PART 7WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

After the wedding, Tad and Grace took the plane to Barbados for their honeymoon. They were only able to spend a short time there because they had to come back for work, and Thanksgiving was only a few days away.

Katie's parents moved to Boston five years ago. Her brother Bailey had found a nice home for them, and since her parents were both getting old, her sibling decided that it would be better to let their parents live somewhere near one of them so they could be able to watch them. Katie's other brother, Austin, lives in Connecticut, so it's not hard for him to visit their parents every once in a while. Katie made a short trip to Boston after the wedding, to see her parents, and to cool off. She has nothing much to do in Evanston anyway, and with Tad's absence, i.e. honeymoon trip, she has no one to hang out with either.

After their confrontation at the wedding, Jessie mentally kicked herself for going too far. She knew it was too soon for them to talk about what happened in the past. So it's been ten years, but Katie had only been back in Evanston for a day and they were only starting to get along again. And now Jessie was afraid that she pushed Katie away for the second time around, and she doesn't want to blow it this time. There was the right time for it, but she let herself get carried away with her feelings, and they ended up almost screaming at each other. She doesn't want to lose Katie, at least not before she could tell her that she loved her, and still do. She tried to call Katie at the Hilton the next day after the wedding but she was told that Katherine Singer had already checked out. She almost broke down on the phone. She bombarded the reception desk with questions they couldn't answer which frustrated Jessie. Jessie knew there's no way that they would know where Katie had gone but she was desperate, and "Desperate Jessie" could be a real pain the ass.

It was Thanksgiving Day. Jessie was supposed to be at her father's house at 7, just in time for dinner. Karen had spent the day over the Manning Manor helping Lily, Judy and Tiffany with cooking. Henry was already there too, and Karen came back to the house to change her clothes and to pick up Jessie. When her mother knocked and opened her bedroom door, Jessie was still not ready.

Karen walked into Jessie's room. She found her daughter sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at a paper flower wrapped in plastic which was rested on top of her closet, beside the framed picture of her and Katie. Katie gave it to Jessie a long time ago. She knew Jessie had been crying again lately, but she was careful not to ask. Jessie would talk to her about it when she's ready. And Jessie never appreciated prying.

"Honey, your father will be waiting. You need to get ready now." Karen said with her usual concern.

"I'll be right there, mom."

"Okay." Karen turned to leave and to give Jessie some time to prepare, when Jessie spoke again.

"Katie's gone, mom... I think I blew my chance again." Jessie's voice was breaking, and then she started crying. Karen ran by her side and hugged her.

At the Manning Manor, it was chaos. Judy and Tiffany were busy finishing the cooking, Lily had gone to the bookstore with Zoe, Eli was trying his best to watch over his little brother Joshua, Sam's and Judy's kids Nat and Jane, and Jake and Tiffany's daughter Maddie. And to Eli's disbelief, his father Rick, Jake, Henry and Sam had nothing to do but watch football on tv. He couldn't be more thankful when Katie finally arrived. But before he could ask her to help him with the kids, his father was able to hog her first.

Eli watched as the older men in the house made Katie sit with them while watching football. Katie was polite enough not to run away, but was starting to get irritated by the bickering going on among these fathers regarding who should win and who shouldn't. She tried her best to smile once in a while, while Eli seemed to get entertained just watching Katie fidget in her seat. But, as insensitive as Eli thought his father could be, Rick suddenly turned the conversation around, and now, all attention left football, to Katie. Eli laughed.

I don't know what could be more embarrassing than this. Eli finally returned to the kids.

The conversation among the fathers and Katie turned on Katie's new life in London. They asked her questions, she merely answered. Her eyes keep darting everywhere, trying to find a glimpse of Jessie. The people around her seemed to have asked her almost everything, and still, no Jessie was around. Maybe I pissed her off.

Meanwhile, outside the door, Jessie climbed out lazily from her mother's car.

"She's not even going to be here." Jessie replied to her mother.

"How do you know that?" Karen reached to put the loose strand of Jessie's blond hair behind her ear.

"Because she hates me." Jessie said, unconsciously pouting like a child. She reached to open the door to her father's house. She walked glumly into the room and found the older men of her extended family gathered around football like the usual, but their attention seemed to be focused on...

"Katie?" Jessie almost doesn't want to believer herself. Katie smiled at her, and she smiled back. When Karen entered the house after Jessie, she saw the exchange of looks between the two girls, and she smiled to herself. Jessie wanted to apologize for what happened at the wedding, but she couldn't just pull Katie away from the elders, that would be rude. And their conversation doesn't seem like it would end anytime soon. Katie looked pleadingly at Jessie, as if asking her to get her out of there. Jessie chuckled, shook her head playfully, grinned at Katie, and walked up to her attic room.

She hasn't been in the attic long when she heard steps thundering on the stairs, and before she could even react, Grace and Zoe had already wrestled her to the bed. But she didn't fight back. The two pulled away. Grace's hands were on her hips, and Zoe had her arms crossed.

"You're not even going to fight back?" Grace snorted. Jessie merely shook her head. She got up and sat on the edge of the bed.

"This isn't fun if you're just going to act like a zombie." Zoe was obviously annoyed. Grace raised one of her eyebrows.

"You do know that Katie's downstairs being interrogated by our fathers, don't you?" Grace said as she watched Zoe walked to the window to look out, but still talking to Jessie.

"Yeah."

"Aren't you going to do anything about it?" Zoe asked without turning to face her.

"No." The three fell into silence. To break the ice, Jessie changed the subject. "It's nice to see you again, Zo."

Zoe turned around with a smile. "Nice to see you too, Jess."

"Karen told me you've been acting all so bitchy lately." Grace crossed her arms, looking intently at Jessie. Jessie tried to find the humor in the situation.

"My mom said that? I never heard her use that term before." Jessie and Zoe laughed. Grace looked reproachfully t them.

"Not exactly, but that's what she was trying to say... What happened at the wedding, Jess?" Grace was fully aware of the fact that Katie made a disappearing act after the dance, and Jessie was quiet until the celebration ended. After talking to Karen, she told her that Jessie was being too grouchy lately.

Jessie doesn't want to tell Grace anything. Well, she wants to, but not now. But knowing Grace, she wouldn't stop asking. So, to save herself a headache, she decided to tell what happened. "I tried talking to her."

"What did you say?"

"I apoligized."

"And...?"

"We argued." Jessie sighed. Just thinking about what happened makes her feel that familiar sting in her heart.

"Why?"

"I don't know. We started blaming each other for what happened in the past and---" Jessie was cut off by Grace.

"Jess, you're supposed to tell her how you feel." Grace said slowly, trying to make Jessie understand every word as if she's retarded.

"I know that."

"Well, when do you plan on telling her?"

"I don't know if I still should." Jessie lay down the bed, avoiding Grace's and Zoe's stare of disbelief.

"Wait, after ten years, what's with the sudden turn around?" Zoe finally joined Grace in grilling their stepsister.

"She hates me, okay? As much as I wanted to tell her, I couldn't. She doesn't even want to talk about it anymore, and it hurts her too much. Besides, you don't know how stubborn she is."

"Oh I think I do, just as stubborn as you, that's why you fit together, you know." Grace rolled her eyes.

"Look, if she doesn't want to hear you, then let her feel you." Zoe said in a tone expressing her disbelief as to why her two older sisters couldn't find a way to solve this simple problem. Grace narrowed her eyes on Zoe, while Jessie got up to sit again.

"Excuse me? Was that a line from a porn movie or something?" Jessie asked Zoe in amusement.

"Do they even have lines in porn movies?" Grace asked.

"Hey, I was trying to be philosophical here. What I meant was, if she doesn't want to listen to you and you couldn't tell her how you feel about her, them, let her FEEL how YOU feel about her." Zoe tried to impress that she was really serious. Grace sighed.

"Porn exactly." Jessie joked but felt her face blushing instead and her stepsisters looked at her in mock grimace.

"I hope that's just your wicked sense of humor talking right now." Zoe said, raising her left eyebrow.

"That feel sounded naughty though." Grace giggled.

"Well, they do say action speaks louder than words, so..." Zoe trailed off with the last word.

"So, more action and less word?" Jessie confirmed with Zoe.

"Exactly." Zoe plastered a triumphant grin on her face, for once happy that she gave a better advice than Grace this time.

"Right. Try to get a little more action, Sammler. You might actually win her heart back." Grace joked, then the three of them laughed.

"How do I do that?" The worry was back on Jessie's voice. Instead of answering, Grace and Zoe looked t each other, and burst out laughing. Jessie looked at the two, wondering what was so funny.

A moment later, Karen came up and informed the girls that dinner was about to start. Upon reaching the dining room, everybody was almost seated. Jessie was the last to come down, and she found that the only empty seat was beside Katie. Katie seemed nervous. She didn't notice the members of the family observing the both of them. Jessie noticed the exchange of mischievous glances between Zoe and Grace. She frowned upon seeing her dad wink at her. Then, she decided to just ignore her family's recent odd behavior and sat beside Katie. Without turning her head at Katie, she whispered.

"Hi. Sorry I couldn't save you back there." Jessie grinned as she remembered seeing Katie being mobbed by her family when she arrived.

"That's okay. I'm still alive." Katie whispered back, grinning. Both their eyes turned to look at Rick when he got up.

"So, it's good to have everyone here." He started. The, he expressed his thanks, soon, the other followed. Occasionally, Jessie and Katie would look at each other and would catch each other looking, and then both would just look away shyly. Grace and Zoe didn't miss the display and would always roll their eyes in the stupidity of the two intelligent and successful girls in front of them. Jessie had been wanting to say anything to Katie just to hear her voice, but she knew that SOME people are actually watching them, so, she decided to just talk to her later. Maybe after dinner, she could talk to her alone. The attic would be the perfect place to be alone.

"So, Katie, how's your work?" Rick beamed at Katie. Katie looked up to meet his gaze, and realized that everybody was waiting for her answer.

Didn't he just ask me that at the living room? But Katie answered anyway.

"It's okay. Pretty tough at times 'coz you never know when an idea hits you. It's just really unpredictable." She smiled back. She thought Rick would turn his attention to someone else, but she was wrong.

"Writing, huh? Tad mentioned you go visit some interesting places at times just to write." Rick glanced at Tad, who nodded in agreement.

"Writers do that all the time. It helps us recharge, I guess. And I don't know, it's just part of our thinking process. We always need a new environment and new experiences."

"I want to be a writer." Joshua grinned at Katie and Lily patted his son's head. "I want to be like Katie."

"You can be anything you want to be, Josh." Katie assured the kid.

"I don't want to be anything else, I want to be like you. Will you help me be writer?" Joshua looked at Katie, hopeful. Katie turned to Jessie, and she was smiling while looking down at her plate. Katie smiled. The rest of the family laughed at Joshua's insistence.

"Of course I will. Anything for you, Josh." Katie drank from her glass of water. Joshua hugged Lily.

"Katie's actually planning to spend some time at the beach after Thanksgiving, you know, to write." Tad interjected.

"Really? Where do you plan to go?" Karen asked with TOO much interest.

"Uh, I was thinking of Florida. You know, Boca Raton or Miami, but I haven't really decided yet." She smiled politely at Karen.

"What do you think of Mexico? Acapulco is gorgeous." Karen suggested. Jessie looked up from her plate, suspicious at her mother.

"That's a great place. Yeah, maybe I'll go there." Katie was now considering Acapulco.

"You should go to California. Malibu, maybe?" Grace suggested mockingly. Jessie narrowed her eyes at her.

"I like California; it's very laid-back." Katie smiled. Dropping Acapulco, now she's thinking of California.

"I'd suggest Long Beach. It's not the best but Lindsay Lohan lives there." Eli grinned which didn't escape Jessie's eyes. The more the members of her family make suggestions, the more it gets dangerously nearer to her place. Jessie opened her mouth to say something but couldn't butt in. Even Katie couldn't say anything anymore. All of a sudden, her family was in-charge of Katie's get away plan.

"How about Laguna Beach?" Zoe said casually. She smiled and stared wickedly at Jessie. Jessie looked at her sister in disbelief. Now she knows where this conversation is exactly heading.

"I heard it's a nice place." Katie answered, forgetting for a while that Jessie lives there.

"You should go there. Jessie lives in a beach house with a perfect view of the sunset and she's rarely home anyway. Maybe she wouldn't mind having you around for a while." Rick smiled at Katie again. Jessie's jaw dropped. When she turned her head to face Katie, Katie has the same expression on her face.

"Dad, I think she has other places in mind. Let's not force her to decide right now... Aww!" Jessie felt somebody kick her in the shins under the table. She glared at Grace who was sitting opposite her.

"Well, what kind of beach are you looking for exactly?" Lily asked in concern.

"I'm not really sure, just a nice place to do writing." Katie glanced worriedly at Jessie who was still wincing in pain. She wasn't sure about what happened but Jessie looked hurt and kept throwing sharp glances at Grace.

"Honey, you wouldn't mind having Katie when she does her writing in your beach house, would you? You're in the hospital most of the time, and you're always sleeping when you're home anyway. Katie doesn't need to spend so much money to find a place to write when her BESTFRIEND happens to own one." Karen looked expectantly at Jessie. When Jessie turned to look at her father, he had the same expression as her mother. When she looked at Katie, Katie seemed undecided and mortified at the same time.

"I have no problem having her in my house, mom. But maybe you should ask her if she wants to." Jessie said firmly. Then she looked at Katie, and she smiled upon seeing the funny expression on her face. Katie shifted her eyes to Tad. Tad smiled at her.

"What do you say, Katie?" It was Rick again. Katie looked at Rick, and looked at the people around her. Everybody's eyes were on her again, and saying no would surely disappoint everyone, including Jessie.

"I'd love to Mr. Sammler." Katie smiled.

What have I gotten myself into?

When Katie turned, she saw Jessie's smile.