Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 128417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
I touch the button on my phone to call her, my skin buzzing, my heart panging—but before the call connects, the French door behind me opens and Jonas walks onto the veranda. I quickly disconnect the call.
16
JOSH
“Hey, bro,” I say to Jonas, glancing behind him to see if he’s alone. He is. Good. I’m eager to talk to my brother man-to-man for a bit, just the two of us.
Jonas hands me a bottle of beer and takes the wicker chair next to mine, overlooking the moonlit river. “Uncle William’s moved on to showing Sarah photos of his fly-fishing trips,” Jonas says.
“Aaaah! Run away!” I say.
“As fast as my legs would carry me.”
I take a sip of my beer. “That man sure can talk about fish.”
“He sure can.”
“Even a fish would get sick of Uncle William’s stories about fish,” I say. “They’d be like, ‘Dude. Talk about humans occasionally. Please. You’re hurting my fish-ears.’”
Jonas chuckles. “The man loves his fish.”
“Do fish have ears?” I ask.
“Sort of,” Jonas says. “Fish don’t have traditional ears, but they have ear parts inside their heads that pick up sounds in the water. Functionally, they’re ears, even if not technically so.”
I laugh. “You’re a fount of useless knowledge, Jonas Patrick Faraday.”
He swigs his beer, smiling. “I really am.”
There’s a long beat as we both drink our beers and look out at the spectacular view of the river.
“Uncle William sure handled the news of our double-departure awfully well,” I say. “He shocked the fuck out of me.”
“I know. I thought it’d be like jumping off a cliff to tell him, and it was more like stepping off a curb.”
“It almost seemed like he was expecting it, didn’t it?”
“Totally,” Jonas agrees. “I had that exact same thought.”
We gaze out at the lights on the Hudson forty floors below for another long moment, drinking our beers.
“I can’t wait to get started building our baby,” Jonas finally says. “I have so many ideas for Climb & Conquer, my head’s been going a mile a minute.”
“As opposed to when?”
Jonas laughs.
“I’m pumped, too,” I say, laughing. “Telling Uncle William felt like getting freed from a lifelong cage.”
“That’s exactly how I felt,” Jonas says. “I feel like I’m floating.”
“Me, too. Exactly. To Climb & Conquer,” I say, holding up my beer. “And to the Faraday twins—two fucking beasts among men.”
“Hear, hear,” Jonas says, clinking my beer with his. “Fuck yeah.”
“Fuck yeah,” I agree.
“I’ll finalize the press release on my flight home. We can release it on Monday.”
“Awesome,” I say.
“Fuck yeah,” Jonas says.
“Fuck yeah.”
We look out at the river for a moment, drinking our beers, each of us apparently lost in our excited thoughts.
“So Uncle William sure took to Sarah right off the bat,” I say.
“Oh my God. You should have seen him when we first got here last night,” Jonas says. “I kept warning Sarah before we arrived not to take it personally if Uncle William was kinda standoffish or super formal, you know?—but he acted like she was his long-lost daughter the minute he laid eyes on her. Just fell totally and completely in love with her.”
I chuckle. “Just like you,” I say.
Jonas grins. “Just like me.”
“Congrats, by the way,” I say. “She’s perfect for you. I don’t know how you managed to find her. She’s a needle in a haystack.”
Jonas beams a smile at me but doesn’t reply.
“So you told her?”
Jonas looks at me funny, obviously not catching my meaning.
“The three little words?” I clarify.
“Oh.” Jonas’ grin broadens. “Yeah. I told her.” I can tell he’s blushing, even in the moonlight.
“First time ever saying it?”
“Yeah.” His smile broadens yet again.
“Did it freak you out to say it?”
“Not in the slightest. It just felt good—really, really good.”
I ponder that for a minute. “You were never tempted to say it before Sarah?”
Jonas crinkles his nose like I’ve said something distasteful. “No.”
“Not even to Amanda?”
Jonas shrugs. “Well, I knew I was ‘supposed’ to say it to Amanda based on the passage of time—I knew she wanted me to say it to her. But, no, I was never even tempted. Did you ever say it to Emma?”
I nod. “It took me three years, but yeah.”
“Three years? Wow, and here I thought I was the emotionally stunted asshole of the two of us.”
I shrug and sip my beer. “Not something to say lightly.”
Jonas makes a sound that tells me he agrees with my statement. “Emma’s the only girl you’ve ever said it to?” he asks.
I nod.
“Damn. She hung in there for three fucking years, waiting for you to say it?”
I shrug. “Yeah. But we had the whole long-distance thing, you know—three years wasn’t really three years if you add up the time we were actually in the same room.”
“How’d it feel when you said it to her?” Jonas asks. “Did it feel good or did it freak you out?”