Almost Easy

Zack's POV

Thanksgiving was here and it felt so empty. The house, my head, the usual. Instead of having Friendsgiving like we had every year for as long as I could remember, we all stayed at our respective family's homes. The idea of not being able to be civil in the same room as Matt made me disgusted in ourselves but I knew one of us would say something dumb and yet another holiday would be thrown down the drain.

Five years of drain holidays and finally the Baker family was gathered around the table eating together and laughing. Liddy was shoving Ethan's feet under the table; my mom was here to my surprise that dad managed to get her out of the house today. He had retired not long after she got released from the hospital, and he takes care of her. It blew my mind how much things had changed at this table in five short years. Somewhere in my head, in all of our heads, there would be three other people sitting at this table with us, should be with us, and my heart sunk.

"I'll be right back." I stood up, excusing myself.

"Zack?" Jacky grabbed my hand and stared at me, giving me a questioning look.

"It's fine babe."

"It's Thanksgiving." She corrected, "Not the time. It's been two months and we're all fine, don't."

"I need to make sure he's alive."

A small smile peeked at the corner of her mouth, "Good. Be quick."

I rolled my eyes at her quick change of heart and entered the kitchen, pulling my cell phone from my pocket and dialing in Matt's number. It rang a few times and went to voicemail. I furrowed my eyebrows and shrugged, leaving a message couldn't hurt.

"Hey man, it's Z. Not that you didn't know that, you're probably ignoring my calls... Just wanted to say happy Thanksgiving man. Hope everything's going ok, text me and let me know you're alive. Bye." I hung up and tapped my fingers against my phone, quickly making the decision to click Brian's name.

"Oh wow, look who it is." His fake shock was backed by the screams of small children, "Happy Thanksgiving Zack, what's up?"

"Just calling to say the same thing, it's really weird-"

"Not all being together? Agreed, Chelle's said the same thing over a thousand times so far today." He laughed under his breath, "Hey did you by any chance try calling Matt today?"

"Actually, I did, against Jacky's better judgement, right before I called you."

"Did he answer?" There was shock in his voice and I could only imagine our results had been the same.

"No, actually, he didn't. I got voicemail. Why? Have you?"

"For the past week, I've been calling him. Michelle's been calling him, I even had Dad call him and Val go check on him. His car isn't at his apartment. I haven't had time to go down to Oceanside yet... I was hoping you'd heard something."

"No, nothing. Well, I'll call you after dinner and we can chat. That ok?"

"Definitely. Talk to you later man."

I hung up and rejoined the table, smiling across at Jacky who just gave me a sad smile. She must have been able to tell just from my facial expression. Dad picked up a conversation about school with Ethan and mom sat silently watching them converse. My heart tugged again; Liz would have loved to see her doing better. Mom would have loved to have another grandchild to watch interact with everyone even though she barely spoke herself, she was a big observer now.

"Lid," Jacky spoke, catching our daughter's attention as she looked up from her phone, I hadn't even noticed she had her cell phone at the table until now, "No phones at the table you know the rule."

"Mom." Liddy rolled her eyes, I had to catch myself from laughing.

"Who are you even texting on Thanksgiving?" I asked, Jacky reached over and confiscated the phone, choking on the wine in her mouth as she looked at the screen, "Lid? Who is it?"

"Uhm..." She paused as Jacky slammed the phone down and shook her head, "It's uncle Matt."

"What?" I took the phone and opened it, reading the messages they'd been exchanging, "Why... When did you get his number? What..." I read through the harmless messages, the apologies from Matt for upsetting her months ago, and the extremely mature responses from my child. She knew how to let someone know they hurt her but still accept an apology, that was definitely not a Baker genetic, "Call him." I shoved the phone at her.

"Zack!" Jacky chided, "You can't use her to get a response!"

"I can and I will, call him."

I watched Liddy click the phone icon and lift the phone to her ear, "Hey uncle Matt, happy Thanksgiving." She smiled and paused, listening, "Haha, yeah. I told dad I had to go to the bathroom, I wanted to say it to you in person." She lied through her teeth and Jacky slunked down in her seat, groaning quietly, that was a Baker trait, "Where are you? Dad won't tell me why you're not here..." She stopped talking and processed what he was saying, her lips were trying to stay in a straight line, "You left? Did you leave for good?" Her eyes welled up, "No, I know. I won't. Ok... I promise Uncle Matty. Ok love you too, be safe."

She hung up and shook her head a little, "Babe?" Jacky asked, placing her arm on Liddy's, "Lid is everything ok?"

"Yeah, he sounded weird again. Uhm, he said he's in Las Vegas."

"Lovely." I nodded and grabbed her hand in mine, "Thank you Lid. You should become an FBI agent someday, because I didn't even ask you to find out where he was and you knew." I smirked as she smiled, "Ok, let's finish eating guys. Let's continue this Thanksgiving."

:.:.:.:.:

Liddy and Ethan were in bed, Mom and Dad had gotten home safely with a phone call reassuring us. Jacky was in the shower and I was sitting in my office, blank computer screen in front of my face as I called Brian’s cell phone number from my phone.

“Hey.” He answered, “You guys all settled in to your food comas?”

“Yeah, the kids are already passed out.” I laughed a little bit, “Hey so you’ll never guess what I found out over dinner.”

“That Liddy’s not your kid since she’s so well behaved?” He joked, I scoffed, “Sorry it was worth it. What’d you find out.”

“Well it has to do with Lid, actually. She was texting Matt during dinner,” Brian choked equally as badly as Jacky had, “Exactly, he’s in Vegas apparently. I made her call him and act like I didn’t know.”

“You’re terrible.” Brian chuckled, “So... Vegas. I’m so glad he’s taking this distance thing serious.”

“Yeah, right? At least he’s alive. I just wanted to let you know, you can pass the word along to Chelle. I’m going to vicariously check in on him through Lid. If anything happens, I’ll let you know. We leave in a few weeks for tour any ways, he’ll be back and I can give him shit then.”

“Agreed. Ok thanks for letting me know, have a good rest of your night man. Tell the kids we said hey.”

“Same, tell Chelle that Jacky misses her, talk to ya later.”

We both hung up and I kicked my feet back, grabbing my keyboard from the desk and placing it on my lap, making a few quick runs through my social media, adding a few quick pictures from today's events and updating the store site with a few sale codes, then posting about them on twitter. Before I knew it I realized the shower upstairs was off and I turned, seeing a figure standing in the doorway behind me.

“Jesus,” I laughed, “If I hadn’t realized the water was off, I'd have pissed myself.” I watched as Jacky walked in, a tank top and shorts as her pajamas tonight, her wet hair in a bun on top of her head.

“Well you were on the phone when I came down so I didn’t want to interrupt you.” She sat on the small loveseat and gestured to the computer, “Working on a holiday?”

“Has to get done. Anyways, wanna take a trip to Vegas? My parents can watch the kids.” I smirked as she laughed out loud, shaking her head against my idea.

“No, Zack, no. We’re leaving him alone, letting him figure it out ok? What trouble can he possibly get in to hm? He’ll be fine, you guys leave on tour soon, he’ll be back.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” I smirked and put the keyboard back, “Let’s get to bed, those hellions should be awake soon and it’s winter break, no school in the morning to save us from sleepless parenting.”