Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“I’m really spoiled having home-cooked meals,” he stated. “I won’t ever take you for granted again. Not ever.”
I chuckled. “Yes, you will. And that’s okay. I’m your father. Just tell me you love me once in a while and I’m good.”
He hugged me then, smelling far better, like the bergamot soap in his bathroom and the green tea lotion. “You made chicken and dumplings too?”
“We always have chicken and dumplings,” I reminded him.
“I know,” he sighed.
“Harper wanted to be with his family, didn’t he?”
He nodded. “Yeah. He missed his folks and wanted to have a movie marathon with everyone. I think the fact that they were starting Lord of the Rings made him want to get there even quicker.”
I chuckled, and we both heard the bong-bong from the other room.
“And you’re watching Law & Order,” he commented, his smile lighting his face.
“We can watch a movie marathon too. What do you feel like?”
“Not a movie,” he told me, “but not something sad like Law & Order or just a comedy. How ’bout Castle?”
“Castle works,” I told him, and he went to queue it up since we had bought all the seasons years ago.
It was an odd assortment of food, because everyone had their favorite, and so all together, they didn’t make a lot of sense, but when you put waffles and tamales together––
“No,” Kola said, laughing at me. “This makes no sense, but who cares, it’s amazing.”
It was good to have my firstborn home, and we had fun eating and talking. Hours later, deep into season two of the exploits of the writer and the cop, we both heard a car in the driveway and, leaving our plates in the kitchen, went out to investigate.
There, being dropped off, were Sam and Hannah.
I waved to Ian, who was driving, and there were some others in the back seat who also waved that I didn’t know, and then the car was backing out as Sam walked behind his daughter, carrying both their duffels. She unlatched the gate, holding it open for him, and closed it behind him. The fact that there was no Jake in sight was cause for concern.
“Where’s Jake?” Kola called out to his sister.
Sam shook his head quickly, and Hannah scowled at her brother.
“Your best friend is a cretin.”
“Huh,” Kola said with a shrug. “Okay.”
“He called me a brat!” she spat at her brother.
“You are a brat,” he replied. “No news flash there. You like things how you like them and—oh,” he said, smiling evilly. “Something happen? Not get your way?”
Her scowl got darker, turning into an actual glower, and Sam came up the steps, walked over to me, and bent expectantly.
“Hi,” I greeted him cheerfully, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“I would never not be with you for New Year’s,” he informed me. “The first kiss of the year is always mine.”
He kissed me soundly, and I clung to him because he’d been gone and my heart and body had both missed him. And yes, I needed to take some time for me going forward, but these people were my life and I wasn’t really me without them.
“You taste like maple syrup,” he told me when the kiss broke. “Did you make my waffles?”
“I made everything,” I assured him.
His little whimper was adorable, and I led the way inside.
Hannah gave me a quick kiss and then went upstairs as Sam dropped the duffels in the laundry room, stripped down to what Kola had been in earlier—T-shirt, jeans, and socks—and padded into the kitchen. After washing his hands, he grabbed a plate. Unlike my son, Sam did not smell like roadkill.
“So what’ve you guys been doing this whole week?” Sam asked me.
“What do you mean?” Kola asked him. “I was gone too. I just got home.”
Sam turned to me. “You were alone?”
I waggled my eyebrows at him.
He glanced around the kitchen. “That’s why this place looks so great.”
“Indeed,” I teased him.
“I’m sorry, baby. I would have never left if I’d known that––”
“You had to leave,” I reminded him. “And it’s okay. I got a lot done and had some time to do lots of reflecting.”
He squinted at me. “Meaning what? You like living alone? Finally figured out that we all need you but you don’t actually need any of us?”
I snorted. “Not so much.”
“Don’t ever get used to being by yourself,” he warned me. “It’s never gonna happen.”
“Yes, dear.”
“I’m serious,” he growled, loading up his plate with tamales.
“So where is Jake?” Kola asked his father.
“From what I got when I picked her up at the airport on my way home, she wanted to come home, she didn’t want to be in California, and the closer it got to New Year’s Eve, the more panicky she got that something would happen with the flight and they wouldn’t be able to get home.”