Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 61576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
No men. That’s my rule. Well, no relationships at least. No marriage. Some people, like my mom, think I’m crazy for having a rule like that. But what would you do if your last husband stole your life savings, gambled it all away and then ran off on you with your best friend in the whole world, never to be seen again?
I’m single and I’m happy, thank you very much. I’ll do something casual – especially if it’s with the buff, dreamy guy who just moved in next door. But I have a feeling he wants more. Bad news for him though. He’s not going to get it.
Jake
So Sadie’s got a rule, but you know what they say about rules, right? They’re made to be broken, and I’m just the man to break hers. After years in the service, I thought my soul had grown cold, but every time I look at this girl, a fire lights up inside me.
She wants me a night at a time, but I want every night she has to give me. And what I want, I get. It’s only a matter of time before she figures that out.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
Sadie
I love my mom, but sometimes I wish I had the nerve to either give her a nice punch in the guts or just block her phone calls.
“You’re going to end up a sad, single, childless old maid, Sadie,” my mom says, giving me that I-know-best look on the other end of our FaceTime call.
But even if I did block her, I know she’d just drive over here to bother me in person. Her house is, after all, less than half an hour away.
“Thanks, Mom,” I reply, giving her a fake smile. “I appreciate that.”
“You know I’m just looking out for you, Sadie-bear,” she replies. “This no-relationship rule of yours is beyond silly. You just turned 30, sweetie. You’re not exactly young and fertile anymore. The men aren’t going to be beating down your door much longer.” My jaw tightens, and I feel my insides start to twist up, but I try not to show it.
You love her, Sadie. You do. You don’t want to kill her.
“This is you looking out for me?”
“You need to find a man you can at least tolerate,” she explains. “A man you can show that you’re a good woman with domestic skills and lock his butt down!”
She’s in one of her moods right now. I call them her “mom moods” that are basically impossible to shake her out of. Like a boxer working the bag, I just have to let her tire herself out.
“I see.” I take a sip of my jasmine tea, prop my phone up against my stack of landscape photography coffee table books, and lean my chin on my hand. “Anything else, Mom?”
She frowns. “Actually yes!” I don’t even disguise my deep sigh. “You need to stop sleeping around.”
“Okay, that’s it,” I gasp, sitting up. “I’ve got to go–”
“Sit back down, young lady!” my mom snaps.
I may be a grown woman, but when my mom takes that tone, it still has the same effect on me as it did when I was a little girl. I plant my butt right back down on the couch and frown at my phone screen.
“Now you listen to me,” she continues. “A good man is not going to like to hear that his would-be wife has been going around…practicing with every xy chromosome out there with a pulse!”
“That is not what I’ve been doing, Mom!”
“Oh, so you’re changing your story now?” she asks.
God this is awkward. I knew I never should have had that conversation with her in the first place. But I guess now it’s too late. Lesson learned: Your mom is not your best friend. Watch what you tell her.
“I know what you’re referring to–”
“When you said you were going to be having casual sex with tons of men?” my mom asks with disgust.
“Again, that’s not what I said.” My face is on fire now. I must look like a big, blown-up tomato with a pair of eyes and lips on it.
“Well, what did you say then?” she asks indignantly.
“What I said was,” I snap back, “that after what happened with Howard, I was not going to get married again. But if the right man came along, I might consider something more casual with him than marriage. Okay?”
The horror of having this conversation with my mother is nearly too much to bear. This is a conversation I should be having with Julia from work—who would understand what it is I’m talking about and not shame me for it. I don’t need to be discussing my sex life with my mother in any way, shape, or form.
My mom crosses her arms over her chest and twists her lips to the side. Apparently, she’s starting to understand, but she’s clearly still not on board or happy with my idea.
“Well, like I said, Sadie-bear, you’re not getting any younger.”
Sometimes I just want to scream at her. She acts like she knows how I’m supposed to be living my life, when in reality, she has no clue. She was married happily to my dad for ten years before I was born, and she wants to tell me what it’s like to date for people in my generation?
Yeah, I don’t think so.
She tried showing sympathy after what happened with my ex-husband for a little while, but there’s just something about my mom where the only way she seems to know how to mother is by giving advice or trying to teach me a lesson.
So pretty soon she was telling me what I could have done better in our marriage or what she thought was my fault and how I should learn from things to make sure something like that never happens again.
I had to cut off contact with her for a while I got so angry.
And that’s when I learned that I can only do that for so long before she just comes over to the house. Yeah, my mother does not understand boundaries.