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)
“Jory?”
Back from my out-of-body experience, I gave Regina my focus. “You should forgive them. All Sam’s cousins just think he’s pretty.”
Her glower was dark. “You’ve always been far more forgiving than I.”
That was valid. Regina could hold a grudge like nothing I’d ever seen.
Poor Barbara. It was going to take so much ass-kissing for her to get back into Regina’s good graces. It was too bad she didn’t know that pondering about Kola and Hannah—and doing so aloud—would put her in the path of Hurricane Regina.
Sam’s mother had been the closest to Kola and Hannah as they were growing up. She had a different job by the time they were born, so she could come by and spend time with them, play with them, take them for walks and, most importantly, imprint on them so fiercely that they both worshipped her and feared her disapproval in equal measure. She and Hannah were so similar it was terrifying, but in the best way. Regina Kage loved everyone—except her niece at the moment—championed the underdog, would give you the shirt off her back, and long ago had not even blinked when her oldest son told her he wanted to marry a man. Her children’s happiness was the most important thing to her, and, fortunately, it was the same for her husband or she would have simply steamrolled right over him.
I cleared my throat as she breathed in and out through her nose. “You know Barbara was thinking that it would have been nice to see your genes in more children.”
“Rachel and Jen have given me children who carry my blood,” Regina apprised me, back to pacing. “Sam has given me children who carry my values, and Michael has given me nothing but a divorce.”
I groaned. Poor Michael. He’d moved back in with them, and apparently was already looking for an apartment downtown. Regina was, from what Sam had told me when he and Michael had a drink together a week ago, driving him batshit crazy.
“Michael, you know he––” I began.
“I won’t hear about Michael,” she said with absolute finality. “You know Catholics don’t get divorced.”
Not the first time I’d heard that. I was saved from having to defend Michael by Hannah walking out onto the deck with a small velvet box.
“Nana,” she said, biting her bottom lip before smiling mischievously. “I found these for you, but I didn’t want to give them to you in front of everyone tomorrow.”
“Oh, love, you spoil me,” Regina cooed, taking the box, which was slightly bigger than one for a ring, and opening the lid. Her gasp, hand over mouth and sudden welling tears, prompted me to stand up and walk over to them.
Regina turned at the same time, grabbed Hannah, and they were hugging as I leaned sideways to see what looked to me like dangly gold earrings. They were pretty, not shiny, maybe vintage, and while they were nice, I didn’t get what the big deal was.
Regina was crying, so was Hannah, and so I went back inside, because trying to ask questions seemed like a waste of time.
Kola and Harper were in the kitchen sharing a plate of disgusting-looking nachos that could only be made with ground beef, queso from a jar, hot chili from a can, layered chips, a mountain of jalapenos, and, I was pretty sure, banana peppers.
“One of these days you two are going to experience the joy of heartburn,” I assured them but quickly realized they weren’t listening to me. They were both focused on something in the other room.
Walking up beside my son, I saw Jake through the drawn shades of the bay window, standing out on the front porch. He had his fingers laced on top of his head, and he, like Regina had been earlier, was pacing.
“What’s happening?” I asked my son, reaching for a chip but stopping myself in time.
“Jake’s thinking about maybe calling his mom today instead of tomorrow, because he feels like he wants to tell her happy Mother’s Day, but he’s still hurt that she left him.”
Jake, underneath his veneer of the sort of absentminded brilliant mechanical engineer, had a very soft heart. Hannah had thus far taken very good care of the part that he’d given her, but he was still reeling from his mother and sister moving to California. His father was in Wisconsin, not quite as bad, but still far enough that he felt abandoned. He didn’t live where he had all his life, and every now and then, it twinged.
“Jake!” Sam yelled.
We all watched as Jake quickly stopped pacing, opened first the screen door, then the front, and came inside, bolting across the living room to Sam, who was now lying on the couch where I’d left him before my talk with Regina.
I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but in minutes, Sam, who had been watching Law & Order, had a controller in his hand and a headset on, which meant Call of Duty was about to begin. Jake had darted upstairs to get his PS4 so he could sit beside the patriarch of our family on the couch. When they all played, Harper brought his over too, and the consoles were all lined up in a special caddy that Jake had made.