Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“What’s wrong?” she asks, stepping forward and taking my hand.
“Nothing,” I lie, knowing if I even try to talk about it, I’ll probably cry. “How’s my godchild?”
“Trying to kill me,” she says, placing her hand on her still flat stomach. “I swear I can wake up and puke and then want to eat everything in the house. It’s the weirdest damn thing. Where’s Cash?”
“At the bar, getting a drink. Where’s Chase?”
“Same,” she says, pulling out one of the chairs at the table so she can sit. “I’m exhausted.”
“I read that’s one of the first signs of pregnancy.”
“Are you tired?” She looks from my face to my stomach.
“I’m always tired,” I tell her honestly. “But that has more to do with getting up before the sun rises.”
“Cash shouldn’t have you waiting at the bar so late every night.”
“He doesn’t,” I say, unable to keep the defensiveness out of my voice.
If Cash had a clue how tired I was all the time, he’d probably put an end to it. He’s just that type of guy. But I live for the nights I get to see him. If being a little tired is the result, then I’m okay with it.
“What are you going to do if you’re pregnant? Can’t exactly wait to see him in the bar with a baby.”
I know I didn’t say anything out loud, but Madison has always had an uncanny way of reading my mind.
“I don’t know,” I tell her. Honestly, I think having Cash’s baby only looked good on paper.
The man doesn’t want children. He doesn’t want the responsibility, so I have no doubt that it will drive a wedge between the two of us, but isn’t that what would happen, eventually, anyway?
There would come a day that he’d find someone he couldn’t live without, and I’d become a distant memory. He’d fight it, of course, because I know he values our friendship, but I don’t know a woman alive who would be okay with him spending so much time with me. I know if he were mine, I’d lose my mind at just the mention of another woman.
“I think we’re going to do something,” Cash says as he walks up, making whatever Madison was about to say stay with her.
“What do you mean?” I ask, grateful for the diversion.
There will come a time when I have to make some very hard decisions. There will be consequences for choosing to live in the moment rather than worrying about the future, but tonight isn’t the right time for any of it.
“Claire,” he says, angling his head toward the woman at the bar.
“What about her?” Madison asks, all of our attention turning to the woman standing at the bar.
“I overheard her talking to one of the other women about her being here to get an application.”
“And?” Madison asks, her tone defensive.
“And she has a baby. She doesn’t need to be working at the bar,” Cash says. I can see from the glint in Madison’s eyes that she’s taking him the wrong way.
“What she does in her free time is none of your business.”
Cash looks confused, and I feel the need to step in.
“I think what he’s saying is that she shouldn’t have to take a second job to care for her kid,” I tell Madison, making Cash’s brow furrow.
“What did you think I meant?” he asks, his tone defensive enough to make Chase take notice.
“Hold on,” Chase says, taking a step forward.
“Wait,” Madison says, pressing her hand to Chase’s chest as if she thinks her man is about to throw a punch. “What did you mean?” she asks Cash.
He points to me as if to verify what I said. “We need to help her. She told the woman she was exhausted, and that she needed an application. I don’t think she wants to work here, but there’s a need to work here.”
“Corbin can only pay her so much at the vet’s office. If she’s struggling to make ends meet, then we need to help her,” I add.
Both Madison and Chase nod their heads in agreement, and Madison gives Cash a small smile of apology.
“She’s not going to fall for the same thing as last time,” I tell everyone.
“What did you do last time?” Madison asks, reminding me that she and Chase haven’t been back in town for even a year yet.
“When she first came to town, we could see her struggling. Jason Brecken offered her one of his duplexes at a discounted rate,” Cash explains.
“We set up a giveaway at the grocery store, but of course it was rigged for her. She won a hundred dollars a week in free groceries for life,” I add. “But a hundred dollars doesn’t feed two people.”
“I can’t believe Marlene was that generous,” Madison says with her nose scrunched.
Madison has had a bad taste in her mouth since elementary school when Marlene followed her around the store, thinking she was going to steal some candy.