Tongue Tied

Chapter 25

The lead-up to Thanksgiving had become an emotional pressure cooker for me. Jake's plane landed on the twenty-fifth, the day before the big holiday. We had little time to prepare for everything, what with our family being scattered all over the country and everyone having a different schedule. Our mother had always gone all out for Thanksgiving. We would drive to Manhattan to see the parade. When Jake and I were little, seeing Santa at the end of all the colorful floats had been the highlight of our day each year. Then we would go back home where the turkey had been roasting in the oven overnight and the house smelled incredible. Our entire family would come to visit and we'd all have an amazing time eating, playing football in the backyard with grandpa, and decorating the Christmas tree.

With everything that had been going on recently, the holidays had been at the very back of my mind. I hadn't given Thanksgiving any thought and I had zero ideas for new recipes I'd hoped to create in time. Mom had called the night before, telling me what time to arrive at my parents' house for dinner. I was on potato duty, in charge of bringing the mashed, baked, and sweet potatoes. Jake was supposed to make a giant pot of mac and cheese for our cousin's four-year-old triplets who refused to eat grownup food, even if it was just turkey and mashed potatoes.

I'd been cooking for almost an hour and a half when Alec called. My phone was sitting on the kitchen table, two feet from where Jake sat reading the newspaper. I dashed to get it, dropping a spoon in the process.

"Geez!" Jake looked at me incredulously. "Where's the fire, Sis?"

I ignored his question and answered the phone. "Hey. Now's not really a good time." I tried to make an excuse that wouldn't raise my brother's eyebrows. I wanted him to think someone from work had called, rather than Alec. He had no idea how close Alec and I had become. "I'm cooking and-"

"I need to see you." Alec cut me off. "I need to talk to you now, Bree. It's important."

His voice sounded frantic but at the same time happy. He was excited about something. What could possibly be so exciting that he had to pull me away from Thanksgiving food prep when he knew I was with my brother and about to be with the rest of my family?

I scurried into another room where Jake was out of earshot. "Alec, what's going on? Jake's here. You have terrible timing."

He breathed a laugh but I could tell it was forced. He despised Jake just as much as Jake despised him. "I don't care, Bree. I'm on my way over."

"Alec-"

The line went dead. Fantastic.

I tried calling him back to stress the importance that he didn't show up, but he kept forwarding my calls to his voicemail.

"What on earth was that about?" Jake asked when I returned to the kitchen.

I tried to conceal my angst and shrugged it off as nothing. "My coworker was just concerned about a deadline. That's all."

He looked at me skeptically but didn't press on. I went back to preparing the mashed potatoes, adding a little bit of freshly chopped chives and some salt. I didn't realize Jake hadn't stopped staring at me until I turned around to take the sweet potatoes out of the oven.

"Bree, is everything alright?" he asked, coming over to help. He opened the oven door for me while I retrieved the pan. "You just seem distant. I know you've got a lot on your mind with this acquisition but you can talk to me, get it off your chest..."

At the moment, I was more concerned about how I was going to explain away Alec's presence at my front door to Jake, than how I was going to handle Abernathy snatching up Corbin and Hilliard.