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)
“You forgot something, dingus,” he muttered as soon as he reached her.
…until he spoke.
“I did not,” she snarled back at him.
“Hannah,” I scolded her.
“Did you hear him call me dingus?”
He pointed at her ear.
“Well, crap,” she grumbled, unclipping one emerald-pearl-and-diamond earring, then the other. She passed them to him. “I could have just taken them home.”
“Really?” His look clearly conveyed the question, are you stupid? “Could you?”
“Fine,” she said under her breath.
“And who is this?” Sandra asked, looking at George.
“This is my friend, George Hunt, who also happens to be my bodyguard. George, this is my aunt Sandra.”
He gave Sandra a smile but didn’t offer her his hand. I’d noted more and more that George, as a rule, was not much of a touchy-feely person.
“You have a bodyguard?”
“Yes, she does,” George answered for her, “which is especially important when wearing a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of stones in her ears.”
“I thought those were costume,” Sandra told her.
“Way too heavy to be costume,” George replied, pulling a black velvet square from the breast pocket of his suit. He unfolded it to twice its size, and once he placed the earrings on his palm, showed them to Sandra. “As you can tell, when looked at up close, it’s clear you’re looking at real stones.”
“I—yes, I can,” she agreed.
Once he folded them up and replaced them in his breast pocket, he turned to me. “Always a pleasure, Mr. Harcourt-Kage.”
“Same with you, George, and you can just say Harcourt, I know both names are a mouthful.”
His smile did really dazzling things to his blue-black eyes.
“I expect you at our Christmas open house, as I know you’re leaving the day after to spend New Year’s instead with your family this year.”
“Thank you, sir.”
He turned to go, but Hannah stopped him, hand tight on his bicep.
His scowl was dark. Her smile lit up her face.
After a roll of his eyes, he bent and kissed her cheek. She was still glowing when he walked away.
“My goodness, that young man has a huge ring on his left hand.”
“There are actually two rings on his finger. They’re his wedding set. It’s because he married a doctor. Lots of money for diamonds and platinum.”
“What interesting people you have who inhabit your life.”
“I know,” Hannah agreed happily.
When Werner and Thea returned, it was clear that she looked dejected and he just wanted to talk to Hannah. And they were just chatting, it wasn’t romantic, but still, he didn’t give Thea the time of day. It turned out that Werner’s aunt and uncle were there, and he brought them over to meet me. Later, in the kitchen, Sandra said that to her, that was amazing. Sam and I were the only same-sex couple she knew, so to have Werner’s relatives have no reaction at all to meeting me other than interest, just as I had with them, was mind-blowing.
Sandy also didn’t understand what a Christmas open house was. Two days later, at my house, by three in the afternoon—she and Michael and the kids had arrived at one—she understood. There was no time that everyone sat down at a long table and ate. That was not what we did.
Food was out, buffet style, on the stove and counters in the kitchen. There were paper plates, napkins, and you just made a loop and served yourself. There were desserts that were out and others in the refrigerator. But all the food was accessible. People popped in, visited, and left. Some, like Dane and Aja and their sons, Robert and Gentry, stayed all day. It was a lot for Sandra to see friends of Sam’s pop in with their wives, visit for a bit and then leave. His parents came over and stayed; his sisters and their families came over and left soon after eating. Sandra and Michael had no other plans, so they stayed as well. She watched as Hannah, Kola, and Jake all helped me in the kitchen, pulling aluminum foil pans out of the oven and putting new ones in. We served in those pans and off plastic platters. At one point Sandra made the comment that perhaps she should get rid of all her fine china and her vintage serving ware like her tureen or her butter and pickle trays.
“Why would you do that?” Kola asked her as Finn took a cookie sheet full of rolls from him and Hannah passed him another that had to go in that same oven. “You have beautiful sit-down dinners, so you need all that stuff.”
“Yeah,” Hannah chimed in. “I enjoyed looking at all the different serving pieces. It felt elegant. This ain’t that.”
“Not at all,” I agreed. “We need to get people fed.”
She appreciated the words and decided to lend a hand instead of standing back and watching, which was a huge help. It was nice to see her chatting with Aja and Dylan later on in the evening. When Aaron and Duncan arrived, Aja introduced her to him. She was a bit overwhelmed, but one did not meet a multibillionaire every day. For his part, Aaron was the charming man that he was when on his best behavior. Because of that, I knew that Sandra and Michael would not be getting an invitation to Aaron’s New Year’s Eve party in the sky. He had to be comfortable enough to be himself if you were coming to his home.