Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
“Your secret is safe with me.” She turned them around for him to look at. “I can get you cribs, rocking chairs, breast pumps. Does she know if she’s going to be breast feeding?”
“I’ve not got a clue.”
“It’ll be good for her to figure that out. There’s pushchairs, and here we’ve got baby seats.”
On and on it went. Hardy looked through the book and spent over an hour talking through the best things to buy for his woman. He paid up front, and Millie said she’d got a place in the back to store them.
“If you come back when they’re delivered, we can make sure everything is okay, and they’ve got all the right equipment,” Millie said.
“You’re a doll, Millie.”
“I’m just doing my job to make life far more enjoyable for everyone.” She gave him a wink, and took the books.
He watched her make some notes on an order slip.
“Can I ask you something?” he asked.
Millie nodded. “Sure.”
“I’ve, I mean, Rose and I, we’re not on the best terms right now.”
“You cheated on her?”
“How did you know?”
“Baker seems to spend a lot of time around here.” She glanced around the shop. “He talks about you. Not club business, just that he’s worried about you and Rose.”
He’d have to talk with Baker about using his own problems to help him talk with Millie.
“I’ve not gotten him into trouble, have I?”
“No. It’s nothing. Providing it’s not club business, he can talk about whatever he wants.” I’m still going to beat the shit out of him for using me.
“Good. I don’t want to get him into trouble. He looks like he’s been in a lot of pain, suffered.”
“He has. He lost his wife and unborn kid to a drink driver,” he said.
“Damn, I’m so sorry.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I knew he’d had a great loss, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”
“Don’t worry. He’s part of the club, and he’s family.”
“So, what did you want my advice on?”
“Rose.”
“What about her?” Millie asked.
“I want to win her back.”
“Have you cheated on her since the last time?” Millie placed her pen between the folds of the book.
“No. I’ve not looked at another woman. I don’t want any other woman but her.”
“Then I don’t see what the problem is,” Millie said. “You love her. There’s been no one else, and you’re making it up to her.”
“I didn’t change,” Hardy said. He’d been paying a lot of attention even when she thought he wasn’t. “Rose changed for me, and I didn’t even tell her to stop what she was doing. She changed, I didn’t. I didn’t make the effort to change.”
“Why not?”
“I was too damn scared I’d lose her. I had Rose in my life, and I was just so happy to have her there. I didn’t want to lose her.”
Millie nodded. “Then take the time to prove her that you can change. Be everything she ever wanted. Make her forget about the man she thought you were.”
“How?”
“By giving her everything she always wanted.” Millie smiled. “Can you remember what she wanted?”
Hardy nodded. He remembered what she’d always wanted from him.
Leaving the shop, he climbed on the back of his bike, and went toward his house. Well, it wasn’t his house anymore. It was Rose’s house.
He knocked on the door, and Baker opened it. He was holding a grilled cheese sandwich.
“You better stop talking about my troubles with Millie,” Hardy said, pointing at him.
Baker went bright red. “Sorry. It just spilled out, and I didn’t have any control over it.”
“What are you? A fucking woman?”
“I panicked. She’s always quiet around me, and I’m not used to someone being quiet around me.”
Hardy shook his head. “I’m just letting you know I’m cleaning the backyard up today.”
“Rose is taking a nap.”
“I’ll be quiet.”
Hardy moved around the back of the house. He removed his leather cut, entering the garage. The garage was a mess, and he started to empty it out. He killed all the spiders he came across, and opened up the whole of the garage. By the time he was finished Rose would be able to enter the garage without fear. His woman was terrified of spiders.
Once the garage was finished, he looked at the garden. The lawn was overgrown, the flower patches were covered in weeds, and the small walkway was lost in a jungle of grass. Baker came out to help him, getting stuck into the weeds, while Hardy started to mow the lawn. When he was done with the backyard he’d go to the front, and mow that one.
He removed his shirt, and within the hour he was down to his jeans. Baker ended up the same way. Rose stood at the kitchen door, and Hardy turned off the mower, and stared at her.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“I noticed this garden needed cleaning up,” he said, wiping at his brow.