Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Malachi smirked her way. “If I make you tea, she’s going to want you to have a splash of rum in it because she can’t. Your call.”
Delaney’s brow lifted high at the news. “Eh, I’ll try it.”
Anything was worth a shot once.
Right?
Once inside, Delaney understood the reason for the loud patter overhead when Gracen jogged down the stairs with loud footsteps. Never once had her ranting stopped, although, it only became clear when her feet finally touched the bottom level.
“I’ve called you ten times! Your damn voicemail is full! I was worried sick, Delaney!”
“Babe, there’s somebody else—”
Gracen didn’t hear Malachi’s warning at all, zooming into the entry with arms open to barrel rush Delaney into a hug the second her friend’s eyes landed on her. Delaney barely had time to brace for the impact, or even appreciate how cute her friend looked in a baggy crochet sweater and winter-themed leggings, and every bit of air rushed out of her chest when Gracen tightened her arms around her like bars and squeezed impossibly tight.
“Bexley called—so worried,” Gracen muttered into Delaney’s neck. “That was crazy! What the hell were you thinking running off with some random guy like that?”
“Well,” she tried to say.
Gracen let her go, but not far. Her hands stayed fixed on Delaney’s shoulders as she separated them apart just enough for the two to stare at one another. She couldn’t help the guilt that gnawed on her heart at the genuine concern in Gracen’s blue eyes.
“Well, what?” Gracen asked.
Then, she seemed to realize she had another visitor.
Lucas, still lingering close to the front door, waved two fingers high when Delaney followed Gracen’s gaze over her shoulder.
“Oh,” her friend said awkwardly. “Um, hello.”
To his benefit, Lucas grinned. “Hi. I’m the random guy.”
*
Gracen managed to make it fifteen entire minutes before she pulled Delaney out of the homey, primitively decorated kitchen with a promise of showing her the work she and Malachi had done to what would be the baby’s room. Delaney thought it might be a little early to do those sorts of things—setting up the nursery—but it wasn’t her pregnancy or baby, so she trailed alongside her friend in silence up to the second floor.
With their arms hooked together, Gracen made sure the two of them stayed locked tight together so Delaney couldn’t return to the man she’d left behind in the kitchen.
“Malachi better—”
“Better what?” Gracen interrupted.
Dammit.
“You know what,” Delaney tried to warn.
Her friend only cackled.
It helped Delaney—in a way she didn’t really understand—to see Gracen smiling and happy. The scant amount of times the two women had been able to enjoy one another’s company since Delaney’s move to the city were far and few between. She didn’t always trust that Gracen’s photos, pretty with filters, and always featuring a smile, were true.
Honestly, it wasn’t about Gracen.
Delaney just missed her best friend.
“This is good,” Delaney noted before taking another sip of the orange pekoe tea flavored with enough rum that one could smell it in the steam rising from the mug. “Better than I thought it would be, anyway.”
“Tell me about it.” Gracen shot Delaney, and the mug at her lips, a look that screamed jealousy. “You have no idea how much I miss it every night. Here I was, just trying to do something that made me think of Mimi, and what’d I get?”
“A habit?”
Gracen laughed hard again. “Well, it’s not that bad, but I miss it. A lot more than I thought I would, I guess.”
Delaney untangled their arms so that she could wrap hers around Gracen’s side for a one-armed hug. Plus, a little pat to her friend’s not-so-round midsection. If someone didn’t know about the pregnancy, they definitely wouldn’t be able to tell upon first glance. Gracen had yet to start showing.
“But you’re getting something amazing out of it,” Delaney said. “So, is it worth it?”
“Mostly. This puking shit is for the birds, though.”
That sounded like something Gracen’s grandmother would say for sure.
“How is Mimi?” Delaney asked.
“Good …” Gracen let out a sigh and shrugged as the two came to stand in front of a closed door that belonged to one of the two smaller bedrooms upstairs. “Well, the Alzheimer’s is more apparent, but she’s still there more often than she isn’t.”
“They call it the long goodbye for a reason.”
“Yeah, it’s hard, but …” Gracen trailed off with a shrug.
Delaney peered back down the short hallway where a waist-high gate had been installed at the top of the stairs but remained open for people to pass freely. Another one had been put in at the bottom. She knew for a fact that Gracen wasn’t that far ahead of the baby game when it came to getting things ready, and her friend and Malachi didn’t have animals that would need gates to keep them from going up or down the stairs.