Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
He had.
I’d programmed it in my phone.
I’d also almost texted the number a hundred thousand times while I was away this month.
But every single time, the negative thoughts came back in a rush.
I swallowed hard and looked away.
Those thoughts were back in a rush now.
“I…” I began, but slowly trailed off when the beauty in the sundress walked up to Sammy and put her hand on his arm.
“Sammy,” she said. “Are we meeting there? Or do you want me to ride with you?”
Sammy’s jaw stiffened as he looked at me, waiting for something.
And I realized that he was waiting for me to fight for him.
Or at least show that I was interested.
I looked at the girl, then back to him.
The girl was glaring at me.
Hard.
As if I was poaching where I wasn’t wanted.
“Addison, can you wait at your car for me? Give me a minute?” Sammy asked.
The girl walked away with a huff, and I realized then and there that I was a coward.
I needed to say something.
I should’ve said something a month ago.
I opened my mouth and words came pouring out.
“I…I…I…” I closed my eyes and grounded myself. I’d spent the last five weeks really trying to control my anxiety when it came to the man. “Pew, pew, pew.” I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. “Fuck.”
When I opened them again, it was to find him staring at me as if he wasn’t in a hurry.
“You scare the hell out of me,” I admitted. “And I couldn’t make myself open the door. No matter how hard I tried.”
Something in his shoulders softened.
“Addison is a buddy’s friend,” he said. “I’m catching a ride with her so I can go test drive a new bike.”
With that parting comment, he walked away, leaving me staring there after him.
Some of the tension in my chest released at his words.
Desperately, I tried to calm my heart rate down.
Since I thought he was letting me off quite easily, I chose to pick up my phone and text him right then and there, giving him my number, before I did anything else.
Except, the moment that I had it in my hand, it rang.
I sighed when I read the Caller ID.
“Hello?” I answered the phone.
“We’re going to the Back Porch Friday for lunch. Now that the Life 360 app says that you’re home, you can go, too,” my sister announced.
I grimaced.
Sometimes I really wished I hadn’t gone and gotten that app.
But, since I liked to travel a lot, and there were times that my signal wasn’t all that great where I went, I chose to allow my family the freedom to check up on me.
Only, they shouldn’t have even realized I was home unless my sister had the stupid notifications turned on that told them when I left and arrived.
“I was going to call you and tell you that I was home. Meet up.” I paused. “Friday is pretty busy for me.”
Friday being the day that I’d told myself I would go to the doctor despite the fact that I’d been too chicken shit to take the test yet.
“What time is the doctor?” she asked softly.
My sister and Suzanne had been the only two people that I’d told about my suspicions.
I’d tell my parents—and the man responsible for my probable condition—when I had confirmation and not a second before.
“Two,” I said.
“We can be done by then. We’ll just move the lunch up to eleven. That way if everyone wants to talk, they can talk, and we’ll still get there in time. Is this appointment in Longview or Kilgore?” she rattled.
My sister knew me too well.
“Longview,” I said softly. “I can’t do it here.”
She laughed. “I know what you mean. I wouldn’t do it here, either. Not with Aurora working at the only obstetrician’s office we have in town.”
Precisely why I wasn’t going to the doctor here. I had picked one in Longview. Hell, I would’ve picked one in fuckin’ Louisiana, but I didn’t want to have to drive that far every single time I went to the doctor.
“That’s perfect then,” she said. “We’ll act like we’re getting you groceries or something. Everyone knows that you avoid Walmart here.”
I did that, too.
There was only so much Walmart drama that I could handle.
Walmart drama being in the form of my most recent ex being the supreme manager there.
I say supreme manager because I thought it was redundant to call him a manager of the managers.
“That’s what I’ll do,” I said quietly. “Hey, do I have to shave my pubic area for a thing like this? I don’t know the protocol.”
She paused. “I could text Sierra.”
That was an immediate ‘hell no’ on my part in the form of, “Fuck that.”
Sierra, Aurora’s friend, just so happened to be a girl that Aurora had gone to nursing school with. Now, though they weren’t ‘best friends,’ they still kept in touch. Oh and did I mention that Sierra also happened to be Sierra Spurlock?