Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
“We’re about to have dinner. I’ll call you later once the holy terror is in bed, all right?” I said, dropping my voice.
Rosie’s lovely laughter drifted over the phone. “You adore that holy terror. I can see it every time you talk about her.”
“I do. I adore you as well. I’ll call you later. Give AJ a kiss for me.”
“And me?”
“A hundred of them.”
I hung up and caught sight of Suzy’s shocked face. She leaned forward, her elbows on her knees, and met my eyes.
“Asher, you had better start talking. Really talking. And I mean now before Bonnie walks through that door and monopolizes you again. Spill it.”
I told her everything. Mostly everything. Okay, the basics. Meeting Rosie and AJ. The connection. Spending Christmas with them. But I was honest about the draw I felt toward them. Especially Rosie.
She stared at me. “Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?”
I shrugged.
She narrowed her eyes. “Did you sleep with this woman, Asher?”
The front door opened, and Bonnie called my name, excited. “Uncle Ash, we got pizza!”
I stood. “I’ve been summoned.”
Suzy said my name, and I paused at the doorway.
“We’re not done.”
I nodded. Knowing my sister, we were far from finished with this conversation.
I avoided her until almost nine. I read Bonnie a story, sitting with her until she fell asleep. She loved her gifts, told me all about Christmas Day with her Gram and Gramps and her cousins.
“Uncle Vince and Auntie Laura were there, but you weren’t,” she observed. “I missed you.”
I chucked her under the chin. “We always have our own little Christmas, munchkin. You know that.”
“Why?”
It was too difficult to explain to a child. “Uncle Ash likes having you to himself,” I said instead. “I look forward to our time without everyone else.”
She thought about it for a moment, her adorable little brow furrowed in thought. Then she smiled. “Me too. And Mommy says if you miss someone, it means you love them.”
I thought about how much I was missing two people right now. All day and evening, they hadn’t been far from my thoughts.
I bent and kissed her. “Your mommy is very smart. Now go to sleep.”
I read a little more, and she drifted fast. I thought I was in the clear, but just as I headed to my room, Suzy appeared. “Not so fast, buster.”
“Must it be tonight?”
“Yes. I have scotch.”
“Well, at least that helps,” I muttered. “A little.”
In the living room, my brother-in-law handed me a generous glass of the amber liquid. “For the inquisition,” he said with a droll wink. “Suzy filled me in, and I have to admit, I have questions.”
I took the glass from his hand. “Thanks. I think I’m going to need it.”
Suzy came in, carrying a glass of wine. She sat across from me, James beside her, his hand on her knee. “Did you sleep with her?” she asked again.
I met her gaze. “Yes.”
“Asher,” she said, aghast. “There is a child.”
“I am aware, Suzy. I was there.”
“And you stayed there all this time?”
I laughed. “You make it sound as if I was there for a year. It was a few days.”
“There is a child,” she repeated. “An impressionable child.”
I sat forward in understanding. “I am not playing around.”
“What do you call it?”
I took a sip of scotch. “The start of something important and real in my life.”
It was rare I saw my sister speechless. She gaped at me, looked at James, then took a sip of wine.
“You met her at Zoles?”
“Yes, I was getting your gift.”
Suzy glanced over at the tree, her handmade crystal collector’s ornament catching the light, along with the thirty-plus others she had. One for every Christmas she’d been alive. I had taken over the tradition of giving them to her when our mother died. Every year, there was talk of discontinuing the tradition, and every year, I vetoed the idea. Suzy loved the pieces—loved what they represented. It was different for me, but I carried on the tradition for her. They were a limited item, and each one had to be picked up in person and signed for.
“Is she pretty?” Suzy asked.
“Tiny, fierce, strong, and a great mother,” I replied. “Her voice is soft, her heart is big, and she’s simply the loveliest woman I have ever met.”
Suzy blinked and looked at James again, taking another sip of wine.
“She has red hair, green eyes, and freckles that drive her crazy.”
Me too, I added silently, but my kind of crazy was different. The kind I wouldn’t discuss with my sister.
“Do you have a picture?”
I scrolled through my phone, picking one I had taken of her reading to AJ. With her head bent over his, it was hard to tell where her red hair ended and his began. He was staring up at her, and she was smiling at him, patiently explaining something he didn’t understand in the story. It was one of my favorites. Suzy studied it, then scanned a few more. She stopped at one, lifting her eyebrow. I knew which one it was. Rosie staring at the camera, sexy, and freshly fucked. Her hair was a mess, her lips swollen and a shy smile pulling her lips.