Chapter 1 July 2017
“Okay-okay,” I said, starting over, inhaling deeply before reading what I wrote. “Here’s what I’m gonna say: Hi, all, my name’s Jory Harcourt. I’m married, I have two kids, and I’m the part owner of a graphic design company and I’ve been asked to––”
“Why do you sound so perky?” Sam Kage, the love of my life, said from the couch where he was flipping through channels waiting for one of the qualifying games for the World Cup to come on.
He’d explained it, something about in the four years leading up to the next one that teams from all over the world competed to see who got to be in it, but I’d stopped listening.
What was nice was that my kids were upstairs, one in his room playing Call of Duty with friends across town, the other in her room with four of her best friends plotting God knew what.
Everyone safe under one roof was a blessing I never took for granted.
“I want people to know I’m upbeat,” I answered him.
“Are you talking to them?”
“No, they’ll be reading this.”
“Then how will they know what you sound like?”
“It’s tone, Sam.”
“Tone in words on a page?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” he said like I was nuts. “Just don’t sound fake.”
“What sounds fake?”
“All that stuff about who you are.” He yawned, stretching out, sliding farther down, looking very warm and inviting from where I was.
I jolted, ready to move, to go drape myself over him, but I stayed where I was because this had to get done. “Okay, so I’ll just say I’m a love god, then.”
“That would make more sense,” he said, carding his fingers through his hair. There were colors that caught the light: copper, gold––
“I don’t hear you typing.”
I cleared my throat. “Okay, so the first question is, if a man hit me once, what––”
“You have an email address for that question?” he asked, turning to look at me. “I can find her doing a reverse––”
“Sam, these are questions. They may or may not be real.”
“Tell her if a guy hits her once, he’ll hit her again and she needs to get the hell out of there right fuckin’ now.”
“Thank you,” I said drolly. “I would have never figured that out without you.”
“I’m just saying,” he groused at me, his focus back on the TV. “I can go put him in the hospital if she needs time to move her stuff.”
I sighed deeply before scrolling through the questions on the email I was sent. “Okay, here’s another. ‘At what age should children be allowed to date?’” I read aloud. “I’m going to say, when they both have a thorough understanding about safe sex and self-respect and––”
“Group dates in high school as long as the kids get picked up and dropped off by a parent, one-on-one dates only after your kid can drive so they can leave at any time they want to or feel uncomfortable,” Sam said like he’d been practicing the answer.
“Oh God.”
“What? Girls especially need to be able to drive. The being able to bail is important, as is some form of self-defense.”
“Sam.”
“If they want to date, they should be able to at least incapacitate three people in quick succession and be able to run.”
“So sixteen, then?”
“If they have a valid driver’s license by that time, but more importantly, dating should be based on their individual training.”
“And for boys?”
“Same.”
I groaned loudly. “Oh, here’s one. ‘What is the best way to keep the romance alive in a relationship?’”
“Write, have sex.”
“No!” I snapped at him. “Communication is the key, and spontaneous––”
“Men are simple creatures,” he said, rolling to his side, shoving a pillow under his head and patting the space beside him. “Sex will fix whatever’s wrong.”
I sighed deeply. “You know, I really need to put this into a streamlined Dear Abby format for next time, because right now I’m putting in everything,” I told him, biting my bottom lip, torn between answering more questions and instead going over to snuggle with the mass of muscle that was Sam Kage.
“What do you mean everything?”
“I’ll print the question and then the answer and it’ll be…”
“It’ll be great,” he agreed, his voice a sultry rumble. “Now c’mere.”
I had every intention of answering more, but Sam Kage was on the couch wanting to snuggle. I closed the laptop and got there as fast as I could.