Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Now, Aaron Sutter is much like Sam. He cannot follow my thought patterns to save his life. He perpetually squints and says “What?” until I give him a breakdown. Duncan, being a police commander, is surprisingly not good at making intuitive leaps. It’s actually quite disappointing. Perhaps it’s the law enforcement brain. But really, detectives have to think outside the box, so Duncan could probably have followed me down the winding path at some point, but that part of his brain atrophied from disuse. Much like Sam’s.
“We’re going to your son’s engagement party,” I repeated, arms crossed, looking up at my husband, “and we’re going there because we love him.”
The scowl was dark.
“I think Finn’s mother needs the party, and to see the rings, so she knows her youngest child is not living in sin.”
“This is stupid.”
“It’s not stupid to her, and you can stay home if you’d prefer, and I’ll just tell your son that you were exhausted from a long day at work.”
“I would never disappoint my son, and you know it,” he grumbled at me, yanking off his shirt and walking toward his closet. “Is there gonna be food there?”
“It’s a potluck, and we’re all bringing something.”
“All?” he asked, turning back to me.
“Well, I made lasagna and an antipasto salad, Aja is bringing mac ’n’ cheese, Dylan is bringing Swedish meatballs, Hannah has dessert covered, and Finn’s family is bringing food as well. I think Finn’s mother made corned beef hash, and another of his aunts made her homemade sauerkraut and pork chops.”
He grunted. “That doesn’t sound terrible.”
“Aaron, of course, is having something delivered, who knows what, and Hannah had her people come in and set up, and then they’ll be back to take all the plates, glasses, and silverware away after the party.”
“Hannah has people?”
“She does. She pays them out of her own pocket for something personal, and apparently everyone wants that gig because she’s a very big tipper.”
He groaned and shook his head and stepped into our closet. “I prefer to come home and veg with you over pizza on Friday nights.”
“Which is very sweet, but your son has requested us at his home, so I for one will not disappoint him.”
Instant glare. “Again, I would never willingly disappoint my son.”
I smiled at him. “I do know that.”
His eyes narrowed. “You think you’re so clever.”
“Only where you’re concerned,” I teased him, reaching up, slipping my hand around the side of his neck to gently ease him down to me.
He bent and kissed me, and it was only because it was one of our kids that we didn’t call and say we couldn’t make it. Something about how he held me and how hard I pressed against him made us both breathless when we stepped apart.
I stared at him, and he stared back for a moment, before he pulled me back to him and kissed me long and hard. I was so lost in kissing him that when he ended it, I moaned loudly.
He was panting.
“That was unexpected,” I barely got out.
“Yeah,” he husked, his gaze holding mine. “And I’m thankful that being close to me still has that effect on you.”
And so was I.
There were a lot more people than I expected, and the kids had the door open so everyone could come in and out. Finn’s parents were very happy to see us, as we were them, but I noted that Finn’s mother and his aunts seemed a bit put off by Hannah directing everyone.
Sam was immediately sort of engulfed by Finn’s father, Finn’s brothers, and more men who had to be related to him. One of them, Conor, was the guy in the video at St. Patrick’s Day who was outed for the three—I think it was three—women he was sleeping with. There was a very attractive woman on his arm who looked about Hannah’s age. But because it was none of my business, I stayed in my lane.
Finn had a lot of cousins there as well, and I want to say three of them were talking to him when I walked by, and they were doing that thing where they hit him and pretended they were playing, shoving him harder than was necessary, and because I always hated people who played rough on purpose, I was going to go say something when I noted that Jake was on his way.
What everyone forgets about Jake is that he’s not the whole wall of muscle that Harper’s boyfriend, Wick, is, and he’s not trained like Finn, or stealthy like Harper, who you think is all nice until he hits you so hard you can’t breathe. Kola, who is not the Tae Kwon Do master his sister is, is still trained, and that, accompanied by his understanding of anatomy, has suddenly made my son a bit spookier than he used to be. But no one ever looks at Jake and thinks they should be wary. I have a theory that it’s his affability. Jake is, generally, the one in the group that everyone likes right off. You don’t look at him and think he’d give you any trouble. But he’s six-one, covered in muscle, and he has very quick reflexes. I also think, because he can be a bit of a klutz sometimes—and as the founding member of the group, I know of what I speak—that Jake is not someone people look at and think yeah, he could hurt me. So when Jake went to get Finn, he walked up to the group of three men and kept going, shouldering his way in, sending each of them in a different direction.