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)
“Fine,” Jake grumbled. “I’ll do decorations. But I say where the cinnamon stick goes this year, and the green salt.”
“Yes, dear,” she agreed.
Green salt for prosperity and abundance, I knew that part. Black for protection and banishing, blue for protection and cleansing, and I was pretty sure pink was for romance, but Hannah never added that one, so I wasn’t certain. I would have to remember to ask.
In the kitchen, my husband was looking for something.
“You can’t possibly be hungry,” I teased him.
“I didn’t get dessert,” he grumbled, leaning over, moving things around.
I had a moment to admire the way his T-shirt clung to his biceps and stretched across his chest, the way his shorts rode up revealing the hard muscles in his thighs when he crouched down, and the veins in his forearms when he lifted the milk.
“Well?”
“Sorry, what?”
His grin was filthy. “You didn’t hear a word I said.”
“I did,” I lied.
He chuckled and stood up, closing the door to the refrigerator and taking a step into my space, looming over me so I had to tip my head back to hold his gorgeous slate-blue gaze. “You were checking me out, and your brain went on the fritz for a second, didn’t it?”
“I—what? No.”
The scoff was loud, and he grabbed me, one hand on my back, the other on my ass, bending to kiss me but stopping right before our lips connected. “I know what I want for dessert.”
I groaned. He laughed and then kissed me soundly.
“Get a room,” Kola whined, walking into the kitchen. “Some of us have to eat in here.”
So we did.
Have a great rest of September, all, and happy Mabon. I’ll see you in October.
OCTOBER 2023
Hello, all, and welcome to the October 2023 edition of He Said, he said.
First off, fall is finally here. And even though the temperatures are still not steadily crisp as I’d like to see them, we’re getting there. I actually unpacked my sweaters. My daughter always puts away her summer clothes with some dried bay leaves and sprigs of rosemary so they remember the sun while they’re in storage. I like that.
First an update from last month: Reign Security is no longer doing business in Oak Park or anywhere in Chicago. I haven’t checked to see if they’re still in the great state of Illinois, but certainly not anywhere near us. As predicted, Kanti’s mother threatened the company with a whopper of a lawsuit and they disappeared. Dena Garber, who owns the house the people were in who made the trouble for my daughter and Kanti, brought over an enormous fruit basket for Hannah to say how sorry and mortified she was. The Morrows got one just like ours. Hannah hugged Dena tight and told her she knew that the way she was treated was no reflection on her. All has returned to normal on our street.
This is going to sound very cloak-and-dagger, but sometimes things happen that impact me but I don’t know about them until much later. Like, years ago, I didn’t know that my husband was looking for a group that had gotten hold of some VX gas and were threatening to hurt the public. My husband caught the leader and saved his life by jumping off the side of a building. I didn’t learn about any of that until much time had passed. Hard to say if that’s the best thing, I mean for me personally, because knowing can be terrifying and knowing places a burden on others that they don’t need. So I understand why I’m out of the loop; I just haven’t decided how I feel about that. At times I watch the news and think, Sam never said anything about that. But to question him…when he doesn’t volunteer information, it means I’m not supposed to ask. Other times, when I’m made aware of things, I sort of wish I didn’t know.
For instance…
Last Thursday I was walking around the house at four in the afternoon thinking, the house is so quiet now that Hannah went back to school. The boys moved out and went back to school, so they were out before her. What was nice was that I would see them on the weekend, as we had to go to the orchard and pick pumpkins. Two were needed to carve, and then I had to have the Cinderella ones and other assorted gourds and pie ones and the itty-bitty small ones to put out on the porch, the steps, and the railing. There were fall lights that needed to go up as well, the bats with the glowing green eyes, and the masks for Day of the Dead. The spring and summer holidays, Easter, Fourth of July, I wasn’t big on decorating for. There were wreaths for the front door, flags, things like that, but it was never a two-man job. Fall, which was Halloween and Thanksgiving—that was a house makeover.