Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“Is this a friend of yours?” Courtney asks, leaning on the top of the desk on her elbows. “I’m Courtney.” She puts her hand up to say hello.
I wait a couple of seconds to see if Lucy is going to say anything, and when she doesn’t, I just tell Courtney her name. “This is Lucy, Emmett’s daughter,” I say, and her eyes go big. Yes, she knows everything about me, including the fact I’ve stupidly and ridiculously gone and fallen in love with the last man on earth I should be in love with.
Moving out of my chair, I look over at Lucy. “Let’s go find your dad,” I relay, and I see she isn’t too thrilled about this. I hold out my hand for her to hold, and she does. “I’ll be back,” I tell Courtney as I walk with her to the barn, finding Charlie and Emmett talking about something. It’s just the two of them since the day shift finishes at three, and the evening shift comes in at six to ten. “Hey, I’m going to head out,” I announce, putting my hand on Lucy’s shoulder in front of me. “Didn’t want to leave her alone.”
“Shit,” Emmett swears. “I’m sorry I didn’t come and check on her. We just got back.” He looks at Lucy. “Were you good?” Lucy just nods. “Did you have any donuts?” She looks at me with her eyes big.
“It was one bite, and it was an afternoon sweet treat.” I throw my free hand up. “I didn’t have anything else,” I lie to him, and he knows it.
“Say thank you to Lilah for watching you,” he urges Lucy.
“Thank you, Lilah,” Lucy says, and I don’t know who is more happy to hear her talking, Emmett or myself.
“I’ll see you tomorrow”—I squeeze her shoulder softly, wishing I could give her a hug—“bright and early so we can wake up the horses.” I wave at her and walk out, finding Courtney on her phone texting away.
“I’m done.” I grab my purse from under my desk. “We can go.”
“Finally,” she says, tucking her phone away. I get in the car with her, and we make our way over to Thatcher’s.
Walking in and spotting an empty table along the side, we walk over and sit down. The server comes over right away, and I order a blend on the rocks, while Courtney orders one neat. “So what’s new?” she asks, leaning back in her chair.
“Derek tried to message me today.” I take my phone out of my pocket and slide it across the table toward Courtney, who sits up straight.
“Shut the fuck up,” she says, grabbing my phone, and I shake my head, my body feeling weird.
“Came in as a notification that he was trying to get in touch with me.” I watch her do whatever on my phone. I hear her gasp. “What does it say?”
“He’s lost his damn fucking mind,” she hisses but stops talking when the server puts our drinks in front of us.
I bring my drink up. “That was not on my bingo card for today.” I take a sip, and the cool amber liquid burns on its way down. Putting the glass down softly, I look at her. “What does it say?”
“I’m not repeating anything he says.” She picks up her glass. “Not a fucking word.”
I grab the phone, my hands shaking as I see his picture in the small circle, the face I’ve buried so long ago. The face that has stolen my dreams, not all of them, but different dreams.
Derek: Hi, Lilah, I know the last person you were expecting to hear from was me. It’s taken me a while to find the courage to reach out to you. I was wondering if you would be willing to sit down with me and talk. There are some things that have to be said. You can get in touch with me here, or my phone number has never changed. I hope to hear from you soon.
I laugh, putting down the phone. “His phone number has never changed.”
“I wonder if it’s because one eight hundred I’m a fucking psycho was taken?” Courtney says, and I can’t help but throw my head back and laugh. Which is more than I thought I would feel when my almost murderer contacts me.
I shake my head, delete the message, and block him. “Out of sight, out of mind,” I say. “He doesn’t get another minute of my time.”
“Fuck that guy,” she declares, taking another sip of her whiskey. “In other news…” I smile, thinking she’s going to tell me she and Benny are getting engaged. The two of them have been together for the past four years, and I know it’s a matter of time. “Benny and I have decided to part ways.”
My mouth opens in shock. “I’m sorry, what?”