Page 58 of The Doctor's Surprise Family

I cracked an eye open. “Mm?”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, want to come for Thanksgiving? Dad said your maple pecan pie would be welcome.”

I laughed. “Just my pie?”

“Itisa good pie.”

Oli grumbled in his sleep and Claire stroked his hair.

“Joking aside, we’d love if you came. It’ll be Oli’s first real family Thanksgiving.”

I sat up. “His first? What happened to the other two?”

“He slept through his first one, and last year, our oven died. It went up in smoke halfway through the turkey, and the kitchen caught fire, and it was awful. The firefighters came. Dinner was ruined. We ended up eating takeout turkey salad.” Claire pulled a face. “So, this’ll be Oli’s first. What do you say?”

I couldn’t help but think back to our own first Thanksgiving, our first proper date. Our first night together. There’d been this one moment halfway through dessert, Buster had come nosing,wanting ice cream. He couldn’t have any, and he’d looked so sad, and Claire had got up and fetched him a treat. I don’t know what it was about that exact moment, but it’d hit me right then,hey, she’s the one. I’d wanted it all with her, the good life. The family. A family — our family — to last a lifetime.

“I uh…” I swallowed. “Yeah. Count me in.”

Maybe this was a sign, not from fate, but from Claire. She’d invited me once to her house for Thanksgiving, and that had been how we got our start.

Maybe this was her offering me a fresh start.

“Claire?”

“Yeah?”

I didn’t know how to ask her, is this our take two? So I just smiled and said “Count my pie in too.”

CHAPTER 20

CLAIRE

“Pass the nutmeg,” said Mom.

I groped through the spice rack, tired, bleary-eyed, and came up with something that looked like nutmeg. Mom pushed it away.

“That’s cinnamon.”

“Maybe it’s too dark to read the label.” I rubbed my dry eyes. Mom shook her head.

“Have some more coffee.”

“It’s four a.m.”

“It’s not four. It’s five. And it’s Thanksgiving! Exactly twelve hours from now, we’ll sit down to dinner, and how will it look if the pies aren’t done?” She reached past me and snagged the nutmeg. “Didn’t you sleep last night? You weren’t up reading, were you?”

I covered a yawn. “You’re why morning people get a bad name.”

“What, because I’m cheerful?”

“No, because…” I was too tired to come up with another reason. She was right: her good cheer was driving me nuts. Who was this peppy with the sun still in bed? Still tucked up as I should be, snug in the covers. Why had I offered to help with the pies?

“This isn’t Blake, is it? Keeping you up?”

I blinked, sleepy. “What? He’s not coming till dinner.”

Mom frowned. “I know that. And you know what I meant. You must have all kinds of questions, with him back in your life.”

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