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)
“How do you know that?”
He squinted at her. “Hannah mentioned that she was worried about her cousin, so I checked on the girl. It’s one of the things I do. I troubleshoot Hannah’s life.”
“Thank you,” I told him.
“Yes, thank you,” Aja said, sounding a bit dazed.
“No worries,” he replied, and then left us, crossing the room to Kurt, who was talking to Michael and his date.
“He’s very thorough,” Dylan commented to Aja and me.
“Yeah he—yeah,” Aja agreed, looking better than she had all night. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to find and speak to my son.”
Kola was with Robert and Portia, and the way his hands were moving, he was explaining something important to them and they were both riveted.
Sam joined me and Dylan after a few minutes. “Who was that guy who came in and then left? Who invited him?”
“No one,” I assured him. “George took care of it.”
He glanced at Dylan, who smiled at him and then back at me. “Okay. Did either of you talk to Michael’s new girl? I wanted to hear what you thought.”
“Ask George,” Dylan suggested. “I bet he knows all about her.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” I told him, and leaned sideways to wrap my arms around him.
It was late by the time everyone left. Hannah had walked George and Kurt out earlier in the evening, and had turned into him and hugged him tight. Kurt shook his head when George just stood there stiffly, looking at her like she was gross. I saw Kurt mouth the words, “Hug her,” and George rolled his eyes and did. It wasn’t that George didn’t adore Hannah, but she was also like the little sister he never had and, I suspected, had never wanted. But he was good and stuck with her now, for the rest of his life, so he had to make the best of it. When he hugged her really tight, I saw her smile. She clearly adored him, even though, as she said when she walked back in, he was a bully.
“He can’t say who I can be friends with,” she said, but she didn’t seem to care about saying any more on the topic when Jake took hold of her hand and had her take a seat next to him on the couch. Apparently, he had pictures for her to see.
Harper wished us all a merry Christmas, hugged everyone, even Dane and Aja and Sam’s parents, and then said he’d see us on Monday, on the twenty-sixth, and would bring sweet potato pie. Every year his mother made me one special, and it was a treat I looked forward to.
Aja looked happy when she left, and she even loaned Dallas her coat to get from the house to their car. Dane had no idea what was happening, but everyone in his family was happy, so he was as well. They took lots of pad Thai with them.
Everyone else was gone an hour later, and I told Sam’s folks that we’d be over in the afternoon like usual, and Sam informed them that he and Hannah and, surprisingly, Jake, would follow them to Midnight Mass. Kola was a bit sniffly, and he wanted him to stay home.
It was Kola and I cleaning up, loading the dishwasher, and carrying out trash. When my son came running back into the house, I asked him if it was cold outside.
“That’s beyond cold,” he informed me, checking his phone. “It’s negative one now. What the hell is that? Why do we live here?”
“You’re the one who wants to return to Chicago,” I teased him.
“Yeah, I do,” he said, walking over and hugging me.
I hugged him back, as tight as I could, overwhelmed that he and his friends were all coming home. I was really lucky.
“I was so happy walking in here the other day,” he confessed, easing away from me. “I mean, it all looks exactly the same as it always does. Same decorations, same stockings, same ornaments, but you add stuff too, and I love the tree you and Dad picked, but I was sad too that I didn’t get to go with you to get it.”
“Well, next year you’ll be here, so we’ll all go together.”
His eyes filled suddenly. “I’m looking forward to that, and I can’t wait to be home.”
I couldn’t either. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he said, yawning. “I’ll bet you money that Dad, Hannah, and Jake all fell asleep in church.”
I looked at Kola. “What was that about? Jake going to mass? Since when?”
Kola grimaced. “Jake might have another reason for wanting to come home.”
“Oh?”
“He missed Hannah.”
“But there were so many other girls,” I pointed out.
“Yeah. And maybe there were so many because he couldn’t have the one he wants more than anything.”
“No.”
Kola shrugged. “I dunno. I’m not getting in the middle of that. That’s their mess.”