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)
We stayed at the hospital until they said that Finn could go home. Hannah and Jake were going to drive them, and Harper and Wick went to stop at the store so Finn would have lots of liquids, hydrators, and soup. Anne, of course, would be over the following morning to check on her son. Finn also thanked Sam for carrying him out of the house and apologized for that being necessary.
“I’ve carried all my kids,” Sam told him, patting his cheek, and Finn started to cry, at which point Sam had to hug him for the second time. It was very sweet.
“I’m sorry,” I said to my husband, turning to look at him. “Why do you like Jake’s parents more?”
“They live far away,” Sam informed me. “That means that someday, we’ll get to be Papa or Grampa or whatever the name will be. Kola’s kids may like Eammon more than me, but not Hannah’s, because they don’t live here.”
I shook my head at him.
“Wait. Who am I kidding? There’s no way that any kids like any grandparent more than me,” he said imperiously. “Not even you.”
“Not even me? But I bake.”
“Yeah, but you don’t fish, and the little buggers will want to do that.”
“Will they?”
“Of course. And I’ll be the one going to the zoo and to the park and, you know, we have that groovy swing back there and––”
“Groovy?” I teased him.
“Just—and I’m going to get a trampoline.”
“God, I hope I live long enough to see you with your grandchildren.”
He pulled over so quickly, the seat belt caught.
“Sam Kage!” I shouted at him.
“Don’t you ever say that to me again,” he warned me. “Especially when I’m talking about my grandchildren.”
I unclipped my belt, and he did his, and we hugged over the console.
“Let’s just plan to grow very, very old together.”
“Yeah,” Sam rumbled. “Let’s do that.”
And that closes out our May. Have a wonderful rest of the month, all, and I’ll talk to you in June.
JUNE 2025
Hello, all. Welcome to another He Said, he said for June 2025.
First off, happy Pride month, everyone. And second, happy Father’s Day to every kind of father out there, those close and far and those here and not. If you’re a dad, have an extra good Sunday. I will tell you all about ours in the next edition.
Now, a word on Pride. When I was growing up in my small town, there was no such thing as celebrating being different in any way. I never saw myself in anyone, in their experiences, and was told, when I was noticed and bullied, that I would certainly never be loved. Who I was, how I was, didn’t matter, and that was one of the many reasons I left. When I moved to Chicago, everything changed. I was free to be myself, and I found my community. That didn’t mean that the prejudice disappeared, but I wasn’t alone, which was so important. Now I walk down my suburban street and there are flags everywhere. Every bit of representation is valuable, all the parades I’ve been to, the protests I’ve shown up for, and the allies who stand right along with me. There’s still so much to do, and the world, as we all know—to quote Game of Thrones—is dark and full of terrors. But that’s why having the hopefulness of this month, of June, is so very important. It’s why there are lovely flags in my front yard to let everyone know they’re safe in my house.
It's interesting, because a lot of my friends, Aaron, Duncan, and older ones, I can have conversations with them where we discuss what it was like to grow up knowing that what you wanted was not the norm. But my husband doesn’t have those memories to discuss. The fact of the matter is that until Sam met me, he had always considered himself straight. Before me, there were no other men; he didn’t look at guys and wonder what it would be like to kiss one. It’s interesting that our stories, becoming the men we are, are so vastly dissimilar.
For my son, Kola, the experience of loving another man has been night and day from my experience, as well as Sam’s. For me, there was some fear built in, and for Sam, so much soul-searching and questioning. Kola wasn’t interested in anyone for so much longer than most. He even thought, for a large chunk of time, that he was asexual, as no one made him feel anything. Later, he found that for him, there had to be an emotional connection before a physical one. It was, he told me, a revelation. His heart needed to be engaged before his body could be. In his dating life there have been women and men, before the man he now loves. Seeing them together, the ease, the back and forth, the way they finish one another’s sentences, I can’t imagine anyone else in his life. At first it was in the way they speak to one another and the way they look at one another, and now, of course, it’s the rings.