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)
“I do,” she answered, “but I’m not crazy about Avis Kim, as she’s the one that my ex-husband left me for.”
Uh-oh.
“And that’s Grant Endicott, my ex, right there.”
There was a silence then.
“Well, the good news is you’re happy, you’re getting remarried, and he’s happy dating a ballerina,” Sam said to her. “Yes?”
“I––”
“Yes?” he barked at her.
“Oh,” she said and turned to me.
“I know, he gets like that when he’s trying to drive a point home.”
“With what, a knife?”
I grinned at her. “You’re funny. You’re gonna make it in this family, kid.”
“I can be—I make assumptions.”
“It’s all right,” Hannah said, breezing back into the room in a Barbie T-shirt, matching pink sweatpants, and pink Ugg slippers. “We all do. There’s a precedent.”
I nodded. “Nothing bad happened, and there was no property damage involved.”
“Thank goodness,” she said with a sigh before turning back to Sam.
“So?”
“So?” she repeated.
“Not to be sticking my nose into your business––”
“Too late,” Hannah quipped, going to the refrigerator to see what was there.
“But did the lawyer cheat, then leave, or was there no cheating, he left, and then there was the prima ballerina?”
“The second one. No cheating.”
“What’d he say?” I pressed her.
“Jory,” Michael scolded me.
“You get on me, but Sam has carte blanche?”
“It’s because you’re used to Dad being the alpha in your dynamic, right?” Hannah asked her uncle. “I get it. Kola can just look at me sometimes and I cave.”
“No, I––”
Sandy cleared her throat. “Grant told me he had feelings for someone else and said we should divorce, because a happily married man shouldn’t ever be emotionally or mentally tempted at any time. That’s how he knew it was over.”
“Why are you telling him that?” Michael asked her.
She threw up her hands in defeat. “This is going to be my family, is it not?”
“It is,” he said, and his smile told me he had it bad for Sandra Dunning.
“Then why not have everything out in the open.”
“It’s the easiest way,” Jen chimed in. “Then no one has to go digging around.”
“Amen, sister,” Hannah said as she put different bowls on the counter.
“That’s the spirit,” I commended Sandy.
“So it sucked to hear all that honesty,” Sam proclaimed, “but you guys are doing a good job with the co-parenting thing because he was upfront and you let him go.”
“Yes, to both, but it still sucked,” she said, using his word, giving him just a hint of a smile that was nice to see.
“Oh, divorce is the worst,” Sam agreed, gesturing at his sisters and then his brother. “It was hard for all of them, but look how good they all are now with their awesome partners.”
“Thank you, Sam,” Straub said, smiling at him.
“Awww, Sam, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Doug told him, standing up.
“No,” Sam said quickly. “There will be no hugging.”
Doug sat back down, but he was still smiling, and then he chuckled, and Sandy did too.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Sam told her. “And you’re much prettier than the ballerina, far more elegant.”
“Thank you, Sam,” she said softly.
“Wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”
She walked over to him and would have bent, but he stood up, making a face like it was the worst thing he could think of that he had to hug her, all annoyed and put out. Her smile was huge as he gently wrapped her in his arms.
“Welcome to the family.”
“Thank you so much,” she whispered, melting in his arms like everyone did.
“Hello!”
We all turned, and there were the boys, carrying a basketball, looking like they’d been playing for a while.
“I thought you were going home after the game,” Hannah said as they all crowded around her to check out her plate.
“Yeah, but then you texted and said there was enough food here to feed an army,” Jake said, turning his phone so Hannah could see what she wrote. “I like all the lip and heart emojis, by the way.”
Her inelegant snort made Sandy smile.
“Well, first come meet Michael’s fiancée. They’re getting married next month.”
All three turned at once, and I saw how charmed Sandy was.
“I’m Kola,” he said, giving her a wide smile. “Sam and Jory’s oldest. Welcome to the family.”
“Thank you,” she said with a sigh.
“This is my best friend Harper and my other best friend Jake.”
She shook both their hands and then watched as they all went to Sam’s parents and said hello, then to Sam, and finally to me before returning, like a pack of dogs, to the cabinet with the plates. Hannah mentioned there was more food in the refrigerator, and then Kola was there, crouching in front of the open door, passing things out to Harper and Jake.
“I hope you didn’t want to take home any leftovers,” I told Sandy.
“No,” she said wistfully, staring at the boys. “I miss my oldest, though he never had friends to bring over. I hope he has them now.”