could just stay here,” he offered.

“So your mother can hate me?” she asked. Evan had kind of boxed her in here.

“C'mon. It'll be fun. Turkey and stuffing, football, a house full of people you don't know,” he said, nudging her.

The holidays weren’t all that important to her. In fact, she’d tried her hardest to make them unimportant. Clearly it mattered to him, though. The way that he waited for her to respond, the hopeful expression on his face. It made it impossible for her to say no.

“Okay. I’ll come with you,” she said.

* * * *

“And why did we have to get up at the crack of dawn on my only day off?” Evan bitched as they walked through the stalls at the farmer’s market.

“Eight is hardly the crack of dawn. And we got up this early so I could listen to you complain, of course,” she said, as she handed the man behind the folding table a five dollar bill. After she had collected her change, she placed the two ripe tomatoes in her canvas grocery bag.

She turned to face him and continued, “Also, I’d like to remind you that I was more than willing to take the bus. You wanted to come along if I recall.”

Evan sighed and said, “Sorry, baby. It’s just that I had these plans that involved us waking up late and staying in bed all day.”