"Good," he said, pleased that she wasn't arguing about it, at least at the moment, but hopefully after she was filled with turkey and all the trimmings she'd be too exhausted and full to argue with him.

"You better go or you'll be late," she said, gesturing to the clock again.

He winced when he saw what time it was. "Shit, I really have to go. Do you have a long drive?" he asked, wondering if he should plan to swing back here later to give her a ride. It snowed last night and rained a little bit this morning and he really didn't trust her car in this weather or any weather for that matter. It was just another reminder that he'd have to go and buy her a car soon.

"It's not very far," she said, giving him a small smile.

"Okay, but if you don't want to drive or your car dies give me a call and I'll come give you a ride," he said, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead and giving the dogs a quick pet before he headed for the door.

"What if I want to give you a ride?" she asked teasingly, laughing when he tripped over his own damn feet.

Chapter 26

"You missed breakfast," Jason announced as Trevor stepped into the large busy kitchen filled with Bradfords and food.

"That's fine. I'm not really hungry," he said, barely aware or caring that all activity in the busy kitchen suddenly stopped as every Bradford in the room, even one year old Cole stopped trying to climb onto the counter to get at the large platter of cookies his mother made to stare at him in disbelief.

"You're not hungry?" his aunt Megan asked, frowning as she wiped her hands on her pale green apron. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered automatically as he stole the vegetable peeler out of Jason's hand and started in on one of the thirty pound bags of potatoes. Right now he needed something to focus on instead of how pissed he was.

"Trevor, sweetheart, do you want to talk?" his aunt asked and he didn't have to look up to know that she was probably twisting her hands nervously in her apron. She was a worrier and a babier and on a good day all her fussing was hard to take and today sure as hell was not a good day. "Why don't I make you up a quick plate of eggs and bacon and we can go into the living room and-"

He shook his head. "I'm fine, Aunt Megan. Really."

"But-"

"He's fine, honey," Jared said. "But I could use a hand finding the cranberry sauce."

"Wasn't it on the counter?" Megan asked, leaving him to help Jared and hopefully forgetting all about him for the day, which he knew wasn't likely to happen. She'd just wait to corner him and bug the hell out of him until he told her what was wrong.

"You want to talk about it?" Jason asked quietly so that the rest of their family wouldn't hear.

"There's nothing to talk about," he said, taking out his anger on the potato in his hand since he couldn't spank Zoe's ass at the moment, and not in the good way.

Why the hell hadn't she wanted to take things to the next level with him?

"I'm fine. Great even." But he wasn't. He was dying to hunt Zoe down and spank her ass until she agreed to live with him, no, begged him to live together.

"You know where to find me when you're ready to talk," Jason said, sounding so damn sure of himself and further pissing him off.

"I don't need to talk to you," he snapped, grabbing another potato.

"Uh huh," Jason said, yawning. "Whatever you do don't kidnap her, that'll only piss her off more. Believe me I know."

"Whatever, just go away and leave me alone," he said, stealing the potato out of Jason's hand.

"Fine, I'll go see if my little grasshopper needs help setting the dining room table," he said with a shrug.

Trevor watched as his cousin snagged a large chocolate chunk cookie from one of the platters and gave it to his son, who happily took it and settled himself on the floor, out of the way. After giving the boy a wink and him a meaningful look he headed out the swinging kitchen door to help his wife.

He watched with bored interest as his Aunt Megan stormed over to the door and shoved it open. "Don't you dare try to drag her off, Jason Bradford!"

*********

Thirty pounds of potatoes, forty pounds of butternut squash, three trips to the convenient store down the street, hundred bucks poorer and four hours later Trevor was pushing his food around on his plate, wondering if Zoe was giving his idea any thought and wondering why her hesitation felt like she was pulling away from him.

For the first time in his life he couldn't eat and didn't want to. What he wanted was to hunt down Zoe and force her to see his side. He would already be heading out the door to drag her home except for one little problem.

He had absolutely no idea where she was.

The few times he tried to get her to talk about her family she quickly changed the subject. They also never came down or seemed to be involved in her life at all, which actually pissed him off. What the hell kind of family stood around and let someone as great as Zoe struggle? And where the hell have they been?

He could name at least a half dozen instances where she could have used family in last few months, but not once did he hear anything about them showing any concern for her. When he'd asked about her Thanksgiving plans he wanted to demand that she come with him, but the way she spoke of her Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions and how much she looked forward to it every year put a stop to that. They might not be close, but at least they made sure she was taken care of during the holidays.

That was something, he thought, not much, but more than they'd been doing for her.

"Haley, why did you make a pumpkin pie with a 'Z' on it?" Jason asked as he walked into the dining room with his daughter happily sleeping in one arm, Cole wrapped around his leg, and carrying the second platter of turkey Aunt Megan had asked him to get a few minutes ago. He was actually surprised there was any meat left on the plate or that his aunt trusted Jason or any of the Bradford males to go into the kitchen unsupervised after last Christmas.

As Haley struggled to pull Cole off Jason's leg, she said, "I was hoping Zoe would come, but just in case I figured I'd send the pie home with Trevor."

Jared snorted at that. "It will never make it to the house," he said, although he did throw Trevor and his untouched plate a curious look.

"It better make it there," Haley said, giving him what she probably thought was a stern look, but even he had to admit she was really too damn cute to pull it off, not like his Zoe. Now that woman knew how to glare, he thought with a wistful sigh.

"I tried to get her to come, but I think she's still mad at me," Jared grumbled, sounding truly unhappy.

"She's not mad at you and you did what you had to do," Trevor said, knowing it was the truth, but he knew his uncle felt bad for making Zoe cry. It didn't matter that Zoe went out of her way to show the man how much she appreciated Jared caring enough to talk to her or the dozen cupcakes that she'd bought him, the man simply couldn't tolerate a woman crying.

"She has no family or anywhere to go for the holidays. If she wasn't mad at me she would have come," Jared grumbled, sighing as he pushed his food around his own plate.

The fork in his hand dropped with a loud clink as his uncle's words sank in. "She doesn't have any family?" he asked, wondering why the hell she never told him.