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)
“What?” Sam asked her, and I was really proud of him for not yelling.
Aja cleared her throat. “You're awfully young to be a mother, love.”
“Not really, but here’s the thing,” Hannah began, taking a breath, looking at all of us one at a time. “If I can have the baby at some point while I’m in school for those two years, that means when I get done with graduate school, I can go to work at Sutter full-time. Pa, I know I can count on you to work from home several days a week,” she said, looking at me, “and we have onsite childcare at Sutter as well.”
“Wait,” Sam said, leaning forward. “What makes you think that once I retire your father and I won’t be traveling? I promised to take him to Paris.”
She squinted at him. “You can go anywhere you like, of course you can. I want you to see the world, you deserve it. But I also can’t imagine you becoming some kind of jet-setter, since we both know your favorite place in the world to be is home.”
He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it.
“And my baby will be your first grandchild.”
The truth was, Samuel Thomas Kage would never be a world traveler. He liked his creature comforts, plus doing things around our house and for others, knowing where his tools were, and the fact was, we would have all manner of people who worked for him at our house once the man retired. Sam thrived on being needed. The fact that Hannah was putting him on notice at the moment was going to go a long way to making him happy. Would he rant and rave about what she was asking? Yes. Of course he would. By the same token, would he be an amazing grandfather? Yes. Without question. He loved being a parent; he would excel at the grandparent piece.
“Hannah,” Aaron began, “I think it’s important to remember that––”
“I want to be a mother,” she told him firmly. “I also cannot wait to begin work at Sutter. There’s so much I want to learn from you before you retire.”
“How old do you think I am?” He sounded horrified, and that brought a smile to my face.
Sam glanced away so he wouldn’t smile, Aja looked down, and Dane pressed his lips together tight. Duncan’s smile, that Aaron couldn’t see, was big.
“Right now, when I’m winding down to graduate in December and then start grad school come spring, is the perfect time to get pregnant.”
“Going to school and being pregnant will––”
“Not be easy,” Hannah interrupted her aunt, and then turned to me. “But the best time is now before I start working full-time and––” Her lip wobbled. “––you’ll help me, won’t you?”
I got up and walked over to her, going down on one knee in front of her. “I will always help you with whatever you decide to do. You know that. I’m your pa. You can count on me.”
She broke down sobbing then, wrapping her arms around my neck and holding on for dear life. “I knew it. I knew you’d be on my side.”
“Are you going to get married?” Sam wanted to know.
She leaned sideways and scowled at her father. “That is not part of my decision-making at all.” She sniffled, wiping at her eyes.
“Don’t you think it should be?”
“Now you sound like Finn’s father, wanting him to have a wife.”
It took a moment. “I’m sorry, what?” Sam yelled.
Aja waved her hand dismissively. “Eammon had an idea in his head of how he thought his sons’ lives were going to be, and Finn with Kola isn’t it.”
“What?” Sam was getting angrier by the second.
“It’s okay,” I soothed him. “Eammon likes you so much, and you understand, more than most, because you went through it yourself, the process of change. You went from thinking you were straight your whole life to being bi, and that was life altering.”
“I know that,” he grumbled.
I smiled at him. “I’m just saying that perhaps you’re the one who can help Eammon see what’s real and good more than anyone.”
He stared at me.
“You changed your whole life for me, Sam Kage.”
“There was no alternative,” he told me. “You were it, and I knew that.”
I smiled at him.
“But this is different,” he told his daughter.
She chuckled. “I am so lucky. In fact I might be the luckiest person in the world. I mean, I have parents who will help me, an aunt who will be my guide for all things I need to know about delivering a baby, and I have a job to go to that’s already set and… Uncle Dane, you look weird.”
We all turned to him then, and I noted that he was squinting at her.
“Do you want to say something?”
“Only that I find your logic sound.”