All My Love

Chapter Eight

“So what’s everyone doing for Thanksgiving?” Thorty called to the guys on the plane from Carolina to Pittsburg. “Shawn you don’t even celebrate it, it’s an American holiday!” Torey yelled back to him from halfway across the plane. “No fuck you idiot I’m Canadian. I was just going to see if any of you assholes wanted to celebrate with Erin, the kids and I,” Shawn countered. “Well I’m spending the day with Mel so it’s up to her, plus we already got invited somewhere else,” Torey said. Everyone on the plane who was awake on the plane was watching the interaction in amusement. “Oh yeah and how do I know you aren’t making it up just so you don’t have to spend your holiday with a Canadian,” Shawn fired back trying to make Canadian sound like a swear. “Because I’m not the only one on the team to be invited to this Thanksgiving. Elizabeth, Tori and Kat invited everyone who’s ever hung out in the shop. Or actually they said anyone who doesn’t have a place to go on Thanksgiving can come because no one should have to spend the holiday alone,” Torey said. If anyone had only been half paying attention before was now fully alert. These three girls were a mystery to most of the team because they didn’t know them but had heard a lot about them. “So say we all just showed up, they would let us in?” Reilly Smith asked. He was one of the most curious on the team because other than Shawn he heard the most about them. “I vote that unless you already have plans you should let the girls know you’ll be attending their Thanksgiving,” Shawn declared. The guys on the plane all laughed, they knew he wasn’t joking which made it all the better. “But really everyone call your wives and then Tuukka call your girlfriend since I assume she’ll be the one cooking,” Shawn said looking at his friend sitting in the seat next to him glaring up at him. “Do you have any idea how many people she already invited?” Tuukka asked when Shawn sat back down. He shrugged and waited for Tuukka to tell him. “Her best friend from college, her entire Monday night class, their kids, her brother, and her sister’s roommate. That’s already fifteen people not even including any of the guys on the team who go,” Tuukka said. Shawn seemed unfazed by this information, from what he knew of Elizabeth she would love it if more people came. “Just call her later,” Shawn said with a smirk. After Tuukka’s date with Elizabeth a few weeks ago he had received a letter through Mel with her number and post script saying he didn’t need to keep writing letters. Tuukka being Tuukka still wrote letters, he also sent her a post card with a fun fact on it from every place they had had a road game since their date. He shoved Shawn’s shoulder but said nothing.

Elizabeth sat in the shop making lists and waiting for her brother to show up, he was late. As usual. “What the fuck is all this?” Jackie asked walking into the kitchen to see Elizabeth with two phones in front of her and at least four pieces of paper scattered around the table where she sat. “These for when Jonathan finally calls to tell me why he’s late,” Elizabeth said pointing to the phones. “And these are me preparing for Thanksgiving, it’s only two days away you know and I need to be organized,” she said cleaning up her little piles. “Need any help?” her best friend asked sitting down across from her. “Actually yes, I have the turkey and most of the vegetables and what not however with all the people coming I don’t want to run out so I need to go to the market tomorrow morning before work. Will you go with me? Kat won’t get up early enough and Tori gets freaked out by the market,” Elizabeth said. “Well of course Liz! You can’t even carry all this on your own!” Jackie exclaimed reading the list in front of her. “How are you even going to cook all this food?” she asked perplexed. “Oh that’s easy! My class is going to help, I thought it would be perfect. I’ll teach them how to make things and together the six of us should be able to bang this all out. Plus I figured I’ll have you as back up if I need you,” Liz admitted knowing that Jackie would have offered anyway. Before their conversation could continue any farther the front door opened. “Hello!” a familiar voice called out and Elizabeth jumped up sprinting out the kitchen door. Jackie hung back for a moment and picked up another list to look it over. It was the list of people who were definitely coming; glancing over it she found that there were at least thirty names written down in Liz’s neat cursive handwriting. After she felt that Elizabeth and Jonathan had had enough time Jackie walked out into the shop to see her best friend scolding her brother. Jonathan had a typical build for a hockey player putting him a good foot above his oldest sister and yet it looked like he was actually intimidated by her. Unable to help herself Jackie started cracking up drawing the attention of the siblings across the room. “What’s so fucking funny Jack?” Jonathan asked making his way over to hug the girl who had become like another sister in the past seven years. “I still can’t get over the look on your face when she yells at you,” Jackie said accepting Jonathan’s embrace. He just laughed and stepped back looking around the shop. “Hey Beth where are Tor and my twinny?” he asked when he realized that Beth was his only sister there. “Tori is moving furniture and Kat has practice after her class which gets out in about fifteen minutes,” Elizabeth told him checking the time. “Furniture?” was all Jonathan said in a questioning tone. “Go see for yourself, I have lists to make,” Beth said with a laugh before disappearing into the kitchen.