Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
“Stewart!” he barked, rising to his feet.
It took everything I had to let my arms fall away from her.
Nora sniffled as she backed up. “It’s okay. Don’t get in trouble. I’m fine.”
We settled across from each other at a small table while the other inmates scattered across the open room with their loved ones.
“What’s going on? Why are you so upset?” I asked.
“I just really missed you.” She started to reach across the table to take my hand, stopping when she remembered touching wasn’t allowed.
“Is everything okay at home?”
“Yeah. It’s good.”
I searched her face for clues. She’d been fine two days ago when we’d talked on the phone. “You seen your therapist recently?”
She laughed and swept the tears from under her eyes. “Every two weeks, alternating schedule from the days I come here.”
She traveled two hours every other Saturday, and it was rare for her to miss a visit. Thea or Joe had been driving her before she got her license. I refused to think about Thea being that close. Nora liked to rub it in though.
Yet two months and not one fucking peep about the woman who haunted my dreams and lived in my fantasies. I couldn’t ask. She’d read into it. Tell Thea. Then she would read into it too. I couldn’t give her that kind of hope. Not when I needed her to forget.
“Nora, come on. You’re killing me here. What’s going on? Why are you crying?”
She stretched her long legs out under the table, leaving the toe of her shoe resting against mine. “Did I tell you Joe started dating Misty Martin?”
Not who I wanted to hear about, but shocking all the same. “Tiffany Martin’s mom?”
“Yep.”
“Like what kind of dating?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess the kind you do a million years after your wife dies and you finally decide to get back in the game.”
That was my chance. An opening. I could ask a subtle question about Thea that I could disguise as a question about Joe dating. Something along the lines of Has Tiffany clawed Thea’s eyes out over it yet? I could add a laugh to make it sound like a joke. But it would force her into telling me how Thea was feeling about her dad dating and hopefully segue into every fucking detail about Thea over the last two months.
Battery acid pooled in my stomach when a thought struck me. Tiffany had an older brother. Kyle Martin was a cocky jock a few years older than we were. He had gone off to college before I’d been arrested. He would have been home by now though. My stomach rolled. Maybe that was how Joe had met Misty. Thea and Kyle were getting hot and heavy. Time to introduce the parents. Boom! Built-in double dates for life.
“Why do you look like you’re about to puke?”
She’d been hanging out with Thea too much. She even sounded like her now. It was a kick in the balls almost as much as it was a gift.
“What? I don’t.”
“Is everything okay with you? Anyone giving you any trouble since they transferred Paulson? You need more money in your commissary account?”
Now, that felt like a kick in the balls sans the gift. I hated that she had to take care of me. And more than that, I hated that there had been money deposited in my commissary account before Joe had allowed her to get a job. Which meant it had been either Joe or Thea buying me snacks and deodorant. Everything had tasted bitter in those years.
“No, I’m fine. I’ve got plenty. I want to know what the hell is going on with you.”
“I already told you I just miss you.”
“Right. Which means you’ve already lied to me once since you’ve been here. Don’t make it twice.”
She cut her gaze over my shoulder. “Ramsey…”
“Spill it.”
She put her foot on top of mine and pressed down. It was the visitation equivalent of a reassuring squeeze. “Last week was the four-year anniversary of Josh’s…ya know.”
My stomach sank, and I didn’t give one fuck what the guards had to say about it. I reached across the table and caught her hand.
“Nora, he was a shit human being. I don’t feel bad about what happened.”
“I don’t either,” she whispered. “Though I kinda wish he was the one behind bars and not you.”
“Stewart!” the guard shouted. “I’m not going to tell you again. I catch you touching again and visitation’s over.”
I silently fumed while Nora yanked her hand away and kept talking.
“Anyway. They did a whole special for him on the local news. His parents were on there, crying and holding on to each other. His dumbass brother, Jonathan, gave his part in his police uniform. He held up a picture of them as kids and did some seriously bad acting as he reminisced about what a great guy Josh was. It was all I could do not to break the TV.”