NFH 02 Perfection (31 page)

"Okay, we'll talk about it later," she
said, shrugging if off like there really was nothing to talk
about.

Groaning in frustration, he marched
back over to her and took her mouth in a hungry kiss that had him
thinking about skipping Thanksgiving and spending the day with her,
but he couldn't do that to his family and he didn't want to wreck
her plans for the day.

"We'll talk later," he murmured
against her lips.

"Fine," she sighed heavily as he
pulled away.

"Good," he said, pleased that she
wasn't arguing about it, at least at the moment, but hopefully
after she was filled with turkey and all the trimmings she'd be too
exhausted and full to argue with him.

"You better go or you'll be late," she
said, gesturing to the clock again.

He winced when he saw what time it
was. "Shit, I really have to go. Do you have a long drive?" he
asked, wondering if he should plan to swing back here later to give
her a ride. It snowed last night and rained a little bit this
morning and he really didn't trust her car in this weather or any
weather for that matter. It was just another reminder that he'd
have to go and buy her a car soon.

"It's not very far," she said, giving
him a small smile.

"Okay, but if you don't want to drive
or your car dies give me a call and I'll come give you a ride," he
said, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead and giving the dogs a
quick pet before he headed for the door.

"What if I want to give you a ride?"
she asked teasingly, laughing when he tripped over his own damn
feet.

Chapter 26

"You missed breakfast," Jason
announced as Trevor stepped into the large busy kitchen filled with
Bradfords and food.

"That's fine. I'm not really hungry,"
he said, barely aware or caring that all activity in the busy
kitchen suddenly stopped as every Bradford in the room, even one
year old Cole stopped trying to climb onto the counter to get at
the large platter of cookies his mother made to stare at him in
disbelief.

"You're not hungry?" his aunt Megan
asked, frowning as she wiped her hands on her pale green apron.
"Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered automatically
as he stole the vegetable peeler out of Jason's hand and started in
on one of the thirty pound bags of potatoes. Right now he needed
something to focus on instead of how pissed he was.

"Trevor, sweetheart, do you want to
talk?" his aunt asked and he didn't have to look up to know that
she was probably twisting her hands nervously in her apron. She was
a worrier and a babier and on a good day all her fussing was hard
to take and today sure as hell was not a good day. "Why don't I
make you up a quick plate of eggs and bacon and we can go into the
living room and-"

He shook his head. "I'm fine, Aunt
Megan. Really."

"But-"

"He's fine, honey," Jared said. "But I
could use a hand finding the cranberry sauce."

"Wasn't it on the counter?" Megan
asked, leaving him to help Jared and hopefully forgetting all about
him for the day, which he knew wasn't likely to happen. She'd just
wait to corner him and bug the hell out of him until he told her
what was wrong.

"You want to talk about it?" Jason
asked quietly so that the rest of their family wouldn't
hear.

"There's nothing to talk about," he
said, taking out his anger on the potato in his hand since he
couldn't spank Zoe's ass at the moment, and not in the good
way.

Why the hell hadn't she wanted to take
things to the next level with him?

"I'm fine. Great even." But
he wasn't. He was dying to hunt Zoe down and spank her ass until
she agreed to live with him, no,
begged
him to live
together.

"You know where to find me when you're
ready to talk," Jason said, sounding so damn sure of himself and
further pissing him off.

"I don't need to talk to you," he
snapped, grabbing another potato.

"Uh huh," Jason said, yawning.
"Whatever you do don't kidnap her, that'll only piss her off more.
Believe me I know."

"Whatever, just go away and leave me
alone," he said, stealing the potato out of Jason's
hand.

"Fine, I'll go see if my little
grasshopper needs help setting the dining room table," he said with
a shrug.

Trevor watched as his cousin snagged a
large chocolate chunk cookie from one of the platters and gave it
to his son, who happily took it and settled himself on the floor,
out of the way. After giving the boy a wink and him a meaningful
look he headed out the swinging kitchen door to help his
wife.

He watched with bored interest as his
Aunt Megan stormed over to the door and shoved it open. "Don't you
dare try to drag her off, Jason Bradford!"

*********

Thirty pounds of potatoes, forty
pounds of butternut squash, three trips to the convenient store
down the street, hundred bucks poorer and four hours later Trevor
was pushing his food around on his plate, wondering if Zoe was
giving his idea any thought and wondering why her hesitation felt
like she was pulling away from him.

For the first time in his life he
couldn't eat and didn't want to. What he wanted was to hunt down
Zoe and force her to see his side. He would already be heading out
the door to drag her home except for one little problem.

He had absolutely no idea where she
was.

The few times he tried to get her to
talk about her family she quickly changed the subject. They also
never came down or seemed to be involved in her life at all, which
actually pissed him off. What the hell kind of family stood around
and let someone as great as Zoe struggle? And where the hell have
they been?

He could name at least a half dozen
instances where she could have used family in last few months, but
not once did he hear anything about them showing any concern for
her. When he'd asked about her Thanksgiving plans he wanted to
demand that she come with him, but the way she spoke of her
Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions and how much she looked
forward to it every year put a stop to that. They might not be
close, but at least they made sure she was taken care of during the
holidays.

That was something, he thought, not
much, but more than they'd been doing for her.

"Haley, why did you make a pumpkin pie
with a 'Z' on it?" Jason asked as he walked into the dining room
with his daughter happily sleeping in one arm, Cole wrapped around
his leg, and carrying the second platter of turkey Aunt Megan had
asked him to get a few minutes ago. He was actually surprised there
was any meat left on the plate or that his aunt trusted Jason or
any of the Bradford males to go into the kitchen unsupervised after
last Christmas.

As Haley struggled to pull Cole off
Jason's leg, she said, "I was hoping Zoe would come, but just in
case I figured I'd send the pie home with Trevor."

Jared snorted at that. "It will never
make it to the house," he said, although he did throw Trevor and
his untouched plate a curious look.

"It better make it there," Haley said,
giving him what she probably thought was a stern look, but even he
had to admit she was really too damn cute to pull it off, not like
his Zoe. Now that woman knew how to glare, he thought with a
wistful sigh.

"I tried to get her to come, but I
think she's still mad at me," Jared grumbled, sounding truly
unhappy.

"She's not mad at you and you did what
you had to do," Trevor said, knowing it was the truth, but he knew
his uncle felt bad for making Zoe cry. It didn't matter that Zoe
went out of her way to show the man how much she appreciated Jared
caring enough to talk to her or the dozen cupcakes that she'd
bought him, the man simply couldn't tolerate a woman
crying.

"She has no family or anywhere to go
for the holidays. If she wasn't mad at me she would have come,"
Jared grumbled, sighing as he pushed his food around his own
plate.

The fork in his hand
dropped with a loud
clink
as his uncle's words sank in. "She doesn't have
any family?" he asked, wondering why the hell she never told
him.

"She grew up in foster care," Haley
said softly.

He shoved away from the table, holding
back several choice words as he shared a look with an equally
stunned Jason.

"Well, let's go get her then," Jason
said, handing his baby girl over to Jared and swiping a roll off
Haley's plate before heading for the door.

Trevor was about to tell him that he
didn't need any help, but then he realized that having a witness
just might stop him from throttling Zoe's pretty little
neck.

************

"Don't worry I ordered a little
something special for the two of you," Zoe said as she hung up the
phone. Toby and Max gave her little puppy barks of approval as she
gave them each a quick pat and headed back upstairs to grab a
pillow and a blanket.

As she headed downstairs her stomach
growled loudly, demanding food and making her groan. She really
hoped she was able to keep down her special Thanksgiving lunch. It
was something she looked forward to every year and something she
allowed herself to have whether she was on a diet or
not.

P.B. Chang's was the best Chinese food
in the area and something she normally didn't allow herself because
she usually couldn't afford it, which is why she only treated
herself to it twice a year. It also didn't hurt that the two days
she allowed herself the treat were also the two days P.B. Chang's
automatically doubled the amount of food for free. While other
people were going to be eating turkey for several days she'd be
eating Chinese food.

"Let's get set up, guys," she said
cheerfully, earning several barks of approval.

After depositing her blanket and
pillow on the couch she took the dogs out for a quick walk and
quickly changed into a Red Sox tee shirt, baby pink flannel pajamas
and a pair of Trevor's thick white socks. She was just sliding the
first disc of her "X-Files" DVD collection into the DVD player for
her Thanksgiving Day "X-File" marathon when a knock sounded at the
door.

She grabbed her wallet and headed to
the door, giving the dogs a stern look to stay put. With small
groans they did just that. As she opened the door the aroma of
fried chicken fingers, pork fried rice, and beef teriyaki hit her
hard and made her mouth water. She could not wait to tear into her
food, which was a good thing considering how much food there was.
Maybe she'd ordered too much, she thought as she frowned down at
the two large brown paper bags that were overflowing with food. She
may have gone overboard ordering this year, forgetting that they'd
double whatever she ordered, but that was okay because she was
starving.

It was only after the delivery boy
left that she realized that he didn't bring her orange soda, not
that she could complain. She paused the movie and quickly grabbed
two cold cans of Coke, knowing she'd go through them and returned
to the living room to find her boys sniffing around the
bags.

"Be good and I'll give you something
yummy," she said teasingly as she opened the bags and quickly found
the beef and broccoli she'd ordered for them. After she split the
small carton between them she sat on the couch, pulled the coffee
table closer and hit the "Play" button as she got
comfortable.

After Trevor's little announcement
this morning she really needed this. She wasn't sure what was going
on with Trevor, but she knew that she couldn't go much further with
him before she broke. She loved him so much that she was actually
afraid to take any chances on him.

Not that it was much of a risk
considering that he hadn't exactly offered his undying love or
anything. The only thing he'd offered her was convenience, whatever
that meant. She loved him and she was pretty sure that he cared
about her, more than just for the arrangement, but he didn't have
anything else to offer her and she'd be stupid to sit here
depressing herself over something that she had no control over at
the moment.

At least she could drown her sorrows
in extra duck sauce, she thought, reaching over to start on the bag
closest to her.

"Oh, look at that, Jason. She got us a
little snack for the ride," Trevor suddenly said, scaring the
living hell out of her.

Gasping for breath, she pressed a hand
to her chest and wondered if her heart was ever going to be able to
stop pounding against her chest. "Stop doing that to
me!"

"Doing what?" Trevor asked, never
taking his eyes away from her as he crouched down to greet the
excited dogs.

"Scaring the hell out of me!" she
snapped.

Trevor shrugged as he continued to pet
the dogs.

Jason threw the dogs a curious look as
he stepped further into the apartment only to come to an abrupt
halt when he spotted the label on the brown paper bags.

"Is that," he noticeably swallowed,
"P.B. Chang's?"