Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 55860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
I’m not really that confident he’ll agree, but I’m not about to let my inner circle know I’m a little nervous about this gamble. The fact is, Vinny Carbini’s a real prick and has been since I was a kid. His twins were about my age growing up and one of them ratted me out for chewing gum in church during a funeral and I got my ass whipped over it. Carbini laughed about the whole thing that day, and I’m not confident a guy who thinks that kind of crap is funny will be very reasonable about us moving product across his territory as a courtesy.
“Didn’t Carbini send us that shitty fish for a wedding gift?” Lynette asks Louie who shrugs.
“Hell, if I know. I didn’t pay attention to that. I was gettin’ hitched to the woman of my dreams.” Louie says it all syrupy sweet.
She smiles at him. Now I feel like I got an ulcer now because I remember how it felt when Serena used to look at me like that.
“You, okay?” Louie asks me.
“Yeah,” I say.
“Not sweating the message from Old Carbini?” he prods.
“Nah, Lou, he’s sweating the girl that didn’t answer him back when he said he missed her.”
“She playin’ hard to get?” Louie asks. “No, she just walked out on me.”
“The night he got stabbed,” Lynette supplies helpfully.
“That’s gotta freak her out if she didn’t grow up in the life. It’s been a minute. Call her up, see if she changed her mind once she calmed down.”
I look at him, a frustrating bloom of hope in my chest. I cut my eyes to his wife. She’s not giving me encouragement with her look.
“You think I should call her?”
“You think you gotta ask my permission?” she counters, sassy as always.
“You and Serena would’ve gotten along great. She has a mouth on her too.”
“Good for her,” Lynette says. “Call her up if you want to. I don’t see as how it could make it any worse.”
“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“You’re tellin’ me you got the cheek to go to Vinny Carbini asking a favor but you don’t have the balls to call the girl that stitched me up? She was gone on you, man. No way she’s over you. Give it a try,” Louie encourages me.
“There’s my hype man,” I say wryly, but I needed to hear it.
When they leave my office, I make a beeline for my phone and bring up her number. I take a second and just look at the photo I have on her contact information. Something inside my chest softens and warms, and I think how fucked I am if she doesn’t reconsider. Because I’m just as crazy about her as I was the day we met. No chance I’m getting over it anytime soon or ever.
I dial her number. It rings a couple of times, and my pulse ratchets up because I’m gonna get voicemail and don’t have a message planned out. I steel myself to hit the end button as soon as the voicemail prompt kicks on, but instead of that I get a sleepy, “Hello?”
“It’s me,” I say, heart pounding so fast because I hear her voice, and I love her voice. I’ve missed it, missed her so much. “How are you doing?” I ask.
“I’m okay,” she mumbles.
“Did I wake you up? It’s two in the afternoon.” Dismay creeps in my voice. What if she’s depressed and can’t get out of bed?
“I work nights now. I got off at six or something and then I met Caylee for coffee. Did you need something? Your stitches healing up and everything?”
“Yeah, they are. You did a good job.”
“Good. So, why are you calling Jack?”
“I texted you, and you never answered me.”
“You didn’t ask a question.”
“I miss you,” I say to her, and the weight of those words nearly chokes off my air. My mouth is dry from the effort of admitting it.
“I know,” she says, kindly. “I miss you too. God knows I do. But it wasn’t going to work out. I could act like it was all fine and you had a regular job till you show up for pancakes bleeding from the side.”
“Are you blaming me for getting stabbed?”
“No, not at all,” she says coolly. “I’m blaming you for doing business with people who might stab you. Any chance of that should be an automatic ‘no, we are not doing this deal thank you,’” she says hotly. “I guess I’m not the cool girl, the type that’s okay with the danger. But I couldn’t just smile and act like it was fine. It scared the hell out of me, Jack.” she says.
I hear her voice go high at the end like she’s trying not to cry. I want to hold her, to crush her to my chest and make her promises I know I can’t keep.