Page 143 of Dirty Like Jude
“I don’t know. He’s all annoyed that one of the songs he wrote isn’t going on the album now because everyone likes one Zane wrotebetter…”
“Oh.”
“I don’t want to put Piper next to Amber. She’s new and I don’t want him to scare the shit out of her. So.” She rearranged a couple more place cards, putting me between Seth and Piper. “That’s good, right? You and Piper arecool?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Of course we’recool.”
Really, I hadn’t seen Piper in years, so I had no idea how “cool” we were. Jessa, of course, knew about my entire obsession with him, years ago, and she also knew at some point I’d completely stopped obsessing abouthim.
I never told her that was because he’d fucked me and then blew meoff.
She also knew I’d dated his friend for a long time, on and off. And was now screwingJude.
So maybe she was right toworry.
“It’ll be fine,” I assured her. “We’ll all be on our best behavior. And if Zane starts any shit with Jesse, we’ll just, I don’t know, change thesubject.”
She looked incredibly skeptical, but finally sighed and said, “Okay. I think that’s the best we cando.”
“Seriously, babe.” I put my hands on her shoulders and gave her a steady look. “Trust your friends and family to act like the adults they are. You can’t babysit everyone atonce.”
“I give you that same advice right back, about yourmom.”
“Fuck.” I sighed, and we took one last look over the table. “It’sperfect.”
Honestly, I had no idea if it was perfect. But last thing I needed to do was heap more drama on Jessa’s plate by refusing to sit next to Piper because I was worried Jude might be jealous or something. I didn’t want her stressing and rearranging the place settings ad infinitum. She was hosting this thing with a newborn hanging off her boob, for Christ’ssake.
“Let me help you with those,” I said, taking the stack of fancy snowflake-shaped napkins from her hand and laying them out on the plates like she’d beendoing.
I knew most Dirty parties these days were at least somewhat catered, but not the Orphans’ Potluck. Everybody was responsible for showing up with something to contribute, food-wise, but obviously that still left a shit-ton of preparation for whoever washosting.
“I just hope everything turns out well,” Jessa said with a little sigh as she stroked Nick’s head. “I literally had to tell Zane what to bring, lest he show up with a loaf of bread and a couple of hundred-dollarbills.”
“He’s donethat?”
“He’s done that. The man is truly clueless in a kitchen. This year I just went ahead and put him in charge of cranberry sauce and gave him the names of a couple of good delis where he can get some. If he fucks that up, we can probably live withoutit.”
I grinned. “Yeah. But I do love cranberrysauce…”
Gradually, people started showing up, and the room filled around us as the scents of food permeated the house. Dean Martin was singing “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” and the tree was all lit up with twinkly lights. It definitely felt likeChristmas.
Especially when Jude arrived—and the whole room warmed right up. Or maybe it was just me. He popped his head into the party room and saw me having a drink with Katie, came right over and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He smelled like snow and fresh winter air and truckexhaust.
“Gotta fry up the turkey,” he said, gave Katie a kiss on the forehead, and disappeared outside where the guys were wrestling the deep fryer off Piper’s truck. They set it up on the back patio and gathered around it like a bunch of cavemen who’d just discovered fire, while the ladies congregated in the kitchen and party room, prepping the other food and makingdrinks.
Besides Jesse and Katie, Maggie, Dylan and Amber showed up pretty early. Zane came shortly after that, with a shitload of cranberry sauce and a big tray of Christmas cookies that Dolly had made. Seth and Elle arrived next, then Ash showed up, just when Dylan had started texting him to find out where the fuck he was. When he walked in, he was already drunk, but a few other guests were on their way there too, so nobiggie.
It was the holidays afterall.
I had one or two before dinner to take the edge off, but after that, I stuck with the non-alcoholic cider that Katie had made—likely, she’d made it in an effort to be thoughtful to Elle and Jessa, who were pregnant and breastfeeding, respectively, because that was just Katie’sway.
My mom showed up last, not too long before dinner, so at least there wasn’t much time for her to wander the room causing trouble before we’d all be corralled into our pre-assignedseats.
I heard Zane ask Brody who the fuck she was and why she was here, and when Jude cut in and said, “She’s Roni’s mom and I invited her,” Zane got a big-ass grin on his face and looked over atme.
Because obviously there was only one reason Jude would invite my mom to dinner. I figured this was as close as we were getting to Jude admitting he was screwingme.
I just smiled back and sipped mycider.
