Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 80969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“So, you’re alone.”
His words needle at me.
I narrow my gaze. “Clearly.”
“Why didn’t you say that you were pregnant?”
My brows furrow with confusion and annoyance. “I didn’t know I had to announce it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have let you carry that mutt around if I’d known you were pregnant.” He throws his hands in the air, seeming irritated. Though I’m not really sure what he has to be irritated about.
“I’m pregnant, not ill. And please stop calling Buddy a mutt.”
He grunts. “He looks like a mutt. An ugly little gremlin. Make sure you don’t feed him after midnight.”
“Did you just make a joke?” My lips spread into a smile even though he did just indirectly insult Buddy. “I didn’t know you were capable of it.”
His brows lower over his dark eyes. A shiver rakes down my spine.
“You’d be surprised at what I’m capable of.”
I think his words are meant to scare me, but they don’t.
This guy is all bark and no bite.
I’ve seen this from him tonight.
He heads for the front door.
He stops when I speak, “You know … I actually think you’re a nice guy, not the jerk you like people to think you are.”
The look he gives me could freeze the whole of Texas. Which would be quite nice in the current climate.
“I’m not nice, Red.”
“If you say so,” I say airily. “But I’ll think what I think, and I think you’re nice.”
“I don’t know how I’ll ever get over it,” he says dryly.
Then, he’s out the front door, shutting it behind him, and I’m laughing to myself.
For the first time in a really long time, I’m actually laughing.
And the shocker is, it’s because of my grumpy neighbor.
Carrie
Using the remote, I turn the TV off and stretch my body out. Buddy doesn’t even move next to me. Little sleepyhead that he is.
I did a double shift tonight, as one of the waitresses called in sick, and after I finished work, I came home and took Buddy for a walk. Poor thing had been stuck inside all day while I worked. I stopped at the store and got a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream, hot fudge topping, and marshmallows. The baby’s craving these things. What can I do?
When we got home from our walk, Scrooged was just starting on TV. It’s December now, so Christmas movies are in full swing. And I love Bill Murray movies. They always leave me with a good feeling.
So, I changed into my pajamas and got snuggled up on the sofa with Buddy and my ice cream concoction to watch the movie.
I watched. Buddy slept.
Thinking about Christmas, I glance around my living room.
I really need to get a Christmas tree. Weird that I haven’t thought about it until now.
Neil always used to buy our tree and put it up. I was never allowed to decorate it. He said I would mess it up.
Well, guess what, Neil. I’m going to get a tree, and I’m going to decorate the heck out of it.
It’s my day off tomorrow, so I’ll head into town and do a little Christmas shopping.
There’s a hardware store in town that sells and delivers Christmas trees. I saw them when I was in there last week, picking up a gardening trowel and fork set, so I could start on ridding the front garden of weeds.
I’ll take Buddy for a walk into town in the morning and get a tree. I’ll also pick up some decorations. Hopefully, they can do same-day delivery, and then I can spend the rest of my day decorating it. I might even grab some ingredients from the grocery store and bake some Christmas cookies.
I feel a tingle of excitement at the thought.
It’s the little things that matter most to me. The things I never could do before.
Maybe I’ll take some of the cookies to River. Another thank-you for his help with Buddy.
I give Buddy a gentle nudge with my hand, waking him.
“Come on, Bud. Toilet time.”
I pick my bowl up to take to the kitchen and get up from the sofa. Buddy clambers down and sleepily follows me.
I place my bowl into the sink and then open the back door for him.
I step out onto the deck and watch him trot down the steps and onto the grass.
The panels on the fence are still broken. For all of River’s complaining about them, he hasn’t fixed them like he said he would.
So, I don’t want to leave Buddy out alone in the garden in case he goes through the gap and into River’s garden and ends up back in the pool.
It’s been almost three weeks since I rescued Buddy out of River’s pool. I haven’t seen my neighbor around at all. If I were a paranoid person, I’d think he was avoiding me. But I’m not, so I don’t.
It’s not like I’m waiting around to see him.