REALLY ✓

17: The Cold Turkey

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      TAYA's POV:

What the hell was that? That was definitely not just kissing.

The way Judah was kissing me, the way he was holding me, his hands on my body—it was sending all kinds of signals to my brain. Something in me was shaking in needs and wants at the sight of him. It was getting uncomfortable too. I couldn't look him in the eye as we sat next to each other on the dining table.

My whole family, Judah, and I sat around the table as this mouthwatering thanksgiving feast was laid out before us. We had everything from Ryder's favorite spam musubi, to my mom's famous green bean casserole, and my homemade rice balls.

"Shall we say grace?" Uncle Peter spoke as he finished carving the turkey.

People started shuffling in their seats as we held hands with each other. My left hand was holding Kai's, and my right hand was... well, I had to hold Judah's.

Even holding hands with him was making me feel all kinds of ways. And we were in the middle of saying grace for crying out loud!

I needa be baptized.

"Amen!" I said a little too loudly as we finished the prayer and I pulled my hand away awkwardly.

Thankfully no one noticed since everyone was too excited for the turkey. Ry was sitting next to Judah and he kept looking at me and then to him, as if he knew something was up. Ry kept giving me this deadly stare, but I just rolled my eyes at him challengingly.

"So, Judah, I hear that you and Taya are in the school play together?" Mom spoke warmly. "I know she's been practicing really hard. How's that going?"

I knew mom meant no harm by that, but I couldn't stop myself from blushing a little.

"It's going really great. Taya here is a fantastic actress," Judah replied. He gave me a wink as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.

The bastard.

"I can't wait to see it. It's gonna be on Christmas eve, right?" mom said again.

"Yes ma'am," Judah answered.

That's right. The play was only a month away from now.

I didn't know why but somehow that made me kinda sad. Once this play was over, I wonder what would happen to Judah and I? Maybe we'd just go back to being friends...

But why did the thought of that made me so upset? Could it be possible that I was starting to develop feelings for him? For this pyscho!? That couldn't be it!

"Want some gravy?" Judah said to me, breaking off my train of thought. He looked at me as if he was trying to figure out what I was thinking, but I quickly responded with a casual smile.

"Sure," I said as I took the bowl from him, shaking off my depressing thoughts.

"So, Uncle Peter, how's the yacht business going?" Kai spoke up this time.

"Great. Oh, I just got the most beautiful yacht, the Kona I'm calling it. It's my greatest find up to date. We just need to fix her up a little and she'd be sailing in no time," Uncle Peter was always excited when people talked to him about his yachts.

"You work all the time, Peter. Too much. When are you gonna have time to date at this rate?" mom interjected. She was always pushing for Uncle Peter to get back in the game. Every thanksgiving she would ask him to bring someone, but he never did.

"You know what, I heard, online-dating is the way to go nowadays. Maybe you should give it a go," she said again.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Uncle Peter shook his head and laughed.