Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
But she had me pulling into the lot of a motel building. The kind where it was cheap for the week, so it catered to a lot of divorcees or guys kicked out for cheating. And, of course, anyone going through a rough patch.
Zoe’s words came back to me from before.
She’d said she’d asked for help from the woman a few doors down. If it was an apartment building, she likely would have said something along the lines of ‘in the building’ or ‘a few apartments down.’
“You want me to grab her? Those things get heavy.” I gestured toward the pumpkin seat.
“No, I’ve got her.”
I didn’t give her a chance to insist she could handle the bags too, just grabbed them and followed her toward the steps.
“Oh, good,” a redhead said, rushing out of her room as Zoe fished for her room key. “You finally decided to step up, huh?” she asked, looking at me. “About time. She’s running herself ragged, you know. You should be ashamed of yourself. How’s the little angel?”
“This isn’t Lainey’s dad,” Zoe said. “He’s—”
“A friend,” I supplied. “Coast.”
“Brooke. Sorry for yelling at you.”
“Lainey is alright. She has some medicine in her, so she’s cooler. Just need to get some formula in her now.”
“Good. Good. A nice lukewarm bath might help too. I can’t stay. Got my three sleeping,” she said.
“Everything alright?” another woman called up from somewhere below.
“Hey, Tasha! Yeah! Baby is feeling better,” Brooke called down, leaning over the railing.
“Does Zoe need any help?”
“She’s got a friend with her.”
“Okay. Well, tell her I hope the baby gets better soon.”
“Will do! Night-night. You heard her,” Brooke said, giving Zoe a small smile. “You need anything, though, you know where to find us.”
“Thanks, Brooke. Really.”
Brooke waved that off. “You take care of the girls,” she said, looking at me.
I gave her a nod before she headed out.
I closed and locked the door as Zoe pulled Lainey out of the car seat.
“Thanks for staying with us,” Zoe said. “I was…”
“Freaked the fuck out?” I filled in for her. “Yeah, I noticed. It’s nothing.”
“Wait, what is all of that?” she asked as I started to pull everything out of the bags and line it up on the nightstand.
“Supplies.”
“I didn’t say I needed diapers. Or formula.”
“From what I know, you always need diapers and formula at this age. And I got you some shit. I got a feeling that you might come down with something too. So just in case. And I got this for you,” I said, pulling the tag of the rattle plush and shaking it in front of Lainey’s face.
“That’s too much,” Zoe said, looking up at me as Lainey grabbed for the rattle.
“Nah. It’s nothing.”
“That’s, what, a month’s worth of formula. That’s a couple hundred alone.”
“Yeah. Like I said… nothing.”
“Coast…”
“I’ll make a bottle.”
“You don’t have—”
“Still gonna do it.”
So I did.
Then took turns trying to get Lainey to finish the whole thing so she didn’t get dehydrated.
It was while I was burping Lainey that Zoe started nodding off on the other bed.
Until, eventually, she was out cold.
“Looks like it’s me and you, kid,” I told Lainey as she stared up at me. “I think your mama needs a rest after the scare you gave her, don’t you?”
“Ooh,” Lainey said.
“Proud of yourself, huh?” I asked, reaching for the rattle and shaking it at her. “I have to admit, you had pretty good timing, Lil’ Bit.”
As I laid Lainey down on the mattress to play with her feet and wiggle around, I realized it was gone.
All that anger, that frustration, and that restlessness I’d been dealing with all week.
It had evaporated.
“Ain’t that some shit,” I said.
“Ooh,” Lainey agreed.
CHAPTER TEN
Zoe
“Ugh,” I groaned, pressing my hands to my head, feeling the heat against my palms.
A fever.
Lainey.
I tried to shoot up, but my body felt like lead with aches and pains stabbing my legs with the slightest movement.
“Listen, you gotta stop hooting at random dudes, Lil’ Bit,” Coast said, making me turn my heavy head to see him moving in the room with Lainey in one arm and a brown bag in his other. He’d changed out of his bloody clothes from the night before and was wearing the outfit I’d borrowed from him and washed with the intention of dropping it off at some point. “Hey, baby,” he said, seeing me. “Shit. I was right, huh?”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. Skipped one dose of meds because she was feeling fine. But we just took another dose. She’s got a stuffy nose now too, but is in good spirits. You look like hell.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Let me check on Mama, okay?” he asked Lainey, placing her down in her playard.
“I’m okay.”
“Not as pale and sweaty as you look, you’re not.”
He wasn’t wrong.
I didn’t remember the last time I felt so crummy. Maybe never.
“Oh, you’re burning up, babe,” he said as his cold hand touched my face. “Let’s get some medicine in you too.”