Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
I don’t know the official population of Red Bridge, but I’d hedge my bets that the entirety of it has been here this morning. Josie had no issues keeping up with orders and chitchatting at the same time, of course, but I was like a sinking ship in a raging storm as I tried to manage both the register and writing names on cups. A simple set of tasks, it would seem, but still, I managed to be inept.
My feet hurt in Lil’s half-size too small shoes and all I want to do is sit down, but as Josie comes out of the back with another batch of cinnamon rolls, I make myself head over to the glass cabinet and help her put them on display.
Despite the effort, both of my sister’s shoulders still seem remarkably cold. Honestly, I’m not sure she’s ever going to get over our rift enough to look at me like a human instead of a roach she just found in her kitchen.
Josie closes the cabinet door and sets the empty baking sheet on the worktable behind us, and I head back to the register to exist in silence.
I’m nearly there when she startles me. “Okay, then. No customers, nothing else pressing to do… I’d say it’s time, wouldn’t you, Nore?”
“Time?” I turn around to meet her persistent gaze. “Time for what? Because I’ve got to tell you, sis, I don’t know that I have the energy for more.”
Her brows lift. “Time for you to tell me what’s really going on.”
I have to stop myself from letting out my frustration via an ear-piercing scream at the top of my lungs. Out of all the things we could talk about right now, explaining the monster inside me is the thing I have the very least energy for.
“I already told you.” I pretend to be interested in the big fancy espresso machine behind her. “I needed a break.”
She scoffs. “We both know Carlton has all sorts of houses you could go take a break in. I’m sure Mom was mad that you left the perfect man at the altar and all, but you’ve always had Stepdaddy Dearest wrapped around your finger.”
Carlton Prescott, our very rich stepdad that our mother married when I was eight and Josie was fourteen, for all his faults—getting together with our mother while he was still married and having a torrid workplace affair that ended in a divorce and speedy remarriage—is a decent human being. A friendly ally in a sea of enemies.
But he’s still our mother’s husband, and at the end of the day, I’m not ready to face him, the fancy penthouse on Central Park he put us up in, or any of the other houses he has across the globe. If he knew where I was, it’d only be a matter of time before our mother did too.
When I don’t offer my sister any sort of explanation and start organizing all the cups and lids by the register that are most definitely already organized, she lets out a humorless laugh and grips my shoulders to turn me around to face her.
“You do realize you’re going to have to tell me eventually, right? I’m not an idiot. No one takes a Greyhound bus when they have the kind of trust fund that could feed the world’s impoverished kids for a lifetime if there isn’t a reason. Plus, I’m pretty sure your boyfriend’s bank account isn’t hurting either.”
I should correct her and tell her that Thomas was my fiancé or that I’ve been completely cut off and have about eight hundred dollars to my name, but I’m not ready to get into the whole mess. I’m still trying to process it all myself.
“It’s a long story, Josie.”
“Yeah, they usually are,” she comments and hitches a hip on the counter. “But the only way it’s going to get shorter is for you to start telling it.”
My vocal cords remain frozen.
Josie lets out a sigh. “Fine. Don’t tell me now.” She takes off her CAFFEINE-embroidered green apron and tosses it on the counter. “Hold down the fort while I run over to Earl’s. I’m low on whole milk.”
“Excuse me?”
“You hold down the fort while I run to the grocery store and—”
“I heard you the first time. What I need clarification on is the fact that you’re going to leave me here. By myself.”
“You’ll be fine.”
My eyes go wide. “I don’t know how to make a single thing.”
Josie looks around the store with a knowing smile. “And lucky for you, there’s no one in the shop. Probably won’t be until the noon lunch rush.”
“Josie, you cannot leave me here on my own. It took me two hours to learn the register!”
“Earl’s is right up the street,” she continues like I’m not standing here having a nervous breakdown. “I won’t be long.”