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)
“Oh, uh, yessir,” he answered, forcing a smile. “I actually got my booster as well. I wouldn’t see patients if I wasn’t fully vaccinated. Do you need to see the card?”
“No,” Sam rumbled and stepped forward, offering the younger man his hand. “Sam Kage, good to meet you.”
“And you,” Kurt replied with a slight exhale, shaking quickly. “You have a beautiful home.”
“I have a home that needs some work, but the bones are good, so it’ll hold until I can get to it in the spring.”
Dobby took that moment to race up to Kurt, as he’d been outside with Kola, and barked his head off, terribly embarrassed that he’d missed alerting us to an intruder.
“Why hello there,” Kurt greeted our hellhound in the body of a chihuahua, squatting down to meet him. “Who are you, sir?”
Dobby took that opportunity so rush in close so that Kurt could pet him and shower him with compliments over what a good boy he was.
Sam grunted, turned, and yelled for the boys to get inside and say hello to their guest. The sheer volume made Kurt’s eyes open really big, and I would have laughed, but he appeared quite startled. He was also clutching Dobby, who was licking his chin.
“Marine, then a cop, then a marshal, and now in charge of the marshals here in Chicago,” I told Kurt. “He’s a little loud.”
“What?” Sam asked, scowling at me.
“Nothing,” I assured him, sliding a hand up his bicep.
He covered my hand with his, and I got a smile then, the first one since he got home from work. Looking at Kurt as he rose from his squat, holding the dog, Sam took a breath, I was guessing for comfort. “You wanna beer before dinner?”
“I would love a beer,” Kurt answered, finding his footing.
“Come out here and you can pick what you want.”
Kurt put our dog down and followed Sam out into the laundry room as the boys came in through the back door and greeted him.
We were off to a good start.
Kurt was very impressed with Hannah’s candle-making efforts and went downstairs with her to look at all of them curing. Upstairs, he asked her about them.
“They’re for Samhain, the witches’ New Year,” she explained. “It’s a major sabbat.”
He glanced at me.
“You have a question?”
“Kola told me he was Catholic.”
“So am I,” Hannah chimed in. “That’s how I was raised.”
Gaze back on me.
“She’s a good witch,” I assured him.
He nodded, taking a sip of the bottle of Zombie Dust Sam had given him. “And your husband has no issue with her celebrating pagan, or wiccan, holidays?”
“Those are Hannah’s choices, not his, so no, he doesn’t. Sam allows his kids to make their own decisions about things.”
“That’s great if it’s true.”
“If it’s true?” I asked pointedly, and I could hear the sharpness in my tone.
“Crap,” he said under his breath, looking down at his feet and then returning his gaze to me. “Sorry. I just—as a therapist I normally need to hear it directly from the person. I don’t take anything as gospel unless I’ve heard it from the horse’s mouth.”
“Okay,” I agreed, and then turned and yelled for Sam, who was out in the backyard looking at the fence and the grass. It was getting time for fall cleanup, which I knew he dreaded. Cutting everything back, putting out new mulch, it was a pain. He and Kola did it every year, though, way before the first snow.
Sam came to the side of the deck, put his hands on the railing, and asked me what the hell I wanted, because couldn’t I see he was prepping the grill?
“Yes, dear,” I replied indulgently, “but Dr. Butler needs to know what you think about Hannah being a witch, as you’re a Catholic.”
He scowled and then tipped his head sideways to look at Kurt. “Hannah is a great person, so both her faith and magic are good.”
“I’m sorry. I just thought that––”
“Since I’m old and––”
“Oh, dear God, you are not old,” I snapped at him.
He grunted. “I feel old, especially in the morning when I’m staggering to the––”
“You have never staggered,” I said, chuckling, finding the man adorable, the grin utterly infectious as he teased me.
“I might start.”
I shook my head, still laughing.
“Fine,” he granted, “but Dr. Butler here thinks I’m old and close-minded enough to stop loving the daughter I raised for anything. Ever.”
The look he shot Kurt before he walked away was not good.
“I burned up all that good will I had going with him over picking out a beer he really likes, didn’t I?”
I took a deep breath and turned to the doctor. “I’m sure from all that you’ve seen that it’s sometimes hard not to be jaded, but you have to believe me when I tell you that it is not in Sam Kage to stop loving his children. He’s simply not made that way.”