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)
All eyes on me.
“Why do I have to be the one?”
“Because you guys are buddies,” Sam grumbled. “Get it done.”
“Right now?”
“No, not right this second but…soon.”
“Yes, please,” Aja rushed out. “Perhaps tomorrow.”
I whimpered a bit. “I don’t wanna pry.”
“Tough,” Sam said. “When you’re the favorite, this is your lot in life.”
“Oh that’s so true,” Hannah agreed. “The nicest person is always the one with all the dirt.”
“Amen,” Aja concurred.
Dylan and Chris were the last to arrive, coming in through the back door with Kola trailing after them to get more lasagna.
Once they hugged everyone, and Sam got up to get Chris a beer, Aja poured Dylan a glass of red wine and gestured for her to lean in. After a moment, Dylan gasped.
“What?” Kola asked worriedly.
“Oh no, nothing,” Dylan rushed out.
He gave her a deadpan look.
“Fine. Your uncle Aaron brought your aunt Sandra home from Boston with him tonight.”
“Why is that—oh,” he said with a grimace, his focus on Aaron. “Did Uncle Michael do something stupid?”
“Go feed your guests,” Sam demanded.
Kola went to do as he was told, and Finn came in five minutes later, stalked by all of us to reach the couch, and flopped down hard. Moments later, Jake and Harper joined him. Hannah was the last one in, and I reached out and took hold of her hand before she could brush by me where I was sitting at the table with the rest of the adults, having drinks, eating and gossiping. Basically, I’d made a rule that whenever we got together, we all had to come with one piece of interesting, hopefully salacious, news. Dane said it was terrible, and Sam concurred, but I noticed that they always listened anyway, even though their contributions were always a bit dull. Aja worked in academia, which we all knew was a cesspool of sin. Dylan worked with me, interacting with a whole wide spectrum of crazy. Chris was a residential architect, and when people got divorced in the middle of projects—that was nuts. Aaron always had good stuff—though this evening’s news about Michael didn’t count—and Duncan’s was more of the “holy shit” variety. Sam and Dane never had anything remotely entertaining. At the moment, however, I was more invested in whatever was happening on the couch and so asked.
“What’s happening on the couch?”
Hannah crossed her arms. “So, as you know, your son, on occasion, can miss things that the rest of us pick up on right away.”
“Yes. True.”
“And I’ve wondered if perhaps he might be more neurodivergent than the rest of us.”
“That’s also quite possible.”
“And you know, that I know, that all of his differences make him amazing.”
“What’re you trying to tell me?”
“Without question he has his OCD leanings, and his social battery depletes very quickly if he’s by himself and he has no buffer.”
Hannah had always been a great buffer for Kola, as were both his best friends, and now his fiancé. All of them were extroverts, circling the wagons for the introvert in their midst. “Yes.”
“All of this is to say that, because he’s different, he can miss social cues.”
This was true. Over the years Kola had more than one person, out of the blue, attack him—romantically, seductively—because they thought Kola liked them. One young woman had actually thought they were dating. She told Hannah later that she’d never had a more devoted boyfriend than Kola. He noticed everything about her, could anticipate her needs, and was invested in her emotional health just as much as her best girlfriends. She was shocked when Kola looked utterly gobsmacked when she told him she was more than ready to have some serious sex with him. Of course, Kola had spoken to the one person who was of no help whatsoever…his father.
Back in the day, Sam Kage had a lot of sex with a great many women, but after we finally got together, exchanged vows, and he wore a ring…Sam was oblivious. I had seen him hit on, in front of me, by men and women, and he missed it. By a mile. But unlike Kola, who thought everyone was a potential friend and was the same with men and women, Sam simply didn’t see anyone but me. And while I loved that, at that time, Sam had been as confused as his son.
“Were you dating her?”
“I would have known if I was, don’t you think?”
“Yeah. Weird.”
So that was not at all helpful.
Even Harper had thought that he and Kola were more than friends at some point, and while half of that was because he’d wanted it to be true, the rest was because he’d read Kola’s ease with physical contact, endless support, and absolute faith in him to reach any goal he set for himself as romantic love. Over time, he’d learned the difference, seen that Kola shared his great heart with so many people, but also knew that he was Kola’s ride or die. Whatever Harper needed, ever, Kola would move heaven and earth to make that happen. He loved Harper, just as he loved Jake, but that romantic, sexual side of him had only been tripped by a few people over the years. And then, suddenly, there was Finn Murray, who my son fell head over heels for. The issue was, now he had to curb that part of himself that had him giving the shirt off his back to strangers. I suspected Finn would prefer he just offered them a towel instead.