Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
I nearly scoffed at myself.
After last night, I was pretty sure I knew exactly what that was.
More than that? My gut told me it went so much deeper.
Corruption seeded in those beautiful, magnificent hands.
Bile rushed up my throat.
I could not think of him like that. He’d…been with my sister.
I tried to blink the image away.
I had to focus on what was important.
Maci.
And that kind of lifestyle was not what she needed.
She needed stability.
Consistency.
A family.
She needed to be loved and cherished and adored.
At the T in the road, I made a left at Culberry Street and drove back into the main part of town, making a right on Broadway then a left at 9th.
“There’s a little café I saw last night that I thought you might like,” I forced out, trying to cover the tension that radiated from me. “It has some yummy treats for after lunch.”
I noticed the little sandwich shop while I was wandering last night.
When I felt as if I’d been completely lost.
Searching for something that no longer existed.
Aching in every recess of my being.
It hadn’t been long before I found the vapid sanctuary of the bar and the momentary respite of his touch.
“Yay! You know I really like the treats, Auntie Em!” Maci shouted.
“That’s right, I do,” I whispered as I found an open spot and parallel parked at the curb.
I climbed out and went to Maci’s door and unbuckled her, then Mom and I each took one of her hands and guided her down the sidewalk toward the sandwich shop.
This street had a bit of a different vibe than Culberry. Where Culberry seemed upscale and trendy, this one felt quainter. The shops and cafés cozier, exuding that traditional small-town charm.
The pace of the few people ambling around was slowed, all while my mind raced and spun.
Spun with the implications.
As hard as I tried to squelch them, memories kept coming at me from last night.
Flashes that struck and impaled with each blink of my eyes.
His hands and his mouth and the freedom that I’d found.
The way I’d wanted to fully give for the first time in so many years that I didn’t even remember what it was like to want.
And God, I had wanted.
And it was him.
Him.
I stumbled a step as I was hit with a wave of dizziness.
“Are you okay?” Mom asked from over the top of Maci’s head, a frown tugging deep in her brow.
I barely gave her a nod. “Yeah. I’m just tired.”
Just tired and anguished and disgusted at the mistake I’d made.
“Here it is,” I said with feigned excitement when we came to the cute little restaurant called Cup Café that was open for breakfast and lunch. It was fronted by large windows, and both the exterior and interior were done in rustic, whitewashed woods.
I started to pull open the door when I was distracted by a woman who stepped out from the flower shop next door with a giant bouquet in her arms.
Maci jumped between me and Mom the second she saw her. “Hey, hey! You sure got a lot of flowers! I bet you got a billion!”
The woman shifted the bouquet around, angling it to the side so she could peer around it.
She had black hair that she had twisted up in a knot with flowers in it, and her eyes were nearly as dark as her hair. Her makeup thick and done to precision. So strikingly beautiful it was hard not to stare.
But she had this huge smile that instantly wrapped around you and made you feel welcome, a reaction I didn’t typically have to strangers of any kind, but she managed it, anyway.
I would guess she was about the same age as me, maybe a little younger. Twenty-six, give or take a year or two.
She wore a white and red floral dress that hugged her curves and these super high heels that made my feet hurt just looking at them.
“Well, hello!” Her voice was warm as she turned her attention to Maci. She didn’t hesitate to move forward and kneel in front of her. “Do you like flowers?”
“Everyone likes flowers.” Maci said it like anyone would be ludicrous to think otherwise.
A trilling laugh rolled through the woman. “You and I must be of the same heart because I think the exact same thing. Who doesn’t love flowers?” She glanced up at me and my mom with a smile. “I mean, unless you have a nasty case of allergies, which I think would be really awful, pitiful luck.”
“The pitifulest,” Maci agreed, wide-eyed and completely somber.
A tiny jolt of laughter ripped from me.
The woman held the bouquet out in front of her. “Do you want to pick out your favorite?”
“Really?” Maci asked in her cute lisp as she swayed between me and Mom.
The woman lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Guess what? You were totally right, and I do have almost a billion in my store, so you can have any of them you want.”