Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Danyetta sighed. “No, he doesn’t.”
“Then I’m going to say yes to an overnighter.” I tried to hide the hurt. “That okay?”
She nodded, looking just as forlorn as me. “That’s good. I’ll tell him if he asks.”
We both knew he wouldn’t.
He never did.
“About the woman,” I scratched the back of my neck with my blunt fingernails. “I like her. A lot.”
She nodded.
“Can you start talking to Bowie about us? Make sure he knows that we were never a thing after we divorced? I think that might help him when he notices that I’m dating her,” I murmured.
Danyetta grinned. “Quite confident that she’ll agree to have you?”
“Very,” I said. “We had an understanding.”
“What kind of understanding?” she smiled.
“The kind that said, if we both turned thirty and were alone, we would agree to start dating again.”
And I was gonna damn well hold her to it.
CHAPTER 5
How many animals can you fit into a pair of pantyhose? Two calves, an ass, a beaver, a shitload of hares, one camel toe, and a fish nobody can find.
-Text from Folsom to Morrigan
MORRIGAN
It’d been a good two days again.
In fact, it’d been so good with my health that I got cocky, and decided to give a walk a try.
Well, a walk through the air-conditioned grocery store, but still a walk.
Normally, I saved myself the time and the hassle by ordering my groceries for pickup, but today, I wanted to get out. Experience life. And not stare at my four bare walls on a Saturday morning.
It was early. Way earlier than I would’ve liked to be up on a Saturday, but with my opening the coffee shop so early, it was downright impossible for me to sleep in past six in the morning anymore.
Grabbing my ride-on scooter from the front of the store with its basket, I ignored the ugly looks I got. Everyone saw a young woman with no visible ailments when they saw me on the motorized carts. They automatically assumed that I wasn’t going to need the cart.
Well, joke was on them, because I did.
If I did any sort of shopping that was going to keep me on my feet for a long time, I rode in the cart. It was easier that way than to admit at the back of the store that I really did need the cart, and wish I had it.
I was thirty minutes into my shopping trip when I heard his voice.
I paused with my finger poised to press the throttle, and listened to the rough velvet of his voice say, “Where are the black trash bags located?”
I felt a delicious shiver roll down my spine.
Instinctively, I hunched down, bending over the front of the cart and leaning forward to ensure that he didn’t see me.
Except, I didn’t realize that by leaning forward and bending close, I was practically waving a red damn flag at him to get him to notice me.
But I was.
And he did.
“Hey, Mama,” I heard him say.
Hey, Mama.
Every single thing inside of me lit up like the Fourth of July with those words.
I hadn’t heard that stupid name in so long.
Hey, Mama.
Hey, Mama.
Jesus. H. Christ.
Years ago, in what I thought was then a deep voice, Aodhan had first called me “mama” and I’d thought it was the best thing ever.
Why did he call me “mama”?
Because he said that I was a mama bear. All growly and protective.
I couldn’t even remember what I’d been protecting at the time.
What I did know, was now—with his rumbly, deep voice that was most definitely deep now, but wasn’t actually so deep then—I couldn’t resist him anymore.
I couldn’t actively ignore him without hurting my heart anymore.
“H-hey,” I said, still tongue-tied at the way he called me “mama.”
His eyes warmed at my attention, and I felt like my world had just imploded.
“Where ya zoomin’ off to?” he asked. “You looked like you were ready to break land speed records.”
I rolled my eyes, unable to stop the smile that was forming on my face.
“I have to use the stupid cart, or I risk having an episode,” I said. “Being in our small town is bad enough, but being here, at this Walmart, where lots and lots of people could potentially have access to me? Yeah, I can’t do that to myself.”
His eyes clouded at the thoughts that started brewing in his brain. The idea of me being vulnerable had never sat well with him. But the idea of me being completely unable to protect myself in any way? Yeah, I could see that thought killed him.
His eyes looked like a thunderstorm.
I kind of liked it.
“That wouldn’t be good,” he admitted. “What are you doing here so early?”
I looked down at my cart filled with two packages of cotton panties, and winced.
His eyes went there, too, and they lost the edginess to them.
All I could see was amusement when he looked back up at me and said, “See you still wear the same kind.”