Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“I’m trying to be okay with it. I believe Zale should do what he loves. If he needs to work for my hideous birth father, I’ll do my best to be supportive. I want to continue doing my jobs. I wouldn’t want him to tell me what I can or can’t do. On the other hand, I don’t want to be a single mother. I don’t have the first idea about raising children. If he wants to have them, he needs to be part of their lives, not an occasional father who comes and goes.”
That made sense to Shabina. She was the youngest of the women. The man she wanted was unattainable. Not only was he out of her reach, but he was older than her by over ten years. He thought of her as a child. More, after all she’d been through, she wasn’t certain she could be in a physical relationship with a man, although she was attracted to him. Like most things in her life she had no control over, she pushed thoughts of partnerships and children from her mind.
“That’s totally understandable,” Zahra said staunchly. “I’d be the same way. I think men should participate in raising their children.” She snuggled Misty closer to her. “And I don’t mean just discipline them.”
Harlow blew her a kiss. “Different generations were taught various things. Same with other countries and cultures. Hopefully, things are changing and we’re all evolving into better human beings.”
“I certainly saw evidence of that,” Shabina said. “There were so many people good to me. As parents, Salman Ahmad’s tribe all seemed to participate in raising the children. They treated them lovingly. The boys and girls were separated for education and a few other things, but they were treated with love by both the men and women in the tribe.”
“What were their religious beliefs?” Stella asked, curious.
“They followed the basic pillars of Islam. They were Muslim. They also followed the laws of the country. Women are subject to their fathers, brothers and husbands. In that tribe, it didn’t appear to be a hardship. The elders of the tribe and the women’s fathers appeared to have their best interests at heart. I was there a year and didn’t see a single woman beaten. I didn’t see a child struck.”
She missed them. Each of them. The men and women. It was strange because she loved her parents, but hadn’t spent nearly as much time one on one with them as she had with the female members of Ahmad’s tribe. They taught her so many things. She had always been curious, her brain active, and they encouraged her questions. They taught her practical and survival skills. Crafts. They taught her to play with the children. There seemed to always be laughter and singing.
When she was at home with her parents, her father was away at work, and her mother often traveled with him. She had a nanny and tutors. She and her mother shopped together, but her extracurricular activities and classes took up a great deal of her time. She lived in a loving home and didn’t lack for anything, but once she was with Ahmad’s tribe, Shabina realized she wanted to be the kind of parent who spent time with her child.
“What a difference it must have been to go from his tribe to being a real prisoner of a man like Scorpion,” Raine said.
Not just a difference. A shock.
Chapter Three
“This is crazy, Shabina,” Vaughn Miller said. “You’re going to have to hire more help. We can’t keep up. Every table is full both inside and outside and we have a line waiting.” He grinned at her, eyes bright with happiness.
Vaughn had first come to Knightly three years earlier to climb, camping out of a beat-up van, one of the many “dirt baggers” who lived to climb boulders and hike. Like quite a few others, he’d fallen in love with the small town and wanted to stay but needed to find a way to make enough money to rent one of the few coveted vacant places. The rentals went fast, and very few gave them up once they’d moved in.
He’d jumped at the chance of working for Shabina and her business had grown fast. She was great about sharing profits. The more money she made, the more she paid him. He was completely loyal to her and determined to help her any way he could. Together, they’d interviewed and hired one dishwasher, Nellie Frost; one waiter, Tyrone Michigan; and two waitresses, Patsy Daily and Chelsey Sarten. They were still swamped. Tyrone and Patsy were quickly moved up to head waitstaff, and Nellie became a waitress out of necessity. They all pitched in to do dishes.
Shabina sent Vaughn an answering smile. “We can’t fit in more tables and chairs, and even outside we don’t have room to expand. I don’t want to get any bigger. If we did, we’d lose the personal touch. This is as big as we’re going to get.”