Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Miss Ina shrugs. “You’re probably right, but this hooking-up business is not how you find someone you want to spend your life with. If you are constantly looking for the next hookup, as you say, you won’t know when you find the right one.”
“You’re probably right,” Libby agrees.
“I know I am. You and your sisters are sweet girls. You deserve to find nice men who want more than just to drink your milk.”
Hearing Mackenzie snort next to me, I look at her just in time to catch her covering her mouth. “Sorry.” She waves her hand toward Miss Ina, who narrows her eyes.
“This is the weirdest conversation I have ever heard,” Levi says, picking up his beer.
Fawn smiles at him, resting her hand on his chest—a hand that is now sporting an engagement ring. When he told me a week ago that he was going to ask Fawn to marry him at Christmas, my first insane thought was that he was a lucky bastard. A few months ago, my first thought would have been that he was a crazy fuck.
Mackenzie has made me want those things for myself—a wife, a family, someone to come home to at the end of the day. She’s my best friend. A best friend I have unbelievable chemistry with.
“Put down your darn phone, girl.” I look up just in time to catch Miss Ina snatch the cell phone out of Libby’s hand and toss it behind her onto the floor.
“You . . . oh my god! You did not just do that! I was posting a photo of what the table looked like after we all decimated it!” Libby cries.
Miss Ina waves her off. “You can’t live life through a phone. You need to live in the moment by being present in the situation.”
She isn’t wrong about that. People now live on their phones. They date on their phones, communicate with family and friends on their phones. Face-to-face contact has become almost nonexistent.
“Yeah, but I wanted to share with my friends online who aren’t here to share it with me.”
“Share it with them firsthand when you see them. Not by taking a picture of the moment and sharing it on your Facesbooks or Intergrams,” she says.
I smile at that.
“It’s Facebook and Instagram. I don’t see the people I chat with online often,” Libby says.
Miss Ina frowns. “Then why do they need to see what your table looked like?”
“I don’t know. It’s just what you do. You share online what you’re doing and where you have been.”
“Well, it’s ridiculous, and it takes away from the occasion and the experience. When you’re enjoying a beautiful moment in life, really enjoying that moment, you can remember it in your mind’s eye years later. You can remember what you heard, what you smelled, how you felt. Sometimes the memory will be so clear you’d think you were back there all over again. No picture is going to give that to you. If you don’t put down your phone and look around, when you’re old like me and your sight is starting to go, you will have no memories at all.”
“You’re right,” Libby huffs. “But you still shouldn’t have tossed my phone.”
“You can get it after dinner,” Miss Ina says before looking over at a stunned Katie, who is holding her glass of wine inches from her mouth. “Thank you for dinner, dear.”
“Um . . .” Katie clears her throat. “You’re welcome. Thank you for coming.” She looks around the table. “Would anyone like dessert?” she asks, setting down her wineglass and standing up.
“I’d like some.” Mackenzie’s dad rubs her hand.
She nods once, then gets up and wanders from the dining room toward the kitchen.
“I’m going to go help my mom,” Mackenzie says.
“Sure.” I kiss the side of her head, and she smiles.
She scoots back from the table and gets up. Both Fawn and Libby follow her. Sitting back in my chair, I put my beer to my mouth and take a pull. Things are not at all uncomfortable, but Mackenzie’s dad hasn’t been his happy, talkative self since we got here. I can feel his strange energy coursing through the room like an exposed live wire. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but I think that Levi can feel it, too.
“I’m going to go have a smoke,” my mom says.
I look at her and lift my chin.
“I’ll go with you,” Miss Ina says, pushing back her chair.
My mom looks at her with a surprised look on her face. “You smoke?”
“Not anymore, but I did years ago. You can blow it in my direction for old time’s sake,” she says.
Mom laughs as she and Miss Ina leave the room.
“That old lady is crazy,” Peter mutters.
Levi and I both laugh, but Aiden doesn’t. He crosses his arms over his chest and glares at Levi.