Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 94921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“Huh?”
“Cut myself is all.” It was on a cardboard box. She looked down at her finger to see a small cut, but the blood had stopped.
“And how do you go from cutting yourself to vampires?” Ava asked.
“Blood. You know the sustenance of our undead best friends.”
“I wonder at times.”
Harlow laughed. Hearing Ava say stuff like that was funny, now if it came from her mother, that would be a whole other story. Thinking about her mother would risk putting her in a bad mood, and she didn’t want to be upset so she quickly cut those thoughts from her mind.
She looked over toward Ava who pressed the back of her hand against her mouth as if she couldn’t quite handle the potential sickness.
“Are you still feeling queasy after eating Abriana’s pumpkin pie?” Harlow asked. She felt herself feeling sick just at the thought. For Christmas, she’d been invited to hang out at the Hell’s Bastards MC clubhouse, provided she helped Smokey set up the perfect Christmas for Ava.
Everything was going smoothly, apart from the whole Hunter-being-a-dick problem, but she could handle dickless assholes, even ones that were not her six brothers. No, what started to make everything fall apart was Ava being convinced she and Smokey were having an affair. Ew, gross.
She did not think of Smokey in a sexual way. She knew there were a lot of women who would do anything to get with Smokey. However, she knew for a fact that after Smokey’s ginormous fuck-up the first time around—not that she knows a lot about it—he’d never do that to Ava. That guy loved her. There was no denying it.
Glancing over at her best friend, she saw Ava’s eyes were closed.
“If you could just give me a moment,” Ava said. She stepped away from the counter and quickly disappeared into the bathroom.
The front of Ava’s Bakery was unmanned, and her boss was currently throwing her guts up. They ate the pie a week ago. It was now the new year, and she didn’t understand how her friend could still be feeling ill. Glancing through the door, she saw there was no customers and there didn’t seem to be anyone waiting to come into the bakery. She rushed toward the bathroom, swung open the door, and then tried to help Ava the best way she could.
The smell was gross, no doubt about it. Swooping up the woman’s hair, she held it out of the way, and tried to help without causing more trouble. She was so close to throwing up herself. Harlow gritted her teeth and rubbed at the woman’s back.
“It’s okay. I promise you, it’s going to be okay.” She had no idea what she was saying, but it felt like the right thing. “I won’t tell Abriana, but I tell you what, with how bad her pie has affected us, it does make me wonder, how is Ugly Beast not, like, super thin? Is he eating someone else’s pie, and I don’t mean that to be cruel.”
Ava pulled away, dropped the toilet lid, and then reached up to flush. Harlow still held onto her hair.
“It’s okay, Harlow. It’s fine.”
“If it’s not the pie, then what could it be? Are you ill? Sick? I don’t know what to do. Should I call Smokey? He gave me his number and told me not to fucking bother him, but you’re like his wife, and you know, I think he would want to know if you’re sick. Maybe I should call you an ambulance!”
“Stop,” Ava said, and laughed. “It’s fine. It is all fine. If you just give me a minute, everything will be fine.” She sat on the floor but had moved to lean up against the wall. “Will you go and keep an eye on the main counter? I don’t want anyone to think they can come and steal our cream buns.”
Harlow looked back toward the main counter. She hadn’t heard anyone come through the main door, but then she wasn’t paying much attention to it, because she was more focused on her bestie and not allowing anything bad to happen to her. If something hurt Ava, it didn’t matter that her brother was part of the MC club, that would be a certain death sentence. Smokey would kill her. She would want to kill herself but that didn’t matter.
“I’m fine, Harlow. Really, I just need a moment.”
Harlow wanted to argue, but she heard the doorbell ring, which alerted her to someone entering the shop. She had no choice but to go and do what her boss was telling her, even though it was the last thing she wanted.
Stepping toward the counter, she had every intention of upsetting the customer, only to find a mother and young daughter. The small girl had her hands pressed against the glass, and she looked inside at all the bake treats as if they were some kind of miracle. There was no way she was going to be rude to this woman, or upset that little girl.