Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“You all right?”
He nodded and smiled at me. “I’m glad Hannah and Jake made up. I didn’t want to have to sit down and talk to them.”
This was a surprise. “You were going to do that?”
“Well, yeah. It’s not fair to you and Dad. I mean, I don’t care. They can be crappy to each other all day long, it’s fine with me. The two of them not talking makes the house so much quieter. But it’s hard on you to have rancor in your favorite place, and Dad needs calm at home to combat the chaos he deals with on a daily basis.”
“That’s very insightful of you.”
“Hey, I can be deep.”
I chuckled and he grinned.
“Happy fake-love day, Pa. If you think about it, love did triumph, the friend kind, and there will be peace in your home once more.”
“That’s very true,” I agreed as Sam came into the kitchen.
Kola gave his father a pat and then went back to take his place on the couch beside his passed-out friend.
“Hey,” Sam husked, moving up in front of me and taking my face in his hands. “Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you, you know.”
I nodded, suddenly unable to speak. My husband was home safe with me, my kids were all safe as well, what better gift was there than that?
He tilted my head up, and I lifted for the kiss, loving that I was always his valentine and his kisses made my toes curl every time.
The back door opened with a creak, and we both turned to see Harper leaning in, covered in all different colors of something. I wasn’t sure if it was paint or powder, hard to tell. What I could clearly see was that he was all hues of the rainbow.
“Kola!” he yelled.
Fun to watch my son bolt by us in the kitchen with Jake following hot on his heels. Harper so seldom yelled, his two best friends responded quickly when he did.
“Dad,” Hannah called from the living room. “Where are you?”
Sam kissed me on the forehead. “Make sure you tell me what that’s about,” he said with a chuckle, leaving me to return to his daughter.
Going to the door, I saw Harper standing on the back deck shivering in nothing but a towel as Kola collected his clothes in a garbage bag and Jake rubbed his head with a towel that was turning lots of pretty colors.
“Hey, buddy,” I greeted the third musketeer. “How’s your night going?”
The way he shook his head made me smile. “Mr. Harcourt, you’ll never believe the night I had.”
But I could, and would.
That’s all, everyone. I hope you have a lovely rest of February, and I’ll see you in March.
MARCH 2022
Hello, all, and welcome to He Said, he said, March 2022. Now, as most of you probably remember, Valentine’s Day was a bit chaotic for the Kage-Harcourt home. Well, it turned out, as weird as it was for the rest of us, fraught with fire and a broken bone for Hannah, Harper had the weirdest night of all.
“I really don’t remember accepting more than one invitation to a party,” Harper told us when he was inside, changed into sweats and a long-sleeve T-shirt of Kola’s and a pair of Jake’s socks. “But I guess I did, and do you have any idea how weird it is when that happens?”
Apparently, at the party, you and your person went together through a gauntlet of people armed with powder paint. Harper had been pulled through three times in quick succession, and only when he was absolutely all the colors of the rainbow had someone asked the question of why that was.
“They were all so pissed, but, I mean, I don’t remember messing up.”
Kola appeared skeptical; the squint said it all. “Who do you think you were there with?”
He didn’t appear certain.
Jake was shaking his head, having woken up from a dead sleep when Harper yelled from the door. “You’re just as bad as he is,” he announced, sounding very judgmental. “Neither one of you guys can remember names or even what people look like.”
“That’s not true,” Kola argued. “I know names.”
Jake crossed his arms. “Oh yeah? What’s the name of your chemistry lab partner?”
The thing about that was, Kola was still doing college remotely. It was all on Zoom, or whatever they were using, and everyone had to be there so the professor could see their faces, but most importantly, all the names were on the screen.
“What?” Kola asked, trying to get Jake to repeat the question so he could have a moment more to ponder.
“Don’t say what,” Jake said with a sneer. “You have no clue what that girl’s name is, and you’ve been looking at it since last September.”
He glanced at Harper, who nodded. He looked over at me next. “Do you know her name?”