Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 161899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 809(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 809(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
She drew in a breath.
And kept talking.
“I’m also seeing now that me acting like that, and our residual head butting, gave him the impression I still cared. The passion hadn’t died, as it were.”
“Yeah?” he asked leadingly when she didn’t say any more.
“So I need to give myself a moment to lament this decision and then figure out what’s next.”
Auggie stood immobile.
He did this waiting for the buzzing to leave his ears.
When it did, he asked with forced calm, “Let me get this straight. That asshole deceived you in the worst possible way a man can deceive his woman, you had an emotional response to that, he mistook that response because he’s got his head lodged up his ass, and you’re taking a moment to lament and figure out how to deal with him?”
She stared at him and nodded slowly.
Well, this was good.
Because he sure as shit could do something about this.
“Do not take on his shit.”
She opened her mouth.
He hooked her behind the neck and pulled her to him so her body hit his.
“Do not take on his shit,” he repeated.
Her hands came to rest on his hips, and she stared up at him, but said nothing.
“He’s being a dick. That’s who he is. That’s what he does. It isn’t yours. I can listen and help you work out how you’ll respond to him using Juno to get back at you. But I’m not gonna stand here and listen to you take on his shit. It is not cool that he gave her a phone. She’s way too fuckin’ young. It’s far less cool that you two had made a decision, and he reneged on that for the sole purpose of punishing you for a crime that’s only a crime in his mind. He can go fuck himself. You do what you want with her phone. This house is yours. The rules are yours. And if you want me to help, together we can try to come up with a plan to make sure she’s good when she has something with her dad she doesn’t have with her mom. And as far as he’s concerned, that’s it. He made a decision, his house, his rules, and it has dick to do with you.”
Auggie was so intent on saying the things he had to say, he didn’t notice how hard the pads of her fingers were pressing into his hips.
But when he was done, he did.
So he asked, “Sweetheart?”
“I…can’t even…” Her voice was hollow, like an echo, lost in a turmoil of emotions.
He did not like the sound, and in response to it, pulled her fully into his arms.
She put her hands on his chest to stop him from doing anything else and continued speaking.
“I don’t have a family. I don’t have a mom or a dad to go to and say, ‘Look. You have experience. Am I doing this right?’”
Jesus Christ.
He’d never thought of that.
It had never occurred to him how alone she was doing something as colossal as raising a child.
“None of my friends have kids,” she went on. She shook her head but said, “I can’t even tell you how much it means that you simply validated where I was at with this, but more, offered me a sounding board.”
“Anytime, baby.”
“It means a lot, Auggie.”
“I’m getting that.”
“So much, you won’t know, until you have a kid.”
“Yeah,” he agreed.
They stared at each other.
She didn’t hide the gratitude in her face.
He felt something he hadn’t felt in all he’d done, seen, learned and experienced in his life.
A million feet tall.
“Am I in trouble, or what?” Juno shouted through the door.
Auggie smiled.
He caught a hint of the same from Pepper before she dropped her head and pressed it to his chest for a beat before she lifted it and called out, “No, baby.”
“Okay, then are we making dinner, or what?” Juno asked.
Pepper rolled up on her toes to kiss his jaw before she pulled from his arms and went to the door.
She opened it.
And she didn’t delay.
“You know how I feel about phones.”
Juno’s eyes darted to Auggie, her face started to flush, but Pepper didn’t let the embarrassment settle in.
“So I’m gonna need you to give it to me. You aren’t in trouble for having it or not telling me you did. I believe you were gonna tell me. Then I sprung our dinner plans on you. But you can’t have it here and you won’t be taking it back to your dad’s. It’s just my rule. And if he’s decided he has a different one, that’s between you and your dad. I’ll just ask that you use it only for emergencies, or maybe listening to music, and you don’t spend a lot of time on apps or games or TikTok. You can laugh at someone who you’ll never meet who’s probably very funny. Or you can laugh with people right there in the room with you who love you very much.” She smiled at her girl. “I know what you’re gonna do at our house. How that goes when you’re not here…”