Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
But we found nothing.
I’d just about given up hope—because goddamn, didn’t it figure that Pops’s truck was empty and no gas stations were open—when a sign for Circus House caught my eye.
It was a huge billboard that declared Circus House—formerly Singh Circus—was open.
Which had me thinking about Val and her words.
The circus must go on.
She’d said that so many times to me that I couldn’t count them.
And that’s when the idea hit me.
I’d go to her and ask for a place for Pops to stay.
She’d do it, too.
She would overlook my assholeness to help out my pops.
Pulling up my phone, I sent a text to her and got no reply.
Either she’d changed her phone number, or she’d ignored my call.
Either way, I wasn’t too sure by the time I arrived at the circus.
The gates were fully closed down, but there was a man at the gate who was in the guard shack munching away on an apple.
When he saw me, I instantly recognized him as the man from the hospital earlier who’d been hugging Val.
She’d looked so happy to be in his arms that I was sick after I’d turned away from the windows.
The rest of the day, I’d done nothing but replay the look of content on her face as she’d hugged him.
Which was likely why I’d taken the call from my uncle so poorly.
I’d already been in a terrible mood.
“What can I do for ya?” the large man asked, his pearly white teeth shining brightly against his black skin.
He was handsome.
I was man enough to admit it.
“Can you tell me if Val is here?” I asked, voice raw.
I didn’t know whether it was due to the cold or the way he’d made Val smile earlier.
Either way, I didn’t like it that my voice broke.
“She sure is,” the man turned his head to look at a monitor. “Do you want me to call her for you?”
I nodded. “If you don’t mind.”
He grinned and picked up the phone, saying something quietly into the receiver before nodding at whatever he’d heard.
After hanging up, he flashed me a smile. “She vouched for you. Head on through. You can pull into the garage on the far west side.”
I thanked him profusely, then headed toward the parking garage.
“This is your Valhalla?”
I looked over at Pops, who’d muttered those words into the silence, and said, “Yeah.”
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
Pops knew everything there was to know about Val.
He knew all about our relationship, and how she’d left me.
Pops had never hated her for leaving, he’d actually been the one to point out that sometimes family was complicated, and we had to do our best with what we’d been given.
However, I knew he was still wary of her.
Val had hurt me by cutting me off so completely, and that wasn’t something Pops took lightly.
“I’m not that cold,” Pops said.
“We’re about to run out of fuel,” I said. “And there’s no way in hell that I’m not going to find a way to keep you warm, even if it is by begging my ex-girlfriend who hates me to house you.”
Pops didn’t say anything after that.
In fact, he was quiet all the way until I parked the truck and got out.
Then he saw Val.
He whistled, causing me to look in the direction his face was pointed.
I spotted Val, and my heart did that stupid stutter step it always did when she showed.
As I got out, Gee followed suit, and nearly took me out at the ankles as he did.
Val, spotting Gee coming, grinned and dropped down to her haunches to greet him.
When he’d been living with Pops, Gee hadn’t been a huge part of my life. But I’d taken Val to meet my pops and Gee a few times, so when she saw both with me, I knew that she’d welcome them.
Me, however? That was a completely different story.
“Hey,” I said as I watched Val sift her fingers through Gee’s soft fur.
Gee was a Cocker Spaniel-Weenie dog mix and was about as cute as a dog could get.
He was hard not to love, and he’d apparently not forgotten Val at all.
“Hey,” she frowned. “What’s going on?”
“We’re out of power,” I admitted. “And we were going to try to stick it out at home, but Pops is too cold. We tried to find a few shelters but they were pretty full.”
“Oh,” she frowned. “Come in.”
I looked up to find Pops getting out of the car with his blankets.
I rushed over to help him, and when I turned around it was to find Val looping her arms through Pops’s and herding him toward the metal door.
I followed, listening to them catch up.
We passed a few open office doors, and I could hear talking and laughing coming from a little farther down the long hallway we were in, but before we’d gotten to the group, Val turned right toward another hallway that had one single closed door at the end of it.