Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Her feet were tangled with mine, but her body was rolled and twisted sideways, giving me a nice view of her ass.
“Thanks,” she murmured huskily. “Hello?”
Barely a few second into the conversation, Tally tensed.
“No, I cannot come and get you, Hadley. Tallulah’s sick and has been throwing up all night. She’s exhausted, and I can’t take her out to come pick you up,” Tally’s tired voice sounded. “Have you tried Elba?”
Hadley screamed something at Tally through the phone, and I distinctly heard the word ‘bitch’ before I took the phone from her grasp and hung up on her screeching.
Turning it on silent, and ignoring Hadley’s return call, all the while under the watchful eye of Tally.
“Nothing to say?” I asked her carefully.
She shook her head.
“It’s time,” she murmured. “I’m tired of hearing how I never put her first.”
I clenched my teeth.
“Putting your daughter first isn’t selfish, and I don’t want you to think that it is.”
She shrugged. “I know.”
I studied her carefully, then nodded, reaching over to turn out the lamp I hadn’t even realized that I flipped on.
“Good,” I grumbled. “Now, let’s get some sleep before we have to go meet my mom and sisters for breakfast…you’re going to want your wits about you when you do.”
She curled her body into mine, and I opened my arms to pull her closer by wrapping them around her lower back.
“Are they going to like me?” she asked worriedly.
I rolled and pinned her underneath me.
“I like you, that’s what matters,” I informed her. “They’ll come around, or I won’t be spending any more time with them.”
She stared at me with such concentration that it caused me to nearly smile.
Nearly.
I could tell she was wondering the same thing about me. If her parents didn’t like me, would she be able to ask them to stop coming around?
“I won’t ever force you to make that choice,” I told her, reading her thoughts before she could voice to them. “I promise.”
Her smile was small, but she didn’t disagree or agree.
“G’night,” she murmured softly.
I pressed my lips to her forehead before I rolled back over and laid my head down on my pillow, my eyes closing in contentment.
The woman that I was falling hard for was in my arms.
What more could I ask for?
***
“See, that’s the problem with Tommy,” Ellen said. “He would never be a good debater.”
“Why?” Tally asked. “He’s good at arguing with me!”
Ellen gave Tally an ‘aren’t you so cute’ look.
“Masturbator, yes, he was the freakin’ King of Masturbation. But a debater…no. Why? Because he starts every argument he’s ever had with anybody but you, I’m sure, with ‘now listen here, motherfucker.’”
I snorted, covering my face up with my fist that was still holding my beer.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Ellen,” I grumbled. “Where the hell do you get this stuff? And how much have you had to drink?”
Ellen’s face was lit with humor.
“I’ve been drinking since this morning when you brought Tally to meet our mother. I haven’t stopped since.”
“That sounds like him,” Seanshine agreed, ignoring Ellen.
“Why are you even here?” I asked him curiously.
He shrugged. “I was invited.”
My browns rose. “You were?”
“Yes, he was,” Ellen broke in. “Now shut up. It’s my birthday. You have to do what I say.”
Tally went to pick up Tallulah when she saw her creeping closer to Adrienne, and my sister’s words stopped her.
“Don’t worry about trying to keep Tallulah away from Adrienne. She’s been exposed to the stomach bug all week thanks to her entire freakin’ day care dropping like flies with it,” Alexandria murmured, breaking into our sister’s drunken musings.
“That was the same thing that happened at mine, although Tallulah was one of the first ones to get it,” she sighed. “And one of the lasts. I’m so tired of cleaning up puke.”
I agreed.
Though, Tallulah hadn’t thrown up since I’d given her a dose of anti-nausea meds over eight hours before.
“Girl, don’t I know it,” she grinned. “So my brother here tells me that you’re going to school to become a nurse?”
Tally nodded.
“Almost there. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Alexandria grinned, “I’m going for my bachelors of nursing right now. I started out as an LVN twelve years ago, and then went on to get my associates in nursing. Now I’m back at it for my BSN,” she sighed. “I should’ve just done it this way in the first place.”
“That was definitely one of the thoughts I had when deciding what college to go to,” Tally nodded her head in commiseration. “I first thought I’d go ahead and get my associates, but I’d already gotten my associates in art by the time I’d graduated high school thanks to dual credit classes. It made more sense for me to get my BSN.”
She nodded, and the two of them started babbling about how hard it was to pursue their degrees with kids.