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Chapter 28
“He’s cute, right?” Lucy asked.
“Super cute.” Ali handed the phone to Celeste, who put on her glasses. “What do you think, Nana?”
“Cute? When I was your age, dear, we’d call this one a hunk.”
“Don’t encourage her,” Cornell said from the sink.
Ali rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to him. You’re young. You’re supposed to have fun in college.”
“More than fun,” Celeste added.
Cornell groaned. “Someone has to tap me out over here if you guys are going to keep talking about this.”
Lucy sighed. “If you ever have a girl, she won’t be allowed out of the house, you know that, right?”
“She will when she’s twenty-five.”
“Oh, stop,” Ali told Cornell.
“Great, so she’ll start dating before you did,” Lucy spat at her brother playfully. “He had no game, Ali.”
Ali laughed and brought more dirty plates over to Cornell before beginning to towel off ones on the dry board. “Maybe she’ll bring a date next year.”
“Lucy?” he asked. “To where?”
Ali glanced over her shoulder, peeking past Lucy and Celeste and into the living room where Bobbi had Cornell’s stepmother, Janice, in a chokehold of a conversation about what they should do with the house when they closed after the holidays, and where Peter and John were talking stocks in between plays of a game.
“Let’s make this annual.” She bumped her hip against his. “Thanksgiving can be our thing.”
Cornell smiled ear to ear and looked at her. “What about Christmas?”
“They can fight over it.”
“They probably won’t care until there’s a baby,” he said with a wink.
Lucy brought a dirty glass over and nearly dropped it in the sink. “A baby?”
“It’s a hypothetical baby.” Ali swatted Cornell.
Cornell smirked. “We do an awful lot of practicing considering it’s a hypothetical baby.”
“Stop it,” Ali hissed under her breath. “Or all that practicing will be hypothetical too.”
Rinsing his hands, he tugged the towel from Ali to dry them. “I don’t know if you know this, but ever since I walked into the picture, I’ve become the favorite grandchild.” He paused, motioning to Celeste. “I’ll tell Nana you’re being mean. Maybe she’ll say you need a good spanking.”
“More like you need one.”
Cornell smirked, bending to kiss her. “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
Ali laughed, pressing against his chest. Behind them, she heard Mowgli and Porter bark from the backyard. “Go and make sure they aren’t ruining my flower beds. Or you’ll be planting new ones.”
“It has nice bones,” Janice said, approaching Ali. “It’s a wonderful first home.”
Ali smiled. “Thank you.” She knocked on the granite counter tops she couldn’t wait to switch out. “Just a few cosmetic changes, and it will feel more like ours. I’m happy you came to see it. And to finally met you,” Ali added with a small laugh.
“Given how much Peter and Lucy talk about you, I feel like I know you already,” Janice said, tucking her thick blonde hair behind her ear. Ali opened her mouth to say likewise, even though Cornell spoke little—though never poorly—of his stepmother. “I know Cornell doesn’t talk about me much. That’s okay. We have a quiet relationship.”
