Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 71843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Sam: I will. Next week for sure.
Jory: I have faith that you being a marshal will not interfere with your safety. Have faith that I can get downtown and back.
Sam: Fine.
Jory: Good. Now gimme a kiss.
Sam: If I must.
Jory: You always must.
Sam: It’s not that big of an ask.
Jory: Yes, dear, I know.
That’s it, all, have a wonderful rest of January, stay warm, stay safe, it’s the new year, have a great start, and I’ll talk to you after Valentine’s Day.
FEBRUARY 2020
Hello, all, Jory Harcourt here, and welcome to the February 2020 edition of He Said, he said. I hope you all have plans for Valentine’s Day that include showing yourself a little love.
Before Sam Kage came into my life, my plans were always with friends. Those are actually some of my favorite memories. This year, Sam and I are taking our kids out to dinner with us, because it’s the last one where I can be a hundred percent certain that my son will be under the same roof as me. I know I’m being weird, my family tells me this, but I’m soaking up all the time I have left with my oldest. For dinner, though, there will be five people going out instead of four because we have an extra kid for the foreseeable future. It’s been interesting, and it all started last Monday night when the love of my life came home from work.
Even if I didn’t hear the monster car in the driveway, or even if Dobby didn’t lose his mind barking, all I would have to do is watch our cat, Chilly, make his way to the couch and then up to the arm. It’s a slower process these days, but he makes it, and there he will sit and wait for the man he loves. Everyone knows Sam is his favorite. And since he’s the first pet Sam ever had, I’m starting to worry about how my big, strong alpha man is going to deal with losing his pet. Chilly’s in really good shape for an older feline, but contrary to popular belief, I am not insane. I know he won’t live forever.
The back door opened, and I stood there watching, admiring, as still the most beautiful man I know walked in through the back door that leads from our patio to our kitchen.
“Hello there, handsome,” I greeted him, smiling as he made his way over to me.
“Hello there yourself,” he rumbled, bending for the kiss I lifted to give him.
It was quick, because the cat was waiting. He put his laptop bag and what looked like a zippered shopping bag, the insulated kind, down on the table before he walked to the living room to rub noses with our cat. I heard Chilly doing his weird talking/meowing at Sam, probably bitching about me because I’d bitched at him about the water bill he’d shredded. And yes, I should have gone paperless, but that was dangerous. Things got lost in my email like ships in the Bermuda Triangle, and at one point, the gas almost got turned off because the bill went to my Junk folder. Sam had made me go back to paper after that.
“Hey,” I called over to him. “What’s in the bag?”
“Apparently, Chaz’s mom did some cooking last night before she went back to Miami. He said that this morning Steph about lost her shit when she went to the fridge to make breakfast and boom—chile rellenos.”
“Oh come on, how many could there possibly be?”
He grimaced.
I had known Stephanie Diaz, Chaz’s wife, for years. And for all of that time, and many years before, she and her husband’s mother had maintained a civil, bordering on frigid, relationship. I could only imagine what had gone through her mind when she got back from her week long business trip to find her Sub-Zero stuffed with her mother-in-law’s specialty.
“This is too good,” I said, pulling my cell from my back pocket and calling her.
“I don’t want to hear it,” she said instead of hello or how are you or any of the other pleasantries usually associated with talking on the phone.
“Guess you should have stayed home instead of being the key speaker at a women-in-business convention in San Francisco.”
She growled at me.
“Where are your priorities?”
The growl turned into a snarl.
“Why’re you pawning food off on us, lady?”
“Hand to God, I have never seen so many chile rellenos in my life. She’s got some in the freezer individually wrapped in foil, and some for us to eat now packed in Tupperware! Who does that? I can see maybe one dinner, but holy shit.”
“Well, maybe if you focused more time on her son, and less on your career, she wouldn’t have to visit, specifically when you’re not home, and cook for the poor dear.”
She screamed at the other end, thankfully not in my ear, and then suddenly there was a man’s voice telling me not to be such a damn instigator.