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)
“This is my brother-in-law, Dane Harcourt, and he’s married to this lovely lady, Aja,” he said, as Duncan walked her over to Dane.
She leaned into his side, and he put his arm around her and tucked her against him.
“Lovely to meet you all,” Dane stated, and there was the slightest curl to the corner of his mouth as he offered his hand to Eammon first and then Anne.
Dane and Aja didn’t stay. They met Anne’s sister, Theresa, her husband, Wayne, and their son, Bryce, all visiting from Sacramento, not San Antonio as I thought, and then Dane apologized and said that they had to go. Not once the entire time he was there did he take his arm off Aja. Only when he opened her door and she got in, with Hannah passing her all the things she’d brought from the house, her purse and sunglasses, did he leave her side. Once in the car, he rolled down the window, waved and then reversed slowly and was gone.
“Oh, Jory, your brother is the most charming man,” Theresa gushed.
I nodded. “He knows, believe me.”
Everyone laughed, which was good.
Sam went to the grill to relieve Kola, and I watched my husband throw an arm around my son’s neck and pull him in for a hug. Eammon joined them with a beer in hand that Harper had offered him, and soon both of Finn’s brothers, the oldest, Grady, and the middle child, Caden, had drinks in their hands as well. When Kola jogged back toward the deck, Finn met him halfway and wrapped him in his arms.
“Well, Ma, at least you got me and Cade to continue on the family line,” Grady teased his mother. “’Cause you ain’t getting’ no grandchildren from Finn.”
I did a slow turn to him.
Jake and Wick both squinted at him.
“Open mouth insert foot, huh, kid?” Duncan asked him with an evil grin.
His mouth dropped open.
Duncan laughed at him. “That’s all right, we can’t all be bright, can we.”
Poor Grady, he turned to look at me, mouth open, nothing coming out, before turning back to a cackling Duncan, who waggled his eyebrows before he went down the stairs. Quickly with his long stride, he crossed the backyard to reach Sam and Eammon.
Anne was horrified; I could tell from how red her face got. “Jory, I’m so––”
“Who wants a turn on the swing?” Harper asked loudly, and all eyes were on him as he arrived on the porch, smiling.
“What swing?” Bryce asked just as Hannah went by, squealing as she flew across the yard on our ridiculous circus swing that Jake had inspected the week before. Every year before anyone got on it, he triple-checked the brackets, the ropes, the seat, and of course that there was nothing new in the trajectory of the arch of the swing itself.
“What is that?” Finn asked, stepping up beside Kola on the deck.
“I told you there was a swing,” Kola said, hand in his hair.
“Yeah, but I thought—you know, it was something normal, not like a carnival ride.”
Kola laughed, and the sound, as always, made me smile. It did the same to Finn.
“Jesus, what if she swings too high?” Caden sounded very worried.
“No,” Kola assured him. “It’s not like a normal swing, right? You can’t pump and get it to go higher.”
“Unless you’re at a dead stop,” Harper corrected him.
Kola turned to Harper, who walked up beside him. “I mean from that first drop.”
“I know what you meant, but these people who might want to try it out, didn’t.”
“True.”
“I would never get on that,” Bryce promised. “I don’t think it’s safe.”
“Oh, it’s totally safe,” Harper assured him, smiling at Hannah as she flew backwards over him again for the third time. “You just have to hold on.”
“And not do that,” Jake yelled from where he was on top of the collapsible ladder/winding staircase he had built during the winter. The folding ramp they used to use was discarded, as everyone felt it wasn’t sturdy enough. “Sit up now!”
Hannah had leaned back, holding on, making her body like a plank as she cut through the air. But still, because of how the seat was weighted, how the fittings held the wood in place, not allowing it to tip forward or back, she didn’t flip over.
“You better sit up,” Kola warned his sister.
Nothing.
“Hannah Regina Kage,” Sam called up to her.
He didn’t yell. His voice was only loud enough so she could hear him.
Up she sat. “It’s safe, Daddy, you know that,” she said as she soared back over his head.
“Not if Jake is concerned.” He raised his voice that time.
“Hi, Hannah!”
The Teruyas lived next door to us, and their daughters were in the third-story window waving at Hannah as she flew by.
My daughter turned to wave, and even that did not upset the seat of the swing that Jake had made certain could not only support Hannah but Sam as well.