Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
It’s good to see an easy warmth settle between them.
Elly and Mimi click into our familiar rhythm like they were made to grow our family of two. By the time we finish our early dinner, we’re all laughing and cutting up together, like we’ve been sharing food for years. Mimi and I load the dishwasher while Mom shows Elly how to load the ingredients for gumbo and spicy chicken casserole into two crockpots in less than ten minutes, getting easy dinners prepped for the week. Then, we all retreat to various rooms to get changed into our suits.
Soon, we have the inflatable loungers out of the storage shed and are floating off the food coma in the late afternoon sun. Mimi shows off her handstand in the shallow end while Beanie applauds, Elly looks like a supermodel from the ‘60s in her vintage one-piece, and me?
Well, I’m feeling surprisingly steady considering my agent just texted to let me know that someone found our marriage certificate and the internet thinks I’ve been hiding a secret family.
Or that I was blackmailed into marriage by an old girlfriend.
Or that I’m on drugs and currently being forced into rehab—hence why I haven’t responded to the rumors.
“You should call him,” Elly says, when she takes a break from the water, and I fill her in on the latest wave of the shit storm. “I mean, he’s your agent. Isn’t it his job to help you navigate things like this?”
I sigh. “I guess, but he’s a steamroller. I like that when he’s steamrolling more money into my contracts, but if you give Schwartz an inch, he’ll take a mile. I don’t want to be pressured into saying yes to some awkward influencer video or morning show interview because I haven’t thought of a better alternative.”
“Somebody say alternatives?” Beanie asks, striding to the side of the pool with Mimi riding piggyback. “I thought you’d never ask. I’ve got an alternative in my back pocket. Okay, little guppy, practice your underwater breathing for a few minutes. I need to help the grown-ups figure a few out.”
“Is this about the video?” Mimi asks, making Elly’s eyebrows shoot up.
“What do you know about that, bug?” she asks, sitting up straighter beside me.
Mimi shrugs as she slides off my mother’s back. “I don’t know. But you keep whispering about it. Is it bad? Are you in trouble, Mama?”
“No, honey, not even a little bit,” Beanie scoffs before Elly or I can respond. “Your mama’s a class act and Grammercy is, too. This is just some nosy people putting their oar in water that ain’t none of their business. But don’t you worry, baby, we’ll get it all sorted. No reason to worry about your people, not today or any other day. They’re the best of the best, and that’s all there is to it.”
Clearly relieved, Mimi grabs the inflatable pink donut. “Okay. Good luck. I’m going to take a rest on the donut. I’m tired from so many handstands.”
“Thanks, baby,” Elly says. “And Beanie’s right, everything is going to be fine.”
“It sure will.” My mama pulls up a chair between our loungers, adding in a voice too soft for Mimi to hear, “But you two better spill the beans. Before we talk spin, I need to know the straight of it. How did you go from strangers to married and shacking up in this penthouse? Because I’m not buying that you were secretly dating. I know my son. If he’d met a woman like you five months ago, he wouldn’t have kept it a secret.”
Elly and I exchange glances, the decision to go with quick and dirty honesty passing between us without either of us speaking a word.
“He found me crying in a closet at a hockey party I was catering after I lost my job,” Elly says. “I’d just learned I was about to lose my health insurance—”
“And then Mimi’s babysitter called from the hospital,” I add. “I didn’t want Elly to have to wait for a car, so I offered to drive her across town.”
Elly meets my gaze, her lips curving in a soft smile. “Then he stayed and met Mimi and had a hospital chip picnic with us and…one thing led to another.”
“And I proposed,” I say with a laugh.
Elly joins in. “You sure did. And I thought you were crazy…until I didn’t. Then, I just thought you were the sweetest, kindest man I’ve ever met.”
“And how long did it take for you two to notice that you’re both beautiful people who wanted to make out with each other?” my mother asks, making us laugh again.
“Oh, I knew that from the first second,” I confess. “Even crying on the floor of a closet in an ugly cocktail uniform, Elly was a knockout.”
“Well, thank you,” Elly says, her eyes shining into mine. “You’re not too bad yourself.” To Beanie, she adds, “I had it bad for your son the first time I saw him skate across the screen in my living room when he was still playing for the Squatch. But the real Grammercy is something else. Something special.”