Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 95307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
I glance at her, my heart pounding like a snare drum. “What did you say?”
“What?”
“What did you say?”
“I don’t know. I was just thinking out loud.”
“You said it sounded like someone was sabotaging them.” Just saying the words aloud has my mind racing.
Gabby stands up straight. “Do you think someone is?”
“I don’t know,” I tell her honestly. “It’s just that a lot of weird things have been happening. First with my car, then with the building. Plus, some of the orders were changed, like the new towels for Porter arrived in orange and green instead of white, as ordered.”
“Who would mess with that?” she asks, giving me her full attention.
“No clue. I mean, Harrison and Chase are the only ones who order and have access to all of that stuff, right?”
“Well, besides Gina,” Gabby adds.
“But she’s been gone for three weeks,” I note, remembering how upset Harrison was when he found out Gina told me she overheard him saying I was getting fat in my pregnancy. That moment had been the straw that broke the camel’s back, and he’d called Chase to fire her immediately. With everything he’s been dealing with, he hasn’t had time to hire a new assistant yet.
“And didn’t these weird things start happening about three weeks ago?” Gabby asks.
I glance her way, and don’t need to use words to confirm her suspicions. My stomach tightens painfully, with much more intensity than earlier.
“Wow, what was that? Are you okay?” she asks, coming around to my side of the counter.
“Fine, just those stupid Braxton Hicks contractions,” I reply, taking a few deep breaths.
“You sure? That seemed pretty intense.”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“What can I get you?” my sister asks.
“Maybe a glass of water.”
She guides me to her living room. “Come on, go sit down on the couch. I’ll grab you some water. You probably put your daughter in a sugar coma, since you haven’t had ice cream in months.” Gabby hustles off to the kitchen to get water. “Where’s your phone?” she hollers from the other room.
“In my purse. Why?”
“I’m going to call Harrison,” she says, returning with the glass.
“No, don’t do that,” I demand, taking a slow sip of water. “I’m fine. He’s obviously very busy, otherwise, he would have been at my appointment.”
She gives me a look that lets me know she doesn’t exactly agree with me, but she relents. “You can stay here and relax, but if you’re still contracting in an hour, I’m calling him.”
“Fine,” I grumble.
“In fact, I’ll shoot him a text and let him know you’re here,” she says, grabbing her own phone. I watch as she types out her message and taps Send. “There. At least he’ll know where you are.”
We spend the next hour visiting, chatting about everything from work to the gym. Chase is still training Gabby, but I’m not sure how much longer that’ll continue. She says all he does is push her buttons so that she’s all sorts of pissed off by the time she leaves. Gabby can give as good as she gets, most times, but with Chase, I don’t know. He pushes her to her limit, both in the gym and out of it, considering she threatens to maim him on a regular basis.
“Do you remember that time we met Harrison and Chase at Twist of Lime right after my twenty-first birthday?” Gabby asks as we reminisce about life before full-time jobs and bills. You know, when trying to figure out what to wear to the bar on a Saturday night was your biggest decision?
“No,” I tell her, trying to ignore the tightness in my stomach. This one’s just as intense as the contraction I felt almost an hour ago, but I try to hide it.
“You and I went to the cinema to see that new Ryan Reynolds movie. By the time it was over, you had a message from Harrison to meet him uptown. We went, and they were shooting pool with… wait,” Gabby says, jumping up from the chair. “Gina!”
“What?” I ask, getting up from the couch.
“Gina was there! Don’t you remember? She was hitting on Harrison hard when we walked in. He was being polite, but trying to get her off him?”
For some reason, that night comes back to me easily. I recall walking into the bar and spotting my boyfriend across the room. He was watching Chase shoot, barely paying any attention to the young girl beside him, except for the occasional polite nod and smile. And when I say she was beside him, I mean, hanging on his arm and rubbing herself against his side. I could tell he was uneasy by his body language, but the moment our eyes met across the bar confirmed it. He was practically begging me to rescue him without so much as saying a word.
“I went up there just as she was asking him to give her a ride home,” I recall.