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)
“No, no, the kitchen table, please.”
Setting me down in a chair, propping my foot up on another, he took the small throw pillow Duncan passed him and put it under my heel. “We’re gonna ice it.”
“But, Sam, I have food to––”
“I’ll take care of it,” he snapped. “Just sit and don’t move.”
“You’ll let Aaron replace the bottle of whiskey?”
“Bourbon,” he corrected sharply, “and yes.”
“Okay,” I said happily.
Aaron was shaking his head as Sam went to fill a Ziploc with ice.
“What?”
“You’re diabolical,” he assured me.
I batted my lashes at him.
Trick-or-treating ended at eight, and it was only a trickle before that, so Jake and Kola were able to get to the backyard to host their small Halloween party. The boys normally did something together, and this year, as the Bee Gees, all in white, leather pants and gold chains shown off because their white silk shirts were open nearly to their navels, they looked amazing and ridiculous at the same time. All three were wearing wigs, and Kola, with a mustache since he was Barry, looked especially Saturday Night Fever. They made their big entrance only after the four of us closed our eyes.
“Oh dear God,” Sam moaned when he opened and saw them.
I couldn’t stop laughing. Jake was doing the Hustle, which I’d taught him years ago, Harper was in the John Travolta stance, and Kola was shaking his head so the hair of the wig fell just so with the feathering.
“You guys look amazing,” Duncan assured them.
“And it’s only disco music at our party,” Kola announced as the three of them strutted out the back door where three sets of white patent leather ankle boots were waiting. I hadn’t known what they were going to be, but I’d seen the footwear earlier in the day.
“I’m glad it’s still the three of them,” Sam said with a sigh. “I hope that lasts.”
“Me too,” I agreed.
Duncan and Aaron had committed to attend a masquerade ball to benefit something, so they had to go. I should have paid attention, but I was far too interested in watching my husband coordinate the sandwiches I’d made, going in and out of the house. I got hugs from Aaron and Duncan as they were leaving.
“I’m still quite bothered by the Holmes family’s treatment of Hannah,” Aaron assured me. “And I’m not nearly as vengeful as I used to be, but, Jory, really, is there nothing that should be done?”
I shrugged. “To what purpose? I mean, come on, they don’t get to see B anymore. Imagine no Hannah in your life. Again I say, nothing is worse than that.”
He agreed but didn’t look convinced. I told Duncan to keep an eye on him.
“I plan to.”
After they left, Kola came back inside, and he looked stunned.
“Honey?”
He pointed over his shoulder. “I—some of the girls they…were...”
I waited because there had to be more.
Harper was right behind him, clearly on orders from Sam, and changed the ice bag on my ankle. He was chuckling and shaking his head.
“What?” I asked.
“Two things,” he said, taking the old Ziploc bag that he’d removed from my ankle, that was now filled with water, and dumping it out in the sink. “First, Jake is getting hit on out there like crazy.”
“Yes,” Kola agreed quickly, finally speaking, as though Harper talking had made it possible for him to do the same. “Like, an insane amount. He’s got a girl on each arm and another one who started rubbing his shoulders when he sat down.”
“It’s nuts,” Harper told me, his eyes gleaming. “He keeps having to untangle himself.”
“I think it’s because everybody knows he’s taken, and now, all of a sudden, they see that he’s pretty great,” Kola explained.
“You think he’s great?” I asked my son.
He scowled at me. “Both my friends are great.”
Harper groaned.
“What?” Kola snapped, turning to him. “You don’t think I think you’re great?”
“No,” Harper said with a sigh. “I know you do.”
“Well, then, what was with the sound?”
“Nothing,” Harper assured him, bumping him with his shoulder, giving me a smile that was, at first, bittersweet but then became his real one, the one that always made his eyes gleam. “But as for the second thing…some of the girls, and guys, out there at our geeky underage party are checking out your husband.”
I couldn’t contain my delight, because Kola looked utterly revolted. “Is this true, my son?”
“What the hell?” he gasped, arms flailing, clearly affronted, his face all scrunched up. “I mean, we went to high school with these people and…what the hell?”
I snorted.
Harper lost it, and I was certain it wasn’t just Sam being admired by girls, and boys, too young to drink, but the relief at finding, at least I hoped so, some footing with Kola.
“That’s my father! Don’t they remember that he’s my father!”
Harper was wiping away his tears. “Mr. Kage picked up that big ice chest, you know the one that me and Kola have to carry together,” Harper informed me, “and there were some very appreciative noises that happened while he was doing that.”