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)
Everyone laughed and that was good.
“A bit of a carnivore, are you?” Amber teased him.
“Just a bit,” he grumbled. “And also, Jory makes, all his dishes, with the freshest ingredients, and that ain’t this. I’m a bit of a snob about it since my husband’s been making it for me a long time.”
Slate smiled at him. “You are kind of a snob about it.”
Sam shrugged, everyone laughed again, and the others ate my lasagna, which I got rave reviews about.
Dane appeared then, walking up, smiling at everyone and then turning to Sam and me. “It’s not even remotely possible for me to remain here another moment.”
Which meant he was bored, annoyed for some reason, and bordering on becoming homicidal. For as long as I’d known him, one of Dane’s only flaws was that he never suffered in silence. Everyone knew when he was either uncomfortable or done. And at the moment, done seemed to be the thing that he was.
“The lasagna at our station is inedible,” he said, beginning his list. “I have people asking me for stock tips, which I do not have, and Aja reminded one of the people at our area that I am, in fact, married.” He huffed out a breath, and Sam cracked a smile before he turned to me. “I’m thinking we’re done here, yeah?”
It turned out that Remy was thinking of becoming a marshal, so Sam told him to call him the following week and Remy could come to his office, and they could have a talk. Remy was smiling like Sam gave him a million dollars. I told Carwood and Slate that we would have dinner soon, and then I mentioned to Amber that I would give Hannah her number, and she was very appreciative. Apparently, getting in good with my kid could be helpful. I was a big fan of networking.
Sam and I walked over to thank Bethany for a lovely evening but regretted to inform her that the Harcourts and the Kages were out.
“I hope you had a good time,” she told me. “But are you certain you want to leave before the chocolate fondue?”
Sam simply walked away.
“Oh dear, someone not a fan of fondue?”
I smiled at her. “My husband prefers pie.”
“Well, of course, doesn’t everyone?"
Outside on the street, I said to Aja, “Did someone actually hit on Dane?”
She turned to look at her husband. “Is that what you said happened?”
He shrugged.
“She wrote her number on a napkin for him,” she informed Sam and me. “I mean, I’m right there. Are you kidding?”
As we started walking to our cars, Sam and Dane leading, Aja and I arm and arm behind them, I said, “He just passed the napkin to you, didn’t he?”
“Of course he did, and she was embarrassed, and I didn’t show her husband, and I’m certain she didn’t want him to know, but we were there as couples. Why don’t people respect these things and think?”
“Well, this guy Luc in our group—just not thinking at all.”
“Tell me.”
It was fun to have the rest of the evening with Aja and Dane and watch my serious and proper brother cut his burger in half and then shove it in his mouth. Watching Dane eat things that weren’t served on fancy china was always fun.
On the way home, Sam suddenly took hold of my hand. And while he always did, he held tighter than normal.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, I just…it’s important that—I mean, I don’t tell you enough how lucky I know I am. And I never want you to think that you’re not the most important person in my life.”
“Oh, Sam, I––”
“You do a lot of things for me, so many tiny things in the course of a day, and I appreciate that.”
“I really do know that.”
“It’s like most of those people have no idea what béchamel is, but I do, because you make sure that whenever you make something for me, that it’s always the best it can be.”
My eyes started to fill.
“You think of me in a hundred different ways, and I want you to know that I see that.” He took a breath. “Always know that you mean the world to me.”
My husband loved me, and for that I was eternally grateful. It was because little things spoke for big ones, like giving another person words of praise and love or sending chocolate and flowers because you wanted them to know they were loved. Small gestures reinforced the bigger picture, which was love in all its many forms, as perfect and imperfect as it was.
“I love you too, Sam,” I told him, and he smiled because he knew. Of course he did. It was there in everything I did.
That’s it, all. Have a wonderful rest of March, and I’ll get us caught up in April when I’m not feeling so verklempt over my husband.