Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Mac lifted her chin and stated, “I’m also looking into sperm donors.”
There it was.
Smithie sat back in his chair.
“Mac—” he began.
“I’m not getting any younger, Smithie,” she snapped.
As noted, he was in a relationship with several women. They knew about each other. Mostly, they shared because he was a lot to take and they didn’t mind the break.
But often, it was a juggling act and he was the juggler.
One thing he learned that helped him not drop a ball was never to field it when a woman lobbed that at him.
Though, he didn’t field it right then not just because of that.
“It’s your sister,” he noted.
She shook her head. “It isn’t my sister.”
“How many has she pushed out for Eddie so far?” Smithie asked a question the answer to which he already knew.
“Jet doesn’t make babies for Eddie,” Mac shot back.
Smithie sighed.
“I’m just ready,” she stated.
“You are not ready,” he returned.
Her face turned from confrontational to pissed.
“You think I haven’t thought about this for a long time?”
“I think, when you decide to bring a kid in the world, once you think you’ve thought about it long enough, you should think even longer about it. Then you should talk to people in your life about it. Then you should think on what they say about it. And only when you’re super, double, extra sure do you do it.”
“I’ve got the money—”
Smithie shook his head. “It isn’t the money, Mac. But even if you think you got the money, you don’t got the money. It’s not about the food in their bellies or the roof over their heads. It isn’t about keepin’ up with all the latest phones and kicks. It isn’t even about saving for college tuition. It’s all the shit times in life that are gonna rise up and bite you in the ass that you didn’t count on. They’re your kid. They’re gonna roll with the punches. But are you ready to say you’re in the spot you’re good to make them do that if that shit happens?”
Mac said nothing, looked to the side, then took a step that way and sat her ass down in one of the two chairs in front of his desk.
She was not ready.
At all.
She was something else.
And Smithie needed to get to the bottom of it and not to save her fantastic tits.
To save her from jumping too soon into something for which she was not ready.
He leaned forward in his chair and dropped his voice.
“There’s gonna be a mean kid in class that gets in their face. There’s gonna be a health situation that’s probably the croup or a flu that you’re not gonna understand and it’s gonna scare you shitless. Girls’ll get their hearts broken by an asshole. Boys need to learn not to be assholes. You gotta have it together, Mac. No one can be fully prepared for being a parent. But you gotta know you’re as ready as you’ll ever be.”
She held his eyes and said, “I’m ready, Smithie.”
“You’re watchin’ your sister and her man make babies and you’re so in love with your nephews you can’t see straight so you’re feelin’ the time tick by and doin’ that, the itch is comin’ on to one you can’t help but scratch,” he returned.
“This has nothing to do with Jet and Eddie,” she returned.
“Okay, then, how often does Jet go out with those Rock Chicks? Answer me that, Mac. How often?”
“She sees her crew all the time,” Mac told him.
“Right, and she can do that because her husband is home, lookin’ after their boys.”
She got his point.
This was why she shut her mouth before opening it and saying, “Or Blanca looks after them.”
“Blanca looks after them when Jet and Eddie are out together. Unless he’s workin’, no one looks after his boys but him if their momma ain’t around to do it.”
Mac turned her head and studied the wall.
It wasn’t that interesting.
But she kept doing it.
“Mac, look at me,” he ordered.
She did, that stubborn lift in her chin.
Smithie took his voice to soft. “You’re gonna find him, darlin’.”
She got his point on that too.
“I don’t need a man,” she bit out.
“No. But you want one and you’re gonna find him. You just need to be patient.”
She was losing patience sitting right there. “This is not about finding a man, Smithie.”
“How many of the Rock Chicks don’t got a warm body in their bed?” he pushed.
“I can get a man whenever I want.”
She absolutely could do that.
She wasn’t beautiful. But she was pretty. Crazy pretty.
Her sister, Jet, had the quiet, shy, girl-next-door vibe going for her.
Mac couldn’t be more different.
She lived life large and loud. She was sexy, but not brash, instead ballsy. She had an opinion, she stated it. She loved you, she showed it. You were toxic, she scraped you off. She identified a goal, she worked to it.