Life, Love, & Lies

Fifty-Eight

"If you're not in the car in two minutes you're being left behind! And I will not be saving any pie for people who arrive late." Meredith calls through the house.

"Coming!" Chaz is the first to emerge from a bedroom, running down the stairs two at a time and taking a couple pies from his mom's hands as he passes her towards the front door.

"Never threaten me with missing pie night!" Lizzy follows next, taking the other couple of pies Meredith holds out.

"I will not be making you late, that is definitely not the first impression I want to leave on the people sharing their holiday with me." LoLo bounces down the stairs more slowly.
And I love pie."

"Is everyone in the car?" Roger, the twins dad, asks as he comes from down the hall.

"Everyone but me." Zach answers as he comes down the stairs, his eyes trained on whatever text or message he is sending on his phone, "Sorry, work doesn't stop for the holiday until 5pm in California, I've got a couple hours." He explains as he passes his mom out the door, joining the other three in the back of the SUV while his parents climb into the front.

"What work are you doing this close to Thanksgiving?" Chaz asks, leaning over the seat to snoop on his brother's doings.

"Miriam wants to nail down a book tour for the spring. I've been talking with Dan and Erik trying to balance author life and band life, since we are also supposed to be writing all spring for the sophomore album." Zach waves him off, managing to catch him well enough to get Chaz to fall back against his seat in the third row.

"Don't overwork yourself there, Zach." LoLo chuckles.

"Worth it." He looks up from his phone to smile genuinely at her, "And I'm going to try not to schedule too much."

"You said you could be on that device until 5pm in LA? So until 7pm here?" His mom turns to look at him.

"I will try to wrap it up quickly, mama." He chuckles, "But my book is important."

"Family is also important." She pushes back.

"I'll just call Miriam when we get there and be done after that, I promise."

"You have a guest, and you're going to leave her hanging?" Lizzy scoffs, half teasing her brother.

"I'm sorry, LoLo. You know how important this is to me though, right?" Zach gives her slightly puppy dog eyes as he apologizes.

"I'll keep her company for you, Zach." Chaz offers smuggly, "And I'll eat all of Aunt Sally's apple crumble since you are going to make yourself late."

"There will be apple crumble?" LoLo grins, turning to face Chaz behind her.

"I got you, LoLo." He chuckles, "Even if my idiot brother thinks work is more important than you."

"Don't eat all my apple crumble." Zach groans, "If it wasn't work I wouldn't be busy with it tonight."

"No promises." LoLo smirks, "I really like any sort of apple treat, and apple crumble happens to be one of my very favorites."

"Aunt Sally makes the best apple crumble in the world, you're going to love it." Lizzy grins.

"Maybe you'll get some next year, Zach." LoLo reaches over to pat his cheek softly.

"You do not get to patronize me, you don't know what I'm risking missing out on for this work. If anything it should prove to my family how important what I'm working on is to me."

"Well, maybe you'll get lucky, but I'm not helping you with that." Chaz laughs, the car falling silent except for the radio.

The drive takes nearly half an hour, the car sporadically filling with the sound of the family belting out the songs that play through the speakers. LoLo's eyes widen excitedly as they pull through a large iron gate, driving down a long gravel path between tall trees extending for as far as she can see out both sides of the car.