Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
I loathed Luna’s sister.
She was a granola hippie mooch with a chip on her shoulder who treated Luna like garbage, didn’t treat Scott or Louise much better, and the only thing she had going for her was that she adored the two kids she’d already popped out by two different guys (with another bun in the oven—yeah, by an entirely different guy).
All that was enough.
But I’d had more than my fill of parents who brought kids into the world, then thought the world owed them the favor of raising those kids for them.
Yes, at least Dream loved her kids.
But she often dumped them on Luna, and Raye, and her parents, and went off to do her own thing like she didn’t take on the most important job on the planet when she pushed them out.
However, she did.
I hadn’t seen her in a while. She’d come to the funeral too. But just prior to that, at Luna’s birthday party, Cap had torn her a new asshole when Dream was being Dream and sucking all the joy out of Luna’s big night, so since then, she’d made herself scarce.
Now she was back with a kid strapped to her front over a slightly protruding belly, and one to her back.
She gave Shirleen a nod as she moved toward the bar, Daisy a once-over, whereupon she wrinkled her nose before she forced a smile (they’d met at the funeral, obvs).
And then she gave them a wide berth in an obvious effort not to engage with them, heading straight to the other side of the bar where Luna was.
I was already pissed at the nose wrinkle, the wide berth only made me more so. Therefore, I quickly finished my mojitos, put them on the server station for Harlow to pick up and slunk toward Luna to step in if shit went south.
“I know I’m not supposed to bother you at work, but I was driving by,” she started.
Raye got close too, and began polishing an already cleared table to a high shine.
“And I know you don’t want to help me with the kids,” Dream went on. “But I have an interview at a daycare center on Thursday, Mom and Dad are working, and I was hoping you could help me out.”
“I never said I didn’t want to help you with the kids—” Luna began, but she stopped when Dream gave her The Hand.
And yep.
At that, I was more pissed.
“We don’t need to go over it,” Dream said snottily. “I just need to know if you can watch them on Thursday.”
“I work Thursdays, Dream.”
Dream glanced over her shoulder. “Maybe Tito…”
She let that hang, and I didn’t know if she was asking if Tito would give Luna the time off, or if Tito would watch her kids for her.
She didn’t clarify.
I was so intent on this, I heard, “Hey, baby,” coming at me before I saw him walk up to the bar.
I knew that voice, and that “baby,” and…damn.
I really needed to click into a man’s vibe.
And his schedule.
Because I’d just talked about the guy last night, and it didn’t occur to me a visit was imminent.
In other words, Braydon was there.
He also was gorgeous, but he wasn’t anywhere near the ballpark where Eric’s gorgeous resided.
“Hey, Braydon,” I replied, and felt Luna’s attention, Dream’s, Raye’s, and now Harlow had found something to do close by.
Yeah.
They’d sensed his mission.
And I totally missed the vibe.
He slid on a stool in front of me. “How’s things?”
Right, except for my boyfriend who moved to Michigan (and that was easy, I just had to say, “No, I don’t want to go with you”), I’d never had to let a guy down.
Either my edginess, darkness, or lack of ambition (huh) sent them packing. Or if I wasn’t feeling it, I ghosted them.
How did a chick do this?
I moved to stand across from him at the bar. “Things are good, Braydon.”
He smiled widely at me.
“I thought she was with Eric,” Daisy whispered loudly.
“Shush!” Shirleen shushed her.
But Braydon heard them.
“Are they talking about you?” he asked.
Why was this hard?
This shouldn’t be hard.
He broke my heart.
No, he put me down while breaking my heart.
I hadn’t given him that first indication I was considering reconciliation. I’d been friendly, in the way an employee was friendly to any customer, but in no way could he construe I was pining for him.
Because I wasn’t.
With that in mind, I asked, “What can I get you?”
“Are you seeing someone?” he asked.
“Sorry?”
“Are. You. Seeing. Someone?” he enunciated very clearly.
“Not to be rude, Bray, but that really isn’t your business.”
His face flushed, and he moved quickly to cover, “I’m just interested, Jess. We have a history. History like ours doesn’t just die.”
“It did for me,” I returned.
His chin went into his neck.
“Oowee,” Shirleen whispered.
“Now do you want a drink or a menu?” I inquired.