Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 113270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
“Are you sure about that, Breeze?” Josie asks. “I mean, I know he’s never been much for serious, but we call the man hot for a reason. And he’s very nice. I can’t imagine him being…I don’t know, scummy? Like, it’ll be a shock. Just like it is to you. But finding out you’re having a baby is always a shock, isn’t it?” Her voice lulls me into a weirdly peaceful space. It’s so…ethereal. Happy. Hopeful. “Even if it’s the thing you’ve always wanted most in the entire world.”
Norah nods. “Of course. Another human? Made by you? It’s one of those ‘too big to be true’ things, but you’re way more prepared than you ever think you are because you have to be. And when you have to be, you just figure things out.”
Yeah.
When you have to figure things out, you do. It’s always but always been true for me, even when I’ve hated it. I am a woman who survives. A woman who thrives, whether the world helps her or not.
I have no choice but to handle this like I’ve always handled everything else.
Head on. Take charge.
I sure hope Tad sees it the same way.
35
Tad
Norah’s car pulls into the driveway at just after five p.m. and rocks to a stop in front of their garage. I watch like a fucking stalker around the side of the sheer white curtain in my kitchen window, holding my breath as Breezy climbs from the passenger side, slams the door, and rounds the trunk to a waiting Norah, whose extended arm settles on Breezy’s shoulder and ushers her inside.
I texted her earlier, a little after she and Norah left the Bishops’ house in a rush, but I never received anything back.
It goes without saying that hasn’t made me feel better about whatever is going on with her, but I’d be an asshole to hold it against her. She was more than gracious and patient and kind when I went twenty-four hours no contact not so long ago.
I don’t know what is going through Breezy’s mind right now. Is it the surprise appearance of her brother Logan that’s sent her into a mental tailspin? Is she sick with some kind of bad virus? Is it a combination of all those things?
I wish I fucking knew. I wish she’d let me in because I can’t shake the feeling that I want to be there for her in whatever capacity I can. Certainly not my usual MO, but I guess that’s what happens when you care about someone.
And I really care about Breezy.
You more than care about her.
I lean a little closer to the window—trying to grow supersonic hearing or something as the two exchange words on the front steps before heading inside—and end up bumping my forehead into the glass like an idiot.
“What are you doing?” Randy asks from behind me, startling the curtain free from my hand and back into place as I spin to face him.
“Nothing.” I smile nervously. “When’d you get inside?”
No one reads me like my brother—no one. We’ve been through every imaginable high and low together, and he’s the only one who knows everything about me. Still, after the hell I’ve put him through, admitting that I’ve become inconveniently obsessed with Breezy Bishop and even went to the length of hiring her on as a fake farmhand to create an excuse to have her around all the time feels like a betrayal.
“Five minutes ago.” Randy’s hands settle on his hips. “I finished fixing the gate lock Crosby got through like I said I would. And then I moved over to the hole in the fence on the south side, but when you never showed up with more ribbon like you said you would, I just MacGyvered what was there for now. Sheep’ll probably be out again in ten minutes, but can’t shit out hot wire, now can I?”
“Sorry.” I cringe, feeling a little bad for completely forgetting about him out there in the pasture. “It’s getting around dinnertime anyway. We can finish tomorrow.”
Randy shakes his head. “Fine. But I’m going to the diner for dinner, and if those fuckers get loose before I get back, I expect you to leave me out of it.”
“No problem.”
With a sigh as farewell, Randy pushes past me out the door and down the steps to his truck, firing it up and turning around to head for town while I peer out the window again. I watch for his taillights to disappear at the stop sign at the end of Maple and then head out the same door he just left through.
Instead of going to my truck, though, I cross the lawn on quick strides, cut through the gate, and make my way up Bennett and Norah’s driveway until I’m standing at their front door.
I knock twice with gentle knuckles, hoping not to scare anyone or wake a sleeping Autumn for the second time today, and I wait, arms at my sides and mouth filled with uninvited saliva.