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)
She smiled at him. “That was in the summer.”
“Yeah.”
“And you remembered.”
“I remember everything you say, you know that.”
“Yep,” she said, putting her head on her palm, copying him as she’d been doing since she was a child. “So do tell. Is Finn moving in too?”
“Yeah, K,” Finn asked softly, doing the same, chin on palm, staring at the man he so clearly loved. “Do I get to move in too?”
Kola made a noise like they were both annoying. “Yes, you’re moving in, now where’s my fork? How am I supposed to eat without a fork?”
Finn held it up. “I’ll trade you.”
Kola rolled his eyes, but he leaned sideways and kissed Finn. When he eased back, he took the fork. Finn’s bemused smile was not to be missed.
“So we’ll move over Christmas break? Start the new year in the new place?” Kola asked his sister.
“Yeah,” she agreed, smiling at him. “New year, new everything.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
“Good,” she murmured, and then checked her watch and glared.
Before I could ask, Finn chuckled. “He’s coming, don’t worry.”
“So help me, if he—oh,” she chirped happily and got up from the table, made a point of walking around the opposite side so she could kiss her brother on the head, and then walked toward the front door. She stopped to put on a beige sherpa jacket that was draped over one of the chairs. “Pa, did you see what Jake got me?”
It was a cute jacket, and when Jake came to stand beside me, he was smiling.
“It’s the same one Lily Collins wore in season four, episode six of Emily in Paris,” she informed me.
“It’s a knockoff,” he corrected her. “The real thing is way out of my price range.”
“I don’t care, I adore it,” she said, putting it on and hugging herself for a moment before she rushed to the door and threw it open.
“You know one of the many things that’s great about her?” Jake asked me.
“What?”
“That she actually loves the knockoff I got her and will wear like it is real.”
“That’s because she cares about the thought behind it more than the gift itself.”
“I know. How lucky am I?”
“Very,” I said sincerely, because my daughter was a jewel. “But so is she.”
“Awww, thanks, Mr. Harcourt, that means—oh, look who it is.”
And there, standing in the doorway, was George Hunt, who Hannah utterly and completely adored.
“You were at the man’s wedding last weekend,” I reminded him. “Being jealous of George seems a bit ridiculous at this point.”
He only gestured at Hannah as she stood in front of George and stared up at him like he’d come down from heaven just for a visit.
Jake sighed heavily.
“Knock it off,” Kola told Jake, and we both turned to look at him. “She loves you, doofus. Make no mistake about that.”
And because Kola said it, I saw Jake take heart.
Nothing worked better than hearing the truth from your best friend.
That’s it, everyone. I’ll tell you all about Christmas and New Year’s in January. Happy holidays, everyone. Take care, be safe, and hopefully enjoy some wintering.