Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“No, baby, no regrets. I have everything I ever wanted.”
I shivered in his arms, and he bent and kissed me, and it was perfect.
“Hey!”
We both looked over at Kola standing in the doorway of the jewelry store.
“These people know Hannah by name, and Uncle Aaron has a credit card on file,” he said, grimacing. “You might wanna get in here.”
That’s it. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the year, a safe and happy New Year, and I will see you in 2020.
DECEMBER 21, 2019
FICLET FROM FACEBOOK GROUP
“This is what, now?”
“The Yule log,” Kola and I told him together. Again.
Samuel Thomas Kage, Chief Deputy of the Northern District of Illinois, looked at me with one eyebrow arched in what was hovering somewhere between skepticism and resignation.
“What?” I asked him.
“Why is this a thing? And why are there a billion candles lit in this house right now?”
“A billion, Dad?” Kola said, giving him a pained look somewhat similar to his own. “You don’t think that’s a bit dramatic?”
Sam’s scowl was dark. “The Yule whatever is burning in the fireplace, there are––” He turned to count and then pivoted back to face his son. “––twelve candles on the mantel, ten on the sidebar, two by the door, and what is this––” He did it again, counting what was on the coffee table. “––ten right here. No one needs this many candles.”
I shrugged.
“How many are upstairs?”
“Just one in each bedroom,” Kola explained.
“Your house is going to burn down,” he told me, finally shedding his heavy wool and cashmere overcoat so Kola and I could see the Hugo Boss suit underneath.
“Probably not,” I assured him, smiling. “She’s keeping an eye on them, as is the rest of the coven.”
“And where are these witches?”
“Outside with Hannah for a few minutes doing the solstice blessing before they come inside,” I told him, reaching for his cheek before he could walk back to the coat closet. “And don’t be snide. I already told you that wasn’t gonna fly.”
He bent and kissed me, and I felt a bit of the tension roll off of him. I knew it wasn’t just walking into the blaze of candlelight that was our living room when he came home; there was something else going on which had more to do with the reason he’d been called into the office on a Saturday.
“Yes?” I asked him, taking hold of the lapel of his suit jacket before he could walk away. “You promise not to be snide?”
“Yes,” he grumbled, stalking to the closet he’d passed on his way in, hanging up his coat and then walking back to me and Kola. “But you realize I’ve been Catholic since basically before I was born, right?”
“In your mother’s womb you were Catholic?” Kola asked him, shooting him a look before walking to the kitchen, giving the wassail a wide berth as he went by.
“Yes!” Sam yelled after him, following me to the kitchen, gazing at the punchbowl full of what looked like muddy water. “What is that?”
“That’s the wassail she made,” I informed him.
His squint as he leaned close, sniffed it, and then leaned back made me smile. He was so not enjoying the new things in my daughter’s life. “The hell is wassail?”
“It’s hot mulled cider.”
“I don’t want any,” he said petulantly.
“You don’t have to have any,” I assured him, pointing to the refrigerator. “You can have a beer or a hot toddy or bourbon or––”
“Can I have a gin and tonic?”
“Whatever you want,” I said, chuckling.
“Hi, Dad,” Hannah greeted him as she came into the house through the back with three girls and one boy, all in beautiful green hooded capes with gorgeous embroidered awens on them, small in the front, big on the back.
Sam smiled at his daughter and met the other young women and the lone boy, shaking hands and smiling. When they all went into the living room to join hands and stand in front of the fire, he turned to me.
“Awfully nice robes.”
“Yes. Fully lined.”
“Do I even have to wonder?” he grumbled at me.
“Apparently when Aaron was in Norway last month, he was asked to get them something traditional, and that’s what he picked up.”
Sam growled and raked his fingers through his thick hair. “She knows he doesn’t really belong to her, right? That she can’t just say, hey, I’d like a car made out of diamonds, and poof it’s in the driveway the next morning.”
I grimaced.
“Jory,” he said with a note of warning in his tone.
“Oh stop, he knows not to buy her a diamond-encrusted car, and Hannah would never ask for that. She’s much more apt to ask him to build another homeless shelter or for a Yule log from Norway and crystal crowns.”
“I’m sorry?”
“The crowns were on before they went outside,” Kola informed him, passing his father a plate of enchiladas, one cheese, one carne asada, and a chile relleno. “Are you sure you want that gin and tonic, or do you want a Corona?”