Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“When we get back, I’m taking a four-hour nap.”
I tightened my lips and sat down next to her, not wanting Drake at my back.
She looked at me curiously but otherwise didn’t say anything about me sitting on the same side of the booth as her.
With the new position, Mary curled her head into my neck but reached out to offer her hand to Cobie, who took that hand and brought it up to her lips.
“Such a sweet girl,” Cobie cooed.
Mary held onto her hand and didn’t let go, as she breathed into my neck and went limp. Back out like a light.
My eyes, however, were glued on the man turned almost around backward in his booth, staring daggers at us.
I averted my eyes in order not to incite him into coming over, and said, “Drake’s here.”
Cobie started to look around, but I growled at her. “Don’t.”
She froze, her eyes on me, and said, “I thought you said he was in Hostel?”
I shrugged. “He was.”
At least, that’s the last time I’d known his actual whereabouts. I hadn’t thought to keep up with him this week once I’d known that he was in town visiting family—oh, and that his truck was in our shop getting fixed.
I’d asked to be told once it was fixed, and I hadn’t heard anything to the contrary.
Except, apparently, he was gone and in Longview again—eating at the same freakin’ place that I’d decided to take Cobie and Mary to for lunch. Just freakin’ perfect.
Two people that I knew would stick under his craw.
Sweet.
“Oh, shit,” Cobie muttered. “What now?”
I didn’t know.
“I guess we eat and try to act like we don’t notice that he’s angry,” I suggested. “If we were to get up and leave, I think it’d be a little more suspicious.”
“It’ll probably be suspicious if I don’t say anything to him. I do know him, after all.”
“Just act like you didn’t see him, and it’ll be okay,” I muttered.
Mary twitched in her sleep, and I repositioned her until she was laying on my other side, making it easier for her to sleep, as well as Cobie to continue holding her hand.
So, there we sat, speaking about nothing but random facts and then later memes when Mary woke up.
We’d just given our order, had gotten a refill on our sweet tea and were discussing whether it would be a good idea for Cobie to go home when the crying started.
One second, Mary was asleep, and the next, she was screaming her head off.
Not nice crying, either. It was pained crying, almost as if something had hurt her.
I frowned and pushed her hair off her head. “What’s wrong, baby?”
Mary shook her head, tears streaming down her face.
“Is she hot?” Cobie asked, reaching forward to place her hand on Mary’s forehead.
I felt, too, but didn’t notice that she was fevered.
“No,” I hesitated. “Not really.”
At this point, a minute after she’d started, I started to really worry.
Mary didn’t usually cry. In fact, it was rare for her to even be unhappy. She was literally the most even-tempered baby that I’d ever met, which was what concerned me.
Mary only ever cried when she was sick, and she’d had an ear infection twice since Marianne had dropped her into my lap.
Since then, I’d learned to read the signs. Only without a fever, and without her pulling at her ear, I wasn’t sure that was it this time.
“Is she teething?” Cobie asked, running her finger along Mary’s jaw.
“Keep that fucked up kid under control, or get it the fuck out of here. Nobody wants to listen to that nonsense.”
Everything inside of me stilled.
My annoyance at Drake, who wouldn’t stop looking at Mary like she was a nuisance, vanished. My desire to get up and leave because Mary was throwing an unholy fit—which toddlers did do every now and then, stilled. And my worry for Cobie as she started to look uncomfortable the longer she sat in the hard booth waiting for our food, dissipated.
I stood up, slowly, and hitched Mary up higher against my chest.
“Sir,” the young waitress looked at me like she would rather be anywhere else. “We’re going to have to ask you to leave. A number of our patrons have expressed difficulty eating their meals because of her screams.”
I didn’t bother to tell her that I was already planning on leaving.
Instead, I looked over at Cobie.
“Come on,” I growled.
Cobie stood, her face showing her discomfort, but she didn’t slow in her movements—though they weren’t any faster than her norm as of late.
“I’ll bag your food up.”
The waitress shouldn’t have bothered, but before I could tell her that, Cobie patted my arm. “I’ll wait in here for it and bring it out with me, okay?”
My jaw clenched, and I nodded my head at the same time that Mary screeched rather loudly into my ear.