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)
“What exactly is the difference between a trauma surgeon and a regular one?”
He explained, I listened as they talked, and it was nice. Like they were both right there. I missed them, and even though it was getting better, I really was so looking forward to Thanksgiving.
“God,” I said suddenly. “What am I going to do when you both get married and I have to share you with other parents and whole other families?”
They were both squinting at me.
“You share, go back and forth,” Hannah explained, “until we have kids. Then you have to come over to our house.”
“But what if Kola lives in California and you live in Connecticut or something. Then your father and I will only see one of you guys per holiday and––”
“No,” Hannah cut me off. “I’ll live in Chicago, and whoever I marry will too. And if we have to move for my job or his job, then you’ll come spend a month with us and then a month with Kola, and again, we’ll do the alternating-holiday thing. But you’ll both be retired by then, so again, we’ll figure it out.”
I took a breath and nodded.
“Don’t worry,” she said softly. “I can’t be without either of you any more than you can be without me. It will all work out swimmingly.”
“Can’t you just say it’ll be great?”
“I already explained this to you,” she said flatly.
“Fine,” he muttered, then to me said, “same. It will all be all right. And I know things will change when I have my own family—if I do––”
“You will,” Hannah assured him. “Somebody is going to scoop you up, Kola Kage. Mark my words.”
He grunted.
“Look at Uncle Dane. He never thought he was going to get married, and then wham, there came Aunt Aja and he fell head over heels for her.”
“It was very romantic,” I apprised my son.
“Yeah, sure, fine,” Kola agreed. “Just—call when you get there,” he told his sister.
“Will do. Love ya,” she said.
“Yeah, I love you too,” he grumbled.
She snorted and was gone, and then he was looking at me.
“What?”
“Just don’t antagonize anyone until I get home, all right?”
“I’ll do my best.”
He was quiet a moment.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m just homesick, and it’s getting worse, so I’m really glad Thanksgiving is soon. This is the longest I’ve ever been away from home, so…yeah.”
“Well, your father can’t wait for you to get home and help him with the yard.”
“That’s because he has no idea where the gasoline blower is and he’s using the crappy battery one that’s got no real power.”
Of course it was the blower. It didn’t have anything to do with Sam Kage missing his son. They were both such dorks, and God, I loved them.
“I’ll talk to you when Hannah gets here,” I told him.
“Yeah, you will,” he told me and ended the call.
Hannah got home before Sam did, having taken a cab from school, and the first thing she did was say, again, that she needed her own car. We were debating it, and Hannah had money saved to put a down payment on one, and Aaron, of course, would simply get her one if Sam would have allowed that. She had originally thrown out getting a moped, and Sam had put the kibosh on that.
When Sam walked in the door, having been dropped off, Hannah was there to hug him, and he had to squeeze her and talk to his son at the same time.
“Hold on, guys,” he said, walking over to me. “I need to hug your father.”
He was all over me then, saying how proud he was of me and how much he loved me.
“I know you love me,” I whispered, choked up, as always, by his declarations. “And I love you back. You know that.”
“I do know that.”
“I’m glad that Jillian got to understand what kind of man you truly are. I think you gave her something to think about tonight.”
“Wait. What?”
“So Jillian thought that the attention you normally give me had some other, darker nuances that she wanted to explore.”
“Who is this person? Has she lost her mind?” Kola wanted to know.
“This woman thinks my father is what, some kind of controlling psychopath?” Hannah nearly shrieked at me. “Who is she? I need to give her a piece of my mind.”
“This is why couples therapy is stupid,” Sam declared. “I told you.”
“Yes, you did,” I agreed, smiling at him.
“People just need to talk things out, for crissakes,” he grumbled.
I couldn’t very well argue.
That’s it, all. Have a wonderful rest of November and I’ll be back to report on Thanksgiving in December.
DECEMBER 2022
Hello, all, and welcome to the last He Said, he said of the year, December 2022. Cooking for Thanksgiving is, on the one hand, amazing. You make everyone’s favorites, you get all the love and appreciation, and sending home food with people is on the top of my list of best things to do. On the other side of that is shopping for all the things you need and not forgetting anything. I will tell you that I have an app on my phone, and everything that I thought “Shit, I’m an idiot,” over the year before, I put on the list so it would already be there this year.