May 2025
I hope all you mothers out there, whoever you mother—people who you’re related to or not, people of fur, feathers, and plants—had a wonderful day.
Aja’s family took her out for a Mother’s Day brunch that was apparently very fancy.
Lots of frou-frou clothes for eleven in the morning.
She loved whenever her men planned things for her, but sometimes she wished they were a bit more low-key.
Dylan went to see her mother, and she and Chris took her to breakfast, then Chris’s mother, who they took to lunch, and then only later did she get to veg on her couch and watch Pride & Prejudice like she wanted and eat junk.
As for us, we had a Mother’s Day celebration at our house for Sam’s mother and both of his sisters.
Hannah and I cooked, and everything came out right, even with Jake helping.
Now I have to backtrack to Easter. We had everyone over so that Finn’s parents could meet Sam’s family and see that they weren’t the only ones with crazies.
Unfortunately or fortunately, everyone was lovely.
And since the police didn’t have to come, it was all a bit anticlimactic.
Finn’s mother, Anne, caught me in the kitchen.
“Jory, it’s always so warm and lovely at your house.”
“Yours is the same, Anne,” I assured her. “You can hardly blame yourself for what happened at Eammon’s brother’s place.”
She huffed out a breath. “I am never cooking for his family again.”
“I wouldn’t either,” I agreed with her.
“Thank you,” she said, taking hold of my hand. “Everyone else keeps telling me to get over it and be the bigger person.”
I scoffed. “No. There would need to be sustained groveling for me even to consider it.”
Finn came into the kitchen just as his mother said, “I’ll see them in hell first.”
“Mom,” he gasped, glancing at her, then me, then her again. “You know you don’t mean it. You love them all.”
She squinted at him. I laughed.
“You both should be more forgiving,” he stated.
I smiled at him. “To err is human, to forgive is divine. Neither your mother nor I are divine.”
He looked a bit concerned when she cackled.
The Friday before Mother’s Day, I was home alone because Sam was out having dinner with his boss, and others, to discuss his office and who would be promoted when he retired, when Kola and Finn showed up.
I was sitting on the couch when I heard the back door open.
Now, Sam was not pleased that I left it open, even when I was by myself, but the fact of the matter was, we lived in a very safe neighborhood.
I knew all my neighbors, and honestly, why would someone pick the house with all the lights on?
Our front porch light was on a timer, there were floodlights in the back, and our driveway was lined with lights that came on as soon as it got dark.
It was not the house for shenanigans. Since Dobby yipped for joy and didn’t do his stranger-danger growl, I paused Four Seasons, that I was watching, turned and saw Finn wave before he hopped up on my kitchen counter and Kola strode toward me.
“Hello,” I greeted him as he bent and kissed my cheek. “What’s going on?”
“I was talking to Dad earlier today, and he told me you made chicken paella last night, and he said there was a lot left over. Since I love that, as you know, I’ve come to claim it before Dad gets home,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at me.
“Love, your father is at dinner at a steakhouse. There’s no way he’s coming home and eating. I’m sure he’s having all the things I’ve banned, like a loaded baked potato and a ridiculously large steak.”
He chuckled and went back to the kitchen where, as he tried to walk by, Finn caught him between his legs. Kola leaned in and took Finn’s face in his hands and kissed him. It was very sweet, but when he pulled back, Finn nearly fell off his perch.
“Be careful,” he said, smiling at the man he loved.
“You’re so bru—boo—beautiful,” Finn murmured, and I couldn’t help smiling before I noted how out of it he looked.
Getting up, I walked into the kitchen, and when Finn saw me, his smile got bigger. “You raised an incredible man, Mr. Harcourt,” he sighed, and I saw that his eyes were watering.
“Thank you,” I told him and then glanced at Kola.
“What?” he asked, from where he was, now pulling things out of the refrigerator.
“Love, have you looked at Finn?”
He grinned at me. “Of course. He’s so pretty, I can’t help but look at him.”
“Yes, he is, but has he gotten any sleep?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“His eyes are watering and—where were you guys before this?”
“I just picked him up from a private event he was working downtown. One of the donors had Finn watching them play poker.”
“Poker?” I asked, walking back over to Finn, who couldn’t seem to stop smiling at me. “Is Finn supposed to be watching over people playing cards?”
“I think it had something to do with the event, but I’m not sure. And I don’t think Finn knows either.”
“You and Mr. Kage are relationship goals, sir,” Finn blurted out.
“Thank you,” I said gently, and held out my hand. “He wasn’t playing, was he?”
“No,” Kola assured me. “He said he was standing around.”
Finn took my hand in both of his. “You were Kola’s age when you fell in love with Mr. Kage, weren’t you?”
“I was,” I affirmed. “Finn, tell me about this card game.”
“Casino Night for donors for Mr. Sutter’s new project for otters or beavers, things that swim and s— s-something like that.”
“Kola,” I said sharply, and he turned and looked at me. “Come look at him.”
“Yeah, come back,” he said, slurring the words. “I wanna be kissen s’more.”
Kola moved quickly, reaching Finn and taking his face in his hands for the second time.
“I lurve ya,” Finn whispered, his eyes drooping closed.
“Hey, look at me.”
Finn was back to smiling, but his eyes remained closed.
“Honey,” Kola crooned, and Finn’s eyes opened to slits. “Can you focus your eyes?”
He shook his head.
“Baby, let go of Pa and take my hand.”
“You ’ave my face. M’cold. Your pa’s warm.”
Kola glanced at me, and I unwrapped one of Finn’s hands from mine. Once it was free, Kola grabbed it. “Squeeze my hand.”
Nothing.
“Honey, try again.”
Instead, Finn leaned forward and put his head on Kola’s shoulder. “You—you’re…my ring. S’happy love.”
“I love you back,” Kola assured him slowly, clearly distracted.
When I glanced at Kola, only then did I notice the gold Claddagh ring on his left hand with the heart pointing out. I was fairly certain that meant they were engaged.
“Something you want to tell me?” I asked my son.
“You know how I feel about him,” he said, and then glanced at me, brows furrowed. “I don’t know what this is, and because I don’t, I’m not sure if him sleeping it off is safe.”
“What does your gut say?”
“To go to the hospital.”
“Okay, let’s do that,” I barely got out, my heart suddenly in my throat.
Kola looked scared, and because he was, I was.
“Let’s take the van, all right?”
He nodded, helping Finn down off the counter, then quickly realized he couldn’t stand.
“If I put him over my back, I’m afraid he’ll throw up,” Kola said worriedly.
“That might be all right,” I told him.
“I just––”
Dobby’s high-pitched trumpeting bark then, right before I heard Sam.
“Who’s my sweet boy?” Sam greeted his dog, who immediately stopped making noise and moved to happy whimpering.
The wave of relief I felt was nearly overwhelming. Just having him there grounded me.
“What’s going on?” Sam asked calmly, putting Dobby down and rushing over to us.
Thankfully, my husband had those amazing reflexes, because when Finn’s head fell back and he passed out, Sam caught him easily. He picked him up like he didn’t weigh any more than Hannah, and asked Kola what he wanted to do.
“I want to take him to the hospital.”
“Okay,” Sam agreed, and I went ahead and held open the door, before turning and locking up, setting the alarm with the fob in my hand.
It was weird. I had never seen the point of the remote to set the alarm, as I always used the keypad. But in that moment, I thought how brilliant my husband was to have gotten those.
Kola got in the back seat first. Sam put Finn with him, his head in Kola’s lap. I got in the passenger seat, and Sam slid back behind the wheel of his monster SUV that wasn’t even cold.
I was not surprised that Sam turned on his lights and siren so he could speed through intersections. When I turned to look at Kola, I saw that he was on the phone.
“Hey,” he greeted whoever was on the other end.
“Finn was at a donor party tonight downtown at the Waldorf Astoria, and I’m pretty sure he was drugged while he was there.
I don’t know if anyone else was, or if whoever did it just to him—I dunno.
But we’re on the way to the hospital because he passed out. ”
He was quiet a moment.
“Okay. Yeah. I’ll call you as soon as I know something,” he said and hung up.
“Who was that?” I asked him.
“George,” he said as his phone rang, and then he answered.
“I’m in the car with Pa and Dad. We’re taking Finn to the hospital because I think someone slipped him something.
” He was back to listening. “Yeah, he’s breathing fine, but––” He stopped.
“––no, I’m fine. I have both of them with me. Talk to George.”
It could only be Hannah.
“Okay,” he answered in a tiny voice and then hung up.
When I turned to look at him, I saw the tears welling in his eyes.
“Love, he’s going to be okay.”
“We don’t know if it’s GHB or Rohypnol, and it could––”
“We’ll know when we get there,” Sam said flatly. “What did you do when you picked him up?”
“I gave him a bottle of water like I always do.”
“Okay, that’s good, water’s good.”
“I just, I wasn’t looking at him, and Pa had to––”
“This is not your fault,” Sam assured his son. “Your father saw something amiss. You assessed the situation and acted. You both did good. We’re almost there.”