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)
“Yes, fine, whatever.”
“I already bought the lily, and it’s with the boys since Chilly can’t be near it.”
“Why?”
“Because cats can die if they eat them,” she explained.
“Good call, then,” he told her. “I want pie.”
Hannah started laughing.
“Yes, we know,” I told him.
“Is nobody gonna tell him that Kola kissed Finn?” Jake asked.
“He did?” Sam was all over that.
“Yessir. And I mean, it shouldn’t go behind a pay wall or anything, and it was definitely safe for work, but Kola hasn’t kissed that many people.”
“He’s kissed other people?”
“What? Of course.”
“What people? When was this?” I wanted to know.
“Yeah,” Hannah said, turning in her seat to look at Jake. “What people?”
“Seriously? He didn’t tell you this?”
“No, sir, he did not. So spill.”
Jake made a noise like he was dying. “I can’t do that.”
“Spill now,” she demanded.
“He’s never gonna tell me anything if I narc on him.”
“Jacob,” she said flatly, her tone low.
“God,” he groaned like he was dying. “They were both when we were in California. There was a guy named Danny and a girl named Luna.”
“And?” Hannah pressed him. “Elaborate.”
“He still talks to both of them, as far as I know,” Jake said like this wasn’t life-altering news for the rest of us. “Luna is a journalist, and she lives in San Diego now, and Danny, I wanna say that he’s in London. He’s in PR or something.”
“Anything you’d like to add?”
“No,” he told Hannah. “I shouldn’t have told you all anything. He’s going to murder me.”
“Probably not,” she assured him.
“But he’ll be disappointed, and that’s so much worse.”
“I hear that,” I admitted. Disappointing Kola hurt my soul.
“So he kissed them, that’s it?” Hannah was making sure.
“As far as I know,” he answered miserably.
“And they both just left him?”
He sighed deeply. “Danny wanted him to go to England with him, that I know for sure, and Luna said that anytime he wanted to move back to California, he was more than welcome to move in with her.”
“Safe to say they both liked him a bit,” I said.
“He liked them too, enough to kiss but not to go to England or stay in California.”
“Well, he seems to like Finn.”
“Kola doesn’t concern himself with gender, you get that, right?”
“I do,” Hannah said softly, reaching out her hand, which Jake took. “It’s the individual person that interests him, nothing else.”
“That’s right. And right now, that person is Finn. And for the record, Finn is absolutely crazy about your son. You should see him watch Kola walk around our place, it’s kinda ridiculous. Thankfully, Kola has been sleeping over at Finn’s a bit because, between Harper and Wick and Kola and Finn, it’s gross at home.”
I chuckled. “And you’re not over the moon over Hannah anymore?”
“Watch yourself now,” she warned him.
“That’s different,” he told me. “I love Hannah, that’s like bedrock, not gonna change. I dunno what is happening with them, but trying to talk to people when they’re staring into each other’s eyes is annoying as hell.”
It was lucky I’d reached the diner and parked because Hannah instantly unclipped her seat belt and dove into the back, hitting Jake hard enough that he grunted in surprise, followed by warm laughter.
“It sounds like it might be gross in the van too,” Sam said, chuckling over the line.
“It is,” I assured him as Hannah kissed Jake and murmured that she loved him back.
“Yes, I know,” he said, feigning irritation as he wrapped her in his arms.
“Okay, I’m going in,” I told Sam. “What time should I expect you?”
“In about thirty minutes. Try not to float away on a gossamer cloud of lovey-doveyness until I get there.”
I laughed at him. “I’ll try.”
The boys were all there when we got home, and bonus, I had Wick as well, looking as handsome as he had at the New Year’s party, pointing out that he and Harper made shamrock sugar cookies for us. Apparently Wick rescheduled whatever he had to do so he wouldn’t cancel on Harper, and then they baked. It was adorable.
Both Wick and Finn looked a bit out of it, clearly enamored with the men they were there to be with. Of course, that all changed when the Monopoly board came out. I watched Wick pick up the soldered pieces one by one, like the slide, the bridge, and the ferry. Finn started going through the player tokens and saw that, along with the expected ones like the dog, the cat, and top hat, there were some he’d never seen before.
“What is this?”
“Oh, that’s mine,” Hannah told him. “It’s a shuriken.”
“Why?”
She squinted at him. “Because I wanted one and Jake made it for me.”
He picked up another. “Is this a Coke bottle?”
“That’s mine,” Kola told him.
Finn smiled suddenly. “Coca-Cola, am I right?”
“Very good.”
“And the crown?”
“That’s Dad’s because he’s the king of the house.”
Finn nodded. “Can I be the top hat?”