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)
“There it is,” Jake said with a yawn.
It was never to be forgotten that my son was a Libra. He had to explore every angle of every situation, weight the facts, in his head, and then, and only then, would whoever he was talking to have all the information he felt they should have.
“But I do think, at the end, that Finn was running on adrenaline at that point.”
“Of course,” I agreed. “And then the police came.”
“Yeah,” Kola said, “and then me and Finn went to the hospital.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” I asked, worried that he hadn’t wanted to.
“I didn’t want you to worry for nothing,” he said, leaning against me as I wrapped my arms around him. “And there was no reason for you to waste your night there.”
“Heaven forbid there is a next time, but if there is, please call me.”
“Yessir, I will,” he teased me.
“Did Finn stay?”
“Yeah, even though I told him to go a hundred times.”
“But he didn’t.”
“No, he felt guilty.”
“You think?” I asked as the doorbell rang.
Dobby started barking, and everyone yelled at him because really, for such a small dog, he could make a lot of noise.
As one of the two people in the house who could move without jostling their head and causing pain, I answered the door and found Finn there looking as crisp as ever in a button-down shirt under a shawl cardigan, jeans, and boots that had seen better days. He instantly removed his aviators, and unlike my son, his face was bruise-free.
“Finn,” I said.
Quick smile for me. “Good afternoon, Mr. Harcourt, may I see Kola?”
“Of course,” I said, stepping aside so he and the brown bag with handles he was carrying could come in.
“Hey,” Kola greeted him with a grin as Finn crossed the room to him. “I just now got around to the tale of our epic adventure.”
Finn nodded, moving quickly to reach my son, putting the bag down on our massive mahogany coffee table and then taking a seat on the edge of it, across from Kola, so he could see his face. “Well, that looks worse than it did last night.”
Kola shrugged.
“Next time—I mean, God willing there won’t be a next time—but if there is, I’m staying and making sure the ice goes on the face.”
Funny that both of us had basically said the same thing. I wanted a heads-up, Finn wanted to stay.
“It did,” Kola said with a chuckle. “Sort of.”
Finn’s brows furrowed.
“Are you in trouble for breaking that guy’s jaw?” Hannah asked.
He didn’t look away from Kola, instead reached out to take hold of his chin as Sam had earlier, and lifted it up to check Kola’s throat. “No,” he answered my daughter. “He attacked me and Kola, so I’m good.”
“Good,” Hannah said softly.
“I’m all right,” Kola told him. “I just have a wicked headache that I can’t seem to shake. I took too much medicine, though.”
“Maybe we should go back to the hospital and have them do another head CT.”
“Or,” Kola said, squinting at him and getting up, “I need another hydrator because I drank too much and I’m hungover.”
After picking up the bag from behind him, Finn followed my son to the kitchen.
“What’s in the bag?” Kola asked. “Is it for me?”
“Yeah, I—I made my mother’s soda bread with a little molasses and Guinness, and oats so it’s a bit healthy, and her chicken soup.”
“Oh, man, that’s nice,” Kola murmured. “Lemme smell it.”
Finn put his keys and phone on the counter, then unpacked the bag for Kola, glancing at him several times as he got the bread out first, since it was on top, and then pulled the container of soup out and put it on the counter, opening it slowly.
“Oh, Pa, come smell this.”
I joined them quickly in the kitchen, Finn watching Kola, not me, as I stood over the thick-looking soup in, I was guessing, a brand-new piece of plastic ware from the looks of it.
“If it tastes half as good as it smells, I think you say thank you,” I told my son.
“Thank you.” Kola smiled at him, and I heard it then, Finn’s quick catch of breath.
“Kola thought you felt guilty and that’s why you stayed with him at the hospital,” I said, because that was how I was. I meddled.
“What?” he said, and then looked at Kola. “No. I told you that last night. I didn’t feel guilty, I felt thankful that you were there to step in.”
“Okay, grateful, then, is that better?” Kola teased him.
He made a sound, somewhere between a whine and groan, and I stepped back quickly from where I was between them as Finn reached for Kola, hesitated, and then scowled as he slipped a hand around the side of his neck. “I wasn’t grateful either. I mean, I was…grateful,” he said as I kept walking backwards. “But I—I wanted to stay with you last night because I just didn’t feel right leaving and… I sat in the car a long time.”