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)
“Why’re you baiting your man?” Sam asked him.
“He’s too scared to play Monopoly.”
“I’m not scared,” Duncan told him, gesturing at the table, “it’s just that is not a friendly game and I’m not doing it.”
“Oh come on,” Kola said, counting his money, “it’ll be great.”
“It won’t be great,” Finn sided with Duncan. “It’s scary how you people play.”
George turned to me. “I want to see those Uno skills I’ve heard so much about, Mr. Harcourt.”
“Certainly,” I said, grinning at him. “Step into my parlor.”
“No Monopoly for you?” Kurt asked, taking a seat beside Kola at the table.
George gestured at Aaron. “You think that any of you can outplay my boss at Monopoly? Are you serious?”
Aaron cackled.
“You’d be surprised,” Dane said cheerfully.
George looked at Hannah, who shook her head no, clearly in full agreement with him.
Aja, walking around behind her husband to drop him off some pie, kissed him on the cheek and wished him good luck.
“Thank you for the pie, but I don't need luck. It's all skill, baby.”
Her snort of laughter was adorable.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Sam said, taking a seat beside Aaron as Duncan and Finn went to join Dylan, Gentry, Jake, and Aja in the trivia area.
It was me, Robert, George, Wick, and Hannah playing Uno.
“You can come be on my team when you lose all your money over there,” Jake called out to Harper.
“In your dreams, buddy.”
There was a lot of trash talking going on.
“What is that?” Kurt asked a few minutes later.
“That’s a skyscraper,” Harper answered him. “But you have to roll to see if you get one.”
“Did you put money in for the planning commissioner?” Sam asked him.
“I…no, where does that go?”
George chuckled at our table.
“Don’t make fun,” Hannah scolded him and then called over to Kurt, “You can join us when you’re out.”
George shook his head. “And you think that was nice?”
“I was being supportive. He’s a bunny at a table with wolves. He’s not going to last long.”
“No,” Gentry said from the trivia area. “Mom and Aunt Dylan do not get to be on the same team. That’s not fair.”
And it wasn’t. They were both exceedingly smart women to begin with, and Dylan was a sports nut, and Aja’s movie memory was encyclopedic. “You tell ’em, Gen.”
“I don’t wanna hear from the peanut gallery over there,” Dylan chided me.
In the end, Dylan and Duncan teamed up, and Aja and Jake, and Finn and Gentry. There was quite a bit of yelling over there, much more from the scary Monopoly table, and a lot of whining at mine.
“How?” George asked me. “There’s no way you have only two.”
“Two is a lot for me,” I said, glancing at my girl. “You still counting?”
“Yes, I’m still counting,” she snarled at me. “That was a second Draw Four you gave me on top of the first one!”
I smiled at her.
She groaned. Loudly.
“Hannah,” Aaron said pointedly from the Monopoly table.
“I know, but he’s being impossible.”
“What do you know?” I asked her.
“Never let the other person see your frustration,” both Hannah and George answered me.
After a moment, George shrugged. “It’s a thing at Sutter.”
I smiled at him like a cobra.
“You take this game a bit too seriously, Mr. Harcourt.”
“So I’ve been told, George.”
It was fun; everyone stayed late. Aaron killed all comers at Monopoly, Aja and Jake massacred everyone at trivia, and Hannah hit five hundred first, after two hours, so we had to end Uno. I had fifteen. George was very impressed, and so was Kurt, who had come in after we started and still had a higher score than me.
We all broke for coffee and tea, and then there was talking, which was always my favorite part of the evening.
Even though Hannah’s birthday was the following day, since all she planned to do was veg, not even wanting to have her regular food crawl with her brother, and definitely not a big blowout of a party, she was happy when a small devil’s food cake with chocolate sour cream frosting, that Aja had made for her, was brought out of the pantry. Gifts were brought in from cars, and we all sang. It turned out to be exactly what she wanted, and she got to hug and kiss all her favorite people, including George and ending with Jake, who she leaned against and didn’t move away from. I couldn’t think of a better end for Thanksgiving.
Hannah promised to be back over first thing in the morning, as she wanted pancakes and gravy and maple syrup. Finn was horrified, and so was Wick. Jake, Kola, and Finn would be there as well. Even though there was no food crawl, Kola still wanted to do whatever it was that Hannah wanted. He was looking forward to falling asleep on the couch after eating a turkey sandwich with extra mayo and salt on white bread later in the day.