July 2025
I know you probably have a lot of questions after last month, but I need to catch you up. First off, I have to tell you about Father’s Day in my house. It was…strange.
Finn and Kola went to see Eammon in the morning, because apparently while Hannah was with us in one corner of the apartment, explaining about her decision to become a mother while she was going to grad school, Finn was in his and Kola’s bedroom having it out with his father.
According to Kola, it wasn’t a huge deal, because Eammon apologized and explained that of course he loved Kola, he just had a vision in his mind, ever since Finn was a child, of what his life would look like, with a wife and children, and wrapping his brain around the new reality was hard.
He was happy for his son to be in love and to be happy; he just needed to make a paradigm shift in his head.
Now, you all know I didn’t think the word “paradigm” in my head; that was all Kola.
But regardless, Finn was still stinging from their discussion on Friday night when he saw his father on that Sunday.
It was a bit tense, and only Kola’s presence, chatting, keeping things light, asking Eammon if he liked his gift—it was a new grill that he could use all summer, so of course he loved it—that saved the day.
Once they arrived at our house, we all got into Sam’s monster car and drove over to join his sisters and brother at Thomas and Regina’s house.
There we had a lovely Father’s Day brunch that Hannah had catered from her grandfather’s favorite breakfast place, Batter & Berries.
Everyone was surprised and thrilled, and only I noticed how Hannah had her happy face on, but as soon as no one was looking at her, it crumbled, and she had to leave the room.
Thomas loved his gifts, which included tickets to see the White Sox play—he and Sam shared that passion—tickets to an exhibit at the Field Museum that Kola was going to take him to, and a day of doing tourist things with Hannah.
He enjoyed presents where he got to spend time the most. As he and I already took our dogs to the dog park together, which he loved, there was really nothing else I could give him but to make my lasagna on demand when he wanted.
As he was hosting a poker game in a couple of weeks, I was thinking I was going to get called on shortly.
Finn, as always, was hugged and kissed by Sam’s mother, and Thomas took his grandson’s fiancé into his game room, where they played darts. He asked me later in the kitchen how a man in his late eighties could be so open about Kola planning to have a husband instead of a wife.
“Well,” I said, smiling at him, “his oldest son, his firstborn child, has a husband instead of a wife, and he likes how that worked out.”
Finn nodded before his eyes filled, and I hugged him for a long time.
Back at home, I was presented with a gold cuff bracelet with turquoise that I had been looking at for ages—that from Hannah—and my son gave me a beginner drone so I could check on the squirrel and raccoon family, as well as the birds.
Sam got a beautiful new fishing rod, a new tackle box with a note that said the old one had been laid to rest, and a pair of running shoes that Hannah had been dying for him to try but he had been reticent about due to the price tag.
“What are these supposed to do?” Sam grumbled at his daughter, as was his way when he wasn’t particularly pleased.
I cleared my throat.
His sigh was long and beleaguered. “Thank you.”
She crossed her arms and squinted at him. “Help your posture, your back, and because wearing those is like running on your bare feet––”
“I don’t know how that can be good––”
“––they also help with the rotation of your foot.”
He looked at her. She arched an eyebrow for him and waited. The thing was, she wanted him to have the best things at all times. She felt he deserved them, as he was a great father and a great man, and mostly that she loved him. She could not be faulted.
Once the gift-giving was over, we all had a snack, and Hannah went in the living room to catch up on three of her shows, and Sam took Kola and Finn outside to talk to them about Finn’s father and how hard it had been for him when he first discovered that I was the one he loved.
He went on to explain how when Michael got married the first time, that both he and Regina had to hide who I was to him.
It had been done to give Michael and his first wife, Beverly, the day they wanted without any issues, but it had happened at my expense, which, at the time, had been hard.
Now that was a million years ago. I do not harbor any residual anger or anything, truly, at all about that day, as to me, even then, even that day—that evening, Sam showed where his heart lived, and that was with me.
A while back, when we were in Vegas for Michael’s bachelor party, some issues came up that made Sam relive that day.
He and Michael had it out when we got home, and while their relationship is better than it’s been, it will never be great.
I would love it if Sam would just forget the past—it was one day in a lifetime—but as a rule, Sam Kage does not do things out of character.
So to illustrate his failure, he talked to Kola and Finn about what happened and how he had fought loving me at first, and how he too used to have an idea in his mind of what his life would look like as a straight man.
Interestingly, the conversation did not go as Sam thought it would.
“It was nice of you to think about your brother on his special day,” Kola told his father.
“And I get why you did, but no, I don’t think you should have.
But I wasn’t in your place, in the time you were in with everything that was going on.
Judging you would be crazy, but also, I don’t know how I’d feel if Pa was hurt. ”
Sam nodded.
“But all that said…that was a long time ago and you’re not him anymore and I know that because you raised me.”
And that was very true.
“So maybe cut that loose, huh, Dad?”
Sam told me he was very surprised.
“And thanks for the story,” Finn apprised Sam, “but none of this is the issue. What we’re facing has to do with ideas.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, did you have an idea in your head of who Kola would marry?”
Sam told me he had thought a moment and said, “Really, whoever made both him and Hannah happy. My only real hope was that they would, in fact, both get married to whoever they were crazy in love with.”
Finn shrugged. “Which I get. You’re a traditional person, so that makes sense.
And we are getting married and we will have kids.
We’ve talked about it. So the question is now, can my father wrap his brain around me and Kola being married, or in his head, do I need a woman to be both happy and truly fulfilled? ”
“Only he knows that.”
“Yes, but if it’s going to keep coming up, over and over again, it becomes a problem.”
It certainly would.
“He needs to decide if he can get past it, just like Jake.”
At that point, Sam had come in the house, taken hold of my hand, and walked me—with Hannah following—out to the deck.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
“Apparently, something is going on with Jake.”
We all turned to Hannah, who flopped down on the attached bench of the picnic table, and the facade of happiness faded instantly and I saw how miserable she looked.
“Jake is so mad,” she told us. “I’ve never seen him like this.”
“He has every right to be,” Kola told her.
She covered her face with her hands.
“But he didn’t have to jump in his car right after the rally yesterday without saying a word to any of us, most of all Hannah,” Finn argued, “and drive to Wisconsin.”
“It’s Father’s Day today,” Kola countered. “He wanted to be with his father. I see no fault there at all.”
“You see no fault in him just leaving?” Finn asked sharply, taking Hannah’s hand in both of his when she reached for him. “Really?”
“Instead of doing what? You’d prefer he stay here and yell at her?” Kola asked, standing up, brows furrowed. “He left so he wouldn’t say anything he couldn’t take back.”
“I think he said a lot already that wasn’t so great,” Finn replied, almost growling.
“And why was that?” Kola sounded curt as he regarded his fiancé. “What could have possibly happened that made Jake, strong, steady Jake, react like that?”
“Stop,” Hannah pleaded, looking up at her brother. “You’re taking his side, we get it.”
“There is no side to take,” Kola told her. “You made a decision, like you make all your decisions, in your head with no one else’s perspective but your own, and then you delivered it and asked for buy-in without consulting the one person you should have talked to first.”
“I––”
“Listen,” he rushed out, and then moved so he was kneeling in front of her. “Most of the time, I admire your decision-making prowess. It’s great and it works. You’re just like Dad. You know when you’re right and you just act.”
“How did I––” Sam began.
“Shhh,” I hushed him.
“Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those decisions that you could make unilaterally. In this particular instance, your choice affects more than just you, so there needed to be discussions before anything came out of your mouth.”
She took a shaky breath, and the tears welled up in her eyes. “He’s never going to forgive me.”
“Of course he will,” Finn said quickly.
But Kola didn’t say anything, just leaned forward and took her into his arms.