Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

smiled. "I figured even if it's just the two of us, I didn't want you to miss all the great food you say your mother usually makes. So I did a cherry pie earlier and that's the apple."
    "Oh."
    That was not a good Oh. Daniel carefully set the ladle in its rest on the stove and turned to look at Jacob. "You did tell your parents you were spending the day with me."
    The silence was eloquent.
    "You didn't."
    Jacob's eyes dropped to the floor.
    "Dammit, Trip, look at me. What did you say to them?"
    Jacob's eyes met his, wide and dark. "I said I'd come home. Just for dinner. Not for the whole day. I told them I would only stay for the meal and maybe an hour or so more and then..."
    "No." Daniel slapped his hand on the counter with enough force to bruise his palm. "No, Jacob."
    "I'm sorry, Daniel, I know I said I would try to get out of it."
    "Yeah, you did. I understood that you went without me the first year. At that point they'd never even met me. They had no idea." He had understood, even if it had hurt like hell. He'd watched Jacob walk out the door and leave him alone on the holiday just two days after he'd chucked everything he'd had in California to be with the man. But at least they had agreed on it together. And the night after had mostly made up for it. "Then last year your mother was sick over the holidays, and we agreed you wouldn't worry her. But this year everyone is healthy as an ox. You promised me."
    "I didn't promise. I said I would try to talk to them. But you know Father; he has this idea of how family has to work, and Thanksgiving dinner with all the family in our places around the table is part of that."
    "No, I don't know your father, do I? Because he doesn't want to know me. And I'm not your family, apparently."
    Jacob took two quick steps toward him, grabbing his forearms in an urgent grip. "You're better than family, Daniel. You know that. You're the other half of me."
    "The half you leave at home when you go dine with the rest of them. Unless you finally persuaded them to invite me?"
    "I'm sorry."
    Daniel shrugged his hands free of Jacob's grip and moved away from him. "You can't do this. This is not okay. I am not going to sit home waiting while you go to your parents' house and celebrate the holiday and make small talk and pretend I don't exist."
    "Then I won't," Jacob said urgently. "I'll stay home and tell mother I'm ill and..."
    "To hell with that." Daniel turned away for a moment. His eyes prickled and a bitter taste rose in his mouth. "You tell them the truth. Tell them you want to spend Thanksgiving with the man you love. Tell them if they want to see you from now on, I get to come too."
    Jacob whispered, "I can't do that. You know I can't. I think Father knows, I'm sure he knows about you. But he's never going to admit it. If I start making ultimatums he won't back down. He'll throw me out. And it's not just the family. It's my position in the store, my career."
    "Then you can find another job. The Depression is over. There's work to be had. And I'm doing okay. I got the nod for a big men's fashion layout for one of our best clients. They're talking about maybe giving me a raise. We can get by."
    "Get by, maybe. But no one else is going to give me a position as a manager right now; maybe not ever if he blackballs me. And he'd be furious enough to do it. And it won't be just that. He'll forbid Mother and Lily to see me. I'll lose everything."
    "Except me," Daniel said softly.
    Jacob's eyes were anguished. "Are you asking me to choose between my family and you? Right now?"
    "I chose. Back when I landed in San Francisco and came here without even stopping home first. Back when I called Mom and Dad and told them the Navy had found me a man I loved and that was the most it had done for me, I chose."
    "And they said don't come home," Jacob said with returned heat. "Remember that? They said they didn't want any queer perverts in their home."
    "Jesus, do you think I've forgotten?"
    "No. Daniel, no, I didn't mean that. But how can you want me to do the same? Mother and Father will let me go on like this, like one of the family, if I don't rub their nose in it. A few holiday meals, the occasional party or gathering over there. Is that too big a price to pay for peace and getting to see my parents and my sister?"
    Was it? Daniel wondered if he really was being unreasonable. Was it selfish of him to want Jacob to put Daniel's needs ahead of his parents' demands? Was there something wrong with him