Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Walking up the steps to my bedroom, I close the door and silently giggle at them before I take off my robe. Grabbing my matching white lace bra and thong panty set, I slip on my long, flowy, pink-flowered skirt that lands down to my ankles before I put on a short white T-shirt that sits right at the waist of the skirt. I walk out of my bedroom to go to the bathroom and hear their voices. Closing the door behind me, I pull off the towel from my hair as I comb through it before putting spray in and fluffing it with my hands. I apply just a light coat of mascara, then make my way downstairs.
“Okay,” I say, seeing Oliver and Mom in exactly the same spot they were when I went upstairs, but now the television is on. “I’m going to head out.” I put on my flip-flops. “I won’t be late.” I stop beside my mother’s chair and bend to kiss her cheek. “Love you, Momma.”
“Have fun,” she replies. I look over at Oliver and nod. He returns the gesture.
“I’ll see you around?” I say, not sure if it’s a question or not.
“You will.” He smiles and then looks at my mother. “For sure.”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” I mumble at them before walking out and closing the door behind me. I hold my phone in my hand as I walk toward the bar. The sun is setting, and the stars are starting to twinkle in the sky. Walking down Main Street, I pass the diner that looks like it’s almost done with the dinner rush.
I hear music coming out of the bar, and when I turn the corner, I’m surprised to see it almost jam-packed. Except no one is here who I recognize. It’s all fresh new faces, which means no one will be gawking at me the whole time. I look around, seeing Autumn behind the bar with another bartender beside her. The two of them work on filling drinks as four servers work the floor.
I zigzag toward the bar and stop in my tracks when I see Charlie sitting on the stool in the corner of the bar. His eyes meet mine, and he smiles at me and gets up from his stool. My feet move on their own toward him. “Everleigh,” he says, then hugs me big, “it’s good to see you.” Once he lets go of me, I have to blink quickly to get the tears to go away.
“Charlie, I—” I shake my head. “It’s so good to see you here.” I look at him and then at Autumn, who has stopped doing what she is doing and is just staring at us.
“Autumn said you might be coming by.” He sits back down on his stool, and I pull out the stool beside him and sit down. “Thought I would…” He shrugs, and I look at him and then at Autumn. The last time I heard, he had shown up at her house, drunk off his ass, and told her he wished she was dead.
“Ignore him,” Autumn advises, putting down a coaster in front of me. “I told him not to come but”—she shakes her head—“he came instead of staying home with our child.”
“I’m sorry, what?” I slap the bar, and two things happen. One, her face pales, and two, Charlie about jumps out of his chair to step in front of her. I lift my hand right away. “No, no, I don’t.” I start to think of words. “It’s just a—” I put my hand on my head. “You two have a baby?” My eyes shuffle back from Autumn to Charlie, who looks at Autumn with a look of love I’ve never seen on his face before. A look that is returned by Autumn. “Landon is his?”
“He’s mine.” Charlie sits back down on his stool. “All twenty pounds of him,” he states proudly, picking up his bottle of beer and putting it to his lips, taking a pull.
“I just, I had no idea you two were together,” I reply, shocked.
“We got married two years ago,” Autumn explains, putting a glass in front of me with light amber liquid inside.
“This is wild.” My head is spinning. “I had no idea.”
“I thought for sure your mother would have mentioned something to you,” Charlie adds, and I just shake my head, looking down at the glass in front of me.
I turn the glass around in my hand before picking it up. “I didn’t really want to know what was going on in town.” I leave it open-ended, hoping they both get what I’m saying. My stomach aches from admitting it, but I push it aside and put a smile on my face. “To catching up”—I hold the glass up—“and healing old wounds.” I bring the glass to my lips as the stool beside me is pulled out, and someone sits down next to me. I feel his heat beside me as my heart catches in my throat. I look to the side, seeing him there. Brock. The man who shattered my heart and single-handedly buried all of my dreams in one single move. Holding the shovel in his own hands as he picked up the dirt and piled it on. His face covered with a little beard, like he hasn’t shaved in over a week, something he did all the time back then. His hair is even longer than it was the last time I saw him. A memory that I buried and refused to think about, until fucking now.