Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
“Thank you so much for doing this,” I rush to tell her.
“When Mace told me how much you loved my show, I couldn't say no. Some come because I’m popular and have no clue who I am. It’s nice to make a wedding cake for someone who will enjoy every bite.”
My annoyance with Mace fizzles away, and Jade gives me a pen before she’s off again. I start to fill in the paper, thinking our fight is over.
Little did I know he stole my phone.
SIX
MACE
“You cannot be serious,” I say once we’re back outside of Chef Jade’s restaurant. “You literally posted on the listing your photo, said you were single, and gave your address.”
“Is that my phone?” Briar finally looks up from the box of leftover cake she got to bring with us and scowls at me. “Give that back.”
“Have you lost your mind?” I blink at her, but she’s looking back at me like I’m the crazy one.
“I thought showing people what I looked like would give them a chance to see that I’m not a crazy person. Or come by the apartment building and see if they liked it.”
“God help me.” I rub my hand down my face in frustration before I go back to her phone and delete the ad. “You had this open publicly.”
“Duh, how else was I supposed to find someone?”
“Damn it, Briar, you're driving me to the edge of sanity.” I click through the form, and when it asks for a password, I key it in.
“Hey, how did you know that?”
“Because you had twelve goldfish named Scuba Steve,” I answer without looking up.
“Okay, you got me there.” She reaches for her phone again, but I’m too tall and hold it out of her grasp. “Stop deleting the ad.”
“Have you no self-preservation? There’s already been over twelve hundred interested queries since you posted this, and now they all know where you live, that you live alone, and what you look like.” When she blinks up at me, I feel like screaming. “Briar, you basically told any person that has access to the Internet that you’re available to be robbed.” I swallow and clench my jaw. “Or much fucking worse.”
“Oh.” Suddenly I see she’s thinking this through, and then her eyes widen. “I wasn’t looking at it that way. Do you think it’s really that bad?”
“Judging from a few of the emails I see they sent, yes it’s bad.” I take her hand and walk us quickly back to the car. “Come on, we need to hurry.”
“Where are we going?”
“To get the cats and get you the hell out of there before any of these people make good on their threats.”
“My babies!” she squeals as she jumps into the back of the car, and I tell the driver where to go.
I scan a few more of the emails people sent, and my stomach churns with anxiety. Part of me wants to scream at her for being so irresponsible, but the other part, the bigger part, knows that this is Briar. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, even if she pretends to have a tough exterior. She would never think that someone would take advantage of her because she would never do that to them. But this is the big city, and even though she’s been here for a little while, she’s always been with Meadow. She’s on her own now, and she’s clearly not thinking straight.
When I look over at her, I see the worry and fear etched on her face. It breaks my heart that her safe spot has been compromised, and I know she’s terrified of anything happening to her animals.
“Come here,” I say as I pull her across the bench seat so she’s cuddled against me.
Her arm automatically goes around my waist, and I kiss the top of her head. She fits perfectly along my body, but I try not to think about that as I close my eyes and breathe in her scent. My body heat must relax her because after a moment she begins to loosen her tense muscles.
“I didn’t think it through,” she says softly.
“I know.” I rub my hand down her back and try to help her stay calm. Thinking it might do better to distract her, I tell her the other surprise I set up. “After we finish at your place, I thought we could go look at flowers.”
“Really?” She sits up, and I see that some of the dark clouds around her have lifted.
“Let’s get the animals and grab a few things, and then we can visit the greenhouse tonight.”
“Won’t it be too dark?”
“No, they have fairy lights all around it. Sometimes I like to go there at night and walk around. They have hot chocolate,” I offer, hoping to entice a smile from her.