Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Oh, that is good,” Naomi agreed, picking at her chicken pasta dish. “The cherry is excellent, as well as the key lime.”
“The key lime is my favorite,” I told her.
“Man after my own heart,” she said, beaming at me, and then suddenly jolted in her chair, startling all of us. “Ohmygod, Jory. You’re Dane Harcourt’s brother,” she said breathlessly.
“Yes, I am,” I said proudly.
“I love that man,” she announced. “I mean—I love…” She sucked in a breath. “A year ago, I was attacked in the parking lot of my doctor’s office, and this guy, he…he was angry about my reporting, my politics, my op-ed pieces, about me being a lesbian, about me—I mean, total incel, and he had a hammer and he broke my arm and––”
“Then there was Dane,” I finished for her before she hyperventilated.
She nodded, turning to Anika, who, on cue, passed the tissues back over.
Kimberly leaned forward, and I noted that her eyes were welling too. “I drove to his office to thank him, and she wanted to thank him on air, but he just—I mean, he gave me a hug and said it was his honor to save a treasure like my wife.”
The tissue pack was passed to Kimberly then, and Naomi was back to looking at me, her eyes puffy now.
“I was so scared, and he…” She nodded quickly. “He just…took care of it and saved me and stayed until the police arrived and then talked to…fuck—shit, sorry.”
We all laughed, and she smiled through her tears.
“He gave a statement that was so clear and concise, and when it came time for them to hear the case, it was just pleaded out because Dane Harcourt…testifying, the way he looks with his voice and… can you imagine? I mean, the guy didn’t stand a chance. At all.”
“Is he in jail?”
“He is,” she breathed out. “He didn’t plan to kill me, he was just there, in the parking lot, looking for someone, and so…nine years is what he’s doing.”
“It sounds just like Dane,” I said, turning to Mark. “Though again, he’s also an ass.”
“He is,” Mark agreed. “But he’s also fairly amazing as well.”
“Do you have a picture?” Anika asked me.
“I have a picture,” Naomi said, exhaling sharply, pulling out her phone, scrolling a bit, and then passing it over to her.
“Oh wow,” Anika said, looking at her husband. “You neglected to mention the part where he looks like a nineteen forties movie star.”
“Does he?” Mark didn’t sound convinced.
The phone was passed to me, and there was Dane, wearing his signature scowl and an Italian bespoke suit that fit him like a glove. Always and forever he would look like he walked off the cover of a magazine. He was that perfect. Even aging, he was perfect.
“Oh, Jory,” Bindi said when the phone reached her. “You and your brother look nothing alike.”
“No? You don’t see it?”
She laughed along with me.
They cut the cake. There was no smearing in faces, because who did that? And then there was the dancing. The couple danced for the first time, then father-daughter, mother-son, and then the parents and more dancing, and Sam complained that he was still hungry because the steak was a small filet and there had been, like, maybe four baby potatoes.
“I’m starving,” he whimpered.
“We should go to the diner and eat, then order the pie to go.”
Drew cleared his throat.
Sam glared at him.
“Well?”
Sam’s groan sounded like he was dying. A less stalwart man would have been hurt, but I understood then that Drew had spent more than a few days here and there with Sam Kage. He knew him, and how his mind worked. So he just sat there and waited for Sam to invite him, and his lovely wife, with us.
“Fine. Can we go now?”
“Yes,” Drew patronized him. “We can go now.”
“Anyone else?”
“I want pie,” Anika said, and Mark smiled at her.
“Yes, please, on the pie.” Naomi smiled at all of us. “And perhaps I could get a Philly cheesesteak while we’re there too, because that chicken was terrible.”
“And the chili-cheese fries,” Sam suggested to her.
“Oh…yes, please.”
“Is the Philly cheesesteak good?” Bindi asked Sam.
“It’s incredible,” he assured her. “They make it there with the thin-sliced ribeye steak and cheese, and they even put it on an amoroso roll.”
“And they grill the onions too,” Naomi said with the same whimper Sam had given me moments ago. “Let’s go.”
We all stood up and left the table, waved at the bride and groom on the dance floor, and made our way to the door, where the two fathers were standing together. We waved, and once we were outside, found out that all of them had a car service.
“You guys are unbelievable,” Sam groused as he walked everyone to his monster car where, inside, they were all easily seated. “And I’m not driving you all home.”