Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
The packages were sent to my PO box, and my company then picked them up for me and delivered everything to my apartment. If I ordered it directly from Amazon, it would come straight to my door.
But sometimes, it was impossible to tell the ones I’d ordered, and the ones I’d been sent, apart.
I flipped the box closed with the tools still inside and placed it on the pile next to my office door where I would later review it. Though, there were quite a few things ahead of it, so it might be a while, especially after getting absolutely nothing done today.
A knocking sounded in the hallway, but I ignored it since it wasn’t at my apartment door.
At least it wasn’t until a long few moments later when the knocking moved from the door beside me to my own.
I walked to my apartment door, yanked it open, and came to a stop at the sight of the young girl on the mat right outside my door.
“Um,” I said, studying her swollen from crying face. “Can I help you?”
She swallowed hard and said, “My dad lives right next door to you.”
I blinked. “Really?”
That was the first bit of personal information I’d had about the “man” since I’d learned I had a neighbor.
The only reason I’d assumed he was a man was because of the beer bottles in his trash bag that I’d seen there once the day before trash day.
“Yeah.” She swallowed. “And he’s not answering his phone or his texts. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
I nodded and opened my door wider. “Come in.”
She looked frantic and lost, and there was no way that I was going to let her stay out there alone.
“I saw your dog toys and your doormat and felt like you were a safe option if you loved your dog enough to get that mat,” she said.
I swallowed hard and a wounded noise left my throat as I thought about all the stuff I now had that would likely need to be thrown away.
There was no way in hell that I was going to get another dog and go through this heartache again.
She looked at me strangely when I made that noise and started to back away, worry flashing in her eyes.
“It’s okay,” I swallowed again. “I just…my dog died today.”
Her mouth opened and closed. “What?”
I rubbed at the spot over my heart and said, “When I adopted him, I knew he was older. He was the sweetest yellow Lab with the whitest face you’ve ever seen. He was old, old. Seeing him there in that shelter broke something inside of me, and I just knew that I had to take Butters home. I just didn’t realize that we’d bond so hard so fast, or that he’d die after only a month of having him.
“What’s your dad’s name?” I asked.
Before she could answer, a knock sounded at the door.
I blinked and turned, surprised.
It was too early for deliveries. The only other person it could be was my next-door neighbor looking for his kid.
Without giving it much thought, I eagerly walked over to the door and opened it, expecting to find a “dad” on the other side. What I found was an angry young man who looked like he was about to kill me.
“Um, can I help you?” I asked.
“Did you see a girl come in here?” he demanded.
I stiffened. “No, why?”
I heard no movement from behind me, and I prayed it stayed that way.
“I’m looking for one.” He rolled his eyes, like what I’d just said was dumb. “She’s about five foot four, gray eyes, long blonde hair. She was wearing a hoodie and some jeans.”
I kept shaking my head. “Nope, I haven’t seen anyone.”
He cursed and started to look over my shoulder. “You alone?”
I clenched my hand into a fist and reached behind my back slowly, feeling the knife I always stashed in my waistband.
I’d started doing that when I was going on walks with Butters.
I pulled the knife out but left it behind my back.
I didn’t want him to see that I had it, just in case I could still rectify the situation without violence.
“Why are you so defensive, huh?” he asked, crowding me closer.
I wish I had left the chain on the door.
At least then I might have been able to close the door.
But there was one thing that Shasha would’ve thrown in my face right about now—the door was paper thin, and nothing would stop a determined person from getting in if they actually wanted to.
“I’m defensive because a very large man is at my door, angry about a kid that I don’t have,” I said. “I’m thirty. There’s no way I could look this good and have a kid.”
That was a lie.
My sister looked phenomenal after having three children. And my sister-in-law could win a fuckin’ beauty pageant right now if she wanted to after having my niece.