Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
But the call had ended.
“Dammit.” I texted her real fast asking for Darlene’s number, then rolled up my other sleeve. She’d sent me a map of the convention center, which I supposed was what she thought I needed. “So impatient.”
Her mom would be fine if that were what she was so worried about. I didn’t know I was in the middle of a girl-growing-up situation, but I figured if it mattered, she could video chat her on Facebook or something. She said her lecture was this evening, which meant I had plenty of time until then.
I needed to see my kid. I only had a few days before I had to oversee a few new crews in Waco. I was living out Darlene’s dream for us. Some dream that turned out to be. Now she was using it against me. It had only been about six months, but it felt like a lifetime.
I used to be so angry with Darlene for leaving me. It felt like she was the one who gave up on our family. She pinned that on me, saying it was because I hadn’t fought for our family. But what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t force her to be with me, and I wouldn’t have. But I didn’t fight for James, either. I regretted a lot when all was said and done, but I hoped she did, too.
“It’s all about James,” I reminded myself, thinking back to the man on the plane. Thinking back to the night before. In barely six months, I’d become an angry businessman, a screw-up divorcee, an absentee dad, and a playboy. I tried to remember everything I’d done in the past two days, sure that I’d forgotten something. It had to be related to my phone, but it didn’t feel right. Something was missing, I needed to do something, or I had something or left it. I needed to call Darlene, but I wasn’t entirely sure that the woman would send the number. Her name. Was that what I forgot? I also had to call Missy at the office to see what fires I might need to put out there … but she could handle most anything that came up.
Another text came in, this time saying something about a cafeteria and something else about what room she would be in by five. Jeez, this woman planned ahead. I could barely plan out the next several hours.
It was almost noon. I cursed under my breath and headed to my truck. It was a beat-up old Ford F150 I’d had since I was just starting my business. That woman said she had a meeting for an hour, but if she said anything after that, I didn’t hear it. She could wait an hour. I started the truck and tossed my phone into the passenger seat. Her phone. Even if all I had were a few minutes, I had to see James. It had been a month now, and I refused to be the no-show father.
“It’s all about James now,” I repeated, trying not to work myself up thinking about Darlene.
As I pulled away, I still felt the nagging feeling that I’d forgotten something, and it didn’t hit me until I reached the end of the road to turn toward the freeway.
I’d forgotten that damn dinosaur toy.
Chapter 5
Christie
I’d left the phone in my meeting room corner to charge, my mind spinning with the list of things I’d typed out in a text to myself the other day. I couldn’t believe I’d texted myself. I should have sent it as an email to access it on my computer. Never in my life had I felt so unprepared, and never in my life did I think I would be in a position like this.
Sleeping with a man I’d never met.
Losing my phone in a rush to a flight.
Missing information I needed to prepare for my future.
If I didn’t get my phone back soon, I was screwed. I needed those notes. I figured Ryan wouldn’t make it here before my meeting, so I sent the picture of the convention center map with a circle on the room I’d be in afterward. Hopefully, he’d be there, and hopefully, this could just be a horrible memory I’d laugh at a year from now in my leather chair at my fancy desk in my corner office.
Maybe.
“Not maybe, Christie. You’ve got this,” I said aloud and then clamped my mouth shut when I remembered I was in a hallway full of professionals walking to their lectures.
After the meeting, we were told to return again at eight to meet with the guest speakers who would take up the final lecture in the grand ballroom the following evening. I’d missed my chance to meet them this morning since my plane didn’t arrive until after the first speakers’ meeting, but tomorrow night, I would get the chance to meet the key to my future, the owner of the fast-growing cannabis empire, SunRock. Okay, maybe not an empire, but it would be.