A slight chill crept over Lennon. She reached for more blankets but before she could grasp anything, something wrapped around her; pulling her into a bundle of warmth. She nestled down and let it drag her back into a deep sleep.

The next time Lennon stirred she was hot. She tried to push blankets off but she was tangled up in them. She opened her eyes and as she adjusted to the darkness she realized what she struggled with wasn't a blanket but a person. Her head rested on Kade's chest, their arms were wrapped around each other. His breathing was deep and steady.

Slowly, the pieces came together. They had been watching a movie. She wasn't sure how long ago that had been but everyone else was gone. The lights were off and someone had put a blanket over them. She slowly slipped out of Kade's hold. She crawled to the end of the couch, settled in and was quickly back asleep.

***************************

A loud clatter and someone's noisy laugh pulled Lennon awake. She rolled over and found Kade's spot on the couch empty. She stretched and yawned as she swung her feet to the ground and stood. She folded the blankets and neatened up the cushions, before heading to the basement entrance.

As she neared the top of the stairs she could hear voices coming from the kitchen.

"Good morning!" Rue greeted Lennon as she stepped into the hall.

"Good morning," Lennon said.

"How did you sleep?" she asked

"Good."

"You fell asleep so fast last night," Rue said. "I don't think the credits were even done."

"That's a lesson I've learned from touring. I can fall asleep just about anywhere."

"Kade does the same thing," Rue said. "I think he was out a few minutes after you."

She led the way into the kitchen and Lennon followed. "Good mornings" rang out as everyone in the kitchen greeted her.

Kade was at the counter eating, still in his clothes from the night before. There was a crowd of women near the stove.

"Morning babe," Kade said, pulling her onto his lap. "How did you sleep?"

"Good," she said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "What time is it?"

"It's almost eleven," Margret said.

"Do you want breakfast?" Kade asked.

"Cereal sounds good," she said, looking at what Kade was having.  "I can get it myself if you'll just tell me where."

"The bowls are up there," Margret said, pointing to a high cabinet. "Here is a spoon and here is the cereal."

"Thanks," Lennon said.

She poured herself some Chex.

"Is there anything you want to do today?" Kade asked

"Nothing in particular. Did you have anything planned?" she asked.

"I figured we can take it slow today. Hang out around the house."

"That sounds good," Lennon said.

"Ok. I'm going to run and take a shower," Kade said.

He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before he left.

Rue moved closer to her and started telling Lennon about life at college.

By the time Kade came back, all cleaned up Lennon felt she had lived through all the stresses of college listening to Rue. Excusing herself, Lennon went to take a shower.

**********************

The kitchen was noisier then it had been when Lennon came back down after her shower. Paige, Gwen and the kids had shown up to help cook. Lennon found Kade and Robbie by the front door, putting jackets on.

"Hey, we have to make a quick run to the food store," Kade said.

"The women have kindly sacrificed us up to the madness of the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving," Robbie said.

"You wanna grab your shoes and come along?" Kade asked.

Before Lennon could respond Margret appeared.

"CeCe and Sammy need to get out of the house and burn off some energy," she said. "I was going to take them to a park down the street. Lennon would you like to join us?"

"Sure," Lennon said, looking to Kade. "Does that work?"

"Yeah. Robbie and I shouldn't be gone long," he said.

"We're going into battle!" Robbie said dramatically. "We'll be lucky to make it back in one piece."

"You'll be fine Robert," Margret said.

"You know how bad it gets. It's like everyone is stocking up before the zombie apocalypse happens," Robbie said.

"Don't worry, Lennon is an ace zombie hunter. She's been teaching me," Kade said.

Lennon laughed. She and Max had taught all the members of Hey Farewell their zombie game.

"Seriously?" Robbie asked. "Why didn't you lead with that fact last night? We could have started my training? That settles it, Lennon has to come with us."

"No, she is coming with us. Cut the dramatics Robert," Margret said.

Her words seemed firm but her tone was light and joking.

"Does my life mean nothing to you, mother?" Robbie asked.

Lennon smiled.

"Don't encourage him," Kade warned.

"I'll just grab my jacket and shoes and be right back," Lennon said, running up the stairs.

Everyone was ready to go when she got back.

"Have fun," Kade said, heading to the car. 

"If we don't return by tonight, just know we probably got killed," Robbie said.

The air was crisp and cold. The sky was a bright blue with no clouds in sight as Lennon, Margret and the kids walked to the park.

"Kade and Robbie grew up on this playground," Margret said, as Sammy and CeCe ran towards the play structure.

Lennon sat down next to Margret on the bench.

"It must have been nice to have everyone so close," Lennon said.

"I love it," Margret said. "It's kept us all connected. Plus, I loved that the boys got to grow up with their cousins."

"They all seem like siblings."

"They bicker like they are," Margret joked. "But I know they love each other. Growing up there were constant sleep overs and we usually had at least one extra kid at dinner with us. I'm very grateful my boys got to grow up like that. But Kade tried to make us move."

"Really?" Lennon asked.

"Yes. It was a few years after the band got big and he told us he wanted to buy us a house." She gave a small laugh, caught up in the memory. "He said he wanted to do something nice for us and he had found some nice houses in Newton but we didn't want to live there. We told him the only way to get us to move was to buy two more houses for my brothers. When we turned him down he promised to fix up our house. We told him we didn't need any gift but he was determined to give us something."

There was a big smile on her face as she told the story. Lennon liked hearing about this different side of Kade. The one who wanted to buy his parents house. The tabloids never wrote about that version.

"He has always been so thoughtful," Margret said. "He was always giving me gifts, handmade cards, flowers. When he moved to LA, I would randomly get presents from him. Its slowed down but he still manages to send stuff sometimes. I got a scarf from Paris over the summer."

Lennon smiled at the pride in her voice.

"That's sweet," Lennon said.

Margret looked over at Lennon.

"Sorry to boast but Kade paid me to," she said flatly, with a sparkle in her eye.

The statement caught Lennon by surprise and she let out a loud laugh. A smile broke across Margret's face.

"I'm kidding. I'm a lucky mom."

The kids rushed over, announcing they were hungry and the group headed home.

**************************

Robbie and Kade had made it back from the store, alive, but with stories to tell. Lennon listened and laughed as Robbie told a story about fighting for the last bag of cranberries with an old lady; Kade correcting his facts.

As Lennon helped cook, Kade came over to see what she was doing, slipping his arms around her waist. When he tried to steal food, she playfully slapped his hand away and tried to ignore the happy looks on his mother and aunt's faces. When she wasn't helping, he pulled her onto his lap. She knew the previous week they had spent together nonstop had helped them get back to a good balance in their relationship.

For dinner, they all bundled up and walked down the block a few houses to Rue and Paige's house. Rue excitedly greeted everyone and pulled Lennon into the house, showing her around to the big kitchen that led into the family room. There was more family to meet and Lennon became focused as she was introduced to aunts, uncles and cousins.

Half an hour in, Lennon found herself overwhelmed. She kept a smile on her face as she looked for Kade. She found him in the kitchen, talking to his cousins Jacob and Ryan. She quietly joined their group and slipped her hand into his.

"You ok?" Kade whispered, when Ryan and Jacob's attention was pulled elsewhere.

"Yeah," Lennon said, taking a deep breath.

He gave her a look like he didn't believe her.

"It just got busy and a little overwhelming. But I'm good," she reassured him.

He studied her face skeptically.

"Stop, I'm fine," she said

"Ok," he said. "But if you're ever not fine, you could tell me."

"I know."

"Maybe we should come up with a signal. Then you wouldn't even have to use words."

"What? Like a bird call or something?"

She laughed as Kade's face lit up.

"That's perfect. Just hoot and I'll come running."

"Cause that won't be obvious at all or anything," she said.

"Not at all."

******************************

Once dinner was done, everyone started talking excitedly, using words Lennon didn't understand.

"What's going on?" she asked Kade.

He gave her a gleeful look.

"It's our annual Fish Bowl game," he said.

"Sounds enticing," Lennon said, "But what is it?"

Kade broke it down for her. The game had three rounds. The goal was to have your team guess the word you had drawn from the bowl in a certain amount of time. The first round was like Taboo. The second round like Charades, where you had act out the word without saying it. The third round, only one word could be used to give a hint to the word your teammates needed to guess.

Kade also explained that certain people had to be separated onto different teams, like him and Robbie.

Lennon understood why once the game was going, when people used past events or shared memories to get their teammates to guess. When the bowl reached Lennon, she was eager to win. She quickly pulled a piece of paper out and read the word "jetty".

Her brain scrabbled as she tried to find words to describe it. She started to explain that it was something that jutted out into the water but her team got stuck on the idea of a pier. Rue just guessed a stream of things that could be in the water. Lennon tried to find a different way to get them to guess. She looked at Kade and a memory flashed in her mind.

"Kade, what was the thing we walked out on after the concert in Spain?" she asked.

"A jetty," he answered quickly.

She triumphantly threw the paper on the ground and reached for another one.

"A jetty? In Spain?" Jacob asked loudly. "What happened there?"

Rue shushed him and gave Lennon a concentrated look. Lennon was able to get her team to guess four more words before her time ran out. Her heart was racing as she handed the bowl to the next player.

"Great job babe!" Kade said, giving her a high five.

"I'm still curious about this jetty in Spain," Jacob said.

"I think there is a story to tell," Ryan added.

"Yes, do tell more!" Robbie teased.

All three of them gave Kade insinuating looks. Kade slapped Robbie.

The energy in the room only rose as the game went on. Ryan got jetty in the second round and instead of trying to act it out, he had pointed to Kade and Lennon. Paige had guessed it right away. Jacob chimed in with a continued curiosity about the jetty in Spain.

Rue got "jetty" during the third round of the game. After thinking about it for a moment, she said, "Kannon."

Everyone gave her confused looks. Her eyes darted between Kade and Lennon. Lennon laughed as she realized what she meant and guessed jetty. Everyone let out cries of disbelief.

"Whats Kannon?" someone called out.

"It's their celebrity couple name!" Rue said.

Lennon rolled her eyes and joined in with everyone's laughter.

"Babe, are we cool enough to have a couple name?" Jacob asked his wife.

"I don't think so," Kade said.

"And you think you are?" Jacob asked. "Lennon has Kade ever told you about my ninth birthday party?"

"Don't," Kade warned.

Jacob gave him a sly look and started to talk. Kade jumped from his chair and tackled Jacob. They ended up a pile on the floor as Jacob tried to tell the story. Lennon laughed as Robbie and Ryan tried to pulled them off each other.

The game fell apart without anyone caring who won. The energy level died down as everyone gathered by the front door to put on jackets. Lennon called goodbyes as she walked out with Kade and Robbie. Robbie still full of energy, entertained them as they walked back to Kade's house, singing dramatic renditions of Christmas music.

"How come I'm the one singing?" Robbie asked. "You two are the music industry's pop couple."

"I don't think anyone wants to hear me sing at this hour, no matter how good my voice is," Lennon said.

They separated when they got back to the house. Robbie convinced Kade to play video games with him, and Lennon went to her room.

**********************************************************************

Hey everyone!

So I have to tell you that the Fish Bowl game is real. Its one of the games my family plays over the Holidays. I should also tell you that I come from a family of ten and we are crazy intense about our games. One holiday we played Charades and we put in the words, gingham, rhetoric, and hutch. Yeah, kind of crazy, but in a completely lovable, want-to-be-a-part-of-the-craziness sort of way. Do you have any holiday traditions?

Vote, comment, follow. In the tradition of the chapter I would have acted these words out but it's hard to find the right emojis. ;)