Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Adorable little rascal.
Liam put the bowl he’d melted the butter in in the sink and then grabbed Scrapper and put him on his shoulder.
Scrapper instantly draped himself over the curve, close to Liam’s neck, front paws dangling forward, back paws dangling down his back, apparently deciding chasing caps was hard work, and it was time for a nap.
It totally sucked my kid stole my cat.
“Can you dump a named partner that easily?” my son asked.
“No. Unless he did something very, very wrong.”
My gaze went to Darius.
His eyes were alight.
“Is Ally that good?” I asked.
“What do you think?” he asked back.
I didn’t have to think.
I knew.
I smiled at him.
He winked at me and then turned with the cutting board to dump the veggies in a pot of boiling water on the stove.
* * * *
We sat in the four armchairs in the Reserve, Toni across from me, Tony across from Darius.
The table between the chairs had a board covered with cheeses and cured meats and olives and nuts and fruit.
I held a glass of an exceptional red in my hand.
Toni decided tonight, like many nights, was a martini night.
Tony and Darius were talking about something. Sports. Current events. I didn’t know.
I didn’t care.
I loved that they got along. That they could carry on a conversation without their women, like we could do the same.
Toni’s eyes came to me, and I read in them what I felt in the hug she’d given me outside Fortnum’s a few months ago.
I got it. I lived it.
My happy-goodness cloud never went away, and I knew now it never would.
“Daddy!” Talia shouted from the door.
I twisted to look around my chair at her.
She seemed peeved about something.
She didn’t make us wait to share what that was about.
“Liam is cheating!” she accused.
“I am not!” Liam yelled from the lounge in the other room.
“Liam isn’t a cheater, baby,” Tony said.
She glared at him, then shifted targets.
She walked to Darius, put her hand on his forearm, turned her ankle, looked up at him with wounded doe eyes, and pouted, “Uncle Darius, Liam keeps winning at the TV games.”
Instantly, Darius pushed out of his chair. “All right, sweetheart. Let’s go have a chat with him.”
She smiled a gleeful smile, took his hand, and they walked out.
“When you give him another kid, you are gonna be in a world of hurt,” Toni warned.
“I already know that,” I said blithely, then took a sip of my wine.
And I did know it.
I just didn’t care.
* * * *
“You see it?”
“Shoosh, I see it.”
“You haven’t always seen it.”
“I so have.”
“You totally haven’t.”
“Gah!”
I tore my gaze from Kenneth, who was cuddling his and Lena’s brand-new daughter, Michelle, to his chest while sitting tucked up next to Lena in her hospital bed, and as was not unusual, the world had melted away for Kenneth.
The only people in it were him, his wife and his daughter.
“You think he’s touched. I think he’s got it goin’ on. He only has space for what’s important to him, what’s interesting to him, what matters to him, and the rest fades away. It’s genius,” Darius whispered.
I couldn’t argue.
I watched Mom try to get in there and get her hands on Michelle.
Kenneth ignored her, making googly eyes at his wife in turn with doing the same to his daughter, so into it, Mom had no choice but to back away.
“See?” Darius was still whispering. “Genius.”
I gave him the side-eye.
He grinned at me when he caught it, then dipped down and murmured in my ear, “I want one of those.”
When he pulled away, I promised, “When the time comes, I’ll do my best.”
He smiled at me before he kissed me.
He kept his arm around me as we returned our attention to the newly expanded family.
Lena rested her head on Kenneth’s shoulder and touched her daughter’s cheek.
My cloud gave me a hug.
I sighed.
* * * *
Not too long later…
We didn’t have near enough tickets for everybody in Liam’s family.
Still, we managed to scrounge around and get Mom and Dad, Lena and Kenneth, Toni and Tony, Miss Dorothea, Gabby, Danni and Grandmoms Beverly in the stadium.
After Liam accepted his diploma and moved his tassel across his mortarboard, his steps determined, like he was already walking into the brilliant life he would lead, his honors stole flapping off to his sides, his gaze came direct to me.
I waved, hopping in my seat, and blew kisses.
His big smile got bigger, spreading across his face.
Then he stopped dead and sharply dropped his head, before he looked up at his father. Only after he did that did he pound his fist to his heart.
My throat closed.
Darius pounded his fist too.
Liam strode off.
I looked up to my man and I didn’t have time to deal with the tears in my eyes.
I had to deal with the ones in his.
* * * *