Page 45 of Home for the Holidays

Just as Iris opened her mouth to answer, Heidi breezed into the kitchen in her pajamas, her hair on top of her head in a bun and her glasses on, causing Iris’s heart to enthusiastically jump into her throat. Suddenly, the feeling of hugging and kissing her last night was all she could think about.

“Earth to Iris. Hello?”

“Huh? What?” She blinked, snapping herself out of the memory. “Yeah, yeah, everything is fine,” she finally answered. Shaun chuckled, though, which seemed out of context. Why did he chuckle? Had he seen what had happened? Was she that obvious? She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. She was overheating, and her stomach was in knots. This couldn’t all be from seeing Heidi. Maybe it was the hangover talking? Yeah, that had to be it.

“How did everyone sleep?” Heidi asked. When her eyes landed on Iris, her face lit up like one of the thousands of Christmas trees she had seen since landing in Vale Park. Thank goodness she didn’t smile, though. It was too early to have to start reminding herself to breathe.

“Grammy, are you going to make French toast?” Nora asked.

“Yes, my little munchkin,” Heidi said as she scooped her granddaughter up into her arms. “And bacon.”

“Turkey bacon?”

Heidi’s face twisted as she looked at Oscar. “Turkey bacon? Is this new?”

He shook his head. “No, she hung out with her new friend from school, and her moms don’t eat pork.”

“Okay, well, honey, we’ll be doing regular bacon.”

Nora giggled and let out an excited squeal. “Yay!”

“See?” Oscar said with a shrug. “She’s a Nowak. No worries.”

Heidi deposited Nora back on her own two feet and looked around the table. “I take it the lack of an answer for how everyone slept means we’ll be taking a nap later?”

“Oscar slept like a rock. He was snoring all night,” Karen said with a laugh as she slid onto the chair next to Iris. “I almost came upstairs and slept next to you and Zac, Iris.”

“You could have. I had the bed all to myself,” Iris said. Only after everyone’s eyes landed on her did she realize what she said. “Uhh…”

“Zac didn’t make it home?” Karen asked as Oscar delivered her a cup of hot green tea. When he whispered, “Honey for my honey,” in her ear, it made Iris like him even more.

“No, he was pretty tipsy, so I think he stayed at Evan’s.” She cleared her throat. “He did stay there. NotI think.He did. For sure.” She sipped her coffee and hoped no one would ask any other questions.

“That’s…interesting,” Adrien said softly from his seat at the table.

“Is it?” Iris asked just as Shaun’s thumb dug into a knot near her shoulder blade and she let out a nervous gasp.

“Your boyfriend just slept at his old boyfriend’s house?”

The sound of a pan dropping onto the stove made everyone look back at Heidi. “Sorry, butterfingers.”

“I just meant like a friend who is a boy.” Adrien laughed. “C’mon, people. Sheesh.”

Shaun stopped rubbing, his hands still on Iris’s shoulders. “Honey, you need more coffee,” he said, then started to rub again. Adrien waved him off, then looked at Iris and winked. She was so unsure of how to take everything that was going on. Did the entire family know that this was all a farce? A part of her hoped so; it would make everything so much easier.

Karen pressed her leg against Iris’s for a quick second, almost as if she was sending her a signal. But what was the signal? “Is Evan coming to spend the rest of the holiday with us?”

“I invited him to, but that’ll obviously be up to Zac and how their night went,” Heidi said from across the kitchen. “Seeing as he’s not home, I’m assuming it went well.”

This entire scene was making Iris so uncomfortable. The urge to stand up and shout, “Do you all fucking know or what?” at the top of her lungs was so strong. She didn’t, of course, but god, how she wanted to.

Shaun patted her shoulders softly. “I’ll finish you later,” he said with a deep chuckle. “You’re a mess, honey.”

“Don’t I know it.” She shook her head before taking another sip of coffee.

“Shaun, I’ll take one of those shoulder rubs whenever you’d like,” Karen said. She pointed at Oscar. “His hands aren’t strong enough.”

“Whoa, that hurt,” Oscar protested.

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