Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“Even if I poop my pants?” she asked with mock seriousness.
“Please don’t.”
Esther laughed and dropped her head against my chest. After a moment, she popped back up again. “What is your favorite color?”
“Blue.”
“I got it right,” she said happily, letting out a sigh.
“So smart,” I murmured, leaning down to kiss her.
Chapter 11
Esther
The bed in Heather and Tommy’s guest room was soft and comfortable, but I spent the night tossing and turning anyway. After the house had quieted and Otto had left for the night, anxiety had settled around my shoulders like a cloak. While his mom and the rest of the ladies had taken me all over town, it had been impossible to focus on anything but shopping for wedding supplies, but once the day was over all of my fears had come back to the surface.
I was willing to marry Otto. I even cautiously looked forward to it. But I couldn’t help but remember my mom once mentioning that she’d married my dad because she wanted a home of her own. Was I doing the same thing? Probably. No, not probably. I was. I was using Otto, and we both knew it. He was my chance at security for me and the baby.
He’d been so sweet about it, though. I couldn’t understand. He didn’t have to marry me. A lot of men wouldn’t have. Just because we were having a baby didn’t mean that he had to tie himself to me for life.
I stuffed bobby pins into my hair and stared at myself in the Hawthorne’s bathroom mirror.
I hadn’t shown Otto everything we’d bought the day before. While we’d spent a lot of our time shopping for wedding supplies, the women had also been insistent on getting me some new clothes. That was actually where most of Otto’s cash had gone because his mom had insisted on paying for most of the wedding supplies, including my dress.
I’d balked at the idea of spending Otto’s money on clothes for myself, but the expressions on my companions’ faces had quickly changed my mind. It hadn’t been quite embarrassment or pity, but fit somewhere between the two emotions. After deciding that I really didn’t want Otto to look at me that way, the ladies had been like an invading army in the stores, dividing and conquering the different racks to pick out things for me to try on. I’d ended up hiding some of the things they’d picked at the bottom of the piles of clothes they brought to the fitting rooms—I wasn’t comfortable wearing jeans, no matter how loose they fit—but they’d also grabbed a lot of things they knew I’d be comfortable in.
I was currently wearing one of those things, a plum-colored sweater dress that hit just below my knees. It was snugger around the bodice than I was used to, but it flowed softly over my belly which I liked. Heather had found some maternity tights in one of the small shops we’d stopped in and they were so comfortable that I could’ve cried. No more waistband digging in, they pulled all the way up over my small belly.
I’d put my foot down, literally and figuratively when we’d made our way to the shoe section and only come home with three new pairs—short brown ankle boots, black flats, and short-heeled white pumps with a pointy toe for the wedding that Otto’s cousin Charlie had described as vintage looking and very cool.
“Esther!” Heather called from somewhere in the house. “Otto’s here!”
Taking a deep breath, I opened the bathroom door and headed toward the entryway. Spending the day with Otto made me nervous and jittery even though I’d seen him less than twelve hours before as he’d kissed me goodnight. There was something about him that made every electrical impulse in my body fire up like lightning in a storm. I’d felt it that night in the woods, and again, to a lesser degree when he’d shown up at the cabin and while we were at the clubhouse, but it seemed to grow even stronger the longer I was in his presence.
Chemistry. That indefinable thing that I’d never really understood before. We had it. I just hoped it would be enough to get us to the next part. The real marriage part.
“Damn,” Otto murmured, smiling as I came into the room. “New dress?”
“I used the cash you gave me,” I blurted, smoothing the dress down for the thousandth time since I’d put it on.
“Money well spent.” He looked me up and down. “You ready to head out?”
“I put your purse on the table by the door,” Heather called from the kitchen. “Have fun, kids!”
“I’m ready,” I replied, fumbling for the purse.
“You got a coat?”
I paused, the purse strap halfway up my shoulder. It was the one thing none of us had thought to buy the day before, and I hated the idea of putting my old ratty jacket over my beautiful new dress.