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)
“Why?”
“She likes me to sit with her because I wear a hat and so does she. If I’m not there, she’s normally the only one in a hat.”
“She could just not wear one,” I suggested.
“You know there’s a whole song about an Easter bonnet, right?”
“Since this isn’t logical, I’m going to let it go.”
“I think that’s for the best,” she assured me. “I want you and Dad at church with me, not at the vigil, okay?”
“Of course.”
“Good,” she said with a happy sigh.
A week later, on the Tuesday before Easter, Sam called me at work to tell me that his mother needed him to go to a wake with her, as a friend of hers had just lost her mother. She had passed away, and there was a visitation that evening at her son’s house in Berwyn. Regina wanted Sam and me to go with her.
“I have no problem going,” I explained to my husband when I got home and was changing into my suit. “But why does she want us there?”
He was changing and kept his back to me and didn’t turn around.
“Hello?”
“She’s a bad person, that’s why.”
“Samuel Thomas Kage!” I said, aghast. “You’re talking about your mother.”
“Who you know, as well as I do, can be petty as hell.”
I sat down on my bed and watched him change, which, I’ll be honest, is always a treat, but I also needed to get the whole story. “Start from the beginning.”
The dress pants for his navy Burberry suit were on, but he wasn’t zipped up or tucked in, and his shirt was on, but that was as far as he’d gotten. His hair was damp and tousled from the shower, and really, I was a fan. He looked ravishable.
“What?”
“What?” I repeated quickly, knowing instantly that I’d said that last part out loud and was trying to cover.
His grunt was all smug male because he knew, of course, that I was, as usual, caught in his web. “Did you say I was ravishable?”
“No,” I lied.
“Is that even a word?”
“I’m not sure,” I said as he walked over to me. “And you need to go back over there and finish dressing,” I told him as he cupped my chin, tilting my head up. “We have to go,” I protested weakly as he bent and kissed me.
I had to put my hands all over him. Had to. And that was the end of us being on time.
“Why are you so late?” Regina asked as we walked into her friend’s house in La Grange.
“It’s Jory’s fault,” Sam assured her quickly, throwing me right under the bus.
“Oh, that can’t be true,” she said, taking my hand and squeezing it.
Sam rolled his eyes.
I smiled wide, knowing, as usual, that even if she ever did get mad at me—which was a long shot to begin with—I’d be forgiven in moments. I was her favorite. She liked me better than all her kids, including Sam, so I was golden.
“All right,” she said, leading me forward. “Let’s see if we can find Evie.”
On the way over he’d explained that Evelyn, Evie, Shapiro and Regina, had been frenemies for a long time. Their children had grown up together, and apparently Sam and David, that was Evie’s son, had been inseparable throughout high school.
“You’ve never mentioned him,” I remarked to Sam.
He shrugged. “We lost touch after graduation. He went off to college, and I went into the Marine Corps.”
It was a simple explanation of the facts, not at all like my husband. “And?” I delved.
“And nothing.”
“You’re a lying liar who lies,” I teased him.
His groan was long.
“Tell me.”
He was quiet, and I actually started to worry because it was so unlike him.
“Sam,” I insisted.
He shrugged. “Okay, fine. So when Kola was eight, and B was six, there was an open house at school that you didn’t make because you got pneumonia. You remember that?”
“I recall the pneumonia. I don’t remember missing an open house.”
“Well, you did, and I was alone, and David was there with his wife, Kenzie, and it was really great to see him and meet her, and we made plans to get together the following week.”
“I have no memory of these people.”
“No, you wouldn’t. Because later that night, David heard that I was married to a man, and Kenzie found me before I left and said that she was sorry, but they wouldn’t be calling.”
“Because you were married to a man?”
“Yes.”
“And your old friend didn’t have the balls to tell you?”
“Apparently, it was too uncomfortable for him. Later, I found out from my mother that David told his mother that he was so disgusted over me having a man for a husband that if he could, he would have kicked the shit out of me. That was how strongly he felt about it.”
I reached over and took his hand, which he instantly squeezed. “I’m sorry, love.”