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)
“That’s a bridge?” I asked him.
“Yeah.”
I coughed. “How is it a bridge?”
“I find it very avant garde,” Kola defended the guy he loved.
“Don’t help me,” Finn ordered.
Now Dane, of course, was the best at drawing of everyone there, with Chris coming in a strong second. It was a given, as they were both architects. They could both sketch things very, very fast, as they were used to giving people ideas of space and interiors and exteriors so they could get an idea of what something would look like. Buildings, any kind, from the pyramids of Giza to the Guggenheim, from Big Ben to the Coliseum, Dane or Chris was your man. Where they bumped up against some problems were with things like…people.
“That’s a woman,” Dylan said authoritatively, glancing at me, and then her voice changed, becoming concerned. “I mean, isn’t it?”
I shrugged, having absolutely no idea.
“It could be Thomas Jefferson,” Aja suggested. “There’s a lot of hair there.”
“It’s not hair,” Dane said under his breath.
“Hey, no talking,” Sam admonished him.
“As if that will help,” Duncan said snidely.
“It’s not hair?” Aaron was horrified. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure,” Dane snapped at him.
Hannah snickered, hand over her mouth, trying to stifle the sound.
“What did I say about the talking?”
“You’re doing a valiant job,” Chris commended him.
“Thank you,” Dane almost whimpered.
“Time’s up,” Aja announced. “Now we can all guess.”
“Will that help?” Robert asked her.
“Really?” Dane chided his son, who only laughed.
Gentry scoffed and then ducked behind Kola on the couch to hide when his father shot him a scathing look.
“It’s really good, Uncle Dane,” Kola assured him. “Is it a yeti?”
That was it, Gentry was howling, face pressed down into the pillows.
“It’s the yeti,” Chris offered. “Like, one specific one, right?”
Dane growled.
“Bigfoot?”
Much like Aaron, I lost it.
There was a knock at the door then, and Hannah stood up to answer it. She brought in George and Kurt, entering with chocolate silk pie that I had not been able to find for Sam, which he got up and took and thanked them lavishly for.
“Oh, I love Pictionary,” Kurt said.
“He’s on my team,” Sam stated with conviction.
“That puts you with us,” Dane told George, “so take a guess at the board.”
George gave him a smile, and then squinted at the drawing a moment. “It’s the Flash.”
We all gasped.
Kurt looked at his husband like he’d grown another head. “Pardon me?”
“It is, isn’t it?” George asked Dane.
“Yes,” Dane replied, sounding relieved and so very pleased.
“How?” Sam was stunned.
Crossing the room, George took the green dry-erase marker so he could circle things on Dane’s black-and-white rendition. “This is movement, right? These are individual pieces of the same person running, like stop-motion, and you can tell it’s fast from the lines between.”
“That’s not hair?” Aja asked him.
“And even if I missed all that, the boots are here, and of course, the lightning bolt on his chest here in profile.”
Dane reached out and took hold of George’s shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re here. Would you like something to eat?”
George chuckled. “I would.”
Hannah collected one of her favorite people on the planet, taking hold of his arm and leading him to the kitchen, where Finn and Kola were now unloading the dishwasher.
Kurt was examining Dane’s rendering and shook his head. “I still don’t see it.”
“I don’t see it either,” Duncan told him. “Nobody sees it.”
“George did,” Dane said haughtily, sitting down, utterly vindicated.
“We should play something else now,” Dylan suggested.
“Monopoly,” Aaron said evilly.
“Oh God,” Wick groaned.
Finn’s parents had to leave; they still had to pop in on other family but thanked us for having them. Everyone said their goodbyes, both Aja and Dylan hugged Anne, and Anne told me as Sam and I were walking them out to their car, that she was thrilled that Finn was there with us, in our home, as she was certain that both her other sons, who she had seen earlier in the day at Eammon’s brother’s house where the entire family had gathered, were out drinking.
“Well, Thanksgiving is a daytime holiday,” I soothed her. “Sam and I used to take the kids to a movie during the night.”
“A movie would be fantastic, but drinking and whatever else is something that concerns me.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” I said, unsure what else to say.
“Finn has always been different, more grounded, more serious, I guess, and Kola, studying to be a doctor, is very much the same, so… I’m thankful.”
“As I am for you and Eammon having made such an amazing man for my own amazing man to love.”
We were hugging when Eammon and Sam turned to us.
“Your husband is very emotional today,” Eammon stated.
“It’s Thanksgiving,” Sam said with a shrug. “It brings it out in him.”
Back inside, I noted that the kitchen table was being set up for Monopoly, the living room coffee table looked like Trivia Pursuit, and the round card table had been carried up from the basement for whatever else would be played. There was also more pie eating, Hannah and Jake were serving, with Gentry and Wick taking orders like waiters, and Aaron was calling his husband, the man he could not live without, a chicken.