Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
She quickly pulled away from him, held his cheeks with both hands, and watched this man cry quietly in front of her.
“Kage, my love for you flows like this river. You’re my Stone, and I’m your Nina. The settlers are long gone… it’s just you and me, boy.”
She wrapped her arms around him, rocking to the music and squeezing him oh so tight…
EPILOGUE
…Several months later
“He sure did!” Sarah and many of the guests burst out laughing as she told of Kage’s business. Tales of his antics as a little boy at the baby shower, many of which, if he had a thin skin, he’d find highly embarrassing. He was in too much of a good mood though to allow such a thing to rattle him.
Kage shook his head as he leaned against the wall of his home, sipping on a Bud Light beer. Poet’s stomach was absolutely huge. She’d gotten much larger in a short period of time, and he’d learned the hard way to keep his jokes about her resembling a beach ball to himself. He found her to be absolutely adorable, but she didn’t feel that way. Nevertheless, this was a party, and he was happy to see his new wife in a great mood, dressed in her blue and white polka dot dress, participating in fun and silly shower games and dancing the afternoon away.
Alan Jackson’s, ‘Just Playin’ Possum’ played, encouraging the light and airy mood. The cradle he’d made for their new baby boy about to enter the world sat across the room with a big blue sash and bow on it. He’d presented it to her at the party, and she loved it. He glanced across the room and smiled when catching sight of his cousin Lennox who was laughing and hamming it up while holding his own new baby, Blaine, with his wife, Nadia. He glanced out of one of the living room windows to see the new structure he was building on his land. The farmhouse would remain in Poet’s possession, but she no longer lived there.
Instead, she was renting it out to a nice family that also helped with the monthly farmer’s market for a while, but eventually she planned to turn it into a small taxidermy museum and Bed and Breakfast, with a ‘Pick your own food’ section. She’d get help running it with a couple close friends. He was constructing Aunt Huni her own little cottage house, a Mother-In-Law suite. It would be compact, making it easy for her to manage, but spacious enough for her and have everything that she needed, and best of all, it would be less than thirty seconds away from his back door. There was even a covered walkway from point A to B. Huni had confided how she was feeling like a burden after she’d had an episode right before the wedding.
She was in her bedroom at the farmhouse, and woke up screaming from a nightmare. When Poet entered the room to soothe her, Huni began yelling even louder, even becoming violent when she wouldn’t recognize Poet for quite some time. It led to her being taken to the hospital, and not recalling much of the evening at all. The dementia was getting worse, and Poet was doing everything in her power to keep Huni’s spirits up, and stay hopeful, too. That was around the same time that Huni finally told her what Poet’s mother had done to save her life… While in the hospital, she confessed to Poet, that Dominque had discreetly helped her kick a prescription drug habit before it had taken a complete foothold on her life. She was on the verge of becoming an addict after receiving medicine for a tooth infection, but avoided the deadly hold of narcotics – thanks to the quick intervention of her true friend. Huni had been ashamed of this brief but rough stint in her past, but was finally ready to admit what had transpired. All Kage knew was that he loved both of them, and whatever his wife needed him to do to ensure that Huni was comfortable and getting the care she needed, he was going to do it.
He and Poet hooked gazes as those thoughts swam in his mind. She looked pretty as a button, and she smiled at him shyly as she approached him with a metal bowl in her hands. Her dress swinging in beat to the music. When she arrived, he wasted no time wrapping his arms around her, then kissing her.
“How you doin’, baby? Need anything?” he offered.
“I just came over here to get a kiss from you, but I was going to get some more ice, too.” She pushed past him to do just that, but he gently curled his arm around hers, snatched the bowl from her grasp, and pulled her back in his direction.