Page 58 of The Truths We Seek

He smiles and reaches over to squeeze my hand. “It really is, and no one is saying that you have to hurry through it. Grief is different for everyone, and sometimes it will hit you out of nowhere.”

His eyes go distant and it occurs to me that all of this with Tommy must have brought some stuff up about his dad.

“Are you okay?” I ask, linking my fingers with his. “I realized earlier how selfish I’ve been since I came here, how little I’ve actually asked or learned about you guys. Like, I have no idea when your birthdays are, what happened with your dad, what you did for Christmas last year, if you guys even do Christmas or Thanksgiving. I didn’t even know you guys followed football. I don’t remember it from last year, or even if I should. I don’t even remember Christmas last year...”

He laughs softly, shaking his head. “I’m okay. Losing Tommy is hard, sure. He kinda stepped up when we lost dad. But death is a part of life, I learned that young. As for everything else, this last year has been a little different than usual. Mama and Shae did Christmas away, so with just us, we didn’t really do much. Our birthdays… we never really make much fuss for those either. Don’t stress about not remembering or not knowing, we aren’t always the most forthcoming. Mostly because we’ve all known each other our entire lives, so we forget that people don’t just know that stuff. But if you want to do all of the celebrations this year, we can, just let me know. I’m sure Mama will be delighted to do a big family Christmas.”

“I’ve never really done a big Christmas… or any holidays, to be fair. When I was a kid, it wasn’t really a thing, then with Trent we did what we needed to for appearances, but he worked most holidays, and since I left, I’ve been too busy looking over my shoulder to do much celebrating. Tommy always got me a gift, but we just had an awkward exchange and left it at that.”

He blinks at me, his jaw clenching momentarily before he relaxes again. “Well, then this year, we celebrate everything.”

“We don’t have to—”

He cuts me off with a finger against my lips. “Nope. I said it, it’s happening. If I tell Hunter—”

“Tell me what?” The man in questions asks as he walks back into the room with Rory.

“That Quinn has never celebrated Thanksgiving or Christmas properly.”

Hunter turns to me, horrified. “I’m sorry, what now?”

I shrug in response because there isn’t really another way to say it.

“Absolutely not.” Hunter utters, still sounding like Meyer swore at him.

“I didn’t do holidays till I met you guys,” Rory interjects, smiling at me as he takes his seat again. “Not everyone has the childhood of wonder.” He turns back to face me as Hunter paces the room. “Hunter, however, is a big kid. He loves the holidays. When we didn’t do much last year he had a tantrum for a whole week.”

I press my lips together, trying not to laugh, but I can’t say I’m that surprised. Hunter seems like the type to go way over the top for holidays.

Hunter pauses, turning to face me, hands on his hips. “Did you do Halloween? Like, trick-or-treating, dressing up, all the good shit?”

Shaking my head, I tell him no and his brow furrows further.

“This is obscene,” he mutters. “Okay, we’re throwing a Halloween party at HellScape. I’ll get on Yen. We’ll make it a birthday bash for Quinn since we missed your birthday last year too.”

“We missed everyone’s birthdays last year,” I tell him and he grins.

“Then we have a joint belated birthday Halloween bash, then go straight into Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then a New Year’s party.”

“Look what you’ve created,” Meyer teases. “He’s a holiday monster.”

* * *

Two weeks later, I find myself dressed up like a slutty Snow White, the guys are three of my sexy dwarves, and I don’t know that I’ve laughed so much in my entire life. We’re sitting in one of the booths in HellScape, the entire place looks like Halloween threw up on it, Hunter is proud as punch of how the place looks, and everyone is having a great time.

How he pulled it off in two weeks is beyond me, especially when Harper has been away—something to do with her mom Yen told me—but it’s great. It’s not actually the thirty-first, because that’s Tuesday, but Saturday night at HellScape is our Halloween party, open to all, though the basement is closed to non-members. There are games set up in various booths and you can bob for apples at the bar to win free drinks. He’s even done a best-dressed competition thing.

Meyer was right, he’s a holiday monster, but it’s the happiest I’ve seen him since I met him, so I’m almost glad I’ve never celebrated the holidays properly before so he gets to have this moment.

Though this is definitely not how I expected to celebrate the last year of my twenties, but then, I didn’t even acknowledge my birthday last year, let alone celebrate it, so who am I to know what I expected? In reality, I probably would have just let it glide by again if it wasn’t for these three.

“Come dance!” Shae whines, fluttering her giant lash extensions at me. She’s a butterfly, so that required giant lashes to match her rainbow wings. Unsurprisingly, she looks incredible.

She grabs my hands and tugs at me until I slide out of the booth. “Fine, fine. I’m coming.” I wave back at the guys, who all grin at me because I’ve already danced most of the night away and spent the last twenty minutes complaining about how much my feet hurt in these bright red skyscraper heels.

Shae stops one of the girls passing with a tray of shots, takes two and hands them to me before taking two more. “To your birthday and this insane mash-up party.”

“I guess I can drink to that,” I say with a laugh and drink down the bright-green sour apple liquid. “Wow, that’s gross.”

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