Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“Girl, I think you are more nervous than I am,” Josie says from my left.
I peel my eyes off the ice where I’d been watching the Cold Fury—correction, watching Marek—warm up before the game starts. Josie is wearing an Olson jersey and her cheeks were flushed when she told me earlier that Reed had given it to her just this morning.
“I feel like I was just asked to go steady and he gave me his varsity letter jacket,” she had said, giggling.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wish I were wearing a Fabritis jersey right now. But Marek didn’t think to get me one, nor did I expect him to. I certainly can’t afford to splurge on something like that for myself.
“So how are things going?” Josie asks. We’ve both been so busy at work, sometimes working different shifts, that we’ve not had real “girl” time to talk.
“It’s going well,” I say, my eyes cutting between the ice and her. “The nurses in L and D are all really great to work with.”
Josie gives me a soft elbow that makes me laugh. “I’m not talking about work. How’s it going with Marek?”
“I know what you were talking about,” I reply, still chuckling. “But it’s going…weirdly. Good, but weird.”
“How so?”
“Well, Owen showed up at the house on Saturday.”
“What?” Josie exclaims so loudly the people to her left turn to look at her. She ignores them and leans in closer to me. “He showed up at the house?”
I nod, look back briefly to the ice where I take in Marek skating around to loosen his legs, then back to Josie. I decide to just get it all out so she can ask her questions and then we can enjoy the game. “Owen showed up. Threatened me. Marek punched him. Owen left. My reasons for marrying Owen came to light after Marek called my parents. Turns out, my parents didn’t need my help, so I made a fool out of myself for nothing.”
“Whoa,” she drawls out slowly. “Just…whoa. But you’ve got to give me more info than that.”
And she’s right. That’s a lot to take in. So I slow down and fill in some gaps. Answer a few questions. To Josie’s credit and the reason I know we’ll always be close friends, she goes overboard to not make me feel stupid, and in fact, validates what I’d done. She said she’d have done the same thing, although I highly doubt it.
Still, it was a really sweet gesture.
When I think I’ve satisfied her curiosity, I turn back to watch the warm-ups, which are winding down.
Josie, however, is not fully satisfied. She nudges me again. “What’s the deal with you and Marek then?”
“What do you mean?” I hedge, not even looking at her.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Gracen,” she growls at me. “Give me the details. I can tell something’s different. I mean, he called up Reed wanting to get us really good tickets so you could see him play up close and personal. So I know something’s happened.”
It’s not so hard to tear my gaze away from Marek now. Josie actually has asked me something that I don’t mind talking about with her.
I puff out a tiny breath of capitulation, turning in my seat to look her right in the face. Leaning in so no one can hear our conversation, I lower my voice and tell her, “Marek and I…well, we’re sort of together.”
“Together?”
“We had sex. Like four times the night before Owen showed up. And then we didn’t have sex before he left for the New York and New Jersey games, and it was very confusing.”
“Why didn’t you have sex then? I mean…sounds like the first four times were amazing, and I don’t know many men that will walk away from that.”
I snicker. It was really, really good. The best ever, actually. But I don’t say that, because that’s my personal secret to share just with myself. Instead, I tell her all of it. “I had a placental abruption the week before Lilly was due.”
“Oh, Gracen, that’s awful,” Josie breathes out. She’s a doctor. She knows the dangers I faced.
I nod in agreement. “Anyway, I had to have a hysterectomy, which was fine. As long as Lilly was okay, that’s all that mattered. But when I told Marek about it, it really bothered him and he just backed off. Actually, seems it sort of ran him off.”
“I’m sorry,” Josie says softly.
I give her a casual shrug. It had hurt my feelings a lot, but he’s more than made up for it. “It didn’t run him off for long. When he came back from the road trip, well, he came straight to my bed.”
“So it’s just sex?” she asks hesitantly.
I shrug again, although there’s nothing casual about this one. I truly just don’t know. “We’ve agreed to try out a monogamous sexual relationship while coparenting our daughter.”