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)
He nodded.
“And from your father, I learned how to be an advocate but not necessarily a friend. He has explained to me, many times, that not everyone in my life needs to be invited over for game night with my family.”
His snort made me smile. “You’re saying he explained about boundaries.”
“Yes.”
Evil chuckle then. “He keeps teaching that one to me and my mom and the rest of us all the time. He’s not a fan of strangers in his house, so he likes us to set boundaries.”
Harper’s father was one of the kindest men I knew, but he was also a fan of helping those who were ready and willing to help themselves.
“Yeah, Harper’s folks are great, we all know that, but what about mine?”
I took a breath. “Your mother taught me the importance of being happy yourself so you can be happy in your relationships with others.”
He scowled at me. “That one is pretty recent.”
“I’m sorry, was there a timetable?”
“Fine.” He sounded exasperated. “And my dad?”
I smiled at him. “I learned to change a tire from your father, because the chief deputy did not have the patience. I learned how to figure out if a fuse blew when the power goes out, how to oil a hinge, and most important, how to talk to contractors when they come over so I don’t get taken advantage of for sounding like a noob.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “Those are all easy things, task things. They’re not life-changing things.”
“Not to you, because you grew up with your father, who taught you how to do them. I had a grandmother who showed me, thankfully, how to cook. But your father has this infinite patience that no one else I know has when it comes to teaching me things. Everyone else loses their minds.”
He grunted, and after a moment turned back to the now-boiling potatoes.
When both Kola and Harper had a look into the pot, I suggested that perhaps Jake might consider making macaroni and cheese to go with the meatloaf and salad.
“I’ll look up what to do with decimated potatoes in the meantime,” Harper suggested.
Since Jake scooping bits of potato out of the pot was going to send me into unhinged laughter after the night I’d had, I excused myself and went out back on the deck. Sitting outside alone on one of the Adirondack chairs was soothing.
After a while, Kola brought a glass of wine out to me, which was thoughtful. When I thanked him, he lingered. “What’s wrong?”
“What made you give Jake’s parents a second chance?”
“How do you mean?”
“They were awful to you and Dad, weren’t they?”
“They weren’t awful, they were uneducated. And the more Jake went home with stories about you and how much he liked you, and the more they saw me at bake sales and parent-teacher conferences and on field trips, the more they saw me and your dad as people just like them. It took a few years, until the third grade, but by then we were all friends.”
My phone rang, and it was Hannah explaining to me that George actually had five broken ribs, had a cut on his side that required eighteen stitches to close, had too many contusions to count, and was dehydrated. But other than that, he was good.
“Ian is going to stay with him and take him home, and I’ll go over in the morning and check on him since I still have a key, and even though he said he’s going to call a locksmith tonight, we all know it’s too late.”
“Okay,” I said, chuckling. Poor George. Hannah was never going to let him be, and it was his own fault. He’d made himself important to her, and he was never getting off that train.
“Dad and I are going to stop and pick up Mexican food, because Kola called and said that Harper’s meatloaf was more like a meatcracker. I’m thinking it maybe shrunk or something, and he said that Jake’s mashed potatoes were inedible.”
Inedible because they had never become mashed anything. “Mexican food sounds great,” I assured her. “Make sure your father doesn’t get refried beans, but black.”
“Yessir, will do.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” she cooed.
“You’re all going to therapy, though,” I informed her.
“Did you know Jake is taking psychology now?”
That’s it. I hope the rest of August is smooth sailing for you. I’ll let you know how therapy shakes out, and if I ever find my van, and if Kola calls Alessia in my next column. Stay safe and healthy, and I’ll see you in September.
SEPTEMBER 2021
Hello, all, welcome to He Said, he said for September 2021. Now, if you missed what happened last month, my kids—including Harper and Jake—had a run-in with some kidnappers who would have killed them had a certain bodyguard not showed up. Everyone is fine now. George, especially, has recuperated nicely, though I will say he’s been a bit crankier than usual.