Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
I made okay money. I was very good at what I did. I loved my job and the people I worked with (and for) and brought home zero stress, which was as good as a trunk full of gold. Especially in the life I’d lived with my parents (a life Braydon knew all about, he’d even met them), and then after Jeff started having symptoms, and got diagnosed, where every day was stress, until I struck out on my own and finally found SC.
But I’d still been heartbroken at Braydon’s personality betrayal.
Now, I could see how huge a bullet I’d dodged.
Braydon could hold hands, sure.
But if he was in this situation, he’d be urging me to calm down or telling me I was overreacting.
Wait.
No.
He wouldn’t rush to shave and dress so I didn’t drive when I was fretting and my mind was messed up.
He’d say, “Let me know how it goes,” and turn on the NFL pregame.
On these thoughts, I tightened my fingers around Eric’s and said, “Thank you for driving me.”
His response was to lift my hand and touch his lips to my fingers.
Totally dodged a bullet.
He swung into the Oasis lot and parked in my spot.
We hit the courtyard to see my fellow tenants Patsy, Shanti, Bill and Zach putting up holiday decorations.
Shanti, by the by, was a new addition to The Surf Club. When Tito started sniffing around that he needed extra help during the final shift, Raye recruited her. She worked the evenings. She was around the age of my posse, and I’d been meaning to connect with her to get to know her better, because, from what I already knew, she was the shit.
“Heya, Jess!” Patsy called.
Shanti had straightened from organizing fake evergreen boughs, and she was staring at Eric.
Zach was organizing red bows at the outdoor table while his partner, Bill, was in a corner of the courtyard arranging massive Christmas baubles that came up to his waist that were red and green plaid.
They’d also stopped doing what they were doing and were staring at Eric.
It was rude, but I didn’t stop to introduce them to Eric.
And it told you where my head was at that I also didn’t stop and ask where the hell they stored all that shit. We all had small storage units that came with our apartments. But no way in hell those baubles would fit in one, much less that humongous pile of boughs.
We were again holding hands, and I was tugging Eric toward the stairs to Luna’s place, when I called back, “Hey, guys.”
We made it to Luna’s door, and I only got one knock in, my hand raised to keep doing it, when the door was pulled open by Harlow.
“Oh my God!” she cried. “Get in here!”
She then tugged my free hand, and I was in there.
Since Eric was attached to me, he was in too.
“Oh, uh…hey there, Eric,” she greeted timidly.
“Hey, Harlow,” he replied.
Luna’s pad was a study of Urban Outfitters with CB2 and West Elm thrown in. She had much the same UO design aesthetic as Raye, but Raye’s coordinating stores were Anthropologie and Z Gallerie.
And now, shoved into her pad were Luna, Harlow, Raye, along with Cap, and oddly, Knox (Cap and Knox’s inclusion didn’t give me warm fuzzies), me and Eric.
It was a lot of people for not a lot of space.
More, there was Jacques, Luna’s French bulldog, who usually adored me.
But he was sitting on Cap’s lap when we arrived, and he jumped off and made a bee-line not to me, but to Eric.
I watched Eric pick him up, and I watched Eric scratch his ears as Jacques bathed Eric’s freshly shaved jaw with his tongue.
Now I was jealous of a dog.
“Sit down.” Luna took me out of my covetous thoughts by shoving me in a deco-inspired, russet velvet tufted swivel chair.
“She didn’t finish her coffee,” Eric murmured to Luna, but his gaze was shifting from Knox to Cap.
Oh yeah.
He didn’t have warm fuzzies either.
Though, a weak one fluttered in me that he noticed I didn’t finish my coffee.
“Got it,” Raye jumped up.
“You guys are freaking me out,” I informed them.
“We got confirmation on this intel too,” Cap told Eric.
“What intel?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, what intel?” I demanded.
“Hurry up with that coffee,” Luna ordered.
“Coming, coming,” Raye called from the kitchen.
“Just tell me!” I almost shouted.
Cap sat in Luna’s mod curve, yellow couch at the end closest to me. He angled his body my way and leaned his elbows into his knees.
With his posture, still no warm fuzzies.
“Okay, Jess, there’s some shit going down in a few of the homeless camps.”
Oh God.
Oh no.
“What kind of shit?”
“People going missing,” Cap said.
Oh God!
Oh no!
“I…” I didn’t even know what to ask.
“And they’re not going into shelters or other facilities. They’re just…disappearing,” Cap went on.
Raye shoved a mug of coffee at me. I took it and looked up at her.