Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 61468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Of course, I was frantic when he went missing and didn’t return any of my calls or texts. I called every hospital in the area, looking for him but he hadn’t been in an accident. It wasn’t until my card got declined at the store when I was trying to buy a few groceries that I thought to check the bank account and found it empty.
Then I knew what was going on—I realized that Dirk had left me. But of course, by then it was too late. He was long gone, and he’d taken every last little bit of money from the sale of my Grandma’s house with him—all five hundred thousand. The bank manager said he was sorry but since we were legally married, he couldn’t report it as any kind of crime or theft. The money was gone, along with my husband.
Later that week, I used my last two dollars to buy a cheap pregnancy test from Dollar Tree. (Yes, they have them there.) I was desperate to know why I’d been throwing up every morning and why I felt so dizzy all the time.
Now I know.
“It’s a really cheap test though,” I say out loud. “Maybe it’s wrong.”
Yeah, right. I know in my heart I’m in trouble. I’m pregnant and I’m going to be living in my car by tomorrow night because rent is due tomorrow and I don’t have any money to pay it.
I don’t have anything but my clothes, a few knick-knacks from my Grandma, and a beat-up old Chevy Cavalier that barely made the trip from Florida to Virginia. I don’t even have enough money for gas to keep it running at night, so it’s going to be cold. Autumn is half over and it’s chilly in the evening.
What am I going to do?
I rack my brain, trying to think. What options do I have? I can’t go home—I have no living relatives and I’ve lost touch with my friends. None of them are in a position to let me couch surf, anyway. Everyone has it tough. And even if there was someone I could stay with back home, I don’t have the money for gas to make a twelve hour road trip. The Cavalier is a gas-guzzler. I used to joke that it barely gets two miles per gallon but that’s not far from the truth.
Where can I go, then? If Dirk’s parents were alive, I’d beg them to take me in for the sake of their grandchild, which I guess I’m now carrying. But they’re dead—it was one of the things Dirk and I had in common—that we’re both orphans. So begging to stay with the in-laws is out.
I run a hand through my hair distractedly. I don’t know anyone else up here I can stay with. Well, that’s not exactly true, I amend to myself. There’s Logan, Dirk’s older brother…but I’ve only met him a few times including the wedding.
Logan is Dirk’s polar opposite in looks. He’s nine years older than Dirk and taller too—six five or six with shoulders so wide he has to go through most doorways sideways. He’s dark where Dirk is light. He has black hair with salt and pepper at the temples. His short, neatly trimmed beard has some silver too. He has these piercing, pale gray eyes that I can’t stop glancing at, every time I see him. And he’s muscular—I bet he’s got less than ten percent body fat.
Which must be nice, I muse as I look in the mirror. I’m already fat and I’m going to get fatter. I still can’t believe I’m pregnant.
But maybe not—maybe it was just a cheap test. I mean, it was from Dollar Tree and those things give what they call a “false positive” sometimes, don’t they?
The more I think about it, the more I convince myself that must be it. I’m not going to believe I’m pregnant for now, I tell myself. Right now I just have to find a place to crash until I can get a job. Preferably someplace besides my car.
Again, Logan’s face comes to my mind. Normally I would never ask him for anything. My brother-in-law is a silent, stoic man—completely different from Dirk with his loud, easy charm. He barely said ten words to me at the wedding, even though he was Dirk’s best man.
In fact, I swear I caught him looking at his younger brother disapprovingly—as though he didn’t think we should be getting married. Considering that Dirk claimed he wanted to go back to Virginia to be close to family, his only brother doesn’t seem to like him much and I didn’t see any kind of warmth between them. So Logan will probably turn me away.
But I have to try. I can’t live in my car with it getting colder and colder at night. I’m a Florida girl—I’m not used to the cold and I don’t own any winter clothing. Seriously, not even a thick jacket or a pair of boots. I lived my life in flip-flops and t-shirts back in the Sunshine State and I haven’t gotten around to buying anything warmer yet. Now, I don’t have the money to.