Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
He shrugged. “I’m not gonna lie, I’m starting to feel more and more that way myself.”
“Age does that,” I confirmed, grinning.
“Without question.”
“Well, sit down, have you eaten?”
“No, but I don’t want to be a––”
“You’re not, sit down,” I ordered, pointing at the end of the table where Sam normally sat. “Dinner is coming, and dessert will be ready in a bit. I just have to make the whipped cream and then let it set.”
His eyebrows lifted. “You make your own whipped cream?”
I squinted at him. “You act like it’s hard, but yes. I cheat on occasion, but homemade is always so much better.”
“I agree,” he said, smiling at me.
“Gimme the jacket and the boots,” Hannah directed him.
I cleared my throat, shooting her a look.
“Please,” she amended.
He glanced at her, then me, then back to her.
“Okay,” he replied hesitantly, and once he was sitting there in a long-sleeve T-shirt, faded jeans, and socks, I realized how much more relaxed he looked.
“What can I get you to drink besides water?” I asked as Hannah poured him a large glass of ice water with berries and mint floating in it. He lifted the glass, looked at it, but when he noticed Hannah scowling at him, drank it quickly. “A beer if you have it?”
“There’s a fridge right near the back door,” I told him, pointing. “You can choose your own, as I have no idea what to offer you.”
He nodded and got up to go look. When he came back with an IPA I knew Sam was trying to get rid of instead of his Founders KBS, I smiled.
The boys returned then, banging and bumping into the house, voices running over each other as usual, arguing this time about power-scaling in anime. Like if All Might from My Hero Academia fought Sesshōmaru from Inuyasha, then who would win? And also, what if one considered the guys from Dragon Ball Z who blew up planets and––
“Nerd alert,” Hannah called over to them, and they all looked up at once and then at Gale.
“Hi,” Kola said with a smile.
Hannah made the introductions as I got out the Caesar salad I’d made and put that on the table as Harper put the pizzas on the counter, all four, side by side. I poured myself a glass of chianti, Hannah got out a pitcher of ice tea, and we all sat down.
It turned out Gale was a photo journalist who’d been all over the world. Jake got his laptop and looked him up, and they all clustered around him and looked at his pictures and asked questions. I was going to stop the inquisition, but he gave me a slight shake of his head, so I let it continue.
After dinner, the boys loaded the dishwasher as Hannah cut the pie and asked Gale if he was more of a tea guy or a coffee guy.
“Coffee, please,” he answered, looking at her fondly before turning to me. “Your kids are great, Jory. Are they all yours?”
After I explained, and told him he’d better stay the night, he went out to get his leather saddlebags from his bike so he had something to wear to bed. He explained that he had several small, like the size of a closet, storage facilities that he kept all over the country, as well as having them in countries all across the globe.
“So you don’t have a house anywhere?” Kola wanted to know.
“No, sir. I never saw the point of getting one, since I’m always on my way somewhere.”
“When did you meet my dad?” Hannah asked him.
He explained how he and Sam had been in the Marine Corps together, but while Sam had done several tours, Gale had only done one before he was bitten by the photography bug.
“It’s amazing, all the shows you’ve had.” Hannah was in awe. “And your website is beautiful.”
He had a company that took care of shipping out prints and a European agent and a US one, and they called him on his satellite phone to schedule gallery openings or shoots and millions of other things. His life sounded wildly exciting and sad at the same time. I understood the lure of being a globe-trotter, but for me there was nothing as appealing as having a home.
The kids invited him to play video games, and once he got the gist of Diablo, he was killing demons along with everyone else.
“These are some very fancy outfits,” he told me with a grin as I took a seat on the opposite end of the couch to read.
“Oh, I know, and the paladins have wings,” I apprised him.
He had a really good time playing with the kids, and once they were all tired, Hannah showed him how high her follower numbers were on TikTok and Instagram, Jake talked to him about the swing outside, and then Harper and Kola asked what kind of movie he was up for. They were horrified to learn he’d never seen Inception and immediately put that on. There were midnight snacks, because the boys were always hungry, and Hannah watched in disgust as they wolfed down cold cuts and cheese.