Page 196 of Smooth Sailing

His beard moved as he blew me a kiss.

First time for that.

And oh yeah.

It was absolutely adorable.

21

CLOSURE

Diana

Hugger got his first brunch a day early.

This was because we all went to Prep and Pastry after Mom stormed off and I calmed Gram down.

One could say, after two decades of Gram thinking Dad was a prick, and now you could tell she felt awful about it, on top of being staggered by all she’d learned that morning, brunch was not all smiles and laughter, mostly because Gram looked and acted like she’d been hit by a truck.

Though, Dad was super cool with her, Big Petey was good at keeping conversation flowing, no matter how stilted it was in some arenas, and in the end, I got the impression Gram was pleased to have the opportunity to start to make amends for something that wasn’t her fault.

Hugger, by the way, was mostly quiet throughout all of this.

Then again, I’d learned the night before that Hugger was just a quiet kind of guy.

Oh, he talked to me and gave it openly and honestly.

But in social situations, he was an observer.

He didn’t seem uncomfortable in this, it was just who he was, and since Hugger was always just who he was, that was it.

Like everything with Hugger, I found it incredibly attractive.

After brunch, it killed me we had three men in our midst, what with Nordstrom’s shoe department only a two-minute walk away from Prep and Pastry.

However, Gram looked like she’d aged five years since she showed at my door that morning, and no matter she was rocking the style of a French tuck, she wasn’t young anymore and that scene with Mom had been crazy. I knew she wasn’t in the mood to try on shoes (or play with makeup at the makeup counters).

Thus, Hugger and I walked her to her car. I promised to have her over to dinner sometime soon, gave her a kiss, she gave Hugger a distracted smile and a mumbled, “So lovely to meet you, son, wish it was different circumstances,” got in and started up her car.

“On your cell in half an hour to check up on her,” Hugger ordered as we watched her drive away.

Also incredibly attractive.

I forsook Nordstrom (devastating!) and we went back to my pad so I could give Dad an official tour. This included not only taking him through every nook and cranny of my place, but also taking him around the complex, showing him the pool, the exercise room, and the clubroom.

Hugger and Big Petey gave us time to do it alone, but I suspected they did that because Dutch, Jagger or Roscoe were keeping an eye on the complex.

“This is incredibly impressive,” Dad said when we were walking back to my pad.

What he meant was, this was pretty high-end for a twenty-nine-year-old.

“I placed a massive bet on black thirteen at Talking Stick, and the ball landed on thirteen black.”

Dad stopped dead and stared down at me.

Several expressions battled to take over his face. Surprise (because that was a surprising thing for me to do). Reproach (because that was totally something Dad would strongly advise me not to do). Confusion (because even with those winnings, this was a high-end place, and I hadn’t mentioned Gramps’s contribution).

And then he burst out laughing.

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