Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“Yes,” she whispered.
“My son is only eighteen,” I declared, hearing my voice shake, realizing how bone-deep angry I was. I had been so vigilant when he was little, and I felt like I’d failed him even though he was, technically, an adult in the eyes of the law.
“I…I was drunk and—there’s no excuse, but earlier I’d stumbled, and your son was so gallant that I…and he’s…he’s…”
I knew what he was. He was handsome by virtue of genetics, and chivalrous because Sam and I had raised him to be a gentleman. He checked and made sure people were okay, he spoke up if he saw something wrong, and if a woman nearly fell in front of him, he would have caught her and set her back on her feet. He was a good guy, and I knew that, and Mrs. Oliver had seen him as an oasis in whatever was happening with her life.
“I agree with you,” I assured her. “It’s no excuse.”
I left before she could say another word and noticed that none of her friends made eye contact with me as I crossed the deck to the stairs.
“Jory,” Jen called out.
I stopped four steps down and looked up at her.
“I’m sorry about everything.”
“It’s not your fault,” I assured her. “But next time, before you jump to conclusions where either one of my kids are concerned, do some digging, all right? You know Hannah, you know she doesn’t do things without a good reason.”
She nodded quickly.
“Okay,” I said softly before I took the rest of the stairs back down to the grass.
Kola was near the bottom, and when I reached him, he was glaring at me. “Why did you have to do that? Why did it have to be––”
“Because she doesn’t get to think, on any level, that what she did was okay, or that there aren’t repercussions.”
He shrugged. “I bet some guys would have been into it, right? Hot older woman wanting to get it on in the bathroom?”
I squinted at him. “I don’t know. I suspect that most of them, at a family gathering, would have been uncomfortable and struggled, just as you did, to figure a way out. Kissing in the bathroom or fooling around is more a couple thing in my opinion, especially when paired with egg hunts and chocolate bunnies.”
He nodded and leaned into me, putting his face down in my shoulder, as he so seldom did anymore. When your worldview was shaken, familiarity was what you looked for.
At home, Hannah got to work on the brownies, with Sam keeping her company, and Jake and Kola went to play Minecraft. An hour later, Harper showed up, and they switched to playing Diablo. I wasn’t that surprised when Kola turned over his controller to Hannah and slouched down between the two of us.
“I was embarrassed,” he confessed after a moment.
Closing Weaveworld, which I was re-reading, I turned to look at my son.
“I mean, I should be able to handle things without having to tell my parents.”
“You were doing just that,” I reminded him. “You didn’t tell anyone. You were dealing with the situation all by yourself.”
“I wish I hadn’t told Hannah.”
I nodded. “And then what?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Then you would have kept that to yourself, worried about it, to what positive end?”
He shrugged.
“Everybody needs help sometimes, and you’re not so big that you can’t still use advice from your parents. I mean really, I hope to always be someone you can count on for answers or support.”
“I know, but––”
“It’s a forever job, kid. Your father and I expect you to be asking us stuff until we both drop dead many moons from now,” I teased him.
He kissed me on the cheek. “I just didn’t want you to think less of me, like I couldn’t handle myself.”
“It was a weird situation,” I assured him. “I suspect if someone had pushed into the bathroom bleeding or puking, or a hundred other scenarios besides that one, you would have handled it with all your normal poise.”
He scoffed.
“You would’ve,” I apprised him. “And now you’ll know what to do if this ever happens again. The important thing is to learn something.”
“I think you should always have a bathroom buddy. Somebody to guard the door.”
I snorted. “That’s an interesting takeaway.”
“Is that why girls always go to the bathroom in pairs?” he asked his sister.
“Mostly it’s to talk about whatever shenanigans just went down, or how stupid someone is acting, but you never know when a door will be broken or you’ll need toilet paper. Although I will tell you, I always check the roll before I cop a squat.”
“Being aware of your surroundings,” Sam intoned from the kitchen. “Good job.”
Hannah beamed with pride.
“Life lessons,” Kola told me.
“Always.”
That’s it for this month. Hope you all have an excellent rest of April, and I will see you in May.