Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“No,” Maura answered for Sam, and Michael rounded on her. “Sandy made Sandy cry when she said something thoughtless to my child.”
Sandy joined us then.
“But she’s been forgiven, so we’re moving on.”
“Please let it go,” Sandy pleaded with him.
“I made Thea cry, though,” Hannah pointed out, putting salad on her plate. “Just a bit ago.”
“I’m sorry, what?” he asked his niece.
“Well, if you don’t have the balls to say something to my face, then you shouldn’t put it on Instagram either.”
“I––”
“And worse,” Hannah said, smiling, “you shouldn’t take it down when you get heat and say you never said it because that’s what screenshots are for.”
He turned to his wife. “I don’t understand.”
Sandy looked uncomfortable. “Apparently both Thea and Kitty said some rude things about Hannah online, and her followers—who there are apparently a lot of—have demanded that both my girls make a formal apology.”
“I told my followers it’s not necessary,” Hannah told her uncle as she stepped around him, adding more toppings to her greens. “Since, you know, we’re not close.”
“Hannah,” Sandy began, “I hope you can give my girls the same amount of compassion that Tierney gave me.”
“I wasn’t here,” Hannah said to Tierney, also making a salad on the other side of the table. “What happened? Gimme the deets.”
Tierney smiled at my daughter.
“Great suit, by the way,” Hannah commented. “Canali?”
“Yes.” Tierney’s whole face lit up.
“Heathered wool?”
Lots of nodding.
“It’s fabulous. Love the buttercup-colored shirt underneath and the blue suede wingtips as well. The blue-and-gold tie is playing it safe, though, don’t you agree?”
“I do,” Tierney replied, nodding.
“I have a place to show you wherein you shall find excellent, decently priced vintage pieces,” Hannah imparted. “I found a Halston there, from the seventies. It's a gold metallic silk wrap shirt dress, and I only paid five hundred.”
Tierney’s eyes nearly bulged out. “You’re kidding.”
Hannah shook her head.
“Where is this?” Sandy asked her.
“I’ll take you,” Hannah promised. “We can all go.”
Sandy smiled, and Michael turned to Sam, who only scowled.
“I––”
“Do better,” Sam ordered.
Michael walked away then, which really was for the best.
Sandy made it clear later that she would not interfere with whatever her daughters were engaged in with Hannah and left it at that.
That too, I thought, was for the best.
After dinner, Hannah was sitting with her brother, Tierney, and Maura. I was sitting with Sam or, more accurately, snuggled up into his shoulder.
“You realize, I wasn’t ever letting my kid go off to boarding school, right?” I was quiet, and in response, he put a hand under my chin and tipped my head up so he could look down into my eyes. I had no choice but to meet his steely gaze. “There was no way. We even made a list of the pros and cons.”
And that I did remember. “Yes.”
He nodded. “We both agreed, the thing was for Kola to stay here with us, with his sister, and to go to the best private school we could find that would help him reach his goals.”
“Which we did.”
“That’s right.”
I sighed deeply and stayed where I was, soaking up all his strength and surety, leaning like I did on occasion, both literally and figuratively. It was these moments, when I could simply turn off and tune out because my husband had me, and the rest of our family, that I appreciated him more than I could say. To know you were mentally, emotionally, and physically safe was truly a gift.
“I’ve got you, you know,” he rumbled.
And I knew that.
That’s it. Have a good rest of March, all. I will fill you in on Hannah’s Ostara candles and St. Patrick’s Day when we chat in April.
APRIL 2025
Hello, all, and welcome to He Said, he said for April 2025.
Several people have asked me lately, why the name? Why the He Said, he said? Well, originally it was supposed to be me giving my two cents about something and then asking my husband the same questions and getting his take. But first of all, though he does have some hard and fast rules about things, like head on a swivel, and inspect what you expect, beyond those, we agree on more than we disagree on. I should probably rename it “he said, we said,” but since I’ve been writing these since 2017, that seems counterintuitive at this point. But anyway, that’s the explanation.
Moving on, I have to tell you all about St. Patrick’s Day, or more specifically, the Sunday before. Sam and I were invited to family dinner with Finn’s parents, which was very thoughtful, but…it wouldn’t be at their home. The gathering would instead be at Finn’s uncle Conor’s home.
“That’s gonna be a hard pass,” Sam told me the week before. “We don’t even know this guy. They’re inviting us for dinner at his house, not their house, and I just…no.”
“Okay,” I said, smiling at him.