Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
I thought, how nice. We’ll go over to their house and have a low-key night. My plan was to take a good bottle of wine, but Sam put the kibosh on that and got some Irish whiskey instead. I thought that a bit stereotypical, but Sam said everyone likes good booze. It was a little more than a half hour drive from Oak Park to Edison Park, where Finn’s family lived. It was a beautiful area, with mature trees lining the streets, large family homes, and lovely landscaping, at least on Finn’s street. When we got there, Finn immediately came out the front door, onto the large porch, his face looking… pinched was the best thing I could think of.
“He looks constipated,” Hannah commented.
“That’s it,” Jake agreed, patting her leg. “I was trying to think of the word, and that’s it.”
“What’s wrong?” Kola asked him as soon as he reached us. He slipped one hand around the side of Finn’s neck and the other on his hip. And yes, to anyone who didn’t know him, it would have looked intimate, but Kola did the same thing to both Jake and Harper when he was worried about them. The issue was, it was easy to get your wires crossed when someone as beautiful, kind, and gentle as my son was giving you all his attention. I worried constantly.
“Me and my mom got our wires crossed.”
I almost laughed, I swear to God.
“How so?”
“Ohmygod,” a beautiful blond woman said as she came out onto the porch, “is that him, Finny? He’s gorgeous!”
My son glanced over at me, and I smiled at him, because clearly, what I’d suspected was correct, and my dear, sweet son who I loved had no idea that he was in some kind of relationship, beyond friendship, with Finn Murray. I also had no doubt he wasn’t getting that at all. He was merely looking to me for a moment for support. Every now and then, both my children would look to me for some emotional grounding, and it was amazing that even now, with just a smile, they got what they needed.
Kola let Finn go, and then slipped around him to rush up the steps to the porch to greet his friend’s mother. She opened her arms, and Kola bent and filled them, hugging her tight. I saw her smile, because yes, my son was a very good hugger. You felt his regard when he squeezed the breath out of you.
Finn, looking very much like he wanted to crawl under a rock, glanced at Hannah, whose eyes narrowed before she smiled, looking much like the cat who ate the canary.
“You better be really nice to me,” she told him. “I’ll put in a good word with my brother.”
He groaned and turned back toward the porch, where Sam stopped him.
“Hang in there, kid,” Sam told him, giving him a strong pat on the back that propelled him forward just a couple of steps.
I pressed my lips together tight, and Jake shook his head like this was all par for the course.
As usual, Mrs. Murray, Anne, was utterly enamored by my husband. Who could blame her? He was all broad shoulders and bulging muscles, and at six-four he was hard to miss. And there was the warm smile to consider as well, the one that made his slate-blue eyes glint and the laugh lines around his eyes crinkle. She stared up at him the way most people did who he graced with his undivided attention. Once he thanked her for having us in her home, he introduced her to Hannah, who had rushed up the stairs after her father. Hannah presented her with some homemade snickerdoodles she made. With Hannah’s big dark brown eyes looking at her, Finn’s mother was utterly enchanted. She walked them into her home, where Kola and Finn already were, leaving Jake and me at the foot of the porch.
When I turned to him, he said, “You wanna go get burgers?”
“It’s just because everyone sees them,” I made sure he knew. “It doesn’t mean you’re not important. You get that, yes?”
He squinted at me. “I matter to your family and Hannah. I’m good.”
I smiled at him because he was dear, and the two of us went up the stairs, opened the screen door, then the front door, and in we went.
It was wild inside. Kids were running around because it was too cold to run outside, the TV was on and blaring, people were sitting in the living room, on folding chairs along the sides, and the kitchen, where the food was laid out in a buffet line on the island, had even more people. The dining room table that sat twelve had more of the folding chairs around it, so people were eating shoulder-to-shoulder.
Sam was in another room that I was thinking used to be the porch, but was now enclosed with glass that led out onto a back deck. A man, who I was guessing was Finn’s father, was walking him around the room, introducing Sam to all the people there. He was smiling and shaking hands and, I could tell, enjoying himself. He wasn’t being polite; he was being his engaging self that I didn’t see often. Clearly, he liked Finn’s father.