Counting Stars

“Oh yeah, how’s Great Aunt Betsy doing anyway?” Jon’s doing his best to procrastinate making the announcement, stalling anyway he knows. It’s not that he thinks they’re going to be mad about Avery. On the contrary, his mother has been dropping unsubtle statements since they broke up, even in front of any girls Jon’s dated since.

He’s sure, however, that she’s going to be pissed he a) got married without inviting her and b) waited five months to tell her.

His parents exchange a look over their glasses of wine and then look back across the table at him. “Jonathan,” Andree says calmly, placing her wine glass on the table in front of her. “Let’s not pretend you invited us out to Edmonton to catch up,” He should have known she’d seen right through him.

His father continues. “So stop asking about relatives we all know you don’t care about and tell us why we’re really here.” But Bryan ends it with a grin, so Jon knows he’s mostly kidding.

Well if that’s how they want to play it. “Avery and I are married,”

There are two possible reactions he sees from them. The first, more likely option is a loud lecture. He’d hoped the semi-public dinner setting would have turned them off that—the whole reason he’d picked the location he did. The second is extreme jubilation. Andree had made her wishes for Avery as a daughter-in-law very clear to both her sons and while it’s a longshot for this reaction to be the one she chooses, he’s hoping to at least persuade her to it by the end of dinner.

So naturally, despite two he’s preparing for, he gets a completely different one. “So I take it we don’t need to send her an RSVP,” Bryan says and Jon’s jaw drops.

“Jonathan,” It takes his mother a little longer to recover. “You can’t marry Avery, she’s marrying James Benson,” And yeah, he’s a pretty important guy, son of a businessman, politician on the rise, but Jon’s kind of important too.

“Well it’s too late,” Jon shrugs. “Because she’s already married. To me,” There’s a long pause so Jon hastens to fill the silence. “Look, I can explain it all,”

“Well good, because your ability to break news gently needs some work,” Bryan says.

Jon gives him a look, because, well, if he had a dollar for every time someone told him he was too blunt, it’d be more than his contract extension. “We’ve been seeing each other for a while, but didn’t tell anyone because we didn’t want everyone getting disappointed if it didn’t end up working out.” Andree at least has the grace to avoid his eyes at this statement. “She hasn’t been happy for a while; you know I’ve never been able to handle it when she’s unhappy,”

“So instead of working with her to try and make her happy, you decide to marry her?” His mother still sounds a little angry.

He hem-haws. “We didn’t really mean for it to get this far? It just kind of…happened,” Jon doesn’t even need his dad to slap his own forehead to realize this is not the right thing to say. “No—that’s—that’s not quite right. I mean, we didn’t intend to keep dating. We started with just getting together and hanging out and then we just kept going and going,” He smiles. “And then it was just—not being able to be without her anymore, so I proposed, she said yes, and we got married right there,”

“Where exactly is right there?” Andree says flatly.

“Boo—Shattuck Cruise,” He hastens to correct himself; he’s not sure he managed to fool her anyway. “Don’t worry, we’re—we’re doing something this summer, for everyone, the wedding take 2.”

“I just don’t understand why we couldn’t have just settled at wedding take 1, like normal people,” His mother says.

“Well this is what happened!” Jon exclaims. “This is it, that’s the way it is. We are married now and because we know that you guys and Trina and Troy are going to want a real wedding, we’re having one. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea, but I love her and I married her and I couldn’t wait to do it,” And great, now he’s realizing that half of this whole thing is true and he’s fricking screwed.

The silence that follows this mini blow up is the longest of Jon’s life until finally his mother speaks, in a much softer tone than before. “But Jonathan…she’s still engaged.”

“Has she even told her parents?” Bryan asks.

“She’s in Pittsburgh now with them and Sid,” Jon responds. “Tell everyone on the same night, fair’s fair,” He turns to his mother. “But I’m going to be there when she tells James. Once we all get back to Chicago,”

“Because fair’s fair?” His mother counters.

And Jon nods. “Because I love her,” It’s the one argument he knows his mother won’t continue fighting, and sure enough, she only purses her lips. “Could’ve been worse,” He says, trying to be positive. “She could have been pregnant,

“I think I’d rather have the grandchildren,” Andree says morosely.

Of course she would.

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“How’d it go?” Jon doesn’t even bother with a hello once he reads the caller ID. He’d dropped his parents off after dinner, then made the short walk up the three flights of stairs to his room, barely making it into his room before the phone started ringing.

“He fucking knew!” Avery sounds like she’s in full-on rant mode, like she’s been talking at her brother for hours now and just decided in the middle of it, she was going to call Jon. “Dad fucking knew already!

“How?” Jon’s mind-boggled. “We didn’t even find out until last week,”

“He didn’t either,” Avery responds. “And he didn’t know it was you. But I guess he have people working to make sure shit like this doesn’t get out without us knowing.”

“Well he’s a few months too late,” Jon says, lying back on his bed.

“You’re telling me,” She huffs out a breath. “Trina’s a little disappointed, I think, but I have no doubts that’ll go away as soon as she remembers how much she loves you,”

“I’ll have to get her a good Christmas present this year,”

“Can’t hurt,” Avery laughs. “Anyway, enough of my night. How was yours?”

“Shockingly good,” Jon smiles at her laugh. “They took it much better than I thought. But they’re probably just excited to finally have you as a daughter in law.”

“Well yeah, your mom gets her favorite child back again,”

“Fuck you,” Jon says, but it’s not very heated and she only laughs in response.

“Think I’m going to hang around here a few days longer than planned,”

He frowns. “Everything alright?”

“Mmhmm,” She says. “Just—“Don’t want to go back to Chicago with him. The words don’t have to be said for him to know she’s avoiding James until Jon gets back. “Want to hang around with my brother for a little,”

“Uh huh, sure,”

“Celebrate Thanksgiving with the Lemieux’s,” She continues. “Mom and Dad are staying for a while. Let mom think she’s got some input on the wedding,”

“You tell yourself what you need to,” Jon says.

“Plus, Lauren’s brining her new, Flyers fan boyfriend home for the weekend and he’s got no idea he’s walking into an ambush,”

“Taking a leaf out of your book?” He knows that’s her trademark move—not offering any information about her brother, particularly after some issues in college with people pretending to be friends.

“I taught her so well,” She sounds proud.

“Too bad we’ll be in Anaheim,” He mourns. “Never get to spend a Thanksgiving together as husband and wife,”

“That’s ok, real Thanksgiving happened last month anyway,”

“I’ll make sure to throw that one at Kaner,”

“You better,”