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)
Sam straightened up from the crouch he was in and faced his friend. “What’s wrong with you? He just got home. You should be delirious.”
“He’s hungry,” Aaron announced before turning to me. “Tell me dinner’s ready.”
“Dinner’s ready,” I said, chuckling.
“I’m not five. I know when I hafta eat,” Duncan snapped at both me and Aaron.
There was a moment of silence.
“You wanna eat?” Sam asked him.
“I could eat, yeah.”
Aaron laughed at him, and I saw Duncan’s glower before the billionaire walked directly into his husband’s space and leaned. Instantly, Duncan wrapped him in his arms, holding him close. Clearly, they hadn’t spent enough time alone. Aaron had gotten off a plane, picked up Duncan, and come directly to our house.
“You could have brought this tomorrow,” I assured Aaron.
“It’s fine,” he declared, apparently quite content to stand clutched to Duncan’s chest. “And we’re already two weeks past his birthday.”
“Whose birthday?” Kurt asked, and I realized Aaron hadn’t qualified earlier. He knew who he was talking about, and so did all of us except one.
“Kola’s,” Aaron answered, and I watched his eyes narrow as he looked at Kurt. “He turned nineteen on the twenty-sixth of September, so we’re—I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Shoot, that’s on me,” I groaned, taking hold of Kurt’s bicep. “Aaron Sutter, Duncan Stiel, this is––”
“I know who he is, even though we’ve only talked on the phone,” Duncan explained. “You’re Dr. Butler, and you’re the one seein’ the kids.”
“Yes,” he barely managed to get out. “Yes, I am.”
Poor Kurt. It wasn’t every day you met a billionaire. And Aaron wasn’t as rich as others, but being worth seventeen billion, up from the nine or eleven he’d been a few years ago, was nothing to sneeze at. He was also far more devoted to his philanthropy than many.
“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sutter,” Kurt rushed out, but smartly didn’t move around the table to shake my friend’s hand. Aaron had both arms coiled around Duncan, and he didn’t look like he was going to move for anything or anyone. “And a pleasure to meet you in person, Commander Stiel.”
“Just Duncan is good.”
Kurt might have whimpered, but it was pushed to the side when Hannah ordered her brother to open his gift already.
Kola, whose birthday had been a low-key affair at home, had received a new Apple Watch from Dane and Aja, since the last one had met a ghastly fate when he and Hannah had gone to help save a lot of thirty or so dogs in a hoarding situation out in Schaumberg. Apparently, there were dogs in barrels, and Kola had not hesitated and pulled them out even before protective gear arrived. I couldn’t imagine what the dogs had been covered in, but Sam had hosed both his kids off outside, and both of them had to strip down, one at a time, to their underwear in the laundry room. Hannah had insisted her brother go first because he had things in his hair. She nearly puked just getting the words out. I was very proud of them for going. I would have been useless. Between crying and retching, the people in charge would have sent me right home. I donated to all kinds of causes, especially to animal rescue. The faces of the puppies got to me every time.
Kola had wanted a motorcycle, but the only way that could ever happen was if I was dead and gone, so we got him a sixteen-inch MacBook Pro instead. He’d been thrilled. He’d needed a new computer. His laptop was on life support, and with doing all his coursework online, it was helpful. Hannah had gone for something he didn’t need at all and got her brother a drone. The boring things he wanted to do with it, check the gutters on the roof, the trees for abandoned baby birds, and to buzz around the neighborhood to look out for any lost pets or small kids left unattended were not a surprise to me. Kola, like his father, was a knight.
We all watched Kola tear into the paper around the box.
“Oh, no way!” he crowed, and before I could even see what it was, he was in front of Aaron and Duncan, and they let go of each other so they could hug him.
“What is it?” I wanted to know.
“It’s the telescope I wanted.”
“You wanted a telescope?” This was news.
“Yeah, but”—he tipped his head back and forth—“one with a StarLock auto-guiding system, so it’s not…cheap.”
Sam was scowling. “Define not cheap.”
“It’s a birthday present,” Aaron pronounced in that way he had where he sounded like he never stepped foot out of a country club. “Don’t be a bore.”
Sam threw up his hands as Kola attacked the box and unveiled the fact that it was, actually, a telescope. As I had always been the kind of person who admired stars the most on my back, on a blanket, I lost interest in the Meade LX600 ACF with the aforementioned StarLock very quickly. I didn’t even watch Kola set it up, but went back inside with Hannah and Sam to schlep food back out to the table.