Then It Hits Me

Chapter 19: A Great Destination

We made it official November 6th.

"Happy Thanksgiving Cait!" Mrs. Woods hands me a platter of baked potatoes after kissing me on the cheek.

I blame mom for this complete madness. Usually, on thanksgiving it's just the four of us and one giant turkey. This year, mom decided to have my boyfriend's family and Carter's girlfriend's family to come. Thank god things have cooled off somewhat between Ella and I.

Miller walks in, a bag of gifts in one hand and the other effortlessly lifting Vienna off the ground. He spots me and gives me a warm smile, despite the coldness of the weather outside.

"Caitlin!" Ella's older sister, Christine calls for me. "Your oven is weird. How do I cook the turkey?!"

Peeling my eyes away from Miller, I go help Christine in the kitchen. She's nearly 6 months pregnant, so she's easily annoyed. Instead of teaching her, I just have her tell me which degrees she needs and I input them. Judging by her facial expression, she's not in the mood to learn how to use an oven. Don't worry, she's usually much nicer than Ella.

I walk into the living room to find a heated make out session between Ella and Carter. Reverting my gaze, I step out of the room only to come chest-to-back with Miller.

"Woah there." He smiles brightly. "I was just going to look for you. Hm, you look great today."

I stare down at my outfit, picked by mom's hands. A polka dot skater skirt with a tucked in white shirt with a silhouette of the Eiffel tower. My hair is in a high ponytail, the ends unraveling in brown locks. It's a little bit of a tradition to look nice on Thanksgiving; you don't want to look like a street rat while thanking people, now do you?

"Thanks, but are you insinuating that I look horrible every other day?" I touch his arm teasingly. At first, I was afraid to touch him. Weird, I realize now, but I was afraid that he'd somehow like me less. That maybe my touch would be so repulsing that he'd change his mind... I'm going nuts.

Miller's eyebrows scrunch together and he looks like he regrets something. "No, no. That's not what I meant at all because you look great all the time. I just meant that you look especially great today, not that you don't look especially great everyday, but your skirt and you don't usually wear skirts and your hair is so smooth and I really like your shirt. What I mean is that you looks super great today and I'm not trying to be mean to you on-"

Mom walks past us and shakes with silent giggles, "You've already dug yourself a hole, Miller."

"I was just kidding." I push his body closer to mines when mom is gone. I'm still not all that full steam ahead about the whole PDA thing.

A flush of relief spreads across his beautiful face. "I knew that." His arms wrap around my waist, pulling me even closer. He reaches for my ponytail and gives it a playful tug. I nuzzle my head against his collarbone and breath in his refreshing pine smell.

"Milly," Violet breaks our embrace, "Mommy says that you have to go help set the table and Caitlin's mom wants her put a movie on in the living room!"

We lean away from each other, jumping back into reality.

Miller gives my hand one last squeeze and whispers huskily in my ear, "All I really want to do is kiss you."

My cheeks flush the whole time while I'm picking a movie. Ella and Carter cleared out when I came in, so they can't tease me about it. The movies we own are all so old. It's not like any of us particularly enjoy the movie watching, so no one has ever complained. I flip through dad's whole stash of black and white movies before landing on something good. Frozen.