June 2025 #3
“She did,” Anne whispered. “She’s home for the summer.”
“Architecture, you say?” Aja smiled almost evilly. “Moira. From Carnegie Mellon, yes?”
“Why yes, that’s right. Finn and Moira dated the entire time she was an undergrad,” Isabelle informed me. “All four years.”
“How lovely,” Aja said, and when both Anne and Isabelle looked at her, all they saw was sincerity on her face.
“I’m Isabelle Rogers,” she said, smiling at my sister-in-law, offering her hand. “We didn’t get a proper introduction.”
“No, we didn’t,” Aja agreed, taking her hand. “I’m Aja Harcourt.”
“Pleasure to meet you.”
“And you,” Aja assured her. “Oh look, they’re walking Moira over to Finn.”
When Moira reached him, he looked so happy. His face lit up, and he grabbed and hugged her. He then put up his hand for her to wait, and he darted across the room, grabbed Kola by the hand from where he was with his father, Duncan, and Dane, and led him over to Moira.
I watched as my son smiled before he even reached them, and I saw too, Finn’s ex light up as she gazed at my son. As soon as she could reach him, she lunged, and Kola caught her. From Eammon’s face, it was not at all what he was expecting. Moira was thrilled to see Kola.
“Oh, I’m so happy for you both,” Aja said, doing Moira’s part.
“It’s been awesome getting to know you on the phone.” I did Kola’s.
When Kola took her hand and smiled at her, Moira flushed bright red.
“It’s gonna be okay,” I continued as Kola. “He’s really gonna like you.”
“I really hope so,” Aja replied dramatically with a catch in her voice.
“What are you two doing?” Anne asked us.
Aja waggled her eyebrows at Finn’s mother as Kola led Moira, who was holding his hand so tight, back to Duncan, his father, and most importantly, Dane.
As we all watched, Moira’s shoulders went up before she took a deep breath and then lifted her head to meet the steady cool gaze of my brother.
“Who is that, now?” Isabelle asked.
“That is Dane Harcourt, one of the top architects in the country, and more importantly, my husband and Jory’s brother.”
Isabelle turned to look at me and Aja.
“And obviously, he’s gorgeous.”
“Yes,” Isabelle agreed quickly.
Aja’s smile was warm. “She has a summer internship with him,” Aja told both women. “So really, the only man here that Moira Callahan gives a crap about is the one she’s gazing at right now like he’s God.”
“Anne, your husband looks a bit upset.”
When she looked for him, she saw what I did.
Eammon seeming suddenly tired and Caden with his arm around his shoulders.
A few feet away was Finn, staring at Kola, who was strutting back to him appearing terribly pleased with himself.
When Kola reached him, grinning crazily, Finn took his face in his hands, drew him forward, and delivered a scorching kiss that made everyone turn and clap.
“Ooooh,” Hannah said under her breath as she reached us, “no offense, Mrs. Murray, but what is Caden thinking, bringing Finn’s ex to his engagement party?”
“She was invited by your brother,” I corrected her before Anne could answer. “She’s working for your uncle this summer.”
Hannah turned to check where Moira was. It was funny how she was nodding and shaking her head, not speaking, just yes or no, absolutely soaking in Dane’s focus.
“Oh okay. That’s all right, then.” She turned to Anne.
“Begging your pardon, ma’am, but if Caden tries to do anything to break up Kola and Finn—they’ll be finding parts of him for weeks. ”
“He means no harm,” Anne said instead of, it was his father, not him.
“Good. That’s good,” Hannah stated, slipped around me to kiss her aunt’s cheek, and then was gone. She was still directing more food being put out.
“Isn’t the threat normally ‘they’ll never find the body’?” Isabelle asked me.
“Yes,” Duncan said as he stepped in beside me, smiling. “But really, finding parts for weeks is much more gruesome, as you have to figure, at least for a bit, some of the parts the person they’re searching for can, in fact, live without.”
“Which means they're being cut off,” I surmised.
“Correct,” Duncan stated.
“Feet,” Aja offered.
“Yes,” Duncan confirmed. “Legs, same thing. Even hands, arms, so that part, really, is much worse. Finding a body intact is better.”
Isabelle turned to me. “Your girl is a bit scary, Jory.”
“You have no idea,” I told her.
“It’s true,” Duncan confirmed, holding out his hand. “She is very scary, but she uses her power for good so…there’s that. By the way, I’m Duncan Stiel, pleasure to meet you.”
She was very happy to meet him, as well as my handsome husband, who joined us moments later, stepping between me and Aja so he could put an arm around each of us.
Isabelle could not hide her reaction to Sam Kage; most people couldn’t.
He was a breathtaking, as I’d thought from the moment I first laid eyes on him, and if your taste ran to muscles and laugh lines, broad shoulders and dancing slate-blue eyes, there was no need to look any further.
Kola and Finn came over so Finn could show off his Claddagh ring that Kola got him, and Anne was touched, seeing our sons so happy.
The way they looked at each other was beautiful.
I saw Wick and Harper in the kitchen grinning at each other and then Hannah draped over Jake’s back as he ate. They were all adorable.
I really hoped that Eammon would grow to see that my son was the best thing for his, but that was his epiphany to have. I already knew the truth.
Aja took a breath, leaned forward a bit so she could see around Sam, to me. “Hey, I’m not sure who all is coming tomorrow with me, Dane, and the kids to the rally downtown.”
“Oh, it’s me, of course, all the kids, Dylan, Chris, her kids, Harper’s folks, and I’m missing someone, but I’ll check my phone and figure it out.
My better half here has to work, even though it’s Saturday, so he can’t be there, but the rest of us will be at your place first thing in the morning. I figure we can walk from there.”
“Perfect,” she said, smiling at me, and then looked up to meet Sam’s gaze. “Why do you have to work?”
He gave her a last squeeze and let her go, but kept his arm around me. “I don’t know if you saw on the news about the deputy US marshal who got picked up by ICE agents in Tucson?”
She nodded. “I did.”
“Well, we’re having conversations about that, and Tom Kenwood, my boss, has been breathing fire for days, even though the marshal in question wasn’t ours.”
I watched her study his face. “You haven’t been breathing fire yourself?”
“Are you kidding?”
She grinned, knowing, as we all did, that putting your hands on any of Sam Kage’s people was a huge mistake. It would not go well, and Sam could be terribly creative when his need for revenge was triggered. Best to simply steer clear of him.
Later, Sam and I were sitting in a quiet corner of the apartment with Dane and Aja, when Hannah came over and took a seat down beside me on a folding chair.
“I have something I want to talk to you two about.”
“Oh, we can go inside,” Aja said, starting to stand.
“No.” Hannah stopped her. “I would prefer if you two stayed,” she said, waving at someone to join us.
Duncan came outside then, and took a seat next to Sam.
“Do you have him?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Duncan replied, and turned his phone around and there was Aaron, on FaceTime from Italy, looking concerned.
“First off, thank you for having Finn’s ring made for Kola,” Hannah said with a sigh, smiling at him. “And thank you for not telling him exactly how much it cost.”
“You paid the difference,” he reminded her.
“Yeah, but still.”
I didn’t even want to guess how much the heavy piece of platinum was.
“Okay,” she began, glancing around at all of us. “I have a plan.”
“What kind of plan?” Aja asked, leaning forward to look at her niece.
Hannah took a breath. “I’ve given this a lot of thought, and after I graduate this winter, as I start grad school, I’m going to start trying to get pregnant.”
I was stunned and could only stare at her. A baby? With everything? With the world the way it was? And I knew, logically, there was never a perfect time to have a child, but now? I was terrified for her.
“What?” Sam asked her, and I was really proud of him for not yelling.
Aja cleared her throat. “You're awfully young to be a mother, love.”
“Not really, but here’s the thing,” Hannah began, taking a breath, looking at all of us one at a time.
“If I can have the baby at some point while I’m in school for those two years, that means when I get done with graduate school, I can go to work at Sutter full-time.
Pa, I know I can count on you to work from home several days a week,” she said, looking at me, “and we have onsite childcare at Sutter as well.”
“Wait,” Sam said, leaning forward. “What makes you think that once I retire your father and I won’t be traveling? I promised to take him to Paris.”
She squinted at him. “You can go anywhere you like, of course you can. I want you to see the world, you deserve it. But I also can’t imagine you becoming some kind of jet-setter, since we both know your favorite place in the world to be is home.”
He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it.
“And my baby will be your first grandchild.”
The truth was, Samuel Thomas Kage would never be a world traveler.
He liked his creature comforts, plus doing things around our house and for others, knowing where his tools were, and the fact was, we would have all manner of people who worked for him at our house once the man retired.
Sam thrived on being needed. The fact that Hannah was putting him on notice at the moment was going to go a long way to making him happy.
Would he rant and rave about what she was asking?
Yes. Of course he would. By the same token, would he be an amazing grandfather?
Yes. Without question. He loved being a parent; he would excel at the grandparent piece.
“Hannah,” Aaron began, “I think it’s important to remember that––”
“I want to be a mother,” she told him firmly. “I also cannot wait to begin work at Sutter. There’s so much I want to learn from you before you retire.”
“How old do you think I am?” He sounded horrified, and that brought a smile to my face.
Sam glanced away so he wouldn’t smile, Aja looked down, and Dane pressed his lips together tight. Duncan’s smile, that Aaron couldn’t see, was big.
“Right now, when I’m winding down to graduate in December and then start grad school come spring, is the perfect time to get pregnant.”
“Going to school and being pregnant will––”
“Not be easy,” Hannah interrupted her aunt, and then turned to me. “But the best time is now before I start working full-time and––” Her lip wobbled. “––you’ll help me, won’t you?”
I got up and walked over to her, going down on one knee in front of her. “I will always help you with whatever you decide to do. You know that. I’m your pa. You can count on me.”
She broke down sobbing then, wrapping her arms around my neck and holding on for dear life. “I knew it. I knew you’d be on my side.”
“Are you going to get married?” Sam wanted to know.
She leaned sideways and scowled at her father. “That is not part of my decision-making at all.” She sniffled, wiping at her eyes.
“Don’t you think it should be?”
“Now you sound like Finn’s father, wanting him to have a wife.”
It took a moment. “I’m sorry, what?” Sam yelled.
Aja waved her hand dismissively. “Eammon had an idea in his head of how he thought his sons’ lives were going to be, and Finn with Kola isn’t it.”
“What?” Sam was getting angrier by the second.
“It’s okay,” I soothed him. “Eammon likes you so much, and you understand, more than most, because you went through it yourself, the process of change. You went from thinking you were straight your whole life to being bi, and that was life altering.”
“I know that,” he grumbled.
I smiled at him. “I’m just saying that perhaps you’re the one who can help Eammon see what’s real and good more than anyone.”
He stared at me.
“You changed your whole life for me, Sam Kage.”
“There was no alternative,” he told me. “You were it, and I knew that.”
I smiled at him.
“But this is different,” he told his daughter.
She chuckled. “I am so lucky. In fact I might be the luckiest person in the world. I mean, I have parents who will help me, an aunt who will be my guide for all things I need to know about delivering a baby, and I have a job to go to that’s already set and… Uncle Dane, you look weird.”
We all turned to him then, and I noted that he was squinting at her.
“Do you want to say something?”
“Only that I find your logic sound.”
Her lips parted in surprise as she stared at him.
“You’re in excellent health, you’re strong, and now seems smart.
You will have time to spend with the baby before you have to work, we’re all here to help you, and though you’ll be tired, and I think the events you host, plus graduate school, plus pregnancy, will be harder than you think…
I do agree with your premise that yes, now is the optimum time. ”
It was always so weird how he did that. Made incredible ideas seem not so out there.
“I think this goes to your aunt’s point, though,” he continued.
“Eammon had a specific idea in his head for his youngest son’s beloved.
Your father, I’m fairly certain, thought that you would be out of school for a few years and working, the same for Jake, and the two of you would be married before you took the step to bring a new person into the world.
But really, life doesn’t follow a blueprint, and we all have to learn to accept and revel in change. ”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Thank you.”
“I only have one question for you, love,” he began gently. “Have you informed Jake of any of this by chance?”
Her scrunched-up face, and the way she bit her bottom lip, told me that just maybe, she had not.
I see lots of discussions in our immediate future.
That’s all for this time. Again, good wishes for Pride month, good wishes for all the fathers, and let’s all be careful out there in the world.
I will tell you everything in my next installment about Father’s Day and, of course, catch you up on Hannah and Jake.
Have a great rest of June, all. Lots of hugs.