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)
I had to let the others go so I could go cuddle with her. Thomas joined us.
“You’ve been a blessing in our lives,” he assured me softly. “From the first time Sam brought you home, we knew everything would be different because of you.”
We were in a tight ball, and I heard Kola call for his father.
“What the hell, people?” Sam groused at us. “Thanksgiving is supposed to be happy.”
“It is,” I said, barely able to breathe.
“Yeah, I can tell,” he muttered.
Once his parents let me go, Sam eased me up and into his arms, clutching me tight to his heart as he always did. I could not speak around the lump in my throat.
“We need to start Pictionary,” Kola announced. “Everyone inside who’s playing.”
In moments, Sam and I were alone out on the patio with, once I looked around, not nearly as much food as I thought there was going to be.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’ve been feeling a bit sentimental all day.”
“It’s not sentimental,” he said, letting me go and then taking my face in his hands. “It’s you being thankful for your blessings. We all need to do that much more often. Not everyone can speak from their heart. I’m lucky that you’ve always been able to. I’m thankful for you every single day of my life.”
“You know I feel exactly the same.”
He smiled before he kissed my forehead. “I do know. Never doubt it.”
Once we got inside, Kola gave me a big hug and told me that his grandparents were going home, they were pooped, so Sam and I needed to go hug them. After which, we should go join the game, and he and Jake, Robert and Gentry and Finn would make quick work of the clearing and the dishes.
I was impressed. The boys had the food moved from outside to the stove—in case we had more visitors—the dishwasher loaded and running, and the pies put out on the kitchen table and coffee made about thirty minutes later. It didn’t hurt that Kola was meticulous and Robert had made a list on his phone and was checking things off. He was my brother’s firstborn after all. And Gentry, the showman, had a beautiful presentation going with everything laid out, a fan of forks, and stations where you could add things to your dessert that everyone enjoyed. The boys also got to yell out answers to their respective teams.
I loved seeing Finn utterly amazed that his father could draw that fast, like he should have been teaching art somewhere. Kola was on his team and guessed three in a row, one of which was the Great Wall of China. Eammon walked from one of the two giant erase boards we had courtesy of Aaron, on easels, courtesy of Dane, over to Kola and hugged him. Kola enjoyed that quite a bit, if the smile that lit his eyes was any indication.
Sam could not draw at all, but that didn’t matter; the odds were in his favor with the number of people there that at least one of his kids would be on his team. It was Hannah, and she stood up, walked further back from his artwork, nearly to the kitchen, tilted her head to the left, and said, “It’s The Beatles.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Dane asked her, utterly floored.
“It’s the Abbey Road album cover, right, Dad?”
Sam very smugly nodded.
“Come show me John, Paul, George, and Ringo right now,” Dylan demanded.
“Yes, now, what she said,” Dane insisted.
“I see it a little,” Aja chimed in kindly.
“Oh you do not,” Gentry scolded his mother.
“Of course she does,” Robert defended her, since he was on Sam’s team. “That’s a fantastic rendering, Uncle Sam.”
“Thank you,” he told him, leaning over to hug him. “You’re my favorite nephew.”
“Hey,” Gentry protested.
When Harper and Wick showed up, Sam called Harper over to him quickly, and both Kola and I called a foul on that.
“What’s the big deal?” Chris wanted to know.
I groaned.
“Harper, draw the Statue of Liberty.”
In a matter of seconds, Harper had the landmark drawn, in a very Schoolhouse Rock sort of way, so that it was more than recognizable.
“Oh, that’s not fair,” Wick muttered, gesturing at the board. “The hell is that? You never told me you could draw.”
“You never asked,” Harper made clear.
Sam cackled, which was terrible form.
“That’s not at all fair,” Dane insisted.
The issue was, Kola could draw, it just took him, like, fifteen minutes to do one finger of a hand. Hannah could draw as well, but sometimes she got distracted in the middle and started making her picture prettier. She was also big on grounding her picture in space and time. Which meant background needed to be added. By that time, Jake had Rodin’s Thinker sketched out well enough that the rest of us could see it and guess it. Finn could not draw to save his life.