Page 22 of Dibs
“Well, let’s go. I’m starving.”
We drove the short distance to Jamie’s and as soon as I pulled up, the kids hopped out of the car and raced off into the house without their bags. Getting everything from the vehicle, I made my way to the front door and entered, the smell of the roasting turkey hitting me when I stepped inside. My stomach growled as I walked toward the kitchen. Knowing there was going to be a lot of food, I’d only had coffee and my stomach was protesting.
“There he is,” Jamie’s mom beamed when she saw me. She walked over from where she was sitting at the kitchen island to hug me.
“How are you, Helen?”
“Doing all right. Heard your parents went to Italy.”
“They did,” I confirmed and walked over to Jamie’s dad, Pat, who was still sitting at the kitchen island, and shook his hand. “They should be in Florence today.”
“I’m a bit jealous,” Helen said.
“Maybe Pat will take you next year.” I winked at him and squeezed his shoulder.
He grunted a small laugh. “Yeah, okay, we’ll see.”
“Need any help, James?” I asked, using the nickname I used for her and hugged her with one arm as she stirred melted cheese for her famous cheese dip on the stove.
“Can you get the chips out?” She pointed toward the walk-in pantry.
“Coming right up.” I opened the pantry door, grabbed the bag of chips, and walked back out to see Jase walking into the kitchen with a frown. “Why the long face, bud?”
“Dylan was supposed to go to his mom’s for Thanksgiving but she bailed and now they have nothing to do. He asked if I could come over but I know you’ll say no.”
I sucked in a small breath at the mention of the Statlers and before I could respond that he was right, Jamie spoke up.
“Why don’t you invite them over here?”
My gaze shot to her. Even though the boys were best friends, I hadn’t seen Gage since the tournament a few weeks prior, and the thought of seeing him again caused something to stir inside my body. Maybe it was because we hadthat nighthanging over our heads that neither of us seemed interested in addressing even seventeen years later. Did we even need to talk about it? It was college experimenting, and we were grown-ass men now. Plus, it was almost two decades ago. We’d both been married and moved on, but then again, we were back in each other’s lives like it was fated.
“Really?” Jase lit up.
“Sure, we have plenty of food,” Jamie stated.
Jase typed something on his phone and I moved to a cabinet in search of a big bowl for the chips.
“He said Coach wants you to call him to make sure,” Jase advised.
“You do it or I’ll burn the cheese,” Jamie said to me.
“Oh, okay.” I set a bowl down on the island. “I need to use your phone because I don’t have his number.” Even though he was my son’s baseball coach and had asked me to help with spring ball, I realized Gage and I hadn’t exchanged contact information.
“It’s over there.” Jamie pointed to the end of the counter.
I picked it up, held it in front of her face to unlock it and then scrolled through her contacts to find Gage’s number before pressing the call button.
“Happy Thanksgiving, Jamie,” Gage said as he answered on the second ring.
“It’s, ah, Chase,” I stammered.
“Oh …. Hey.”
I cleared my throat as I felt all eyes on me. “So, Jase mentioned your plans fell through. Why don’t you and your sons come over to Jamie’s? We have plenty of food.”
“Are you sure? We don’t want to impose.”
“Yeah, totally cool.”
