Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
My eyes went to the building that held what felt like so many memories—some of those memories being good, but most of them being bad.
I wasn’t saying that all of my time with Ariya was bad, but I couldn’t remember a time when it was truly good, either.
“Are you going to come in, or stay out here all day?”
I looked up to find Rosemary standing in the entrance staring at me. She was holding the glass door open with her hip, and she had her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
She’d changed quite a bit while I was gone…since she’d been that annoying little sister of Ariya’s. Not that she was ever annoying to me as much as she was annoying to Ariya.
It would be a cold day in hell before the two of them ever got along.
“Yeah, I’m coming in,” I said as I started through the parking lot and headed in her direction. “Did you make me breakfast?”
Rosemary had started working with Ariya’s father out of necessity when she was younger, and obviously had never found anything better to do since. Though, she was one hell of a cook, or had been.
Rosemary’s eyes went a little shadowed as she shook her head.
“I was going to, but…” She paused. “I have something to tell you, and I can’t wait too long or Ariya will be here to stock soon, and then she’ll see you here. I have…” she shook her head. “I can’t believe she never told you.”
I was confused. “What was she supposed to tell me?”
She gestured for me to follow her inside the empty bar and grill, and I did, wincing only slightly when I saw the stupid photo next to the door.
It was an old one of Ariya and me when we were younger.
She was beautiful. Then again, she was beautiful now, also.
That likely would never change.
“Take a seat,” Rosemary instructed.
I did as she asked, and then listened as she promptly changed my entire life.
“You have a daughter.”
***
Three hours later
I walked into the first bar that was open; the only thing on my mind was getting a beer, and drinking away my current state of mind.
“You have a daughter. And she’s dying.”
I never, ever thought I’d hear that first statement, let alone the two that followed it.
“Carolyn had a CT scan last week of her abdomen and chest. Dr. Mottle told me this morning that the cancer has filled her liver and her chest is covered with the tumors. Her lower spine has also been affected. The tumors span the length of her spine, and they don’t expect her to walk for much longer. Palliative chemo will stop. They’re going to start hospice soon to make sure she’s kept comfortable.”
Tomorrow, I’d be strong.
Tomorrow, I’d make plans.
Tomorrow, I’d figure out what the hell I was going to do.
Tomorrow, I’d meet the child I didn’t know I had.
Tomorrow, I’d process the fact that she was dying, and there wasn’t a damn thing in the world I could do about it.
Tonight, I’d drink. Tonight, I’d forget. Tonight, I’d ignore everything in this world but the state of my beer mug.
Chapter 16
Unless you’re a pregnancy test, I don’t need you to be negative.
-Hennessy to Krisney
Hennessy
“Did you hear?”
I stared at Krisney in confusion.
“Hear what?”
“Hear that Ariya and Tate have a baby together.”
My entire being, everything that I was, froze in complete, abject horror.
“What?”
It was said so softly that it took me a few minutes to realize that my single word had frozen Krisney in her tracks.
“You didn’t hear?”
No, I hadn’t.
“They have a kid?” I asked, a little more loudly this time.
She nodded her head. “Yeah, apparently Ariya’s sister told him, and then he told everyone at the bar last night that would listen.”
I tried my best to ignore anything and everything that had to do with Ariya, so it came as no surprise that I wouldn’t know that she had a kid. Nor that she had a kid with the man I was currently sleeping with.
Son. Of. A. Bitch.
“How far along is Ariya?” I murmured.
When had he had time to be with her? Was it that time that I saw them out at the taco shop while I was on my date with the vegan that wasn’t really vegan?
Could I forgive him for sleeping with an ex before he was sleeping with me? Then again, we didn’t have an agreement of any kind. What we had was borderline illegal.
Oh, my God.
I’d slept with a man that was sleeping with other women, and I could lose my job!
I had to transfer his care to another psychologist. Right this very minute.
“Hey!” Krisney cried out as I stood up in the middle of our breakfast. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to be right back,” I lied.
I wasn’t going to be right back. I was going to my office and I was going to call my mentor, and I was going to ask her just what in the hell I was supposed to do next.