Liv: Thanksgiving

"Something smells good," Brody said, coming into the kitchen.  He'd been holed up in his office trying to take care of a poorly-timed emergency of some sort before the holiday tomorrow.  "I'm starving."

"Unfortunately, this isn't dinner," I said with an apologetic smile.  "I'm just getting some stuff ready for tomorrow."  Tomorrow was Thanksgiving, and we were hosting.  Brody's mom and her boyfriend Tim were coming, along with Ken, Brody's employee Pete and his wife Serena, and Jen.  This was my first time ever hosting a holiday meal, and I was a little nervous.  I wanted to get at least a few things made ahead of time so I wouldn't have to be quite as stressed tomorrow.  It wasn't going to be a huge gathering by any means, but I was sure I'd have plenty to manage.

Brody pulled open the fridge and I said, "There's still some lasagna from the other night if you want to heat that up."

"I do," he replied.  "Do you want some?"

"Sure."  Brody pulled out the lasagna and I checked my sweet potato casserole that was in the oven.  While Brody heated up the leftover lasagna and garlic bread, I threw together a salad.  Eddie hung out in the corner of the kitchen, watching us carefully just in case we dropped something.  I pulled the sweet potatoes out of the oven while Brody got plates and silverware, and I stirred my cranberry pear sauce that was simmering on the stove before I went to sit with him.

"I'm an asshole," Brody said suddenly.  "I completely forgot to ask you how your meeting went."  He looked up at me expectantly.

I'd had my meeting this morning with the school that was interested in contracting with my agency for a school-based therapist.  We'd had a little trouble coordinating schedules and today was the best day, so I'd been waiting impatiently for a couple weeks.  I grinned and said, "It went really well.  They liked me a lot and wanted to talk start dates and plans already.  We ended up being there for almost two hours."

"I'm not surprised they liked you," Brody replied, return my excited grin.  "So what are they thinking for start dates?"

"They want me in the school right after Christmas break, attending meetings and such, and hopefully starting to take referrals around the beginning of February, if not sooner."

"That's awesome, Liv," Brody said.  He glanced at his watch.  "Shit, I need to get to the airport.  Do you want to come?"  Jen was flying in from Philadelphia and Brody was picking her up.  She was staying with us and I was excited to see her again.

"I can't," I replied, frowning and looking towards the stove.  "I've got the cranberry sauce on still and I want to make my pie crust tonight still."

"I had no idea I married Martha Stewart," Brody said, chuckling and standing up.  "Done?" He motioned to my plate, and when I nodded he grabbed it and took it to the sink.  "I'll help you clean up tonight, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed.

"Do you need me to pick anything up while I'm out?"  I shook my head and we kissed goodbye, then he took off for the airport.

I decided to make the mashed potatoes tonight too, and got to work peeling and chopping them.  After I had those done, I started on my pie crust.  I normally wasn't much of a baker, but I was bound and determined to make everything from scratch as much as possible.

The kitchen was everywhere and I was up to my elbows in in flour when I heard the garage door opening, signaling that Brody and Jen were here.  When the door to the house opened, Brody called, "Liv, can you come help Jen with her bag?  I need to grab something out of the car."

"I'm covered in flour," I called back.

"I can't hear you!" Brody yelled.  "Just come grab her bag and take her to her room, please!"

I sighed in mild irritation and grabbed a towel to wipe my hands off as much as possible.  I walked out of the kitchen towards the door and stopped dead.  "Oh my god," I said in shock.  "Mom!  Dad!  What...?"  Standing just inside the door next to Jen were my parents.  Brody came back in from the garage grinning as I rushed forward and hugged them.

Since I cry at everything, I got a little teary from the surprise.  "Well don't cry," my dad said, laughing.

I looked at Brody, who said, "It didn't seem right for us to host our first holiday together and not have your family here too, so I thought I'd surprise you."  My lip quivered and I threw my arms around him.  He hugged me back tightly.

"Thank you," I said softly.  "This is amazing."

"I thought you'd like it," he replied, leaning back to kiss my forehead.

I detached myself from Brody as Jen loudly cleared her throat.  She was grinning at me though, and I quickly hugged her.  "I'm so excited to see you too!" I told her, laughing now.

We got everyone settled and their things to their rooms, and I hurried back into the kitchen to finish my pie crust so I could be done prepping for the evening and spend some time with our guests.  "Can I help with anything?" my mom asked, following me into the kitchen.

"Absolutely not," I replied, smiling.  "But you can keep me company while I finish up."

Brody came into the kitchen with two bottles of wine.  He opened one and poured a glass for each of us.  "Can I help you?" he asked me after he'd rinsed out the empty wine bottle and deposited it in the recycling bin in the garage.

"If you wanted to start on the dishes, that would be great," I replied.

Jen and my dad wandered into the kitchen next and each also offered to help.  I refused their offers and they sat down at the table with my mom, and we all chatted while I finished up my pie crust and wrapped it in plastic wrap to rest in the fridge.  I helped Brody clean up the mess and we all moved to the living room, where we spent the rest of the evening.

I was brushing my hair in our bathroom, getting ready for bed, when Brody stuck his head in the open door.  I smiled at him in the mirror and came in, wrapping his arms around my waist.  "Thank you for getting my parents here," I said, leaning back against him.  "You're amazing."

"I'm glad you're happy," he replied.

I set my brush down and turned to face him, slipping my arms around his neck.  "I am," I said, pushing my fingers through the hair at the back of his head.  "I love you."

"I love you, too," Brody replied, before he leaned his head down to kiss me.  He lifted me easily onto the counter, bringing me up to eye level.  His fingers traveled up my back and into my hair, tugging it away from my face and neck.  He lowered his head to my neck, kissing and nibbling from my jaw down to my shoulder.  I sighed and wrapped my legs around his hips, pulling him even closer to me.

"I absolutely loved how excited and surprised you looked when you saw them," he said softly, taking a break from kissing my neck.  His fingers slid beneath the hem of my shirt and danced lightly across my lower back.  "I love surprising you."

"I love your surprises," I replied.  "But can we maybe not talk about my parents right now?"

Brody laughed, dropping his head onto my shoulder.  "Good call," he agreed.  "How about we talk about what I'd like to do to you right now instead?"

"Mmm, I like the sound of that much better," I murmured.  Brody's lips were on my neck again, tracing the same path they'd taken before, but this time from my shoulder back up to my jaw.  He nipped at my earlobe before softly detailing everything he planned to do to me.  While he did that, he unhooked my bra and brushed his thumbs over my nipples, making me shiver.  Then he lifted me off the counter and took me out of the bathroom, setting me carefully on the bed.  We quickly pulled our clothes off, not wasting any time there.  Brody followed through on everything he'd said he'd do, and I found it ridiculously hard to stay relatively quiet.

When we were done, we laid tangled together diagonally across the bed, breathing hard.  "One of the reasons I never wanted to be in a relationship was I was worried about having boring sex...or not having any," Brody said randomly.  "I'm glad that hasn't happened."

"Yet," I corrected him, teasingly.  "It hasn't happened yet."  Brody laughed and we untangled ourselves so we could actually get in bed.  I was relieved for the distraction, because thinking about tomorrow was stressing me out a little, and I felt a lot more relaxed now.  We got comfortable, and for once I fell asleep quickly.

I woke up fairly early the next morning.  Brody was still in bed, but he opened his eyes when I rolled over.  "Good morning, beautiful," he said sleepily.

"Good morning," I replied, smiling.  I had slept well, and even though it was early, I was in a better mood than most mornings.

"Don't get up yet," he requested.  "Come here."  I turned onto my side and scooted closer to him, settling my back against his chest.  We cuddled for about 15 minutes before I wiggled away and got out of bed, despite Brody's protests.

"I'm hungry," I complained, which made him laugh.

I was surprised to find that I was the only one awake so far.  Brody ended up coming down while I was making myself some coffee.  "Take your coffee and go relax," he urged me.  "Let me make breakfast."  He didn't have to work hard to talk me into it, and I happily went and turned on the fireplace and curled up in the recliner next to it with my coffee.

By the time Brody finished breakfast, everyone else was up.  After we ate, I kicked everyone out of the kitchen, including Brody.  I did some more prep work and rolled out my pie crust.  Once I had my pies in the oven I had a little time to relax.  I ended up going for a walk with my mom and Jen.  We wandered around the neighborhood in the snow that was falling.  Because of the snow and cold, we only walked about 20 minutes but it was nice to get a little fresh air.

I checked on my pies when we got home and then got in the shower.  I showered quickly and got dressed, then headed downstairs and got my pies out.  Brody came in while I was getting my turkey prepped.  "What can I do?" he asked.  I thrust a knife at him and asked him to prepare the fruit and cheese plate and get the veggies out.  He did as I asked without questions, and I loved him even more.  My dad wandered in while I was getting the turkey in the oven and asked if he could help.  I refused his offer, but he decided to help anyway.

While he was helping Brody, he asked, "So, how's business?"  I rolled my eyes, not surprised that my dad would go for business talk while prepping Thanksgiving dinner.

"Business is great," Brody replied cheerfully.  "I don't know if Liv's told you, but I just bought a second building.  So I've spent the last couple weeks getting it furnished, and we start moving on Monday.  I'm moving about half my staff over and then once that happens I'm going to create more specialized departments.  I'm pretty excited about it, actually."  Brody continued to explain to my how things worked now and what his vision was.

"That sounds much more efficient, good thinking," my dad said, nodding.  He asked Brody a couple more questions and I tuned out.  Once I got the turkey in the oven, I had a little more time to relax.  We had about an hour before the rest of the guests were arriving and I headed upstairs to do my hair and makeup.

Pete and his wife Serena were the first arrive.  They didn't want to travel this year and were planning on just spending a low-key day together.  Brody had invited them over for dinner, and they'd decided to join us.  Brody took what appeared to be some sort of dessert from Serena and headed toward the kitchen with it.

Eddie greeted them cheerfully, jumping up from where he had been napping in his bed near the fireplace.   "Hey buddy!" Pete said, scratching his ears.  Eddie wasted no time in flopping on the ground and rolling over so Pete could rub his belly.  "How's he doing?" he asked me.

"He's great," I replied with a smile.  "We love him, and he settled in pretty quickly.  I've been glad to have him a couple nights when Brody's gotten home late."

"Good," Pete said.  "We're glad he went to such a good home."

I was about to respond when the doorbell rang again, so I excused myself and went to answer the door, because I had no idea where Brody was.  Ken was at the door, and he handed me two bottles of wine.  "Brody told me you had the food under control but I didn't want to come empty handed," he said with a shrug.

"Well thank you," I replied, smiling and hugging him.  "You would have been fine, but I appreciate it anyway!"  I stepped aside so he could come in, and I was shutting the door when I saw Thalia's car pulling up in front.  I handed the wine back to Ken and asked him if he'd take it into the kitchen, then waited for Thalia and Tim.

Once everyone was inside, I went into the kitchen to grab the cheese and fruit plates.  Brody and Ken were standing in the kitchen, looking worried.  "What?" I asked.  Neither of them said anything.  "What?" I demanded again.

"Liv, there's...a problem," Brody started.  I gave him a look, and he hurriedly continued.  "Well, the oven seems to have stopped working."

"What?"

"I walked past it and it wasn't warm, so I opened it up and it was cold and the turkey is still very much uncooked."

I pursed my lips and walked over to the oven.  I opened the oven door and confirmed what Brody had said.  I pushed all the buttons and got no response.  "But..." I said, starting to feel a little panicky.  "But...what are we going to do?"

Brody shrugged.  After a quick, slightly heated discussion (because my perfectly planned Thanksgiving was collapsing around me), I finally said that I couldn't decide and told Brody to make a decision.  Brody made the logical decision to go into town to see if he could get a fully cooked turkey anywhere at this point.  "Are you okay?" he asked me with concern.

I shrugged miserably.  "There's nothing we can do about it."

Brody hugged me and said, "I know how hard you worked to make today perfect.  We'll figure it out.  Do you want to come with me?"

"No," I replied, shaking my head.  "I'll stay here and entertain our guests."

I forced a cheerful smile while I told our guests what happened.  It took Brody almost 90 minutes to return, and when he walked in the door with pizza boxes in his hands, I could have cried.  "I'm sorry," he said softly to me.  "It was all I could get."  Inexplicably, I began to laugh.  Brody looked at me like I was crazy, and maybe I was.  But I couldn't stop laughing.

We ended up eating everything I had successfully made along with the pizza.  It wasn't even close to ideal, and I was disappointed, but at least it was kind of funny.  Everything I had made turned out great, and while they didn't exactly go with the pizza, everyone ate them anyway.  We all also had a good laugh about everything.

In the end, it ended up being one of my favorite Thanksgivings.  It was so nice to have both my family and Brody's family there (especially since my parents were a surprise!).  After Pete, Serena, Thalia, Tim, and Ken left, Brody and I cleaned up.  Once we had everything cleaned up, I leaned against the counter and sighed, then chuckled.  Brody smirked.  "I guess we need a new oven," he said.

I laughed.  "I guess we do."