Cross My Heart

It was weird how rushed and excited at the same time I felt as I scurried around the kitchen on Thanksgiving morning. Mia had offered to come over and help me cook but her parents insisted that she waited until later in the day to ditch all of her family members that had come from far away to see her and Charlie. Jimmy wanted to sleep in until at least the sun came up so I let him. Having felt bad for the last few days about his feelings and memories for winter I wanted to make everything as easy as possible for him.

With Matt still gone, Charlie and Mia tied up, and Jimmy sleeping I only had one choice left. I grabbed my phone from the bedroom, pausing slightly to take a picture of my husband as he slept, and hurried out to the front porch where I looked up at a gray sky.

The phone rang once, twice, then finally a gruff voice picked up.

"Whats up?"

"Hey, did I wake you?" I asked.

"Of course you woke me. It's not noon yet is it?"

"I'm sorry...and excuse me but you BETTER have been planning to get up before noon. Did you forgot what today was?"

"Whoa, relax girl. Put out the fire for a second."

I smiled and then shook my head. "So.. I have a question for you."

"And I might have an answer. It depends."

"On what?"

"On what you want from me." He said then coughed.

"Are you smoking already?"

"Hey, you called and WOKE.ME.UP. Get on with it or I'm hanging up." He teased.

"Alright, alright. Are you terribly busy? I'm starting to get some stuff ready and I'm all alone and I don't wanna do it by myself."

"Where's Mia? I thought she offered to help."

"Yeah she did but her parents kinda put an end to that. Not that I blame them, family and all, but she's otherwise occupied. Charlie too."

"Where's Jimmy?"

"In bed still, I don't wanna wake him up."

"Really?" Dillon asked. What he was really saying was 'you're going to let your husband sleep but you want to wake ME up'?

"Yes really. I wouldn't have just called to wake you up and then hang up on you."

"I choose not to believe that. Ahhhh.. alright fiiine. You want me to come over NOW?" he asked.

"Well if you want to at least put clothes on that'd be great." I said.
My nose was getting cold from the air even though I hadn't been standing there long. I loved how the weather changed so quickly when it was coming in for the close of the year.

"What makes you think I sleep naked?"

"Please. I've heard stories." I snorted.

"Yeah, I bet you have. Alright, give me like twenty minutes and then I'll be over. You need me to pick up anything?"

"Uhh, coolwhip... other than that I think I've got everything. Unless you wanna bring something, and by something I don't mean weed. Or alcohol."

"Oi, you're such a pain in the ass. You better let us watch football without bugging us though later."

"Yeah yeah. I might. I'll see ya later."

"Peace."

Once I got off the phone with Dillon I went back inside just in time for one of the timers to go off. I smiled at the fact that only a few more hours from now my favorite people, excluding Matt, would be sitting at the table being well behaved and giving thanks. Or well, at least they'd be sitting at the table.

-

When Dillon showed up I was surprised to find that he was semi-dressed up. His hair was pulled back in the little stub of a ponytail that it made and he was wearing sunglasses.

"What's with the shades, Corey Hart?" I asked as I took the bags that he had brought in and put them on the counter top.

"No reason." He said taking them off quickly and sticking them in his back pocket. "So you called me over here to help you or keep you company?"

"Ohh, you could only get so lucky to just sit here and talk to me. No, I need you to help me. The pies are what needs to be done. Do you think I can trust you with that?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah. I'm pretty sure I can bake a pie."

"Hey, sometimes it's not as easy as it looks."

"What? How? You just take it out of the box and put it in the oven for the time it says on the back. How hard is that?" He took a seat at the table and opened his drink that had been in his hand.

I stared at him for a good ten seconds before I finally found the right words to say. "Dillon... you do realize that you can make pies that...don't come in a box. Right?"

"Yes...."

"And you do know that I take holidays seriously and don't go for the boxed crap, right?"

"Well...I do now."

I reached over and pinched his cheek. "It's okay, sweetheart. I'll teach you how to cook like a man."

"Hey now, don't be all... with me. I can cook."

"Can you?"

"Yes."

"Something other than burgers on the grill?"

"Just show me where the pie crap is and let's get this over with."
He said and put his head down on the table.

I laughed and grabbed his arm, pulling him up toward me. "Come on, it's not that hard. I promise, and you can take full credit for making them too. I won't even tell anyone I helped. That way you can look cool in front of your friends."

"You're full of it today, aren't you? What's gotten in to you, are you..." he paused for a second then looked down at me with a slight smirk. "Are you HAPPY during the holidays or something?"
I shook my head. "Just shut up and help me with this." I grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, which resulted in me having to stand on my tippy toes to reach it while Dillon laughed, and then grabbed the apples.

"Get in the fridge and get me the eggs."

Dillon paused and then crossed his arms and looked at me.

"Please." I said and gave him a pouty look.

"That's right. If you want me around you gotta be nice to me." he said and then did as I asked.

"Sorry. I love you very much, Dilly Bean." I took the eggs from him and gave him a one armed hug to which he returned. "So, what's new with you? When are you gonna knock some chick up and bring her to dinner?"

Dillon gave a half laugh and shrugged. "I dunno. Just not that many interesting women around here, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry about that, I was the last one left and then Jimmy came along." I rolled my eyes over dramatically.

"Yeah, asshole." He agreed.

"Seriously though, you're really not attracted to anyone you know?"

"I dunno. Maybe one."

I handed him a knife and a bowl of apples and made the motions of peeling. "Ohh really? Who is she?"

"Uh, just some girl I know. She's nice and funny. Cute. She's smart."

I measured out some water and oil and then grabbed a few eggs and started cracking them, preparing for the two other pies other than apple that I was going to be making. "She sounds nice... and mysterious if you don't mind me saying so. Is there a reason she's a secret?"

"Kind of." He admitted. "I don't tend to tell people about girls that I actually am attracted to. It ruins it for me."

"You mean in the sense that Charlie would probably run her off?"

"Not just him. The other two do it."

"So tell them to knock it off. You're bigger than... well Charlie and Jimmy. You wouldn't stand a chance with Matt."

Dillon narrowed his eyes at me. "Are you kidding me? Woman, I will whoop his ass the next time I see him and prove it to you."

"I think that even with the element of surprise you STILL wouldn't be able to do anything."

"And I suppose you think you're some kind of bad ass?" He asked. The look on his face was priceless.

"I don't think. I know."

He let out a rather loud snort.

"You think I'm some kind of chump?" I asked.

"I think you're a lot of talk and no action."

You know how those scenes go in the movies where someone runs their mouth and then the other person decides that it's a good idea to throw some kind of food at them and their face? Well, in real life it's a lot different. While in the movies people really get in to it and don't have to worry about cleaning up, I did. I also had to worry about wasting stuff that I would need later at the dinner table. The end result of my not caring was worth it though.

I knew he was dressed up, but I also know that he wouldn't get mad at me because he liked me enough to think it was funny instead of uncalled for.

I had the coolwhip unwrapped and the lid off so quick that the handful I scooped up was connecting to the side of his face before he realized what I was doing.

"Whoa!" he yelled and jumped backwards, flinging the knife somewhat dangerously (I'll admit I hadn't thought about that), and then stood up. "What did you just do?" He asked.

"I think you know."

"What did you JUST do?" He wiped at his face and then looked at me with his darkened brown eyes.

"I thought I was cheering you up.. you know? You looked pretty sad about being all alone over there-"

Dillon was fast for a big guy. Not to mention he was much stronger than I was. He had his arms wrapped around my waist and put me down on the kitchen floor in one motion then grabbed the tub of coolwhip on the cupboard.

"You wouldn't!" I yelled struggling. "I already did my make up for the day! I have a lot more to lose than you do!"

"You should have thought about that before you did it to me!" He yelled back.

"Oh come on! It was just a little handful! MY handful! And my hands are tiny! Look, let go of me and let me show you how tiny they are!"

"I don't think so. I think you deserve a little taste of your own medicine! And my hands are small too, so don't worry." He grinned and I squirmed.

"What the hell are you two doing?" came Jimmy's voice from behind us.

Though I didn't see the error of what was going on, Dillon jumped off of me like we had been caught making out.

"Hey babe, we woke you up didn't we?" I asked getting up off the floor.

"No it wasn't you. It was some chick and a two hundred pound Mexican, actually. They're gone now I see." He said looking at us. "Dillon I can't say that I'm surprised with you but Layla! I'm disappointed."

"Wha-? Me?! I didn't do it! He did!" I said and pointed at the other one. "He started the whole thing, I was just making these pies for later and he didn't even want to do it in the first place so he was like ohhh, I'll just-"

"No no no. It didn't go like that." Dillon said walking up to me and putting his hand over my mouth. "It didn't." He said shaking his head looking at Jimmy.

"Yeah right. I changed my mind, I blame both of you equally now."

"No! It wasn't me!"

I moved Dillon's hand from my face and laughed. "Alright, now that you're done playing get back to work and peel those apples."

He made a face like a two year old would then went back to the table and sat down, relocating his knife after a few seconds.

"So babe, who's coming to dinner tonight?" Jimmy asked as he searched through the fridge.

"Us three, Charlie and Mia at some point. I wish Matt was here." I said frowning. "And what the HELL are you doing? You have a bad habit of getting in to stuff before it's done so get outta there."

"I'm just looking, calm yourself. I'm starting to think Dillon was the innocent one here."

I glanced over at Dillon and he gave me a triumphant look.

I made a disgusted sound and leaned against the counter.
"Please."

"Well then it's just us I guess." Jimmy shrugged. "It could be worse, I could be stuck with Charlie at a strip joint again. Things sure have changed over the last couple of years."

I nodded. "Yeah.... It sure has."