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)
It wasn’t really a worry we couldn’t get tickets for everybody.
When we went through the back gate after the graduation ceremony, I saw the RCHB had been busy. Our backyard was transformed. There were balloons and streamers and banners everywhere, tables groaning with food, more groaning with wrapped gifts, feet thick on the ground and booties resting in every lawn chair in the neighborhood and some brought in from other places besides.
The confetti floated dense in the air among whoops and hollers when Liam showed his face.
Lee was the first to grab him by the back of his neck, give him a manly shake, then pull him into a hug, beating his back so hard, I swear, Liam would have bruises.
Liam would never, not ever, complain.
He loved his Uncle Lee.
Eddie moved in next and did the same.
Liam wouldn’t complain about that either, because he felt the same about his Uncle Eddie.
Daisy shouldered in next, reaching high, even if she was wearing Lucite, platform, stripper shoes that gave her at least an extra six inches (my boy was as tall as his daddy, and then some). She grabbed his face in both hands.
“Look at you, honey bunches of oats, makin’ your momma and daddy proud. Headed off to Harvard!” She turned, bent double, and shouted, “Harvard!”
Everyone who had a glass raised it (which was most of them) and everyone who didn’t (which was barely any) shouted, “Harvard!”
I laughed.
She turned back to Liam and smacked him gently twice on the cheek. “Proud of you, kid. Done good.” Then she whipped around again and yelled, “Now, where’s my margarita?”
“She’s like a demented cheerleader,” Liam muttered after she tottered away, but he was smiling, because she was, and he loved his Aunt Daisy.
It was Darius who grasped the back of his neck then, and he held on, walking his son forward, into the bosom of a whole bunch of people who loved him, saying, “That she is, son. That she is.”
* * * *
Not too long after that…
He knew I was there.
Nothing got by my man.
But he didn’t look up from his task.
“‘And the baby elephant said to the bunny, “But why does the frog have to stay on his lily pad?”’”
He was rocking in the Jill bedroom.
Our daughter was on his chest, her big eyes drooping as her daddy’s deep voice sounded around her and rumbled up into her as he read to her.
I left them to it.
I got all this goodness all to myself when I had Liam.
And I’d learned Darius would give me anything, but he was a baby hog.
I didn’t mind.
Not even a little.
Instead of going downstairs to my chair and my book in the study, I went to the kitchen, because I’d had to give up wine for pregnancy and breastfeeding purposes, but now, I got it back.
I poured myself some then went to the turntable in the living room.
I put on the album.
And I curled on the couch and waited for him.
He showed not much later with a baby monitor in his hand.
His eyes came to me, but his body went to the kitchen.
He came out still with the baby monitor, but also with a glass of wine.
He set the monitor down on the side table then he curled his long body around mine from the back.
“Well?” he asked into my ear.
I knew what he was asking.
We had a big decision to make.
I rested against his wide chest.
“Life’s an adventure, right?” I asked back.
“That’s not an answer, baby.”
I twisted my neck to look at him. “What do you want to do?”
No bullshit or prevarication, he said, “I wanna go.”
“Lee and Eddie won’t be there.”
“Yeah, they will. They’ll always be there. Maybe not as close, but they’ll always be there.”
He was correct.
“Mom’s gonna retire soon. The weather is better there,” he told me. “She’s sick of snow and cold.”
He was correct again.
“I’m sick of it too,” he added.
“What’ll we do with the house?” I asked.
“Rent it.”
I made a face.
He smiled and said, “We can build a wine cellar anywhere, sweetheart.”
I glanced around the space before saying to him, “It’s not just that.”
“We’ll take the stuff with us,” he said. “Or Danni and Gabby wouldn’t turn down another job.” He smiled again. “I’m outnumbered now. You and Antonia can make it what you want it to be.”
“We want to be surrounded by you.”