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)
Hannah was happy to see her brother, who had éclairs delivered from her favorite French bakery in Lincoln Park. None of us had seen much of him, as graduating in the fall, and then starting his first quarter of medical school, was no joke. Even though he was on Thanksgiving break, he was still busy. The only person who saw him continually was Finn, as he made sure that when Kola came home, he was there. I was sensing that a change was coming.
Wick apparently had a great condo in Hyde Park, and he really wanted Harper to move in with him. Hannah was ready to move off campus, and the person she wanted to live with was not her current roommate, but Jake. He thought that was the best idea he’d ever heard. And Kola, who loved his two friends, found the idea of Finn moving in the greatest thing he could imagine. I, of course, worried that I’d never see Harper again, but I knew that wasn’t true. They hadn’t lived together when they were younger, and hopefully now the bonds would still hold. I suspected they would, as deeply forged as they were.
Also, this was all conjecture on my part, taken from snippets of conversation. I could have been misreading everything and everyone involved. I thought perhaps I was as I hunted for my son.
I had seen him earlier when he gave his sister a small box and walked away. That was unlike him. He normally stayed to watch her open whatever it was. Also, normally, they went on their great eating excursion together. That was curtailed by Thanksgiving, and I wondered when they were going. Her birthdays—the hours where the sun was up—were usually spent driving all over Chicago eating her favorite things.
Having checked everywhere downstairs, I went to the next logical place and was joined by Finn, who I was surprised to see, on the steps leading up to the second floor.
“I thought you were eating with your folks first and coming to see us later?” I asked, reaching for him, but stopping myself at the last moment, letting my hand drop back to my side.
“You have to stop doing that,” he told me.
“I’m sorry?” I was thinking that I was making him uncomfortable and was ready to be told to keep my hands to myself.
“You hug Jake all the time, you do the same with Harper, and I know a lot of that is because you’ve known them forever, but I want it to be the same with me.”
Oh. Not at all what I was expecting.
He took a shaky breath. “I know you’re gonna say I’m nuts because my mother did, and my father…my father understands logically about me being bisexual, but in his heart…” He had to take a moment and breathe.
“In his heart he’d like you to have a girlfriend,” I stated simply.
Clearing his throat, he said, “yes.”
“And your mother does too?”
“After she met you and Mr. Kage, she’s not worried about the kid thing anymore, but she still has her preference.”
“Sure,” I muttered, sad to hear that but understanding as well.
“And that’s not to say that either of them, Mom or Dad, don’t like you and Mr. Kage. My dad especially,” he said with a trace of a smile, “has a bromantic crush, I think, on your husband.”
“That marshal part is hard not to fall for.”
“No, it’s the fishing and the encyclopedic knowledge of beer and all things sports related,” he corrected me. “The fact that he was a Marine isn’t hurting anything either, as his father was.”
“Ah.”
“But this is all to say that you can, and I would like, if you want to give me a pat or hug in passing—that would be okay with me.”
I smiled at him. “Good. Now tell me why.”
He squinted, and I knew the tactic well. All the men in my family, meaning my husband, my brother, my father-in-law, and my son were all quick to scrunch up their eyes so no tears leaked out.
“Tell me,” I prodded him after a moment.
Quick inhale. “I love your son, Mr. Harcourt. I love him, and I know that because it’s never felt like this in my chest before.”
Hard to stand there and not grab him, but I kept my composure and didn’t gush or welcome him to the family.
“My plan is to get him to marry me, and I know it hasn’t been that long—which is my mother’s concern—but I’m not a child, or an idiot, you know? I get that he’s not perfect, but neither am I. The thing is, no one will come along who could ever be better, and I know that. Like, this is not the love fog talking, this is not me being deluded because I’m infatuated. He’s the one.”
I brushed away my tears because I didn’t hold those in. For what purpose?