Thanksgiving Day
“You ready for this?” Brantley asked as he strolled into the kitchen to find Reese downing a bottle of water like he’d just run ten miles.
“Maybe you could just bring me a doggy bag,” Reese said tightly, not bothering to look his way.
Brantley grinned. “It’s gonna be fine, I promise.”
“How many people’ll be there again?”
“A few.”
Reese groaned.
“Let’s just say there’ll be enough people there that they won’t all be starin’ at you.”
“Not helpin’.”
Brantley chuckled. “You’ve survived Curtis’s many family gatherings, have you not?”
“That’s different.”
“How so?”
Reese looked his way then. “I’m not in love with any of Curtis’s sons.”
Brantley felt warmth spread through his chest. It had him moving toward Reese, putting his hands on his hips, and stepping in close.
“Have I told you how fuckin’ much I love to hear that?”
“I’ll tell you a dozen times if it means I can stay here while you go have turkey and dressin’ with your family.”
“No deal.”
“But I do have a surprise. Somethin’ that might take your mind off of dinner.”
“What’s that?”
Brantley motioned toward the back porch. Reese followed, stepping outside with him.
“I’ve hired someone to put in a fence,” Brantley explained. “Not the entire property, but enough to give Tesha plenty of room to roam.” He then pointed to the wall behind them. “And I bought those. Figured we could get them installed.”
Reese stepped over to the boxes propped against the wall.
“Those are fancy,” Reese said, a smile returning to his face.
“Only the best for our girl,” Brantley told him. “The dog doors open because of the device that attaches to her collar. That way she can come and go into the house or the barn whenever she wants.”
Brantley’s cell phone buzzed, then his watch.
“That’s the cameras.” Reese glanced toward the side of the house.
Tesha had moved to stand at the edge of the deck, her tail still as she stared out into the brilliant sunlight.
The three of them remained like that until JJ came strolling by, heading toward the barn.
“What’s she doin’ here?” Brantley wondered aloud. “I thought she was goin’ to Baz’s dad’s for Thanksgiving.”
“That’s what I heard.”
“I’ll go talk to her.”
“And I’ll get Tesha ready to go to your parents,” Reese said, whistling for Tesha who had run out to greet JJ.
When Tesha headed back to Reese, Brantley started after JJ, calling her name when she kept walking toward the barn.
When she stopped but didn’t turn around, he knew something was wrong. The question was: what?
“JJ?” He stopped a few feet behind her. “Why’re you here?”
“Work?”
“Are you askin’ or tellin’, because that sure sounded indecisive.”
When he neared, JJ turned around, her eyes darting around him as though she expected the boogey man to jump out at her at any moment.
“Where’s Baz?”
She shrugged.
“I thought you were havin’ Thanksgiving with him.”
Her mouth opened, closed, lips forming a thin line.
“What’s goin’ on?”
“I can’t, Brantley,” she blurted. “I can’t have Thanksgiving dinner with his family. That’s… It’s too much. It signifies something … more. Something we don’t have. Yet. Maybe not ever.” JJ took a deep breath. “We don’t have that, B.”
Confused, Brantley waited for her to continue. She didn’t.
“Why’d you tell him you’d go then?”
“Because I didn’t want to disappoint him,” she whispered, her eyes lowering.
“But you don’t mind now?”
“I doubt he’ll even miss me.” She lifted her gaze to his. “I left him a message.”
For some reason, he didn’t believe her.
“JJ—”
She held up a hand. “I don’t need a lecture right now, B. I get it. You’re all in love and happy but that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to be. I like Baz. We … we have fun together. But that’s all it’s ever gonna be. I know that deep down. No sense confusin’ the issue by bringin’ family into it.”
He wished he could say he hadn’t seen this coming, but Brantley knew JJ. She’d been hurt so many times, she refused to open herself up to anyone. It was the very reason she kept all men at arm’s length, the same reason she had continued to take Dante the Douche back. With him she never had to worry that he would really want more than she could give, because he was notorious for fucking things up.
“All right,” he conceded. “I won’t harp on you about it.”
“Thank you.”
“Nor will I let you sit here by yourself on Thanksgiving. You’re comin’ with us.”
“To your parents’ house?”
“Yep.”
“Yay! It’s been too long since I’ve seen them.”
Why he’d thought she would argue, he didn’t know.
Family get-togethers for Brantley’s branch of the family tree were not much different than the rest of the Walker clan. The most important thing for them was that they were with family. Every year without fail, Iris cooked lavish meals for Thanksgiving, ensuring every one of her children was going to be there, even if they could only stop in for a few minutes.
Not that any of them had ever done a fly-by on the house when they could help it. And yes, Brantley had been given a reprieve for the years he’d missed when he’d been deployed, but he had always made a point to call home to talk to his parents, ensure they knew he was thinking about them.
Brantley would admit he looked forward to getting together with his brothers and sisters, nieces and nephew, hanging out. His siblings were the same way. Although they all lived nearby, most of them still in Coyote Ridge, they didn’t get together as often as they would like. Unlike Curtis and Lorrie, Sunday dinners rarely involved all of them, even though Brantley knew the grandkids usually stopped in to see Grams and Poppop on the weekends.
“Damn, dude, you’re cuttin’ it close, aren’t ya?” Trey asked when Brantley walked into the house, Reese and JJ behind him. “The game’s about to start.”
The scent of food drifted toward him, his stomach rumbling in response, but he ignored it, in lieu of addressing his brother. Unlike the rest of them, Brantley wasn’t a huge Dallas Cowboys fan, so watching the big game on Turkey Day was never a thing for him.
“Reese, please tell me you’re a Cowboys fan,” Killian said by way of greeting.
“I’m more of a winnin’ team kinda fan,” Reese said, deadpan.
Trey’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he shot to his feet. “Blasphemy! We’ll have none of it in this house.”
And just like that, Reese was brought into the fold. Greetings were shouted along with jokes and laughter as they all met Reese, most for the first time. Brantley had known it would be that way. There were too many people for him to be put on the spot.
Not to mention, Tesha seemed to be a crowd pleasure, immediately gaining the attention from the little kids. Although she remained right at Reese’s right leg, Brantley was surprised at how easily the dog settled in with the rowdy bunch. He was happy to see she was starting to trust again.
“Sit,” he ordered Reese. “I’ll grab you a beer.”
“Mind if I say hello to your mom and dad first?” he asked quietly.
Smiling, he led the way to the kitchen, where his mother was working alongside Cal and Sadie while their father sat on a stool and watched them do their thing.
Frank turned, evidently hearing them approach.
Brantley squeezed his shoulder. “Dad.”
His father patted his hand, turned on his stool before standing. “Sure glad you could make it,” he said to Reese.
“Thank you for havin’ me, sir.”
“None of that sir nonsense.” Frank chuckled as he looked past Reese. “Look who it is, Momma,” he called to his wife. “She ain’t a little girl anymore.”
Iris came around the island, a beaming smile on her face. She first greeted Reese with a hug that had him looking helplessly to Brantley. Then she hurried along to JJ, doting on her as was her style.
Brantley motioned Reese toward the island. “Hey, guys, I’d like you to meet Reese. Reese, my sister Sadie, my brother Cal.”
They both nodded and smiled, Cal tacking on a brief, “Howdy.”
“I’d shake your hand, but it’d be more hassle than it’s worth.” Sadie frowned, shook her head. “That did not come out right. Just ignore me, Reese. I meant, you’d get dirty and you’d—”
“He knows what you meant, sis.”
They left Sadie blushing from her blunder and Cal working diligently to keep up and returned to the living room.
For the next three hours, Brantley would spend most of his time laughing at his brothers shouting at the television, watching his nephew try to climb Reese like a tree because, somewhere along the way, they’d become best friends, smiling as Ashley and Meghan attached a bow to Tesha’s collar. Every now and again, he would hear JJ laughing with the girls from their spot at the kitchen table where they were downing margaritas.
And as he sat there, Brantley would let his gaze stray to Reese quite frequently, a very delicious reminder of just how thankful he was this year.
<<<— STAY TUNED —>>>
I hope you enjoyed the third installment of the Off the Books Task Force. There’s definitely more to come for Brantley and Reese, JJ and Baz, and the rest of the task force. Each book in this series is a full-length novel involving a new case and the continuation of the relationships between them all. And I promise not to keep you waiting long for each installment.
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