Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“I would never have assumed anything so––”
“The important part here is to know that I can leave and come back when you’re not working, and your commission will be nothing if you continue to try and talk down to me using endearments that I’ve now informed you I do not like.”
He looked at her, then me, then back to her. “I apologize. Let me show you the car.”
“Thank you,” she said sweetly, taking my arm so we could follow him.
It was toward the back, and when he opened the door, Hannah made a face.
“Problem?”
“For starters, it smells like cigarettes,” she told him. “You can’t smell that?”
He leaned in, and there was surprise on his face.
“And this isn’t the Touring one,” she said, taking out her phone. “I see no leather in there at all. The one I want has––” She swiped at her screen and then smiled, finding what she was after. “––the upgraded audio system with navigation, a wireless phone charger, and a heated leather-wrapped steering wheel and rain-sensing wipers, which sound fab. Also, there’s the hands-free power tailgate that I’m really excited about.”
Dan turned slowly to me.
I coughed softly. “I’m sure it’s easy to get the cars confused. But might we please go see the exact one she wants now?”
He forced a smile for me.
I had to give it to her. It was a nice car. I wasn’t sure her father was going to fit in the front seat, but we usually took his monster car when we were all together, so that was fine. But she checked all the features, crawled in the back, examined everything, informed Dan that there were no floor mats in the car and she wanted those immediately.
She wanted it to be just her and Dan on the test drive, so I waited in the showroom. Everyone on staff, as far as I could tell, came by to ask if they could help me with anything. As I was sitting, I got a call from my husband.
“Where are you?”
I sighed deeply.
“What?”
“Use the app on your phone, dear.”
“Which one?”
“The one that says Find My, it’s an abbreviation for––”
“Oh, I see.”
He was adorable.
“Why are you there?”
“Hannah’s buying her car today.”
“Oh that’s right,” he said with a yawn. “Where is she?”
“On the test drive. I’m just waiting here because she wanted to go by herself.”
He chuckled. “Of course she did.”
“We had Jake drop us off. That’s how confident she was that we were driving her new car off this lot.”
“Okay.”
“And as soon as we’re done, we’re meeting your parents at Maple & Ash for your birthday dinner.”
He groaned. “That’s today?”
“It is, which is why I have a suit on at the moment and Hannah looks like a million dollars in her red dress with the strappy heels.”
“You don’t have a tie on, do you?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“But you have to bring the boys, all three of them, and meet us there at seven.”
“My father agreed to eat at seven?”
I scoffed. “For Hannah? Are you kidding?”
“I know she wants to treat, but tell her no. It’s gonna be a million dollars.”
“How do you know? You’ve never been.”
“Yeah, but she always picks places that she’s been with Aaron, so I know.”
“Just let her do it if she wants to do it and don’t be you.”
“Pardon me?”
“You know what I mean. Your daughter wants to treat, let her treat. She’s not a child, she’s a woman. Believe her when she tells you she can do something.”
He groaned in my ear.
“Were you going for sexy, because that ain’t it.”
I got a grunt next.
“Seven, my love, don’t be late,” I said and saw the car coming back and then I could hear it as well.
“Oh,” Sam said, chuckling. “I hear Dua Lipa, your daughter has arrived.”
“Imagine how loud it has to be for you to hear it through my phone and for me to catch it through the closed glass doors of the showroom.”
He was laughing when he said he loved me and hung up.
I walked outside, and the music was off by then. Dan looked a bit worse for wear but okay for the most part. He might have aged just a bit.
Once Hannah was ready to buy the car, and we were in his office at his desk, Hannah passed him her debit card.
“Sweet––” He stopped himself. “I don’t think the bank will let you pull the amount of the car out of your––”
“They will,” she assured him. “I called them this morning to let them know what was happening, so they’re ready.”
He glanced at me.
“Or I can give you this,” she said, passing him her American Express Centurion Card, or her Amex Black Card as she called it. That one had her name on it, but it was tied to Aaron’s account. “I can put it on that and then transfer the money to Uncle Aaron,” she told me so I’d know what was going on.