Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
I did, curling onto a hip toward her.
She curled toward me.
“Hanging in there?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Just so you know, I told Big Petey there’s an Apple store essentially across the street. I also let slip you wanted a phone. Therefore, I think we both aren’t all that surprised he went right out to jump on his bike to go get you a phone. So, warning, it’ll probably have all the bells and whistles.”
Her face got soft and her lips curled up just a little.
“He’s a nice man,” she whispered.
I thought about everything I’d learned about Big Petey in our short acquaintance, particularly our conversation about my mom.
Then I responded with feeling, “Yes, he is.”
Her face changed when she noted, “Hugger’s nice too.”
Oh crap.
Did she notice?
Right, how could she not notice, we were cuddled up for two movies.
“Yeah, they all are,” I replied, going for blithe.
I knew I failed at blithe with what she said next.
“But I think you think he’s the nicest of all of them,” she stated, and it took me a second, but then I realized she might be teasing me.
Or it might be something else.
To be safe, I went with the something else.
“We were just sitting close together because there wasn’t a lot of room.”
It was then, Madison shocked the heck out of me when she laughed, just a little, and returned, “No you weren’t. I see how you look at him.”
Oh crap!
Was I that obvious?
Oh crap again, was that upsetting for her?
“Are we making you uncomfortable?”
She appeared to be thinking about that before she shrugged. “No. He’s nice and he’s all big and strong and tough, and you’re all pretty and soft and elegant. You wouldn’t normally put you two together, but it’s cute.”
I was surprised. Well, not the opposites attract part, that was obvious, another part.
“You think I’m elegant?”
“Well…yeah. You wear fancy shoes every day to work.”
Okay then. If that was the criteria, that certainly was me.
“It’s a little weird, with the timing and all that, but I like him, and he likes me. That said, we’ll try not to be—” I began.
“I crashed your life, Diana,” she said in a small voice. “Don’t let me get in the way of it.”
I inched just a little closer and replied softly, “You didn’t crash my life, Madison. I invited you here. Then I found out you’re awesome, and I’m really glad you trusted me to look after you.”
Her face scrunched, not like she was going to cry again, like she didn’t believe my words.
“I really am,” I asserted.
“I’m a pain in your behind.”
“You are not,” I stated firmly.
She gave me a look of such disbelief, I started laughing.
“Right, well, we haven’t exactly been tiptoeing through the tulips,” I allowed. “But still, I’m glad to know you and it means a lot to me you’re letting me help you out.”
She tipped her head to the side, her blue eyes got cloudy, and she whispered, “It happened to you too.”
I bent my neck so my face was closer to hers, and I whispered in return, “Not as bad, not even close, but yeah, honey. It happened to me too.”
She was still whispering when she said, “I’m sorry, Diana.”
“I’m sorry about you.”
“We girls, we gotta be sorry a lot, don’t we?”
This was a sad lesson of life, and I hated we both had to learn it.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We have to be strong a lot too, and strong comes in many ways, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to tax yours just a little bit more because I have one more tough thing to give you before we let it go and try to enjoy the rest of our Sunday.”
“Di—”
I did it fast so it would be over.
“Detective Scott talked to your parents. He says they were wild with relief to hear you’re okay and they want to talk to you.”
That was a mini lie.
He didn’t use the words “wild with relief,” those were mine. He also said her mother burst into tears and her dad had to end the first call and phone back, because he was choking up too.
I wasn’t going to tell her that, though.
The other thing that made my statement a mini lie was they did want to talk to her, but they also wanted to see her, and they were so intent on doing that, they reported to Detective Scott they’d be on the first flight to Phoenix.
But we’d deal with that tomorrow.
She shook her head and inched back. “I’m not ready for that.”
As I’d guessed.
“I told him that was probably your response. I just want you to know what’s going on.” Or most of it.
“Okay,” she muttered.
“Okay,” I said. “Now, you wanna come out and maybe have some lunch?”
“I’ve been crying so much and doing that always takes it out of me. I think I need to doze for a little bit.”