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)
Finn nodded before his eyes filled, and I hugged him for a long time.
Back at home, I was presented with a gold cuff bracelet with turquoise that I had been looking at for ages—that from Hannah—and my son gave me a beginner drone so I could check on the squirrel and raccoon family, as well as the birds. Sam got a beautiful new fishing rod, a new tackle box with a note that said the old one had been laid to rest, and a pair of running shoes that Hannah had been dying for him to try but he had been reticent about due to the price tag.
“What are these supposed to do?” Sam grumbled at his daughter, as was his way when he wasn’t particularly pleased.
I cleared my throat.
His sigh was long and beleaguered. “Thank you.”
She crossed her arms and squinted at him. “Help your posture, your back, and because wearing those is like running on your bare feet––”
“I don’t know how that can be good––”
“––they also help with the rotation of your foot.”
He looked at her. She arched an eyebrow for him and waited. The thing was, she wanted him to have the best things at all times. She felt he deserved them, as he was a great father and a great man, and mostly that she loved him. She could not be faulted.
Once the gift-giving was over, we all had a snack, and Hannah went in the living room to catch up on three of her shows, and Sam took Kola and Finn outside to talk to them about Finn’s father and how hard it had been for him when he first discovered that I was the one he loved. He went on to explain how when Michael got married the first time, that both he and Regina had to hide who I was to him. It had been done to give Michael and his first wife, Beverly, the day they wanted without any issues, but it had happened at my expense, which, at the time, had been hard.
Now that was a million years ago. I do not harbor any residual anger or anything, truly, at all about that day, as to me, even then, even that day—that evening, Sam showed where his heart lived, and that was with me. A while back, when we were in Vegas for Michael’s bachelor party, some issues came up that made Sam relive that day. He and Michael had it out when we got home, and while their relationship is better than it’s been, it will never be great. I would love it if Sam would just forget the past—it was one day in a lifetime—but as a rule, Sam Kage does not do things out of character. So to illustrate his failure, he talked to Kola and Finn about what happened and how he had fought loving me at first, and how he too used to have an idea in his mind of what his life would look like as a straight man. Interestingly, the conversation did not go as Sam thought it would.
“It was nice of you to think about your brother on his special day,” Kola told his father. “And I get why you did, but no, I don’t think you should have. But I wasn’t in your place, in the time you were in with everything that was going on. Judging you would be crazy, but also, I don’t know how I’d feel if Pa was hurt.”
Sam nodded.
“But all that said…that was a long time ago and you’re not him anymore and I know that because you raised me.”
And that was very true.
“So maybe cut that loose, huh, Dad?”
Sam told me he was very surprised.
“And thanks for the story,” Finn apprised Sam, “but none of this is the issue. What we’re facing has to do with ideas.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, did you have an idea in your head of who Kola would marry?”
Sam told me he had thought a moment and said, “Really, whoever made both him and Hannah happy. My only real hope was that they would, in fact, both get married to whoever they were crazy in love with.”
Finn shrugged. “Which I get. You’re a traditional person, so that makes sense. And we are getting married and we will have kids. We’ve talked about it. So the question is now, can my father wrap his brain around me and Kola being married, or in his head, do I need a woman to be both happy and truly fulfilled?”
“Only he knows that.”
“Yes, but if it’s going to keep coming up, over and over again, it becomes a problem.”
It certainly would.
“He needs to decide if he can get past it, just like Jake.”
At that point, Sam had come in the house, taken hold of my hand, and walked me—with Hannah following—out to the deck.