Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Miller got up and asked, “Are you ready for that smoothie?” I nodded. “What flavor this time?”
“Surprise me, but not by adding kale to it, like that one time.”
“You couldn’t even taste it.”
“But it looked like swamp water.”
“Fine. No kale.” He ran his hand over my hair again. It felt less like he was fixing it, and more like he was petting me. I had zero complaints about that. “I’m going to do a couple of laps around the block first, because I need some exercise.”
“Take your time.” I watched him go, and then I video called Jeannie.
She answered right away and said, “Hi, sweetie. How are you feeling?”
“Okay. They might actually let me go home tomorrow.”
“I’m so glad!”
I pointed at the screen, drawing a circle around her with my index finger as I asked, “What’s going on here? You look like you’re in disguise, but as what I don’t know.”
Jeannie was in her parked car. A floral scarf was wrapped around her head and tied under her chin, and she was wearing a baseball cap on top of that. She was also wearing her biggest pair of sunglasses. “I did something terrible, Collie.”
“I can’t help you bury a body right now, but if you stick it in that huge freezer in your garage, it should be fine until I can come for a visit.”
“I appreciate the offer, but it’s not that. You know that thing you’ve had to talk me out of during each of my pregnancies?”
“Oh, no. Don’t tell me you gave yourself bangs.”
“It’s so much worse than that. My hair was bugging the crap out of me…”
Jeannie was a natural blonde with gorgeous, wavy hair. Ever since I’d known her, she’d worn it long. When I’d left, it had been more than halfway down her back. “What did you do? Show me.”
She took off her sunglasses and the baseball cap before untying the scarf and pulling it off her head. Not only did she have short bangs, but her hair was cut into a chin-length bob that was turned up at the ends. She burst into tears and wailed, “I look like Mrs. Puff from Spongebob!”
She totally did. All that was missing was the little blue sailor cap. But as her best friend, it was my duty to tell her, “No, you don’t! You look like a blonde Audrey Hepburn. It’s so chic, Jeannie.”
“It’s not! I ruined my best feature!”
“You look amazing,” I insisted, “and you must feel so much better. It had to weigh a ton, and you must have been roasting under all that hair. Plus, just think how much easier it’ll be to wash and dry it now.”
She sniffed and admitted, “It was a pain when it was long.” But because her pregnancy hormones weren’t done fucking with her yet, she burst into tears all over again and exclaimed, “I feel like such an asshole, crying about hair when you’re literally sitting in a hospital after open-heart surgery!”
“Jeannie, I’m fine. It’s been three weeks! The only reason they’ve kept me here this long is because I kept getting a stupid fever. But it’s gone now, and I get to go home tomorrow.”
It took her a few moments to get her tears under control. She dried her cheeks with the scarf and said, “This is why you didn’t tell me ahead of time that you were having surgery, isn’t it? It’s because you knew I’d be a blubbering mess.”
“I just didn’t want to worry you.”
“I’m still mad at you for waiting to tell me,” she said, “and for not telling me right away when you got fake married.”
“If I told you about the marriage, I would have had to tell you about the surgery.”
“Speaking of your fake husband, is Miller in the room right now?”
“No. He went for a walk, and then he’s going to get me a smoothie.”
A smile spread across her face. “He’s so into you.”
“He really isn’t.”
“Come on! He’s been at the hospital with you every single day for three weeks, and after this he’s planning to take you home and nurse you back to health. The man is smitten!”
“You’re wrong. I’m like… his project. His club baseball season ended, and he needed something to do with his free time.” She sighed, and I told her, “I’m exactly like the stray cat he took in. We’re both just something to focus his energy on, because he doesn’t have a lot going on in his life right now.”
“There’s no way. If he needed something to do he’d take up golf, or pickleball. He wouldn’t find some random person and make him the center of his universe.”
“I’m not the center of his universe.”
“Oh, but you are.”
“I wish. He’s such an amazing guy. It’s too bad his ex-fiancé screwed him over so bad that he swore off relationships forever. Although even if he hadn’t, he’s way out of my league.”