Thanksgiving is coming

 "Mom, you're not going to be upset, are you?" Boone said they could have brunch with her and his dad, and later in the day, they could come to his Bio Mom's for Thanksgiving.

He knew how she loved decorating her two-story home in Lincoln for the holidays. She loved to have a Martha Stewart kind of Thanksgiving where everything was perfect. Perhaps a little too perfect. She expected guests to be dressed up.

"Who said anything about brunch?" 

Boone was puzzled by her response. True, it was getting harder these days to do everything with family. Even his adopted sister Oakley would be busy with a concert, but she could make it by six in the evening.

"I guess...I just thought..." Boone was even-lipped about the assumption then. It was going to be a casual affair at his real mother's place. He was planning to help Joe cook dinner. Besides, his kids were coming, even if they were just his niece and nephew and their families.

"It'll be great to not have to stress over Thanksgiving," she sighed, as if she didn't want to admit how frustrated she was with his dad these days, who didn't want to do anything.

"Yeah, I was hoping you'd say that. You don't think Dad will come, do you?" He looked at her blankly.

"I'm sure he wants to see you guys, but you know he doesn't like being around Tammy." She shrugged.

"Are you sure that's all it is?" Boone wondered what was really happening.

"He does have a way of giving me the silent treatment. Little things do make him mad. Especially, his health." She told him they'd recently found out about his congestive heart failure. "He needs to keep moving, but he'd rather sit and stew about it."

"I wish you had told me about it," Boone said.

"But you were getting married. He didn't want me to tell anyone." His adopted mother looked sad as if she had a lot to put up with that he didn't know. 

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

"No."

She hugged herself hard and said she'd try to get him to come to Thanksgiving.