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)
“Of course,” Hannah assured him. “Jake is the hammer.”
“What ham—oh, I see it.”
“Tell me about the bridge,” Wick wanted to know.
Kola started explaining the rules, because there were simply too many to absorb all at once. Some you had to learn as you played, like how the city planning commissioner needed to be paid, how the bridge was purchased each round, and if no one bought it, then the person who had it last could repurchase it and place it, that time, wherever they wanted. How the ferry took you from one side of the board to the other, how important the slide was because you could be dumped onto a property you didn’t want to be on over and over.
“Are you serious?” Wick sounded horrified.
“You people take Monopoly really seriously,” Finn commented, glancing from Kola to Hannah and back again.
“Wait until you play Uno with my dad,” Kola said with a waggle of his eyebrows.
“I don’t know if I want to,” Finn informed my son.
“There’s a song,” Hannah told him, and as soon as the words came out of her mouth, Kola and Jake started “Pick It Up” to the tune of “Lick It Up” by Kiss.
“Oh dear God.” Wick sounded even more horrified than he had the first time.
Sam came home just as the Monopoly money was getting divvied up, and Finn was asking why they all had so much more than the normal fifteen hundred. In fact it was double that at three thousand. Also, there seemed to be quite a bit of cash in the bank’s coffers.
“How many packs of money do you guys have?” Finn wanted to know.
“A lot,” Hannah answered him. “But you need extra when you’re bribing—I mean paying—the city planning commissioner.”
Wick kept glancing around like he was being punked.
Sam sat down and ordered pie, which his daughter immediately went to get him. Kola delivered a small glass of milk and a cup of coffee.
“You like my crown, there?” Sam asked Wick.
“I’m terrified to play,” he told Sam honestly.
Harper put his Tesla coil attached to a base down beside the dog that Wick had chosen. “If you’re brave enough to play again, maybe Jake will make you a skull to use.”
Wick turned to Jake. “A skull would be perfect, since I’m getting my master’s in anthropology.”
Jake shrugged. “We’ll see how ya do, man.”
Finn leaned into Kola. “What about for me? You got something picked out?”
“A knight in shining armor, of course.”
Finn’s groan was soft as he put his face down into his folded arms. “You’re killing me, Kage. Do you even know?”
Kola put his hand in Finn’s hair and massaged his scalp for a moment before he directed Finn to sit up. “You gotta roll to see if you can buy a skyscraper.”
Finn lifted his head. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You’ve got houses, hotels, and there are six skyscrapers, but getting one, that’s just luck.”
I loved the way Finn looked over at Sam, who grinned at him. “It’s just like real life, son.”
“That part and having to pay the planning commissioner, you can blame Uncle Aaron for. He gets a little cutthroat when we play this,” Hannah told him.
“A little cutthroat?” I asked her, walking over behind Sam and wrapping my arms around his neck as I leaned in close.
Sam turned his head and kissed my cheek before going back to counting his money.
“You don’t play, Mr. Harcourt?” Finn asked.
“Oh no. I don’t have the killer instinct that’s needed. I’ll wait for Uno.”
“Killer instinct,” Finn repeated, turning to Kola.
“Yeah, watch yourself now, and remember…there’s no friends in Monopoly.”
“I––”
“And your mother didn’t get her wires crossed earlier,” he told him. “This, with us, is exactly what she thought.”
Finn’s mouth fell open, and I smiled at my son, who met my gaze and gave me a slight nod that I understood perfectly. He didn’t have to tell me that he appreciated me not asking questions or making a big deal about him and Finn. I knew.
“Sometimes even when you think you’ve got your wires crossed, you really don’t.”
“Unless you’re the FBI,” Sam grumbled and Kola chuckled and Jake let out a war whoop that startled everyone.
“One of the skyscrapers is mine,” Jake said with an evil cackle, and I saw the snake eyes that he’d rolled.
“You need a two?” Wick whined.
Hannah made a face at him. “Of course. What else would it be?”
“And you have to use both dice?”
“Where’s the challenge if you don’t use two dice?”
“I hate this already,” he said flatly.
“Then you’re really gonna hate how we settle Catan,” Harper told him. “But we don’t play with the Nerf guns anymore. Mr. Kage is too good of a shot.”
“Nerf guns?” Finn sounded a bit overwhelmed.
Wick turned to me thinking, I was betting, that I was the only sane one there.
“Uno is my game.”
“I can see why.”