Page 174 of Finding the Forward: Part One
Of course the queen twatwaffle came.
“I miss you.” I waved at her, then gave a smaller wave to her adorable sister.
“You’ll be okay?” Jonas peered at them over my shoulder.
“Yeah. They’ve got a hotel.” She nodded, hugging her baby sister to her, as she sipped her latte.
Hope was probably preschool age. If I remembered correctly, this was the one who only wanted to fall asleep on a purring chest. I didn’t blame her one bit.
“Who are you talking to? Sweet baby Jesus,Merry Christmas.” Grace edged into the frame, wearing the same PJs. “Hi, boys. Grif, thanks for the breakfast treats.”
Another little face popped up. “Oooh, Verity, your boys arecute.”
“Mmmm, no, becausebeards,” a young male voice said, though I didn’t see a face. “Put on a shirt.”
“That’s Chance and Tru,” Verity laughed.
Oh. That was her little brother who lived on the west coast. He’d made it. Tru must be another of the littles.
Hope cocked her head. “I like the blue one, best.”
Jonas grinned. “Why thank you.”
“Oooh, that’s Jonas Soeng. Hi, Jonas!” Chance added, though he was still just a bodiless voice. “You are my favorite.”
“Hi Grif Graf,” a voice yelled in the background.
“That’s Dare. It’s chaos here.” Verity shook her head. Behind her, a childflewthrough the air.
“Hale, so help me, there’s no tossing of children in the fucking house,” a male voice yelled.
Grace tugged on Hope and Tru’s hands. “Come on, let’s get the cookies decorated.”
Verity talked to us a little longer, various siblings bombing our call.
“I know you have a lot to do today. I just wanted to see you,” she finally told us.
“We love you. See you later.” I blew her a kiss.
“Bye, Sweetheart,” Jonas told her.
AJ took the phone. “Have a good day, Princess.”
“I’ll call you later. Love you,” Giff added, getting the phone from AJ.
“I love you, too.” Her smile brightened, and we ended the call.
We returned to our festivities. Since our gifts had to bemeaningful, we had a good time being a little silly. One year, I got a sailboat calledthe Jellybean,which had a jellybean print sail.We kept it at the cabin.My grandfather had taught Grif and me to sail when we were kids.
This year we’d gotten the practice room with the shrine in it at BosTec actually named after Grif, got AJ a suit and tie with pictures of the cows on it, and made Jonas the sponsor of a charity motorcycle race at the lake by our cabin. Among other silly things.
Grif gave me a bashful look as he handed me a small box.
Inside the box was a key and an address. “Grif, you bought me ahouse?”
“Look it up.” Grif handed me his phone.
Wait. That wasn’tthehouse, was it? I looked it up. My eyes teared as I stared at the phone, heart exploding.
