Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Now for the news. First, George, our George, George Hunt, Hannah’s bodyguard, a man I consider a friend as he’s proven, on more than one occasion, that he would take a bullet for my child—got engaged. I’m so happy for him and Kurt, his intended. Hannah…so adorable. My daughter came home screaming. Sam was terrified, but I explained that it was happy shrieking.
“How can you tell?” he asked as she showed me the picture she took of George’s ring on her phone.
“It’s the octave,” I explained.
“Huh,” was all he said.
“Can you believe it?” she shouted at me. “Pa, he was just wearing it like it was no big deal, and I made a complete fool of myself in front of a lot of people at the event at the Field Museum when I squealed like I was having an aneurysm.”
I chuckled. She was adorable.
She put her hand over her heart. “I mean, will you look at the size of this thing? I nearly passed out. It’s gorgeous, and look at all the diamonds!”
“Duncan’s ring is bigger,” Sam commented, taking a look.
“Well, I should hope so, Dad, he’s married to a billionaire, but come on! That is a gorgeous ring. Platinum and all the carats!”
I turned to look at her. “You don’t care about diamonds. You have a tiara that’s covered in them, and you like it mostly because it keeps your hair out of your face.”
“It is handy,” she agreed. “But the point of these particular stones is that George is wearing them and wants to wear them and…ohmygod, he’s going to get married!” She ended with a whoop of joy.
I couldn’t stop smiling at her.
“I mean, that’s an act of faith, yeah? George wants to marry Kurt. He loves him. Loves. Him. When I first met him, I didn’t think that was possible.”
I hadn’t either. He had seemed emotionally distant but for my girl. Perhaps it was her, working a small crack in his heart open, that had let in the love.
Or I could have been completely wrong. I knew George a bit, but not well.
“I get to go to his wedding and he has to dance with me and hug me and I’ll get to meet his friends!”
“His wedding is not about you. You know that, right? What if he doesn’t want you there?”
She scoffed. “Not want me there? C’mon, Pa.”
“He wants her,” Sam chimed in from the kitchen, where he was getting himself a snack, clearly bored with talking about weddings and rings.
“See,” she said, gesturing at her father.
“Of course he will,” I assured her.
“And think of it,” she said with wide-eyed wonder. “I’ll see his friends and Kurt’s family, and maybe his friend Chris will come, the one who saved me.”
“I’m sure George’s wedding will be a who’s who of people on Interpol’s most wanted list,” Sam assured us. “Try not to make eye contact with anyone too long.”
“Oh, Daddy, like George would ever let anything happen to me.”
And that, of course, was true.
Now, for the New Year’s Eve party, it was a Barbie hot-pink, go-go-boots, seventies-disco-leg-warmers extravaganza. No expense was spared, and I expected Deney Terrio to pop in at any moment. Pat and Chaz came in actual clothes they owned from either the seventies or the early eighties, it was hard to tell, and since Hannah dressed her father, it looked as though all three of them matched. Harper, Kola, and Jake, who had been the Bee Gees for Halloween a few years back, reprised those costumes, much to loud applause from the room when they walked in. I went as Malibu Ken, Aaron showed up as Sugar Daddy Ken, and Duncan as a truly uninspired Police Ken, which wasn’t a thing but who cared? He looked more like the guy from The Village People with how tight everything was. I enjoyed watching Aaron keeping an eye on his husband. He was adorable when he was protective.
I had no idea that seeing my husband in a truly horrible yellow shirt with small red boxes all over it, a pattern that was certain to cause seizures—open nearly to his navel with several gold-plated chains on—tucked into bell bottoms and chunky high-heel gold lamé shoes would have been quite the turn-on it was. The thing was, since he was dressed so ridiculously, he fully embraced the night and let himself go as he so seldom did. He even danced. Badly. So very badly. He did the Hustle and the Bump and several others I forgot the names of, much to the absolute blinding joy of his daughter. Her smile could have powered a small city with how pleased she was with him.
Dane came in the John Travolta suit from Saturday Night Fever, and Aja was in some off-the-shoulder white sheer dress that she looked stunning in. Pat’s wife, Ersi, was in a red sequin two-piece where the top was a halter and the bottoms were bell-bottom pants. The platform shoes looked painful to walk in. Steph, Chaz’s wife, had on a flowing rainbow skirt and a corset top and so much Lucite. Every piece of jewelry was big and plastic and as many colors as the skirt. I was concerned that she had been holding out on me and these things were actually still in her possession. I was quite relieved to find out that she had picked it all up at thrift stores, which they would be donated back to.