Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“Because it’s disgusting.”
“Chocolate-covered strawberries are an actual thing,” she apprised him.
“C’mere,” he ordered, and she bounced over and hugged him.
“I really want to know what happens next,” I told Sam after hugging Hannah as well. “But I can’t watch this anymore.”
“Agreed,” Sam seconded, passing the phone to Hannah. “It’s going to slow, and if I fast-forward, I might miss something. Would you please just do your thing, because I’m already annoyed.”
Hannah’s thing was summing things up. And she was great at it. Like amazing. A lot of times, I preferred her summaries over watching something myself. She did it for me whenever I got a bit too far behind in a series. It had been very helpful during Game of Thrones, and equally good during House of the Dragon, with White Lotus, Billions, and Severance. I needed her. I didn’t need her for Ted Lasso or Shrinking, Will Trent or Reacher. But anything really involved, sometimes I purposely let my watching lapse and had her get me caught up to a place I could start again. It was easier. She always hit the high points, but also included details that she knew I enjoyed. Also, she would make me watch certain scenes so I still got the gravitas of the whole thing that the filmmaker was trying to convey.
“Okay,” she said, stepping between us, leaning over so we were all watching Jake’s phone. “This lady, who just got home—that’s her Ford Bronco there—as Jake told you already, is Finn’s aunt Gabrielle, or Gabby, as everyone calls her, and I can tell you, she is not at all happy to return and find her front lawn in shambles.”
“I would think not,” Sam commented.
She fast-forwarded for us. “As you can see, she gets the bat away from Christine, the redhead, who her husband is having an affair with.”
“Got it,” I replied. “Already this is better.”
The guy on the front lawn with Conor, trying to kill him, was James Sullivan, whose wife, Róisín, showed up in her Mercedes moments later, parked behind Gabby.
“Wait,” Sam stopped Hannah. “If it’s Gabby’s house, why is she on the street?”
“She went to pick up more cold cuts and a cake, and by the time she got home, the garage and driveway were full.”
“Okay. Got it. Go on.”
I squinted at him.
“What? You know I need things to make sense in my head.”
I did know that and leaned around Hannah so I could kiss his cheek.
“Now is where it gets interesting,” my daughter announced.
“Now?” Sam sounded surprised.
She chuckled before tapping the screen with the tip of her fingernail. “This guy right here is Christine’s husband, Lucas.”
Sam rested his chin on his fist. “Lemme guess, he’s sleeping with Aunt Gabby.”
“Ohmygod, Dad, yes. How did you know that?” she goaded him.
He chuckled. “This just shows you that there are no such things as secrets.”
“No, there are not,” she agreed. “But to recap, Conor is having an affair with Róisín and is also having one with Christine, all the while still sleeping with his wife, Gabby.”
“Oh, I doubt it,” I asserted. “I’m thinking she’s over that.”
Hannah nodded. “Gabby is sleeping with Lucas, who is also, more than likely, still sleeping with his wife, Chirstine.”
“The redhead,” Sam clarified.
“Correct,” Hannah replied. “Now here, we have a new player,” she said, pointing to another young woman. “This is Mira.”
She was younger, pretty, apple-cheeked, bow-lipped, with voluptuous curves and pixie-cut brown hair.
“I need a piece of paper to make a Venn diagram,” Sam told his daughter.
“I’ll make you one. Now, a tidbit about Mira.”
“I don’t think I wanna know,” I assured her.
“You don’t,” Jake said with a shiver.
“Please don’t tell me,” I begged my daughter.
“Don’t be a baby. If I have to know these things, so do you.”
“I don’t think that’s logical,” Sam offered.
“So Mira is sleeping with Conor, but in a real icky twist, also with Grady.”
“Who’s Grady?” Sam asked.
“Finn’s oldest brother,” I reminded him.
It took a moment for that to sink in.
“What?”
Hannah nodded.
“No.”
Jake was laughing now.
“Eww, no,” Sam groaned. “That’s disgusting.”
“Did Grady or Conor know?” I asked Hannah.
“Nope. Absolutely no clue.”
“What is she doing there?”
“Meeting Grady at his aunt Gabby’s house,” Jake chimed in, waggling his eyebrows for us. “Because he invited her. Wanted her to meet his mom.”
“I think I need brain bleach,” Sam said with a shiver. “Bring on the pie.”
Hannah bit her bottom lip.
“Oh for crissakes, what else?”
“Well, then this girl showed up, Caitlyn, and she’s pregnant.”
I raised my hand.
“Pa?”
“It’s James’s baby.”
“Yes,” she said, surprised. “How did you know that?”
“Because in all of this,” I said, moving my index finger in a circle over the screen, “there’s always one couple who started off as just fooling around but fell in love in the midst of everything.”
“Yes.”
“James looks like he’s at least fifty,” Sam pointed out drolly.
“Yes. He’s fifty-one, and Caitlyn is twenty-six.”