#emma walker

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“Now you've made me feel bad. Why don't we just take them to a nice restaurant for dinner or something?” Maxwell interrupted the silence that had fallen over the group. Emma weakly smiled at Maxwell, his attempts at fixing things were always meant well, just like the thing that started the mess in the first place, but they often never worked out well.

“Maxwell, Thanksgiving is a holiday in the U.S. The kinds of places you're thinking of for dinner would probably be closed, besides, they've already invited us, and it would be even ruder to not eat after they cooked presumably all day for us.” Maxwell sighed and slumped into his seat on the plane.

“Maybe we can get them something? A pie or dessert maybe? A nice bottle of wine?” Olivia huffed and rolled her eyes.

“What even is the point of this holiday? I understand it’s called ‘Thanksgiving’ but it seems like all you do is sit around, eat turkey, get drunk, and avoid nosy family members.” Drake snickered beside Emma because the last time he had celebrated Thanksgiving that’s exactly what he had done.

“While that is part of it, some people do actually enjoy the time together with their family and toast to everything they have to be thankful for.”

“How do you celebrate Thanksgiving, Emma?” Liam asked, genuinely curious.

“I uh...um.” She trailed off, not really wanting to explain that she hadn’t celebrated it more than once or twice in the past ten years.

“You don’t have to tell us if it’s some kind of special family ritual.” Hana tried to be encouraging and helpful, but Emma’s smile faltered, Drake seemed to notice squeezing her hand.

“Well, I don’t think it’s going to be anything like Olivia said, we’re all friends and we all like Taylor and Jake!” Maxwell grinned.

“Did you ever consider Maxwell, that they may not have been in town, or that they may already have other people coming?” Drake mused, Maxwell’s face falling again. It was going to be an interesting dinner, that was one thing that everyone could agree on.

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“Jake! Your pan is on fire!” Jake was supposed to be prepping something for dinner, but instead, he had gotten distracted trying to help Taylor find something, burning the food to a crisp. Emma immediately removed it from the stove throwing a lid on top of it until the flames went out. Both were breathing heavy, stressed to their wit’s end trying to plan this dinner. They shared a look and nodded in agreement, it was time to call the professionals.

“Raj!” Taylor was desperate at this point, some relief flooding her voice when he answered the phone.

“What can I do for you, Tay-Tay?”

“Jake and I are having some unexpected company and need help preparing food, you and Sofia are welcome to join us if you don’t have plans!” He could sense the urgency in her voice and looked back to the kitchen where Sofia was just getting out the ingredients to prep their own Thanksgiving dinner.

“How many people are you talking?”

“Eight. If you and Sofia stay, then ten.” Raj’s eyes widened in surprise and he stopped Sofia before she could make the first cut on the vegetables.

“We’ll be right over,” he hung up then turned to Sofia, “We’re going to Jake and Tay’s for dinner! C’mon, we have some last-minute shopping to do!”

Raj came over about an hour later, bags of groceries in his hand, taking in the sight of a clearly frazzled Tay and even Jake who was stressed which was highly uncommon for his laid back demeanor.

“Okay. Let’s see what we’re working with.” Raj looked everything over, throwing out almost everything because it was burned, and tossing the dishes in the sink, assigning Jake to dish duty. As Taylor, Sofia, and Raj cooked, Tay noticed that Raj kept snagging samples of the food, she eyed him suspiciously.

“Raj, what are those Cheetos for?” She looked back at the table, a giant bag of Cheeto puffs ripped open.

“Those are for my munchies.” He grinned, Tay shaking her head at him, ready to explode from stress while Jake just chuckled sitting down because he had finished the dishes. Digging through the bags, he found some brownies and decided to help himself to some early desert, there were no rules on holidays, so it was okay. As Jake finished his last bite of brownie Raj turned around, slightly frowning.

“Aw man, don’t tell me you ate a brownie.” He tried to whisper, but he was too loud, Tay heard and spun around to look at Jake, chocolate on his lips.

“Why?”

“That was one of my special brownies!” Tay’s face grew red and Jake jumped up and hid behind the opposite end of the table, ready to run, that look on his wife’s face was murderous, he’d only been on the other end of that gaze one other time, it was a scary one.

“Babe, Taylor, I didn’t know they were special brownies.” She didn’t even notice Raj had started to eat another one of the brownies.

“It’s okay, he’ll just get the munchies is all,” Raj said between mouthfuls. Taylor turned her murderous gaze on him.

“We’ll get it done, without their help. Don’t worry.” Sofia gently placed her hand on Taylor’s arm and Jake let out a breath he had been holding in, he was safe for now.

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Once they landed, the group found the nearest grocery store and split up to look for things. Maxwell and Hana were in charge of the alcohol, Drake, and Emma were in charge of finding a pie, and Liam and Olivia were in charge of getting some apples and side dishes. Once they all had their necessary ingredients they collected them and arrived at Jake and Taylor’s house. They walked up, and everyone inhaled a deep breath, it smelled amazing, they knocked and a man they didn’t recognize opened the door. He had dark tan skin, long curly black hair, his belly protruding in front of him, and a big grin on his face.

“You must be the fancy friends, I’m Raj! Come in!” They all entered and took in the appearance of the house, it was small but not quite a shack. The living room was just off to the side of the front door, the dining room and kitchen all connected, and there was a small hallway that led back to the three bedrooms.

“Oooh are those apples for apple pie?” Olivia nodded and whipped out her knife, Raj jumping back.

“Yes, I planned on peeling them to help.”

“Ice queen, Simba, Agent Breakdance, Charming, Queenie, know it all, good to see you again!” Jake grinned, Cheeto grime all over his fingers.

“Jake.” Drake greeted him gruffly, amused at his behavior, taking note of his bloodshot eyes.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Liam politely asked. Taylor nodded and began tossing out instructions. Liam and Drake were assigned to move furniture, Jake was supposed to start making everyone drinks, Liv was peeling apples for pie while Sofia helped. Maxwell had become so enthralled with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on that everyone advised Taylor to just let him stay there and out of the way, while Hana skipped outside to pick some flowers to make beautiful centerpieces and Raj supervised to cooking. Once the furniture was moved to accommodate everyone, the guys wandered into the living room and outvoted Maxwell to put on the football game. It was a few hours before dinner and they had learned from Jake that it was best to sit down, shut up, and stay out of the way unless you were asked to do something.

Once dinner was ready, everyone took a seat at the table, plates filled high with delicious, mouthwatering food, and a custom drink in hand. Everyone looked to Jake and Tay at the head of the table for a cue on how to proceed. This was only Tay’s third Thanksgiving, so she was still kind of new to this.

“Um, instead of a toast, why don’t we all go around the table and say one thing we’re thankful for. I’ll start by saying, I’m thankful for Raj and Sofia coming over and help cook dinner!” She raised her glass, and everyone followed suit, looking to Jake to go next.

“I’m thankful for reconnecting with family this year.” he looked at Drake who gave him a small nod, everyone raising their glasses.

“For this meal in front of us!” Raj grinned, everyone raising their glasses.

“To Raj’s friends for becoming mine,” Sofia said with a heavy accent, smiling around the table, raising her glass.

“To my beautiful wife and childhood friend, I married this year.” Liam leaned over and gave Liv a gentle kiss on her lips, the table cheering before raising their glasses.

“To time away from court, mostly.” Olivia smiled, and everyone raised their glasses.

“To my friends who have inspired me to start my own fashion line!” Hana giggled, everyone raised their glasses.

“To our generous hosts!” Everyone clapped and raised their glasses to Jake and Taylor who had since relaxed to a non-murderous level.

“To my incredible friends and family who have given me a reason to celebrate Thanksgiving again.” Emma fought the tears in her eyes as everyone raised their glasses, finally settling on Drake who was last but not least.

“To my amazing, incredible, beautiful wife Walker who is going to be an amazing mother to our child.” Drake grabbed her belly and grinned as Emma hid her face, everyone, congratulating them and cheering at the reveal.

Jake cleared his throat and raised his glass one last time, standing up.

“We all have a lot to be thankful for clearly, including that we are all healthy and able to be here, but most importantly we should be grateful for our ever-growing group of friends that become family and the family we already have!” Everyone raised their glasses and finally took a drink, Emma sticking to just water, passing her fancy cocktail over to Drake. Taylor was the first to dig into her food, the rest of the group shortly following, a dull but pleasant chatter filling the room as they ate.

Happy Thanksgiving!