May 2025 #4
Everyone else there, if they got a hug, they got a very quick, nearly violent, guy clench.
George wanted to convey that he cared, but he wasn’t comfortable, and that was quite evident.
I had wanted to see him interact with Miguel Romero, his boss, who he would be taking over for at Sutter in the next couple of years, but Miguel had to miss the wedding because he had to walk one of his daughters down the aisle. I thought that was a great reason.
George was in motion, already striding toward the stairs, but Hannah caught him before he could get the door open. As we all watched, she slipped her hands under the suit jacket, gently took hold of his sides, and stared up at him like she always did, with hearts in her eyes.
“I really hate him,” Jake muttered.
“You shouldn’t,” Harper scolded him. “He saved us all from being murdered that one time, as you recall.”
“Yeah, but,” Jake grumbled, waving at his girlfriend and her bodyguard. “She loves him so much, it’s crazy.”
“He saved you from being killed?” Eammon asked Jake.
“Yeah,” he said, like it pained him. “But she’s so attached to him.”
“Which is fine,” Kola said with a chuckle that I loved hearing. “Because he’s married and in love with his husband, and thinks of her as his little sister, and she loves you––”
“And your great heart,” Harper chimed in, smiling at his friend.
“And your great heart,” Kola agreed, “so I never wanna hear this again, because at this point, it’s ridiculous. If you have any doubt of her feelings for you, you’re insane.”
Jake looked at Kola.
“He’s right,” Wick asserted, turning Jake’s attention to him.
“Hannah is amazing. Most importantly, she’s crazy smart.
I can’t stress to you what a big deal that is.
But she’s also funny, sarcastic, beautiful—I mean, look at her—she’s going to run a huge international Fortune 500 company one of these days after she gets her master’s degree––”
“Hannah’s getting her master’s?” I asked Kola.
He nodded. “Yeah. She thinks she should, no matter what Uncle Aaron says. So she applied to the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, because, like me, she’s not moving away from you guys.”
“Did she get in?” Sam asked him.
“Of course she got in. She’s Aaron Sutter’s goddaughter.”
Sam turned to me. “When did that actually become a thing, because I seem to recall asking Dane and Aja to take care of our kids if anything happened to us.”
“We did. It’s more assumed at this point.”
“Well, it opens doors and all that, I get it, I just don’t want Aja and Dane to be confused.”
“They’re not,” I assured him.
He grinned at me. “You’ve had that talk with them.”
“Of course I’ve had that talk with them,” I said, scowling at him.
“May I finish about Hannah now?” Wick asked irritably.
“Yes, dear, excuse us. I’m sorry,” I soothed him.
He smiled at me and then turned back to Jake. “Did I mention that she could actually be Batman if she wanted?”
“I know, I know,” Jake grumbled. “I can’t help it. I mean, c’mon, what can she possibly see in me?”
“Your heart, dumbass,” Kola told him.
“Oh my gosh, Kola, is that new?” Hannah asked as she returned, leaning into Jake as he put an arm around her. “What a beautiful ring.”
“That was actually my father’s,” Eammon told her. “He gave it directly to Finn, bypassing me and the other boys.”
“Finn was his favorite, that’s why,” Anne told us. “When Finny was born, he had just moved in with us, and Grady and Caden were older, running around, getting into mischief, and I found myself a bit frantic.”
I enjoyed hearing her speak; she had a lovely husky voice.
Eammon chuckled.
She scowled at her husband, and we all laughed, even Kola. “Fine, I was very frantic, and so I would leave Finn quite a bit in the hands of his grandfather.”
“We’d always counted on my mother, but she’d passed,” Eammon told us all.
“I had no idea my father would so enjoy being a grandfather. When I was growing up, my mother did everything, which was amazing, but didn’t offer him a chance to spend much time with us kids.
Plus, he was working as the breadwinner.
But with Finny…” He trailed off and cleared his throat, obviously a bit overwhelmed.
“They went to the park every day, they walked around the neighborhood every day. There was the museum and the zoo, and the aquarium. He took Finn to the movies, he was the one who went to help out in his kindergarten class, and you could not have asked for a more supportive, involved, loving grandparent.”
Eammon nodded.
“After he passed—and Finn and Eammon were each holding one of his hands—Eammon served as executor of the estate. The way things were divided, no one was surprised, and everyone got the money they anticipated. But the things that were surprising was that Finn got his coin collection, his pocket watch, a cavalry sword that he’s since donated to the Field Museum that is on permanent display in his grandfather’s name, and a lovely piece of land just outside of Donegal in Ireland. ”
“We have land in Ireland as well, but certainly not in Donegal,” Eammon said, chuckling. “And the last thing my son received was that beautiful ring that my father wore for sixty-two years when he was married to my mother, and put into a box, with hers, the day she passed.”
“Oh,” Kola said, standing up, “I had no idea it was antique, sir. I’ll make sure I give it back to him, and we can get––”
“No, son,” Eammon said firmly. “Finn wants you to wear that, and I suspect with the fact that he has you wearing it on your left hand, with the heart facing out, that he’s telling everyone who might wonder, that he’s staked his claim.”
Kola smiled.
“I understand that you gave him a lovely platinum pendant that’s a one of a kind.”
“I did. I wore it for years, but so you know, I got him a Claddagh ring as well, in platinum. It’s at home in my chest of drawers.
He told me that he wanted rings just like the ones his grandparents wore, and that you wear now, and he asked me if that was okay.
I told him the truth, that I love traditions and I was happy to keep them going. ”
That was it. Anne started crying before she stepped forward and wrapped Kola in her arms. “Oh, love, please forgive me for earlier. I was just surprised is all.”
“I know,” Kola soothed her, hugging her back.
Once Anne let him go, Eammon hugged him.
“Excuse me,” a voice said behind us.
When we all turned, there was a nurse there in purple scrubs with pale blue polka dots on the top and bottoms. Her lanyard said her name was Chelsea, and without my reading glasses—the horror—I could no longer make out the smaller text of her last name.
Not being able to see everything, all the time, was a new and horrible chapter.
Chelsea, however, was darling. I loved the messy bun, her freckles, how dark her auburn hair was, and the wisps around her face. I especially liked her smile.
“Mr. Murray is awake now, and he’s asking for you, Mr. Kage.”
Kola nodded. “May I bring his parents with me?”
“Certainly. You can bring everyone just to say hi, but you’re the only one who will be able to stay longer.”
“You all go,” Hannah suggested. “We’ll stay out here. I have to text George anyway. Tell Finn we love him.”
“Or…maybe just that we like him an awful lot,” Jake amended. “I mean—I think love is laying it on a bit thick.”
“Same,” Wick agreed, pointing at Jake. “That.”
“Are you two done?” Harper asked.
Jake and Wick exchanged looks, and then both shrugged.
Boys.
Sam and I and Anne and Eammon followed Kola, who was right behind Chelsea, who was the one telling Kola how good Finn looked and how much better his coloring was.
His bed was in a row of them with the curtain drawn, and when we reached him, he saw Kola and immediately held out his arms for him.
Kola darted around the bed and fell into his arms, face pressed into his shoulder as he clutched his boyfriend tight. Finn had one hand in Kola’s hair and an arm around his back, eyes closed, soaking in the contact. They were both shaking.
Anne smiled as she watched them; so did Eammon. I turned to look at Sam and nodded. I could honestly say that in that moment, I had an epiphany. These people were going to be my in-laws someday, and I couldn’t say I was disappointed.
“I like Jake’s parents better,” Sam said when we were in the car going home.
We stayed at the hospital until they said that Finn could go home.
Hannah and Jake were going to drive them, and Harper and Wick went to stop at the store so Finn would have lots of liquids, hydrators, and soup.
Anne, of course, would be over the following morning to check on her son.
Finn also thanked Sam for carrying him out of the house and apologized for that being necessary.
“I’ve carried all my kids,” Sam told him, patting his cheek, and Finn started to cry, at which point Sam had to hug him for the second time. It was very sweet.
“I’m sorry,” I said to my husband, turning to look at him. “Why do you like Jake’s parents more?”
“They live far away,” Sam informed me. “That means that someday, we’ll get to be Papa or Grampa or whatever the name will be. Kola’s kids may like Eammon more than me, but not Hannah’s, because they don’t live here.”
I shook my head at him.
“Wait. Who am I kidding? There’s no way that any kids like any grandparent more than me,” he said imperiously. “Not even you.”
“Not even me? But I bake.”
“Yeah, but you don’t fish, and the little buggers will want to do that.”
“Will they?”
“Of course. And I’ll be the one going to the zoo and to the park and, you know, we have that groovy swing back there and––”
“Groovy?” I teased him.
“Just—and I’m going to get a trampoline.”
“God, I hope I live long enough to see you with your grandchildren.”
He pulled over so quickly, the seat belt caught.
“Sam Kage!” I shouted at him.
“Don’t you ever say that to me again,” he warned me. “Especially when I’m talking about my grandchildren.”
I unclipped my belt, and he did his, and we hugged over the console.
“Let’s just plan to grow very, very old together.”
“Yeah,” Sam rumbled. “Let’s do that.”
And that closes out our May. Have a wonderful rest of the month, all, and I’ll talk to you in June.