Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 144: Turkey

"Uncle Shayne!" Nathan exclaims, loudly, bouncing on his feet as Shayne opens the door and steps aside to invite the rest of their family inside.

"Hey Shayne, good to see you," Chris greets, at the same time, reaching forward to place a hand on his son's shoulder to carefully stop him darting forward at Shayne with too much force.

"Hey guys, come in, come through," Shayne returns their greetings, quickly leaning down when Nathan breaks free of his Dad's gentle hold to rush at him, meeting the now-eight-year-old in a hug.

Rob and Dianne step ahead to lead the group down the hallway, the buoyant noise of greetings and holiday wishes following them and joining with the other three already waiting in the living room.

"You got fridge room for everything?" Rob asks, hoisting up the carry bag of foods collectively brought by the others pointedly. Brian quickly grabs his attention, helping him unload the things that need refrigeration – most of the sides – into the fridge, and the others onto a spare space on the counter beside it.

"Happy thanksgiving Aunty Courtney!" Rosie greets her with characteristic enthusiasm, the second she manages to navigate through the crowds and grab her favourite (only, but still favourite) aunt's attention and move quickly towards her.

"Hey Rosie!" Courtney greets her in return, scooping the six-year-old up into a hug when she reaches up to request one, "you still having fun at school? Your Mum sent us lots of pictures of you all ready for your first day the other month!"

"It's cool to go out and play with my friends at lunch but my teacher's voice is sooooo boring it makes me fall asleep," she answers, voice dramatic and face twisting into a frown as she finishes her sentence and Courtney sets her back down out of the hug. Rosie goes to say something else, but as she glances around the room, her attention is quickly grasped by a chocolate-coloured blob peering across at the crowd, perched on the back of the sofa. "Oh my god is that Mocha? She's so cuuuuute!"

"Yeah, honey, that's Mocha, you want to meet her? Cats can get a bit scared of new people, I'll show you how to say hi to her?" Courtney offers, soon finding Nathan tagging along beside them and watching with intent as Courtney shows them how to let Mocha sniff their hands. Mocha is more than accepting of the two kids, nose nudging against their offered fists and purring in content when they carefully and lightly pet across her back after she accepts their greeting.

Nutmeg is not quite so enthused by the sudden more-than-doubling of the people in the house, Courtney quickly glancing around as the kids talk in quiet voices to Mocha to find her brother is hiding in the very back of the lower covered section of their cat tree in the corner, cautious eyes darting around the room.

"Dad showed us the photo of both of your cats, where's the other one?" Nathan asks, after a moment, eyes scanning across the living room.

"Nutmeg is a little bit scared of all the new people so he's hiding, we'll just let him hide and maybe he'll come out later and be okay with saying hi," she tells him, tone a little firmer. Nathan nods in understanding despite his frown, and while Rosie clambers up onto the sofa to kneel facing Mocha and continuing to shower her with affection, Nathan shifts his attention to join conversation with the rest of the adults.

"Hey Uncle Shayne, did you do sports when you were in school? I wanna get big muscles like you and I like sport and stuff," Nathan asks, at a lapse in conversation. It has Chris grinning emphatically at Shayne, as he turns awkward for a moment while he figures out how to respond.

"I moved schools all the time because your Grandpa had to move all the time for work so I didn't do much sport at school, but anything where you use your muscles will make you strong and healthy. What sports do you like playing?" he turns the question back on Nathan, who launches into an enthusiastic ramble about how he wants to enter every event at his school sports day and his soccer team did really well last year so he thinks he'll be able to move up a grade and play with bigger kids after the next tryouts.