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)
“Jesus, what?” Sam grumbled at him.
Instantly, he huffed out a breath. “While I was walking through the airport, I saw your charming sister-in-law, Sandra, whose flight was delayed.”
“And?” Sam prodded him.
“I, of course, offered to bring her home with me, since we were traveling to the same destination. She was very appreciative.”
“As would I be,” I told him.
“You’re not saying something,” Sam asserted, squinting at him.
Aaron nearly squirmed.
“Oh no,” I said.
“Wait. Don’t tell me, I don’t wanna know,” Sam ordered.
“Excellent,” Aaron stated. “I do hate to ever be the bearer of––”
“What happened?” I demanded.
“Sandra went to Michael’s apartment to surprise him, and he had a woman there,” Duncan blurted out immediately.
“Duncan being the bearer of bad news I really don’t mind,” Aaron confessed.
“No, no, no,” Sam groaned, sitting down at the kitchen table. “There’s no way he’s that stupid. It’s inconceivable.”
“You keep using that word,” Hannah teased him as she came walking in, saw Aaron and changed course to reach him, going in for the hug. “Oh guess what,” she said, leaning back to look at me. “Guess who called off his wedding?”
“Oh no,” I said for the second time that night. “Your friend David Chan?”
She cackled. “As I suspected, he is not marrying the girl his mother hates. He owes me a bottle of my favorite moscato.”
“Hannah, you shouldn’t––”
“He made the bet. It’s his own fault.”
“But, love, you––”
“Oh, Pa, it’s, like, twenty bucks,” she said, waving a dismissive hand. “The fun part though will be him driving all over town to find it, because everywhere he normally shops won’t even carry it. I wish I could be there.”
“That’s terrible,” I passed judgment.
“Oh please, he was so snotty about the whole thing.”
“Yes, but––”
“More importantly, have you seen what Finn got Kola for his birthday?”
“Actually no,” I said, thinking that I’d never followed up on that mystery.
“I have,” Aaron told her.
She made a face at him, like of course he had.
“Why do you know and I don’t?”
“Think about it a second, and it’ll come to you,” Hannah said with a chuckle.
“Oh,” I announced. “It’s some kind of gadget that only gets made at Sutter.”
“Bingo,” Aaron told me.
“What is it?”
“A pen,” he announced like I should have been impressed.
“A pen?”
“Don’t sound so disappointed,” he warned me.
“A pen?” I repeated.
“I’m sure it’s fabulous,” Aja chimed in, playing peacemaker.
“Stop,” Dylan said.
“It’s a really good pen,” Aaron insisted.
“It doesn’t double as a flamethrower or something, does it?”
“No,” he said irritably. “But it lives on a special lanyard that saves whatever the person who owns the pen has written in a twenty-four-hour period. It has a built-in hard drive that can then be downloaded onto any chosen computer.”
“In Kola’s case, that doesn’t violate HIPAA or something?”
“He only uses it for his personal notes.”
“And it knows notes from charting or whatever because it’s magic?”
“You’re being very combative right now,” Aaron told me. “And snide.”
“I’m just asking a question.”
“You’re asking a question in a belligerent fashion,” he pointed out.
“I’m striving to understand,” I said, using my most soothing voice.
“Well, for your information, Kola just has to write the letter K first, before anything else, so the pen knows that’s personal.”
I couldn’t help smiling. “This sounds like something that will soon be very illegal to own.”
“It’s clearly experimental tech. We’ll see what happens.”
“But in the meantime, Kola has one?”
“It was the perfect thing, that of course, cost nothing, and Kola was over the moon,” Hannah informed me.
“Finn is very smart,” I commented to Hannah.
“Even smarter to ask me for one once he heard about it,” Aaron chimed in.
“Yes and no, depending on how this all turns out,” I said, playing devil’s advocate, “but now, I want to go back to Sandra.”
“Sandra who?” Hannah asked me. “Aunt Sandy?”
I nodded.
“What happened?”
“Apparently your uncle Aaron gave her a ride home from Boston on his plane.”
“Awww,” Hannah cooed, “that’s so nice.”
“She cried the whole way back,” Aaron said, exhaling sharply.
“Why?”
“Apparently she went to see your uncle, to surprise him, and when she arrived at his apartment, there was a woman there.”
“And?” Hannah prodded him.
“That’s all I know.”
“Which,” Aja began, “begs the question, who was she? Why was she there? So before you all tar and feather Michael, there needs to be some clarification on this person.”
“If Aunt Sandy was crying, she had to have found them doing something not great, don’t you think?” Hannah asked.
“Perhaps,” Aja granted. “Or conversely, that was only what it looked like. We need more information before we go about condemning him.”
“True,” Dane chimed in. “Maybe she was a junior associate, or his assistant. We don’t know. I’m surprised Sandy didn’t get to the bottom of what the relationship was.”
“Unless she didn’t need to ask any questions because of how she found them,” Hannah surmised. “That would be logical.”
“But again, we don’t know. Wait for your father to find out.”