When former beauty pageant queen, Ellie Wilde, hears of her grandmother's sickness, she's the first to offer to drive her to her chemotherapy. What she didn't know she was agreeing to was an obnoxiously cheerful blond boy somehow nudging his way int...
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"Are you sure you don't want some more ham, Cooper?" Ellie's mom asks for the third time.
"I'm all right, Mrs. Wilde. Really. Thank you. It was delicious." He grabs his napkin from his lap and folds it neatly before placing it on the table in front of him.
"How about some mashed potatoes?" Her grandma asks.
"Guys," Ellie cuts in, shooting them both disapproving looks. "Cooper didn't come here to be force-fed. If he says he's good, he's good."
Her mom stares at her with her mouth agape but before she has a chance to say anything, the phone rings. She shoots up from her seat and rushes over to grab the landline—that for some reason, they still own—before returning back over to the table.
"My dad," Ellie says quietly to Cooper, sensing his confusion. In most families, it's considered rude to take a call during dinner. But when that call is coming from a relative who has a very limited amount of time to speak, you sometimes make an exception.
He nods in understanding just as Ellie's mom picks up the call. The usual, "Would you like to accept this call from Washington Corrections Center" message plays and her mom accepts it, hitting the speaker phone option so they can all hear. A moment later, the deep voice of Ellie's dad echoes through the speaker of the phone.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" He asks. There's a lot of screaming and shouting in the background. He's told his family before that there's never really a quiet moment in prison.
"Hi, John," Ellie's mom says, her face lighting up with a smile. "We can hear you just fine, honey."
"Merry Christmas!" He says, his smile coming through in his voice.
"Merry Christmas," they all say simultaneously, laughing a bit. Ellie glances over at Cooper who happens to look at her in the exact same moment. There's an unfamiliar emotion in his eyes, she tries to get a read on it but she can't.
"Did you make ham for Christmas dinner?" Her dad asks, pulling Ellie's gaze away from Cooper and back to the phone.
"Jen made the ham," her grandma says. "So don't worry, Johnathon. You didn't miss out on much."
"Mom!"
"I'm kidding of course. Her ham was delicious." She looks over to Cooper and Ellie and shakes her head, earning a laugh from the both of them.
"Damn I miss Christmas dinner. Our dinner was all right today. You know, all right for prison food. It can only get so good." A dry laugh sounds from his end. "Ellie?"
"Hi, Dad."
"Hi, sweetheart. How are you?"
"I'm good." She pauses, taking a moment to look around the room as everyone watches her. She gulps before adding, "I miss you."
"I miss you too, honey."
The sentiment is ruined when her grandma says, "Hope there haven't been any soap dropping incidents since the last time we spoke."
