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)
The food was amazing. We got a charcuterie plate, duck pastrami sliders, and brussels sprouts. Hannah got mac ’n cheese and ate the jalapeno hush puppies that came with Gavin’s catfish. I had a Cubano, Jenny got the Cajun pork dog, and Diego had something with smoked turkey which he let me have a bite of. It was all so good I didn’t want to leave.
The company was as excellent as the meal, and they had us in stitches over places they’d stayed, riding scary trains, having too much gear and sometimes not enough, Diego’s love of warm, fuzzy socks, and Jenny’s of toilet paper. Gavin was a big fan of his satellite phone and really missed having food delivered the last time he was in Ankara. I adored them all.
I wasn’t surprised, on the way back, that Hannah presented the ajoite crystal to Gavin.
“Oh, absolutely not,” he told her, hands up, not about to take it from her.
“But you’re dependent on grant money, and it’s not actually Jenny’s shop in Savannah, it’s her mom and dad’s, so that’s not giving you any influx of funds. And Wellesley College isn’t just handing out money for you guys to fly all over the world.”
“This is true,” Jenny agreed.
Gavin shook his head. “That’s your find, Hannah, and a brilliant one it was.”
“But Diego saw it first,” she told him. “And he’s going to work on trusting his gut from now on.”
“I am,” he confirmed to Gavin, “and God help you when I buy something really stupid.”
Gavin chuckled and turned to me.
I nodded. “She wants you to have it.”
He looked back to Hannah. “I promise to find it a very good home where it will be cared for and loved.”
“Why would you make me that promise, sir, when you don’t believe in the power of crystals? You don’t have to say it because you know I’m a witch.”
Of course she’d told them. She told everyone.
“But I do want to find someone who will admire and cherish the piece,” he promised her. “That’s important to me as well.”
“Okay, then,” she sighed, and held it out to him.
He took it and then looked around.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m just gonna put something worth four grand in my back pocket? That seems wrong.”
We all laughed at him, and Hannah started explaining how the last time she was in one of her favorite jewelry stores in Chicago a new guy tried to sell her green tourmaline earrings and said they were emeralds.
Diego gasped, and Jenny slapped her hand over her mouth.
“He did not,” Gavin whispered, sounding horrified.
“He did!” she told him. “And everyone can tell the difference.”
“It’s true,” he agreed.
Gavin insisted on taking us for beignets at Café Du Monde, and how Hannah could put the three that came in the bag away was beyond me. One was all I could manage. I enjoyed watching the others try and keep the powdered sugar off their clothes. It was a losing battle.
I got a text from Sam saying he was stuck until after dinner, and I told him that was fine and had Gavin hold my phone—his arms were the longest—and take a picture of the five of us. I told him all about our amazing lunch and our very nice new friends. He must have been busy, as I got no response back.
We stopped at a lovely place then, sat out on a balcony, and the adults had drinks and Hannah had a lemonade and a garden salad.
“She eats a lot,” Gavin said, shoved up next to me, arm around the back of my chair. It was a tiny balcony, so we were all basically on top of each other. “Where does she put it?”
“I have no idea,” I told him, and he gave my shoulders a squeeze as he laughed.
We walked to Jackson Square afterwards, looked at some art, then strolled over to the French Market, climbed the stairs and took a peek at the river, and then walked around and looked at all the different stalls, and finally went through the Artist’s Co-op and looked at more art. It was great to do nothing.
I’d forgotten how fun it was to be out with friends. The only thing that would have made it better being if Kola was there telling me to put things down that I looked at and explaining why something amazing was worth having but anything else was just clutter, and of course, Sam. My husband had a great capacity for window shopping as long as I held his hand.
I whimpered suddenly, missing him, and Gavin, who was walking with his arm around me for some reason, turned to check that I was all right. But he was too close, and so I stepped sideways. Instantly, though, he clutched me tight.
“Careful, you nearly took a step wrong a second ago and would’ve rolled your ankle.”