Page 49 of Crash

When he finishes talking, he walks to the buffet and gets Travis a plate. He finds a highchair and puts him at the head of the table. While Travis makes a mess of his breakfast, Luke gets his own plate and finds a seat right next to me.

We don’t exchange any words, but my heart jumps when he slides his hand across my lap and grabs onto my hand underneath the table. I should move my hand. I should move my seat, but I can’t. I can’t look away as he reaches over and feeds Travis. If I’m being honest, he’s pretty sweet. Everyone at work loves him, and he’s like a big barbarian teddy bear around the office. And the way he is around the children is the tell. He adores them, and the feeling is mutual. Even now, he’s patiently feeding Travis and wiping his mouth after every few bites.

I shake my head and turn back to my food. Thankfully, Jake and Sandy take the seats across from us. Tristan and Emma sit next to them, and their parents join us, taking the last two seats at the table. Baby Rosie is in a harness across Tracy’s chest, sleeping soundly.

“I go!” Travis announces, and Tristan and Emma both groan.

“No! Don’t let him go, Uncle Jake. He ruined it last time,” Tristan says, clearly frustrated by his little brother.

“And he made a mess. He spilled the popcorn and my drink,” Emma says.

“He makes a mess with everything,” Tristan announces.

“No!” Travis yells right before he throws a handful of pancakes at his brother.

“Travis Clark!” Tracy yells, standing from her chair.

“It’s okay, Travis. You’re going to come over on Friday night, remember?” Sandy tries to soothe him, but Travis is having none of it and starts to cry. We soon learn that Jake and Sandy are taking the other kids to the movies, and then Christmas shopping for their parents. They tried to go to the movies last weekend, but Travis was so scared of the dark and the noise, they had to leave.

“It’s okay, Tracy,” Luke says when Tracy starts to fuss at Travis. “Let me talk to my nephew man to man.” He stands up and picks Travis up out of the highchair. He walks him to the corner of the room, and they have this intense conversation. Well, it’s a one-sided conversation, where Luke does all the talking. In the end, Travis nods vigorously.

“Don’t worry, Trav,” Luke says, as he continues to hold Travis. “We’ll scour the city for the best cookies. You don’t want to go see a dumb movie. Tell the table what your wise Uncle Luke just told you.”

Travis just looks at his uncle and giggles.

“The third kid is what?” Luke asks.

“The best!” Travis yells. Travis sticks his tongue out at the other kids while nestled against Luke’s massive chest.

The other kids seem relieved and go back to their food, but I can’t help but look at Luke holding onto Travis. He lets go of my hand to eat since his other hand is busy holding a toddler.

I focus on my food as everyone around me talks, laughs, and reminisces of past parties. His uncle and his wife Terry come and join us at our table.

“There’s the young lady who was doing all that dancing last night,” their uncle John says to me. “You’re coming to my party, too, right? We need some young people. Our daughter Tiffany will be there, and she’s only a couple of years younger than you.” He finishes his statement as if Tiffany being my age is significant enough for me to attend the party.

I look around the table, and everyone is looking at me, waiting for my response. I look to Sandy, begging her with my eyes to tell them I can’t, but all she does is smile at me.

“Well,” I say, turning back to John since Sandy will be no help, “this is a Clark thing and I didn’t bring another dress.”

“Nonsense. There are a million department stores. Get one.”

I look around and his wife smiles at me, nodding her head. “It will be fun,” she says.

“Didn’t you win a Macy’s gift card last night?” Luke says, nudging me with his foot underneath the table.

“It’s settled then,” John says as he turns his attention back to Sandy. “And I can’t believe you didn’t invite her, Sandy.”

“Honey,” Terry says, reaching over and grabbing my hand, “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Sandy when I first met her. We have an open-door policy. You never need an invitation to anything. If we’re having it, you’re invited. We’ll see you tonight.” She leans over, kisses Sandy and Jake, and takes her husband’s hand.

“Come on, Travis,” Luke says as he stands up with his nephew. “Let’s go get your coat on so we can go and search for cookies. Maybe Yiyi can come with us. We’ll go dress shopping with her and then have cookies.”

“Oh, so you two are going shopping together now?” Jake asks, looking from me to his brother, a smug look on his face.

“Yiyi go!” Travis yells.

“I’m only going for Travis,” I say quickly. “I’ll meet you two in the lobby in fifteen minutes.” I run out of the room before anyone can say anything else to me.

CHAPTER 27

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