July 2025 #3
“It’s because Hannah’s a freight train,” Harper chimed in, having finished the tomatoes and starting on the jalapenos.
“She never consults anyone about anything, and it’s one of my favorite things about her, because her ideas, her plans, are usually right and good.
Like our condo. It’s perfect, and that was all her.
And a kinder, more thoughtful, compassionate person you will not find, but she’s also––”
“A freight train,” George paraphrased, “as you said. Or perhaps a steamroller?”
Everyone was quiet then.
“Kurt makes plans,” George began, and all of us turned back to him. “When he and his friends go out, he decides where they’re going to eat, what movie they’re going to see, and even where they’re getting dessert afterwards.”
“That’s insane,” Harper commented.
George shrugged. “Apparently so, because people complained, so he stopped. I mean, c’mon, no one wants to be told they’re a steamroller, am I right?”
Crickets in answer. I said nothing, as I knew the lesson was not directed at either me or Sam. Purely for the children.
“So two weeks ago, here comes Friday, and guess what? No one made any plans. No one made reservations, checked what movies were playing or gallery openings might be attended, what band might be performing at what club, et cetera, just…nothin’,” George explained.
“And I don’t care, because staying home with Kurt, alone, is my favorite thing, but by the time plans got talked through and decisions were agreed upon, the night was over. ”
Already, I understood the point.
“Kurt suggested that they could try again next week and hope for a better outcome.”
Still crickets from the children.
“Of course the fix was obvious,” George said with a grin.
“Flowers came, a charcuterie board was delivered—that I will tell you I thoroughly enjoyed—as well as fruit, some candy, and his friend Vince even sent over a snow globe. Now, if you don’t know, Kurt collects those things—only glass—because they encapsulate entire worlds but are fragile.
I think there’s some kind of point in there. ”
No one was stupid enough to offer him illumination on his rhetorical point.
“So the truth is, unless you’re blessed with an entire group of people who are all proactive at all times…then you need a coordinator. Just as a ship needs a navigator. Like, I dunno, someone to make an engagement party happen.”
Kola grunted and crossed his arms.
“Or someone to make sure people get picked up at the airport at all hours of the day and night, and a person to make lighting and décor decisions, and someone who can easily keep, and update, a weekly calendar of food prep, bills, and things like maintenance on the AC, and when, and at what time, the exterminator is expected. Because unless you want to take over tasks—so many, many mind-numbing tasks—you should probably keep your trap shut.”
“And your points are all well-made,” Kola agreed, “but she and Jake are a different thing.”
George nodded.
“Tell me what was said,” I prodded Kola.
“People think Jake is all low-key and easygoing, and he is. I mean, for the most part, he really is. But he’s also––” He stopped and thought a moment, and then looked at Harper.
“Traditional.”
“Yes,” Kola said, nodding. “He does not want to be, in his words, a sperm donor. He wants to be a father when he’s ready to be a father, not when she thinks he should be ready.”
“Which I understand,” Sam told both Kola and Harper. “She thinks for him quite a bit, and I think ninety percent of the time it’s fine. He doesn’t really care about a lot of the things she obsesses over, so it works out well.”
“Exactly,” Kola affirmed. “But not this time.”
“Because what if he gets a killer job offer after he gets his master’s, or even a year or two after?
What if he has to relocate for a couple of years?
” Harper asked, all done chopping now, putting both items in bowls.
“How can Hannah leave Sutter? She won’t be able to.
But why would that mean that Jake has to be the one that would be away from his wife and child? How is that fair?”
“That’s true,” I agreed.
“Would Hannah let her child be taken away from her or you and Mr. Kage?”
I couldn’t imagine that she would.
“There’s more to consider than just the timing of now,” Harper insisted.
“For her,” Kola began, “now is good. Now is best. She wants to be a young, fit mom, and I get that. It’s not about freezing her eggs for down the road, it’s about being a mother when she’s in the best physical and mental place to be one.”
“But Jake wants to be married before a baby arrives,” Harper explained.
“And he doesn’t think that the rest of us should have to be up all night trying to calm down a crying infant just because the two of them are.
So that means their own place, and that’s a change too.
Jake is not financially prepared to pay for a house and a car, and of course Hannah has resources he doesn’t have, but then would any of that be his?
Aren’t you supposed to do that together? ”
“The rooms are soundproofed,” Harper reminded everyone, always the logical one.
“But what about people who marry into wealth?” Wick asked, ignoring his interruption. “Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Sure,” Harper agreed. “But if they waited, then he and Hannah could check off all the milestones together.”
“I don’t want to lose you over my stupid family or you marrying into wealth,” Wick blurted out.
Harper smiled, having finished washing and drying his hands, and then crossed from the sink and took a seat beside Wick, who quickly grabbed his hand. “You won’t. I can take blue-blood snobbery all day. I’m sorry I thought the reason I wasn’t liked was because of something truly terrible.”
“I know what you mean, but there should be no reason for them to not be madly in love with you. I already talked to my mother, and she’s breathing fire at the moment.”
“She is?” Harper sounded so charmed by that.
“Ohmygod, she’s so mad. She was already livid about them thinking that Tariq being an aerospace engineer wasn’t the greatest thing ever, and when she saw how they treated you, she lost her mind.
I don’t think you have to worry about even seeing them at our wedding, because my mother probably won’t invite them. ”
“Of course I want everyone there, I want them to change their hearts and minds, but barring that, I’m okay with them being absent,” Harper said with a sigh.
“Me too. And so you know, you talking about a wedding makes me crazy happy.”
The way Harper chuckled, and Wick could finally breathe, made me smile.
“Also,” Kola went on, “what about the engagement and wedding ring that Hannah deserves and should have as the CEO of Sutter? Shouldn’t the ring show off her status?”
“Hannah wouldn’t care about that,” I assured my son. “And look at Aaron’s ring. All he wears is a simple heavy ring made out of platinum and––”
“She might not, but there’s a double-standard there,” Kola interrupted me. “Uncle Aaron’s a guy, so he can have any kind of ring, no one cares. It’s more about his watch collection. But for Hannah, what does it say about her? Did she marry down instead of up?”
“I think you’re reading way too much into the kind of ring she has on her finger,” Sam told his son.
“Maybe, but that doesn’t really matter, because the person it does matter to is Jake. He knows what she should have, what other suitors could afford, and how is that not supposed to bother him?”
“But none of that is the real issue,” George said, “is it.”
Kola shook his head.
“It’s that she didn’t include him in her plans,” Sam concluded, “isn’t it?”
“Yes,” George stated flatly. “He thought that they were on the same page with big things. He didn’t think for a moment, ever, that she would blindside him.”
Kola nodded. “That’s the whole problem in a nutshell right there.”
After long minutes, I said, “What now?”
“I don’t know,” Hannah announced as she walked into the room.
She looked stunning in a floral-embroidered floor-length evening gown.
The main color was a pale gray with flowers that looked like they were on vines.
It was dazzling, but she was not her usual radiant self.
She was hurting, and it was obvious. “I’m planning on coming back here with my stuff after the event, if that’s okay. ”
“Of course it’s okay,” Sam told her. “Never ask, just show up.”
She nodded, her eyes filling as she rushed over to her father, who stood up and wrapped her in his arms. “Jake needs space, so I’m going to give that to him, and this way everyone can have a break from me being a freight train in their lives.”
Harper exhaled sharply. “Don’t be dramatic. I didn’t mean it like––”
“It’s Jake’s word,” she said sadly, leaning against Sam.
“I know you’re just repeating it, but it still hurts.
And I know you all think I’m neurotic and loud, picky and a queen bee and laser focused on things that don’t matter to you, so yeah—we can all take a break.
” She left Sam’s arms then and rushed over to Finn, taking his hand. “Except you, okay?”
He nodded, swallowing hard.
When Kola stepped toward her, she darted over to George, slipping her arm through his, leaning her head against him.
“Okay,” George said with a sigh. “Chief Deputy, Mr. Harcourt, we’ll see you in about four hours.”
“I’ll have tea ready,” I told my girl.
She was in front of me in seconds, and we hugged tight. And then without saying a word, she returned to George, as though he was her anchor, and walked out the door with him.
“Crap,” Kola muttered, turning to me.