love with the person you’re dating. Most people know by the third date, I hear.”
“I like that you did the math.”
“I did. I’m a businesswoman. Businesswomen do the math. I realized it this morning while I was watching the sun come up and I felt so happy you were there. As beautiful as the lake is and the mountain and the trees and the sky, it was you being there that made me so happy. I thought you should know that so I told you first chance I got. Did I need to wait for a full moon or something?”
He peeked over her shoulder at her naked backside.
“Looks like a full moon to me.”
“Can I get back in the shower now?” she asked. “I’m cold.”
“I can tell. And yes, you can get back in the shower.”
“Thank you.” She turned around and started to close the door on him but he stopped it with his hand. She spun around again, hitting him with water from her hair. “Now what?”
“I—”
Clover slapped her wet hand over his mouth and, all of a sudden, he thought of another type of sex they should try.
“I don’t know what you’re going to say but I don’t want you to tell me that you love me, too,” she said. “I mean, I do, but if you said it now, I wouldn’t believe you meant it. I’d be afraid you said it because I said it. I want you to say it when you’re ready, not just because I said it. Got it?”
He nodded behind her hand.
“Good,” she said. “Do you have something to say to me that isn’t a declaration of love?”
He nodded again.
“Okay,” she said, removing her hand. “Say it.”
“I want to fuck you in the shower.”
“You can,” she said. “But not today. We’re in a hurry.”
She shut the door in his face, and he sighed the sigh of a man with an erection and nowhere to put it. But the sigh turned to a smile when he remembered this—Clover was in love with him. Well, damn.
While Clover was in the shower he pulled on his clothes and found his phone. It was only six thirty, which meant Ruthie would be asleep for, oh, five more hours at least. Now was a good time to text her since she wouldn’t see the message yet.
Clover is officially the happiest woman on earth, he typed. You aren’t allowed to give me the silent treatment anymore.
He hit Send with a smile, then set the phone down to start making coffee. He’d had his back turned to the phone for only a few seconds when it buzzed with a reply.
Good, Ruthie wrote back. Glad to hear it. I approve this message.
Why are you awake so early? he replied.
Unfortunately not for the same reason you are.
Get your mind out of the gutter. We’re going grocery shopping before the crowds hit the stores.
Suuuuuurrrrreeee...
Go back to sleep, he ordered. It freaks me out when you’re awake during the day. Be a vampire like a normal teenager.
I had a busy night maiming and killing people on the dark sordid streets of Hollywood.
That’s nice, dear. Hope you had fun. Glad you’re talking to me again. Miss you, kid.
Ew.
You know you miss me.
Go kiss your girlfriend and leave me alone.
I will definitely do that. Have a good Thanksgiving. Tell everyone I said hello. Love you.
He set his phone down again, not expecting any further messages from his daughter, who had very likely stayed up all night playing violent zombie-themed video games with her brother and hadn’t yet gone to bed. But he heard the buzz again and picked up his phone.
Are you and Clover really a couple now? Ruthie had written, and Erick sensed her anxiety in the question.
We are. Is that a problem? We can talk about it if it is.
No, it’s cool, she wrote back. Then she sent him another message right after. I love Clover.
I know you do. I’m pretty crazy about her, too.
I was wrong when I said you aren’t good enough for her. I’m sorry. You two will be great for each other. I’m actually kind of stupid happy about it.
Erick stared at his phone and blinked a few times. Did his child actually use the words I was wrong and I’m sorry to him? She did. It was right there in black and green.
That means a lot coming from you, he replied. I feel a great deal of fatherly affection toward you right now. I might even pay your cell phone bill without yelling at you for going over your text limit again.
But...just so you know, if you hurt Clover, I will honor the bonds of sisterhood over childhood and set your truck on fire.
I’m canceling your cell phone, he wrote back, and then took his own advice and switched the phone off. But not before Ruthie sent him one final message. Just the word No in all caps with approximately seven thousand o’s. Some days it was good to be the dad.
* * *
WITH ERICK’S HELP, Clover survived the grocery shopping trip. It was busy but not packed when they arrived and they were able to buy everything Erick said they needed before the real crowds turned up. Erick had picked up all his grilling stuff from his house and brought it over to hers, setting it up on the deck he’d repaired on Monday.
He looked right standing on her deck, setting up his Big Green Egg and waving at her when he caught her looking. He looked right on her deck, right in her house, right in her life. She hoped her family would see him the way she did. He was a good man, a good father and a good person with a big heart. It was so obvious how great he was, and yet Clover couldn’t shake the feeling that tomorrow was going to be a disaster. Her family didn’t say what they meant like Ruthie and Erick did. They spoke in a sort of code that disguised insults as compliments and questions as disapproval. Her mother had mastered the art of smiling and asking, “You’re wearing that?” in such a way that those three words conveyed better than a billboard the message, “You aren’t wearing that, ever, not if I have anything to do with it and it’s your funeral if you do because you’ll be dead to me.” It was actually pretty impressive how much subtext her parents and her siblings could fit into so few words.
She couldn’t think about that now. She thought about salad instead as she made a grape-and-walnut salad from a recipe she’d found on the internet. Erick had made a list of all the Thanksgiving basics and he’d promised to help her make them. Except for the brownies for dessert. Those she could make with her eyes closed. Her nieces and nephews would be thrilled to have Aunt Clover’s brownies and ice cream for dessert while everyone else ate pumpkin pie. She’d never made a pumpkin pie before but Erick swore to her it was easy as, well, pie. He’d made them every year for Ruthie’s school’s fall festival since it was Ruthie’s favorite dessert. Another thing to love about Erick—he was a great dad to Ruthie. Maybe other men wouldn’t be comfortable raising a girl on their own, learning to bake pies for school events and going to PTA meetings, but Erick didn’t seem to mind. He’d said he hated the term Mr. Mom because it implied that fathers who cooked and cleaned and helped with homework were exceptions instead of what they should be—the rule. She comforted herself with the knowledge that Erick had survived raising a complicated and difficult child with a penchant for arson all on his own and had come out on the other side with a healthy sense of humor and a daughter who’d put her pyromaniac ways behind her. If anyone could survive running the gauntlet of her family on Thanksgiving it was Erick.
The only question was...would she survive running the gauntlet of her family?
She was going to need a whole lot more lavender wipes.
Erick kicked her out of the kitchen around three in the afternoon with orders to rest. She didn’t take orders well but she did stay out from underfoot by vacuuming, dusting and putting the extra leaves in the table to accommodate the whole family minus the kids who would eat either on the deck if the weather was nice or in the living room if it wasn’t.
When everything was finished, they went out for Thai food for dinner and came home to her house, ready for bed by nine. Not
for sleep, but definitely for bed. After Erick had worn her out with some vigorous sex, they settled into sleep. Very quickly, she’d gotten used to falling asleep with Erick’s arm draped over her side and waking up with him next to her. She wanted to fall asleep like that, wake up like that, every day and every night. He’d told her today that Ruthie was “stupid happy” they were together, which made Clover “stupid happy.” Now if they could only convince her family they, too, should be happy for them instead of digging and picking and looking for something to dislike about Erick.
“You’re stressing out again,” Erick said into her ear. “I can tell.”
“How can you tell?” she asked.
“You’re huffing a lavender wipe like it’s an oxygen mask and your plane just lost cabin pressure.”
“I hate that my family does this to me,” she said. “I wish I could enjoy having them around instead of panicking about what they’ll say to you.”
“What’s the worst that could happen? They hate me?”
“Yes. And that is the worst. Because I love you.”
“I’m not sleeping with your parents or your sister or your brother. I mean, I might, but I’d like to get to know them first.”
She slapped his hand.
“Fine. I won’t sleep with any members of your family,” he said. “My point is...if they hate me, who cares? As long as you like me, that’s all that matters. You do like me, don’t you?”
He slid on top of her.
“I kind of like you,” she said. “A little.”
“Are you sure you only like me a little?” He pushed her thighs open with his knees.
“I’m warming up to you.”
“Maybe you even love me a tiny bit?” He settled on top of her with his cock only an inch or two inside her. She lifted her hips to take all of him into her.
“Maybe a little...”
Erick made love to her until she admitted once again that she did, in fact, love him. Worn out with sex, she fell fast asleep, distracted by her happiness. She woke up the next morning rested and refreshed from a good night’s sleep. She dressed in jeans and her favorite navy blue turtleneck. Erick wore his khaki cords and her favorite long-sleeved navy blue sweater of his, the one that accentuated the broadness of his shoulders so well. They spent all morning in the kitchen mashing potatoes, stirring cranberry sauce and baking bread.
At one o’clock on the dot, Clover heard the sound of a car on her gravel driveway. Her stomach sank and her throat tightened. Erick bent and gave her one last kiss for luck.
“Here we go,” she said.
“It’s going to be fine,” he said. “No scenes. No drama. And nobody is going to be mean to either of us.”
The doorbell rang and Clover took a deep breath, put on her best fake smile and opened the door.
Her mother and father stood on the front porch. Her father had a suit on and her mother wore a tweed skirt with a white blouse and jacket. Chic as always.
“Hey, there,” Clover said, holding the door open for them. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Oh, it’s so good to see you, too, sweetheart,” her mother said as she stepped through the door.
“This is Erick. Erick, this is my father, David, and my mother, Valerie.”
“Everyone calls me Val, Erick,” she said. “But I’ll get to you in a minute. I have to hug this girl of mine first.”
“Take your time,” Erick said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Clover and her mother hugged and it was nice, comfortable. Maybe she’d been worried for nothing. Then her mother pulled back and looked Clover up and down. “Oh, so we’re having a casual meal today, I see. Wish I’d known. I wouldn’t have made the effort.”
Clover forced her smile wider. She saw Erick’s eyes flash in shock. All she could do was keep smiling as she hugged her father.
“I think she looks good, dear,” her father said to her mother while they hugged. “Put on a few pounds since last time but you can’t really tell.”
Erick opened his mouth and she knew he was about to say something. She shot him a warning look.
“You weren’t kidding,” he said into her ear when her parents stepped into the office to take off their coats.
And she could only reply with three little words.
“Told you so.”
12
ERICK SILENTLY REPEATED Clover’s warning to him—“just grin and bear it, just grin and bear it...”
He grinned. He bore it. But he did not like it.
“So...” Clover said when her parents came out of the office. “This is Erick, my boyfriend. Erick, my parents—David and Val.”
Erick shook hands with both of them.
“Very nice to meet you both. Clover’s told me a lot about you.”
“She hasn’t told us much about you,” Val said. “She’s been a little hard to reach this week. Your doing?”
“Guilty,” Erick said, entirely without shame. “We spent a couple days in a friend’s lakeside cabin. Clover needed to unwind.”
“Unwind?” David said. He was a handsome older man, well dressed and kindly looking, but Erick wasn’t sure he trusted that smile. “What’s got you wound up?”
“The usual work stuff,” Clover said neutrally. “We closed up shop for winter so I wanted to take a couple days to rest. It was really nice. The lake is beautiful. Great cabin. Want wine? When are Hunter and Lisa and Kelly and the kids getting here?”
Clover spoke rapidly as if trying to drown her parents in a sea of words, changing the subject so fast they couldn’t ask her any follow-up questions. Erick hated to see her so nervous, but he admired the strategy.
“I think they’re coming now,” Erick said, glancing out the window to see a black Audi driving down the gravel road toward the house. “Someone is.”
“That’s Hunter’s car,” she said.
“Hunter’s the older brother,” Erick said, looking at her parents, who seemed to be eyeing him very carefully. “Wife is Lisa. Three girls—Paige, Zoe and Skye. Did I get that right?”
“Very good,” Val said. “Clover’s been quizzing you?”
“She has. I wanted to make a good impression. I think she likes me.” He smiled in the hopes of warming them up, charming them. Her mother only smiled tightly in reply.
“Any friend of our daughter’s is a friend of ours,” David said.
“Well, I’m her boyfriend, sir, not her friend. I hope any boyfriend of Clover’s isn’t a boyfriend of yours. No offense,” Erick said. Clover laughed. No one else did.
Tough crowd.
Erick was relieved to hear car doors opening and closing. Hopefully the house would be full of kids soon and he could focus on them. He was good with kids. Kids loved him. Even better, kids weren’t passive-aggressive and they usually laughed at his corny jokes.
Clover opened the door to greet Hunter and Lisa.
“Could you live anywhere more remote?” Hunter said as soon as he stepped across the threshold. “I hope that gravel didn’t get in my undercarriage.”
Something’s in your undercarriage, Erick wisely did not say aloud.
“Gravel has never hurt my car,” Clover said as she hugged Lisa, a pretty petite brunette. Another woman had accompanied them, a blonde just like Clover but taller and with shorter hair.
“Hey, sis,” the woman said, stepping into Clover’s arms for a hug. “Good to see you. You look great.”
“Thanks. You, too.” Clover turned to Erick and smiled. “This is Hunter, Lisa and Kelly, my sister. This is Erick, my boyfriend.”
“Great to meet you all,” Erick said, shaking hands with the women first and then with Hunter. Hunter was a big man, looked like a former football player, and when he shook Erick’s hand he gripped it to the point of pain. Okay, then. Erick knew guys like this all too well. White collar suit with a need to prove his manhood since he worked behind a desk. Fine. Erick could handle that.
“Where are all the kids? Are they coming with Mi
ke?” Clover asked. “Mike is Kelly’s husband,” she explained to Erick.
“Oh, did we forget to tell you?” Kelly asked. “My four are with Mike at his parents’ house today.”
“And our girls are with my sister,” Lisa said. “Paige gets so