Happy Thanksgiving. Of course. She’d barely seen Megan since she arrived the afternoon before, but Lina wasn’t going to force her to come home. Lina’s eyes drifted back to the photo of Phil and the kids. Her throat constricted, and she hesitated with her fingers over her phone, considering for a moment pulling up the photo of him and Kim, but she couldn’t bring herself to, not on Thanksgiving.

Watching Christmas Vacation on Thanksgiving night was a relatively new tradition, but one Logan started, so as soon as he and Katie arrived, laden with leftovers from their feast, he demanded they watch it together.

“I can’t,” Katie said. “Matt is coming over.”

“Right now?” Lina looked at the clock. “It’s almost nine.”

“I haven’t seen him in three days, and he hasn’t had a real Thanksgiving meal because his grandma had to work.” Katie began opening the packages of leftovers.

“He can watch it with us,” Logan insisted before heading into the family room.

Matt arrived and, despite Katie’s protests, agreed to watch the movie with Logan and Lina. “I want to be part of one of your traditions,” Matt told Katie before following Lina into the family room with a plate overflowing with food.

“It’s not even a real tradition,” Katie grumbled, dropping down beside him on an oversized chair. “He started it like two years ago.”

“All traditions have to have a beginning,” Logan said. “One day the two of you will be telling your children that Uncle Logan started this one.”

“Shut up.” Katie tossed a pillow at him. “I would never torture my kids with this movie.”

“You mean our kids,” Matt said before shoveling a forkful of stuffing into his mouth.

Lina settled back on the couch beside Logan, considerably happier than an hour prior, but her gaze continued to return to the picture, and a mild undercurrent of sadness remained in her chest.

The sound of a leaf blower greeted Lina the following morning, and when she looked out her bedroom window she saw Phil in jeans, a sweatshirt and a dark beanie, blowing leaves into a pile in the front yard.

“Coffee or water?” she asked half an hour later after joining him outside.

“What?” He turned off the leaf blower.

“Coffee or water?” Lina held up an insulated coffee cup in one hand and glass of water in the other.

“Thank you.” He took the water first and finished it in several long swallows, and then he was handing her back the glass and taking the coffee.

“When did the cast come off?”

“Wednesday. I’ll take my car back today.”

His face looked different, and she realized he had shaved his beard. “Are you sure it’s okay for you to be doing this? Maybe you should be resting it.”