Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“The voters don’t have to choose,” her wife said with a shrug.
“That’s right,” she agreed, glancing around the table.
“But if Greiner is even touched by a whiff of wrongdoing, as this would decidedly be,” Drew said, drawing out his conclusion for her, “then you could finish out Grant’s term and then run yourself.”
“I feel like you’re all part of some scary political cabal,” Bindi announced, “but really, you’re just chatting about things you know that others don’t. I get how it’s really important to trust the people in all of your lives.”
“It is,” Anika acknowledged. “And now,” she said, turning to Sam, “what’s happening with the groom’s father?”
“Fuckin’ Washburn,” he snapped, and Anika, Drew, and Kimberly all groaned.
“This is the area supervisor here in Chicago?” Naomi asked Sam.
“Yep.”
She chuckled. “I’ve heard about this guy.”
“He’s a nozzle,” Drew told us all. “And so what, he wanted to come in here, guns blazing, and ruin a perfectly nice wedding?”
“Yeah,” Sam replied, easing my chair closer until my knee was against his. “He wanted to make it big and splashy.”
“And you stopped it because you’re a dad,” Kimberly said, smiling at him, and I saw it then, that she thought the world of my husband. “What did you hit him with?”
“Not the sticky hand,” he told her.
“What?” she asked, laughing.
He then explained, at length, about his kids and everything that had gone on before we left the house earlier.
“Ohmygod, Jory, I love your home,” Anika gushed.
“And I totally get the bird thing,” Bindi told me. “I bought two new bird feeders before we left and asked the people who bought our house, at closing, to feed them. They were nice, but how do I know if they’re bird people? And if they’re not, imagine the little faces on the chickadees and sparrows.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “And the finches. I mean, come on.”
Naomi was nodding, and Kimberly was looking at her wife like she’d grown another head. “This is you and the hummingbirds at your mother’s house all over again, isn’t it?”
Naomi lifted her head and dabbed at her eyes with her fingers. Anika passed a pack of tissues from her purse across the table to her.
“Her mother passed this last summer,” Kimberly said, gazing at her wife. “And her mother had, like, half a dozen hummingbird feeders out on her back deck, and her sister wanted to sell the house right away, but Naomi—she was worried about her mother’s birds.”
“As would I,” I told her, reaching out for her hand, and she leaned forward to take mine. “You can hire someone to go over every other day to refill the feeders until you decide what to do. Take your time.”
She nodded, letting my hand go so she could blow her nose.
Sam shook his head at me.
“What?”
“We’ll take care of the stupid birds.”
“Sam,” Anika scolded him.
“He meant the birds,” Mark assured me. “Not stupid birds.”
I smiled at him.
“So when is ATF, and I’m assuming, DEA, getting here for the festivities?” Kimberly asked Sam.
“As soon as the bride and groom get in the car and go, they’re coming in.”
“And what did you have to give the devil?”
“The marshals service is not in the habit of making deals with the ATF,” he informed her. “However, they do have a weapons seizure in a couple days related to the Colima cartel that they might need some backup with.”
“Send Doyle,” Kimberly suggested, cackling. “He’s such an ass, and he’ll scare those ATF guys to death.”
Sam waggled his eyebrows at her.
“Washburn thinks he’s the devil, but it’s actually you, Sam Kage,” Anika told him.
And he enjoyed her thinking so, but I knew better. My husband was a knight, and had just proved it by not allowing a wedding to get ruined, and no one would ever know the truth.
The couple divided the room, and it was the bride, Delaney Greiner, and her father who visited our table. Mr. Greiner shook hands with everyone, thanked Sam and me for being there, and then went to Kimberly and Naomi and did the same, since the four of us were pinch hitters.
“I’m coming for your boss,” he said playfully to Kimberly.
“Oh, I know,” she said just as playfully back.
Later, Sam was horrified by the fish that was set down in front of him when the waitstaff delivered our meals. Clearly, this was what his boss had chosen to eat. As a rule, Sam Kage only ate certain kinds of fish, and it was normally deep-fried and served with sides of coleslaw and potato salad. The disgusted, disgruntled, and mostly dismayed, look on his face made Drew turn and spit out his water. Kimberly nearly choked to death on her chardonnay. I switched my steak and potatoes with his cod and asparagus.
“You’re gonna be hungry,” he assured me.
“Aren’t we stopping for pie?”
“Where do you go for good pie?” Bindi wanted to know, and Anika and Mark both leaned forward as I told them about my favorite diner with pie in the case as you walked in.