Finding You

Chapter 21

Henry, Kaia, Delia, and Sebastian all met at campus and are carpooling over here for dinner tonight. They should be here any minute. The aroma of Grams delicious roast fills the entire downstairs, begging to be plated and then eaten, while my nerves grow anxious for them to get here.

A knock on the front door tells me they're here, I haven't seen everyone since the semester ended in May two months ago. Eager to see my friends, I rush to the door, opening it to see four smiling faces of the people I love. Henry walks in first, wrapping me in a tight hug and kissing my cheek. Delia and Kaia following behind his hand in hand.

"Luna! We've missed you. Even though I saw you just under two months ago. It feels weird when not all of us are together for too long," Delia says.

After hugging Kaia and Delia, Sebastian passes through the doorway and says, "My girl Loo! Missed me?"

"The least," I reply with a wink followed by a hug.

He leans down to whisper in my ear, "Fair enough, I'm really only here for the infamous pot roast," which then I jokingly shove him backward as we laugh.

"Grams!" I hear Kaia excitedly say, "It's so great to see you again." Everyone gives Grams a hug, each one leaning down to do so since she's so short.

"Miss West, it's nice to finally meet you," Sebastian says.

Looking up to him she replies, "Oh please call me Grams." Sebastian chuckles, and we all head into the kitchen for dinner.

With a few added chairs, the kitchen table is placed with different colored Fiesta-ware plates, Grams favorite dinnerware. A large crockpot in the middle of the table, rimmed to the top with carrots and mini golden potatoes, with a bowl of green beans to the side. Everyone fills their plates with food and digs in.

After only two bites in, Henry says "Grams, thank you. Just thank you," he takes another bite and we all look at him, "Oh that's all I had to say. I didn't want to talk but so much when I could be eating this scrumptious meal."

Everyone laughs as we go on to eat the rest of dinner.

—

"Shit! Shit shit shit," Grams yells out during an intense game of Uno. With Henry to the right of her, he played a draw four card, right when Grams was left with one lone card to go out on.

"Listen, Grams, I love your dinners, and you, but I'm not letting you kick my ass in this game anymore," Henry teases her.

She turns to face him, face stern and as she would never cook him another dinner again. "Well, it's about time you show up in this game. I thought I taught you better," she says, but then her stern look changes into a proud smile, "But you got one over on me, I'm proud." Henry looks like he's going to piss his pants and a sense of relief washes over his eyes.

"Alright, another hand. I won't finish the night with a loss," Grams says, "Sweat pea open the other bottle of wine."

Walking over the fridge, I pull out the crisp Pinot Grigio and refill Grams' glass along with mine and everyone else's. As the next half hour goes on, we finish the last, never-ending game with Grams winning at last.

Since everyone drank a few glasses of wine each everyone will be staying the night, plus it's also after eleven and everyone will have over a two-hour ride back to campus and then more back to their homes. Walking into the living room, I see Kaia and Henry already passed out on the floor. With that, I decided to head out to the dock for a bit.

The crisp summer air cools my skin as I sit on the edge of the dock. Circular ripples dance slowly on the water while the moon lights up mountains. The tree branches above me sway in the light breeze as I hear footsteps approaching behind me.

"Hi." Sebastian says.

"Hi."

"You know, that Grams of yours has a mouth on her when it comes to Uno," he says. He's not wrong, Grams is undeniably sweet until you put a deck of cards in front of her. She'll turn ruthless, exactly how she taught me to play the game.

"Yeah, I could see you sweating in your seat scared she'd come for you like she did Henry."

Laughter escaped him as he tilted his head back and said, "Yeah I was not about to piss your grams off."

My hand found its way to his, resting on top of it. With the moonlight on his face, I could see pink rise to his cheeks as one corner of his mouth turned up.

More footsteps appeared, attached to Delia as she sat down next to me.

With Delia to my right, she says, "So Grams surprise you and scare you shitless Sebastian?"

Once again laughter fills the midnight air as Sebastian shook his head at his lap. We didn't speak much after that, relaxing in the silence of the late night. The only sounds around us were from ducks swimming on the water and the leaves in the trees. The light wind danced through the trees, and through my hair and over my skin, refreshing my soul at last.