Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Janie shrugged. “I have nothing else to do today, anyway.”
“Actually, we’re both supposed to be working, but we took the day off because it’s National Hamburger Day, and Janie felt that was a legitimate reason to celebrate,” Kayla supplied.
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I stayed silent.
“So, what was in the envelope?”
I turned to see Janie staring at me with a look of speculation on her face.
“Why?”
She grinned. “Because your neighbor, my good friend, Cora, gave it to you, and I want to know what it was.”
I felt something like guilt, and a small amount of elation, fill my chest.
“It was a comic,” I explained.
“Why’d she give you a comic?” Janie frowned. “What did you do to her to piss her off?”
I frowned. “I didn’t do anything to piss her off…”
At least not lately. It’d been six days since she’d asked me to stop working on my truck at midnight, and I’d saved it for the weekends, during the middle of the day, so that she couldn’t complain.
Then again, I’d finished the truck and sold it, and now had another one to work on…this one I had an even tighter deadline on.
I might not be able to do it only on Saturdays if I wanted to get it completed in time to head to the Barrett Jackson car show in Vegas in two months.
I had about two hundred grand saved up, and more hopefully once I got this Stingray finished.
I was going to find my car—a limited edition Camaro—and this time, I’d actually have the money to buy it unlike when I’d seen it as a teenager who was on the verge of becoming a father.
But the idea of keeping Cora up all night when she had to work early was quite unsettling to me, so I’d think about when best to do it…or maybe I could delegate more to June and allow her to pull her weight instead of just pulling parts off the lot for customers—at least the ones she could get on her own—and answering phones.
“Funny, but she only wrote me comics when I pissed her off. And most of them were a caricature of her flipping off a caricature of me. I saved them all. One day she’s gonna be famous, and I’m going to show the evolution of Cora in picture frames in my living room.”
My brows rose.
“She started drawing these comics for us in like sixth grade. They’ve progressively gotten better over the years,” Kayla explained.
“Ahh,” I said in understanding.
I was convinced, though, that the comic hadn’t come because she was mad—at least not at me. But because she didn’t like how my ex-wife had cornered me.
And I smiled.
It was nice to know that someone cared.
Chapter 5
I thought you were in a bad mood, but it’s been a few years, so I guess that’s just who you are now.
-Text from Janie to Cora
Cora
It was the phone call that I never expected to get.
“Hello?” I answered, curious as to who was calling me.
It was a different area code than what I was used to receiving calls from, and I didn’t know anyone in town who had my number yet.
“Cora?”
I’d know that raspy, deep voice anywhere.
Whether I was fully conscious or deeply asleep, awake or in my dreams, that voice was like a homing beacon…for my vagina.
“Hey, Coke,” I said, suddenly nervous. “Is everything okay?”
I didn’t bother to ask how he’d gotten my number. There were only two people in this town who had it, and I didn’t want to speak to either one of them. If I did, they’d probably give me shit for flaking out on them last night—something I totally did, no doubt about that.
“Yeah, everything is fine,” he answered, sounding amused. “Except I got your package at my place. I was going to drop it off on the way to work, but your gate was locked, and I was running late, so I took it with me. I didn’t want you to wonder where your package was, so I wanted to make sure that you knew I had it. It also says that it’s time sensitive and very fragile, so I thought I’d call you first thing.”
I wiped the sleep away from my eyes and tried to remember which package he was speaking of.
Then I sat up in bed. “My chickens!”
“Chickens?” he asked.
“Yeah! Chickens!” I cried. “Are they alive?”
He was silent for a long moment. “This box weighs like ten pounds, and it doesn’t say that there’s anything live in it. Surely if there were live animals in it, the box wouldn’t be sealed…or left on my front porch.”
I frowned. Other than chickens, I hadn’t ordered anything else.
“I’ll be there in just a minute,” I said as I rolled out of bed. “I have to put some pants on and find a bra.”