Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Keene nodded.
“Do you think it might be better for her to stay there with me until she can remember?” Coffey asked.
Keene winced. “Probably. They’ll never leave y’all alone if you stay with us.”
Before I could say anything to agree or disagree, five women surrounded us, asking a hundred thousand questions.
Then the closest one, the one with long black hair and green eyes, said, “What the fuck happened to your face, Simi?”
I barely resisted the urge to lift my hand up and touch my forehead.
I had eight stitches in my hairline that I had forgotten about until she pointed it out.
I was still numb—or mostly numb. Feeling was slowly returning, and with it, a dull throb at the very edge of my forehead.
“Um,” I started to say, but it was Keene who jumped into an explanation, leaving out the part about me being pregnant for some reason.
I felt Coffey relax beside me.
“She can’t remember anything?” The woman paused. “I’m Val. You really don’t remember me?”
As if she couldn’t quite believe it. “No.”
“I’m Tony.” Tony held up her hand.
When everyone had told me their name, then their nickname, I looked at all of them, trying to memorize their faces.
Exhaustion nearly bowled me over when Keene said, “Now, why is everyone not at work?”
Zip sighed. “I covered Simi’s shift.” She grimaced as if she didn’t like to cover my shift. “Tony just got finished with her act. We’re on intermission now, but we saw you coming in and we wanted to see Simi. To make sure everything went okay. Everything didn’t, and now we’ll go back to work.”
“Right, now we’ll go back to work,” Val grumbled. “Assuming that you can’t do your act anymore…right?”
Considering I couldn’t remember my act, that probably wasn’t a good idea.
“Um, no,” I heard Keene say at the same time Coffey declared, “Absolutely not.”
My guess was their “nos” were likely due to the fact that I was pregnant, not because I couldn’t remember the damn act.
“I’m also assuming we’re not getting lunch or dinner tonight?” Tony asked wistfully.
As if she was so sad and wanted it so bad.
“I’ll order to-go…” Keene started, but Coffey interrupted. “We’ll get everyone fed. I have everything ready for more sandwiches like last night, at least. That was going to be my go-to lunch because I wasn’t sure how fast I could get to the store. Dinner, on the other hand,” he looked at his watch. “If someone can get to the store and get me fifty pounds of ground beef, I could probably get that done as well.”
“I’ll go!” Zip clapped. “I have the next two hours off.”
“Plans have been made,” Keene said as he headed toward the big van to the right of where we were standing. “Simi’s gonna stay with Coffey tonight in the food trailer. Could someone help pack her a bag during their off time?”
“I will,” Crimson declared.
Then, as if they were given a directive, they all scattered. Crimson went to the bus. Zip went to Keene for the keys to the van he’d just been driving. And Keene pointed at the trailer. “The code to get into the top is seven-two-one-two. Everything should be very clean. Our cleaners all but gutted it after the cook left. New everything.”
With that, he left, leaving Coffey and me standing there alone.
“I’m assuming you’re tired,” Coffey’s deep voice penetrated the quiet. “Would you like to take a nap while I get lunch started?”
I looked up at him. “You don’t look like you’ve slept either.”
“We haven’t,” he admitted. “Likely none of us has. But I want to get lunch figured out and ready, as well as dinner started. It’s already ten. At this point, we can have an early dinner and go to sleep tonight, and I’ll make it.”
I raised my hands and rubbed my eyes.
I was very tired.
“I’ll nap.” I paused. “But could you, uh, stay until I fall asleep?”
I felt him move closer to me, felt his body heat start to warm me, and I shivered before dropping my hands.
His beautiful eyes were penetrating deep into mine as he said, “You couldn’t keep me away from you, Simi.”
I swallowed hard. “I wish I could remember you.”
He twisted one of the curly locks at my ear around his finger, his gaze going to my hair. “I wish more than anything you could remember, too. But I’ll have fun teaching you all about me again.”
With that, he untwirled my hair from his finger, then caught up my hand, twining his fingers around mine.
Guiding me around the large bus, he took me to the other side of it, where a large square area had been carved out using a boxing method with two large buses, a truck with a camper area, and a very large trailer that he seemed to be heading to. The final vehicle was a van pulling a camper.