This was not the Thanksgiving Erin had been expecting. With her parents, grandmother, and Baldwin here with her, she was only really expecting her boyfriend to come. She offered for Aaron to come over for dinner, he didn’t have a family this year to celebrate with, so Grandma and Mom had told her to invite him over. Finally, after a bit of prodding and pleading, She got him to come over.

The large table was ladened down with food, and the plates were about to be set out. She was helping them set out everything when the doorbell rang. Erin made her way over to the door, about ready to happily greet her boyfriend, but she was shocked to find Lucas standing there. As a show of good friendships, she talked with him about the holiday and wished him the best with his travels, knowing that he would be out with the others on other things. He was standing there was a store bought pie, and smiling sheepishly at her. “ Can I come in?” He asked as he offered up the pie. Mom was up behind her and smiled at him. “ Of course, come in, We can always have more family.” She told him as she moved Erin out of the way, allowing him in the home.

She looked at her Mother, before she gently laid a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, Erin, Thanksgiving is about family, so come on.” She said as she nodded to the young man who was now happily chatting away with her father.” Let’s finish setting up the table.” Half way through having Lucas and Mom helping her set up the table, there was a knock at the door. Erin was hopeful to finally have her boyfriend here, she was sort of disappointed to find Alex there, he had a covered dish in his hand and a container of liquid in his other hand. “ I’m guessing one of them invited you.” She said as she took the dish off of his hand. “ Yeah, I made some rolls and sweet tea. “ He told her, before she turned into the home and nodded for him to follow her.

Grandma seemed to brighten at the addition of Alex in the kitchen. Erin was dreading this sort of moment to having Alex and Lucas to meet up again. The last time they met up, they were fighting and Lucas maybe went crazy. The two men did not so anger or animosity towards each other, and they were even cracking jokes with each other. It warmed her heart to see that everything was at least somewhat right, but She felt like something was missing.

Just as everyone was about to sit down to eat, there was one final knock at the door. Erin got the door, leaving everyone at the table. She opened the door slowly and a grin spread across her face as she saw who was there. “ Aaron! You’re here.” She exclaimed happily as she hugged him tightly. “ Uh, yeah, sorry tried to make something...didn’t turn out to well so I got some ice cream.”He offered and she tried to suppress a giggle. “ That’s fine, Come on, we were just about to start eating.” She said as she tugged him inside.

Everyone greeted them happily and she motioned for him to sit next to her. Dinner was served out and everyone filled themselves on homemade food. There was plenty to go around for all of them. Turkey,Stuffing and all sorts of things that the three women made earlier in the day. The three men made jokes and her parents decided to embarrass her by telling all sort of childhood stories. It was a different sort of Thanksgiving, and it wasn’t one she had been expecting , but it was good to have them here. They didn’t have a family like hers to go home to, and it was delightful to have sort of new additions to her family.

The desserts were passed around and Alex grinned widely,” Nice pie Lucas, how long did it take to pick it out.” He rolled his eyes and laughed, “ Ten minutes, mostly because people were really slow in line.” She shook her head and took a bit of the desserts she was handed.

After dinner and dessert was finished, Lucas and Alex were sent off with plates of food and all sorts of things. Aaron stayed after and helped with the clean up, which surprised Erin, and her family. Of course her parents had their reservations about Aaron, but some of those reservations seemed to slip away as they saw them make fun of each other and show that there was not much anger or anything like that held towards each other. It was a relationship that they could hope that would try out good for them.

As the sun went down, and activities wound down. Aaron was about ready to leave, and she was at the door with him. “ Do you have to go?” She asked as she looked up at him. “ Yeah, need to the sleep, but I promise that we’ll get together soon. “ He wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, and kissed her head. They shared a quiet moment and she pulled away, letting him head outside. “ Remember, you’ll always be family here.” She reassured him as she watched him go off with a smile on his face.