Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 130102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Even so, the three of them celebrated the day Maddie had graduated with honors and had been accepted to three universities, all offering scholarships. Thank goodness.
The picture was one of her favorites. Right next to the one of her and Brendan’s wedding photo. She’d been just a waif of a girl back then, hardly a woman. And unaware she would soon learn the hard way that life wasn’t fair. Sometimes it was even downright cruel.
“Just the two,” he murmured, his index finger sliding along the bottom of the silver frame.
The two?
Oh yes, he turned her stupid. “Uh... Yes. Just Maddie and Josie.”
“Beautiful, like their mom.”
“I...” The rest of her response disintegrated. “Do you have the bill?”
He turned and the intense look in his dark eyes surprised her.
Maybe it should cause some concern.
For some crazy reason, she wanted to reach out and touch his curly hair, which hung loosely around his shoulders. Yesterday it had been pulled back into a ponytail.
She’d never been one to be attracted to men with long hair, but his fit the rest of his features. He could be a pirate, getting ready to board his enemy’s ship.
That was a weird thought.
Even so, his hair was so long it almost reached his nipples, which she noted were pebbled beneath the snug, soft cotton. Hard, unlike his hair which she wanted to run her fingers through to see if it really was as soft and springy as it looked.
She had the strange urge to press her nose to it.
Let that silky cloud tickle her inner thighs.
She blew out a shaky breath.
“Okay?”
Heat flickered up her cheeks. “I’m... fine.”
“Sure?”
“Yes.” She needed to shake loose this reaction to him she kept having. It didn’t make sense.
Her response to him, her thoughts, were crazy.
She’d be surprised if he was even thirty.
And he was a biker, she reminded herself once again.
She certainly didn’t date younger men and certainly didn’t entertain the idea of one who had a questionable past or future.
Well, she should’ve just stopped at she certainly didn’t date. Because that was truer than anything.
Manning Grove was a great town. For the most part safe. The school system was good. The people friendly. The taxes and cost of living reasonable.
But for a single woman in her forties, it didn’t give her much of a dating life.
She refused to date any single teachers—if any even existed at this point—because she didn’t want to deal with the awkwardness if anything went wrong.
She also didn’t hang out at bars.
In truth, she didn’t hang anywhere. She went to work and came home. She looked after her girls. The two most important people in her life.
Her brother had tried to set her up a couple of times, but both of those blind dates had been a disaster.
Maybe she wasn’t meant to find anyone.
Maybe Brendan had been the only one for her. Her soulmate.
She’d never know for sure since they didn’t get enough time together.
Shawn held out the paperwork and she took it from him. One item was the invoice, the other an envelope which felt like a card. She assumed it was a sympathy card.
She had read too many of those in her lifetime. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to read another. But it was thoughtful and appreciated, anyhow.
She placed the unopened card on the coffee table and perched on the edge of the couch to fill out the check, relieved payday was just a couple of days away. This unexpected, but necessary, expense had dug into this week’s grocery funds.
“What you gonna do with them?”
“What?” she asked, distracted as she finished signing the check.
“The ashes.”
She glanced up. He still stood by the fireplace, but he was no longer looking at the photos, he watched her, instead. “Oh, I don’t know. Whatever the girls want to do with them.”
“Where are they?”
“Who?”
“Your girls.”
She frowned, wondering again if she should be concerned with his interest in her life. And her daughters. He might be too young for her, but he was too old for them.
Maddie was twenty and, at just seventeen, Josie was only a senior in high school.
“Josie has Spanish Club after school and Maddie has an evening class.”
“Evenin’ class?”
“At Mansfield University.”
He glanced back at the graduation picture. “She’s smart, then.”
“Both my girls do okay,” she kidded with a smile. “I’m not sure who they got their brains from, me or their father.”
“Got their looks from their momma.”
“Yes, sometimes people think the three of us are sisters. It always makes me laugh.”
“True, though. At first, thought you were sisters.”
Chelle always took that as a compliment. “Thank you.”
He shrugged. “Don’t look old enough to have two grown girls.”
“Well, they might look grown, but most of the time they don’t act it. Sometimes they act like my students.”
“Students?”
She rose from the couch and held out the check. “Please tell Cassie thank you.”