Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“This is Edith.”
“Edith! I love it.” Kit took a solid three minutes to baby-talk and pet the clearly confused but intrigued Edith. A dog who likely only ever knew two people her entire life. Until a week ago. “We got a little fence set up for you, so your mom can throw you outside if she’s tripping over you. Trust me,” she said, looking up at Lolly. “The motorhome is plenty roomy enough for you guys. I mean, it was enough for two grown women. But even so, when you’re trying to cook or clean, even a small dog can get your blood pressure up.”
“Thanks so much for the fence. She’s never been off-leash, so I wouldn’t trust her like you do Ash.”
The dog in question had taken off to go sniff the tires of Lolly’s new crossover. With an emphasis on ‘new.’ Would a lightly used car have worked? Sure. But she was going to have a baby to worry about in under a year. She needed something safe and reliable.
I hadn’t even traded in Lolly’s clunker.
I’d driven that piece of crap right to the scrapyard to be crushed. Not necessarily because it was unsafe (it was), but because if there was any chance that Ben spotted her in the car, I wanted to make sure there were no traces of it anymore.
“Nox is hanging around here too. You can tell her apart from Ash because she has black fur around one of her eyes. Oh, and Ariah has two Anatolian Shepherds. Great Pyrenees and Anatolians are livestock guardian dogs. We could never leave them outside all night in the extreme weather—and we make sure our babies live predator-proof lives—but they definitely alert us if there are any predators around the property. Plus, big dogs with scary barks are always a good idea when you’re women living alone, y’know?”
“Edith will do her best to bite ankles if it comes to that,” Lolly said, making Kit smile.
“Where is Ariah?” I asked, glancing around.
“Putting the mantises in the fruit trees.”
“Come again?”
“The orchard is being attacked by caterpillars and beetles. Nothing is working. So we ordered mantises.”
“Mantises. As in praying?”
“Yeah. They’re carnivorous, so they will eat the pests but leave the trees and plants alone. It’s a win-win. And the orchard is far enough away from the milkweed field that they likely won’t get our monarchs.”
“They can be hard to follow sometimes,” I told Lolly.
“What’s hard to follow? Monarchs only eat milkweed. And they’re super endangered, so you don’t want the mantises to eat them.”
“See? I knew we were going to get along. Okay, I would offer to give you a tour of your new home, but it won’t be big enough for all three of us. So, why don’t you two check it out, then come meet me at my place for something to drink?”
With that, she handed Lolly the keys and wandered off.
“She’s really sweet.”
“Yeah, she is. Ria is too. Come on. Let’s check your new place out.”
“You’ve never been inside?”
“Nah. When I’ve been here, the girls put me to work—hard, manual labor work.”
“Did they build everything here?”
“They did.”
“They obviously needed the hands then. They’re lucky to have you.”
I pulled open the gate for her, and she set Edith down to sniff around as she unlocked the door.
“Oh, wow. It didn’t seem this roomy from the outside.”
It was far from roomy, but it was a workable space. Toward the front were the two bucket seats for driving. Directly behind that was a little living room space with a compact two-seater couch, followed by the kitchen with a small dining set for two. Behind that was the bathroom with a minuscule shower stall that made me feel claustrophobic just looking at it.
Then, at the back, sitting across from each other with only a tiny table between them, were the two beds.
You could still see the previous owners’ influences all around.
Kit’s bed was all black, as was the wall behind it.
Ariah’s bed was set in brighter, neutral shades with a brushed copper bed and pictures of her family and travels tacked to a material board above it.
“I figure that when the time comes, you can pull out one of the beds and put in a crib—at least until it is safe to move somewhere bigger.”
Lolly’s back was to me, staring at the back of her new home. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking until I heard one big hiccuping cry.
“Hey,” I said, my voice soft. “It’s going to be okay.” I reached out, touching her shoulder. “I know it’s not ideal, but it will—”
With another whimper, she turned and walked into my arms, crying against my chest, her hands grabbing the front of my shirt as I slid my arms around her.
“It’s going to be okay,” I told her, my lips against her hair.