Searching for Myself

I'm Thankful For...

WYATT

"I'm sure glad you know what you're doing," I say as I skeptically peek at the turkey in my oven. It looks good. It's smelling damn good. "Didn't know these things took so long to cook. Abbie just laughs at me. I love hearing that sound. We haven't talked about what happened with her birth parents these last two days. She seems really happy and carefree. I'm not going to bring it up. I figure she'll talk to me when and if she needs to.

"Get back to dicing," she orders.

"Yes, ma'am," I salute her.

"Abbie!" Jerra comes running down from her bedroom. "How do these look?"

"Those are lovely," Abbie beams at her. Ivy was more than happy to let me have Jerra early this week. She only became annoyed once she learned it was to celebrate Thanksgiving with Abbie. Then she began fighting with me about it. I'm just thankful she allowed her to come. As soon as she dropped Jerra off, Abbie took her upstairs and showed her some Thanksgiving crafts she could work on. Jerra's been making placemats for the table. "I knew you were the right girl for the job. Give me one second to finish this and then we'll decorate the table."

"Ok," Jerra skips away.

Abbie sways her hips and hums a Christmas tune. I'm captivated by her and I can't look away. "That onion isn't going to chop itself, Mr. Harris." I chuckle at her as she turns and looks at me. "I can feel you staring," she whispers.

I glance at Jerra, who is flipping through the channels on the tv. "I can't help it. You're fucking sexy," I whisper back. She bites her lip at me. "I thought you said it was a rule that there was no Christmas until thanksgiving. Are we rubbing off on you or why are you humming Christmas songs?" I go back to cutting the onions and fighting through the stinging in my eyes.

"I knew you were the perfect man," she laughs. "You definitely listen to everything I say. For me anyway, Thanksgiving is like the official start to the Christmas season. It's a farewell to fall."

"Fall?"

"Autumn," she giggles. "My mom and I would always sing Christmas music today. After thanksgiving dinner, we'd watch the first Christmas movie of the season. Then the day after, we'd decorate and put up our tree."

"So Christmas music on thanksgiving is appropriate."

"It is," she smiles as she pops a piece of bacon in her mouth. "Ok. There's so much to do." She pulls the turkey out and checks it. "Perfect," she sings. She adds some more dishes inside the oven. I catch her grimace as she stands up and moves her fingers.

"Is your hand still hurting that bad?"

"Yeah." I know it's a huge worry for her. I don't want it to ruin her day, so I belt out a Christmas song to take her mind off it. She shakes her head and laughs at me. I'm a terrible caroler. "Let's decorate," she announces to Jerra as she hurries that way and I let my song die out.

I keep glancing at them. It's hard not to watch as their laughter fills my ears. The dining room table isn't something we use often. Jerra and I usually just sit at the kitchen island when we eat. It's nice having a big feast here. Abbie has a burlap table runner going down the center of the wooden table. It's adorned with different sized white pumpkins with some kind of berry and orange leaf garland weaved around them. They lay out Jerra's placemats and my heart warms that Abbie wanted to include her in this. They sit burnt orange plates around the table. Burnt orange plates and matching glasses that Abbie swore we just had to have. I wasn't going to deny her anything. I want this to be perfect for her, so I bought them even when she fought me on that. I watch as Abbie teaches Jerra how to fold the napkins and add silverware to it. Then, Abbie writes everyone's name on a tiny card. Jerra places those in pinecones they collected for little place card holders. Abbie let's her decide where everyone should sit.