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)
It certainly sounded like it.
“I need to go before I waste even one more minute here.”
“I’ll miss you.”
“Thank you.” She exhaled, her voice bottoming out for a moment. “I feel the same. But this brings me to the reason for the call, beyond the fact you’ve been a loyal friend since our kids met in kindergarten. I appreciate you more than you know.”
“Same,” I assured her.
“Well, Jake’s father and I talked, and it’s all going to be very amicable, as I suspect it is when both parties stopped caring ages ago.”
“God, Linda, I have to tell you I always thought you and Bill just weren’t PDA kind of people, and that together, in your home––”
“I know. You’re not the only one.”
“I’m sorry I interrupted you. Please continue.”
“Jake’s dad is planning to move back to Sturgeon Bay to be closer to his family, his folks and siblings, and that leaves Jake suddenly between homes.”
But Jake would be going to college with Harper, in person, once Covid was under control. He had originally been on his way somewhere else, which I couldn’t dredge up at the moment, but had altered course. Since Harper was going to the University of California-Berkeley, and Kola was going to Stanford, it made no sense, he said, for him to be the only one who remained on the East Coast. Of course, that was before he fell head over heels for my daughter. Lately, from what Hannah had been hinting at, Jake was thinking maybe the University of Chicago was the ticket.
None of that was on Linda’s mind. Her only concern was her son. “Originally, I would be in California, and so would he, but now…he’s sort of crazy about your daughter, Jory.”
I grunted.
She chuckled.
It was funny, because for a while, we’d had a houseguest. Lucy had been lovely, very sweet, a friend of Hannah’s, but as much as I liked her, there were still times when I missed it being us, our family. When her father returned from his last deployment, and they moved to Oregon, I had been thrilled. The difference was Kola’s two friends, Jake and Harper, had been with us, in our lives, in our home, sleeping on our couches, eating our food, doing chores, simply underfoot, since they were both five years old. Having Jake or Harper in my home did not constitute guests. As much as I loved my brother’s kids, some of my friends’ kids, or any of Sam’s sisters’ kids, the fact was that none of them were so seamlessly interwoven with us as were Jake and Harper.
“I will keep your kid, Linda, and he’s nineteen, so you don’t even have to sign him over to me,” I teased her.
“Will it be weird since they’re dating?”
“No,” I assured her. “Sam and I already decided if they break up, we’d still keep Jake.”
She chuckled. “I appreciate it, and he’s got a job, and the money for school is there, and I’ll send him a ticket at Christmas.”
“You’re gonna miss your kids,” I warned her. “And Jake said Reese is expecting. That’ll be your first grandchild.”
“I will miss them, it’s true,” she agreed with me. “But God, Jory, shouldn’t I finally start living at forty-one? I don’t want to be fifty doing exactly what I’m doing now.”
It was sad to imagine her haunting her own home all those years.
“And I’m so sick of the cold and snow. It just makes everything worse.”
I loved being cold, hunkered down in my house, but we had two very different lives.
“When are you leaving?” I asked her.
“First week in March,” she informed me. “I can hardly wait.”
I was happy for her. I was. After we ended our call, I checked the beef stew in the slow cooker, thinking that since it was ten degrees outside, I’d made a good choice, especially since it looked like the arctic temperatures were not going anywhere. It made me sad to think her marriage was over. Grabbing my phone, needing my faith in love restored, I called Dylan.
“Oh dear God,” she growled instead of saying hello. “Are you psychic?”
“No. Why?”
“I was just about to call and tell you my only son is dropping out of college to pursue his music career.”
I made a face, which, thankfully, she couldn’t see.
“Jory,” she warned me, her tone dropping low, “you know you agreed with me that he should finish college before he starts touring the country in a van.”
“Yeah, but he’s really––”
“I will tell Hannah that being a superhero is a really good choice if you don’t back me up here. Christopher thinks––”
“You love him, huh?”
“Of course I love him! He’s my child. I would give him a kidney if he––”
“Not him. Christopher. You’ve been married over two decades now.”
There was a silence. “Are you drunk?”
“No, I’m not drunk.”
“Too much wine in the stew?”