Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“Sounds rather sad. For both of them,” she said. “Are you still hungry?”
Not in the slightest.
“Not really.”
She reached for the box, which shifted her on my lap, placing her ass a little more fully over my cock, and pulled one of the to-go boxes a little closer.
She popped the box open, and the smell of bacon filled my nostrils.
She held up a piece of bacon, and I took it.
She slathered some butter on a biscuit, then smashed some bacon, a runny egg, and some of the cheese onto the biscuit and handed it to me in the box.
I took it, surprised that I’d never thought of the combination.
I took a bite, mostly out of curiosity, and found that it was fantastic.
“Oh,” I said. “This is good.”
She smiled and slipped off my lap, which I immediately didn’t like.
But she came back with a glass of orange juice out of my fridge for both of us.
She didn’t take her seat in my lap again, but she did grab the closest barstool and sit almost directly next to me.
She did the same with her own biscuit and happily munched away.
I finished mine and made another.
Only when I was done did I say, “I should probably call my family.”
She took a sip of her drink and said, “I’ll be right here.”
I called my brothers and sister in a group FaceTime call.
I called Harvey last, just to make sure he knew.
He had.
He’d also been sworn to secrecy.
Once I was done making the calls, I had Bernice stay upstairs to cue up our show and stepped down into the warehouse where I’d caught Katana stacking sacks of feed.
“Should you be lifting that?”
Katana froze.
“Why do you ask?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at me.
“One, because you’re three months pregnant.”
She fisted her hands on her hips and turned around to glare. “Who told you?”
“The question is, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I need to tell the dad first,” she grumbled. “I just…I’ve had a lot going on.”
She had.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the cancer?”
She scrubbed at her face.
“Because I felt stupid,” she admitted. “I missed my yearly appointment this year. I had other things on my mind. And the one time I miss it and don’t go…I end up missing the fact that I have cancer.”
“Busy with the baby’s father?” I wondered.
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Do you want me to tell him?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m going to do it. Eventually.”
“Eventually before you die?” I asked. “Because that’s what happens if you don’t get chemo.”
She looked down at her shoes. “I’m thinking about it.”
“Think about this,” I suggested. “If you get the chemo, your baby for sure lives. If you don’t, and you die before the baby is able to live without you, what about the baby’s father? He’ll lose both of you.”
“The baby’s father won’t care about me.” She paused. “I’m not even sure he’ll care about the baby.”
My brow lifted. “And you think you know what he’ll think based on…what?”
“Based on the evolution of man,” she grumbled. “But I’m going to tell him.”
Before I could ask her any more questions, the door from The Mercantile to the warehouse pushed open and Thumper came through.
He was holding a box full of something and walking toward me, his eyes on the box.
He was digging through it, his brows furrowed and stopped when he realized he wasn’t alone in the warehouse.
He blinked at the two of us.
Katana’s eyes were puffy and red, but no tears had slipped free.
I didn’t look much better, I was sure.
“Uhh.” He looked from me to Katana. “Everything okay?”
She nodded. “Fine. Gotta get back to work.”
He watched her go until she was back inside The Mercantile.
He kept watching the door until I said, “What’s up?”
He cleared his throat and looked back to me, his face a mask of blankness.
“Came by to get your approval on something,” he said as he showed me. “This is a camera. I want to put it inside the house. It’s not your regular camera, though. You put it low. Out of eyesight. It’s meant to be unobtrusive, really. Not recording faces but gaits. It protects the privacy of the house owner. You don’t see anything important. But the camera technology can decipher who it was in the house based on biometrics with the person’s gait. Picks up stride length, amount of time a foot stays on the floor during each step. All kinds of things that make a gait unique.”
“Inside the house.” I nodded. “Where would this go?”
“I was thinking the main living room. Right beside the front door so it’ll pick up the front and the back door at once.”
“Do it,” I urged.
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll get it in. I just need the code to her place.”
I gave him the code, and he left.
I went back to the apartment and found Bernice on the couch watching her phone.