Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“She’s what? When? How?” Did someone knock her up in Sacramento?
Brooke sighed, then leaned in. “Listen. Dad. I’m serious here. This is a secret. Stevie trusted me with this and she begged me not to tell anyone. She kept bringing it up all day—asking me not to say anything. So you can’t tell anyone that you know, all right?”
“Honey, do I honestly look like the kind of person who goes around gossiping?” My tone was thankfully even and calm, but my heart was pounding like a damn horse racing in the Kentucky Derby. I could barely focus. How? How had this happened? Had Stevie moved on from me that quickly? Here I was, missing her, and was she…was she just moving on, fine, but then…
“I know, but…” Brooke sighed. “Look, you can’t go and beat him up, okay?”
“Beat who up?” What the fuck was happening?
“Cameron. It’s Cameron’s baby.”
…what.
Brooke went on, but I could barely hear her. “Stevie said that they ended things before she found out that she was pregnant. That was the real reason why she left. She didn’t—doesn’t—want the father to know, she told me in those exact words. I think that she fears he won’t be a responsible father which, you know, it’s Cameron so I can’t blame her for thinking that. She also said that it was her body and her choice and I respect that but surely she could get him to help a bit financially? Even if he doesn’t want to raise the baby?”
How could that possibly be true, though?
Stevie and I had been together right up until she had left for Sacramento. Well, not together, together, but… was that it? Had she been with Cameron as well, because I had told her that I didn’t want a relationship?
There was a hot flare of jealousy in my chest, I couldn’t deny that. Cameron wasn’t good enough for Stevie. He was a flirt and focused more on charming guests than on actually being a good coworker and a member of a team at the restaurant. All he cared about was looking good and scoring the best tips. He was good with customers and some came in just to see him, so I couldn’t fire him, but his attitude and how much he would flirt with the women he worked with sure tempted me to.
The fact that she might have been with that tool instead of…
No, I told myself, shaking away those thoughts. What mattered was that Stevie was pregnant. Pregnant and alone and probably freaking out, as much as she would try to soldier through it because she was a determined and stubborn woman.
Jesus. And she hadn’t told anyone? “Does her family know?”
Brooke shook her head. “Not yet. She knows that she has to tell them but… she doesn’t know how.”
“I can imagine.”
“You won’t tell anyone?”
I shook my head. “No, it’ll be our secret. You just keep an eye on her, okay? You need her and she really needs you now.”
Brooke nodded. “I just wish that she was here.”
I exhaled slowly. “Yeah, me too,” I said. If only Brooke knew how much.
At work that night, I could barely keep it together. My thoughts were swirling. I had to get out, take a walk. Everyone could see that I was distracted. I closed up and wandered, eventually finding myself at a local tavern that I used to frequent back in the day.
I nodded at the bartender as I walked in, picking a booth, and got a beer. I had to sort this all out in my head, somehow.
Ugh, the television above the bar—one of them, anyway—was playing another episode of Theo’s damn fucking show. It was just as bad as the first episode. Maybe even worse. He was just so full of himself, and everyone could tell. Talk about an ego trip. Theo was coming off looking like a total fool.
But then again, maybe that was what sold cookbooks? He kept promoting his new damn cookbook right and left, like this was just an hour long commercial for his book instead of an actual show where people were supposed to do things like actually learn more about food and cooking.
Shocking concept.
How should I know, though? I couldn’t even figure out how to take advantage of the perfect woman when she was put right in front of me like a fucking godsend. Stevie was everything that I could have dreamed of in a woman, and I hadn’t even had the guts to have a real relationship with her.
I had known from the first moment that I’d seen her that Stevie was special. I had been so into her in a way that I hadn’t been into any woman. It had been like a lightning strike. And I had spent all of my time fighting that attraction. Trying to keep it at bay, trying to keep her at arm’s length. I’d done it professionally too, I hadn’t listened to her when I should have, I hadn’t trusted her or her vision.