Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
I knew what she needed. Of course I did. Aunt Carolina had sent me a screenshot this morning of another bad review that Kaden’s latest album had gotten. Rolling Stone had used the word “atrocious.”
“This isn’t an emergency, but Kaden needs to speak with you. Or I can speak with you as well. He’s tried emailing you and hasn’t gotten a response.” There was a pause, and she cleared her throat. “We’ve been worried.”
I couldn’t hold back my snort then either. It had been a year since the last time I’d communicated with either one of them. One whole year since I’d been cut cold turkey out of their lives. Out of their family.
And now they were worried? Ha. Ha. Ha.
Jackie burst out laughing from the front seat, and Clara gasped, “You’re nasty!”
“Aurora? Are you listening?” Mrs. Jones griped.
I rolled my eyes at the same time I caught a whiff of fart and started laughing too. “Damn, Jackie, what did you eat? Demons for breakfast?”
“I’m sorry!” she cried, turning around in the seat with an embarrassed expression.
“She’s not sorry,” Clara shot back with a shake of her head before rolling the window down.
“Aurora?” Mrs. Jones’s voice came over the line again, sharper that time, irritated, I was sure, at me not putting my life on hold to speak with her. She was just that kind of person.
And you know what? I had this one life left, and I wasn’t going to waste it on this lady. At least not more than I already had. “Mrs. Jones, I’m really busy. I’d tell you to tell Kaden I said hi, but I don’t really care—”
She gasped. “You don’t mean that.”
“I’m pretty sure I do. I don’t know what he wants to talk about, but I have no interest in having any more conversations with him. Much less with you.”
“You haven’t even heard what he wants to talk to you about.”
“Because I don’t care. Look, I really do have to go. I’m sure he can talk to Tammy Lynn.” I didn’t need to go there, but it was worth it.
“Aurora! You don’t understand. I’m sure, I know, you’d like to hear what he has to say.”
I rolled down my window too when the smell of Jackie’s fart didn’t go away fast enough. “No, I don’t. I’d say good luck, but you’re all going to keep making money off what I did anyway, so I don’t need to wish it on you. Please don’t bother calling me again.” I ended the call and sat there and stared down at the darkened screen, surprised and yet not surprised at all at the same time.
I needed to call Aunt Carolina today and tell her. She’d get a kick out of this. I could picture her rubbing her hands together with glee.
Of course Kaden would have his mom call to break the ice. Did they really think I was that dumb or that easy? That I could, or would, ever, in a million years, forget or forgive what they had done? How they’d hurt me?
Covering my face with my hand, I scrubbed it up and down with a sigh and shake of my head. I folded up all of my thoughts and feelings of the Jones family and set them aside. I wasn’t exaggerating. I didn’t care that he wanted to talk or that she wanted him to talk to me or any of it.
“You okay back there?” Clara asked.
I peeked up to see her gaze on me through the rearview mirror. “Yeah. Just got a call from evil incarnate.”
“Who?”
“My ex-mother-in-law.”
Through the rearview mirror, her eyebrows shot up. “She’s evil?”
“Let’s just say, I’m pretty sure there’s a spell somewhere to bind her to another realm.”
“That was the best day I’ve had in a really long time,” I said, hours and hours later as we were on the way back into town. It wasn’t even full-out dark yet, but I was pretty sure I’d seen my life flash before my eyes at least twenty times. The road from the small, picturesque mountain town was . . . sketchy was the word.
I thought I’d driven some hair-raising places on the way to Pagosa Springs, but a special section of the road on our trip held no comparison. I hadn’t known until we were leaving the shop that Clara was a menace to society behind the wheel. I was beyond relieved to be in the back seat when we’d done the hairpin turns so I could clutch the door and the edge of the seat for dear life without making her nervous.
But it had totally been worth it.
Ouray had been unbelievably busy with tourists, but I’d fallen in love with the small town that reminded me of something straight out of a town in the Alps or a storybook. Not that I’d ever been to the Alps, but I’d seen pictures. I had gotten sick the one Christmas the Joneses had booked a vacation to go . . .