Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
“I know, right? Or a playground,” Delaney added. “We don’t have one of those on this side of the river. That might be nice, too. For all the kids, you know?”
Gracen hadn’t considered the playground idea, either. Frankly, she tried not to think about the pizza joint or the fire more than she already had to, otherwise, the what ifs and unanswered questions would eat at Gracen for days. Another one of those things she couldn’t control.
“Aren’t you worried, though?”
Delaney’s dark brows shot high at Gracen’s question. “Worried about what?”
“That if there’s a playground right beside our house—”
“Kids in town aren’t that loud,” Delaney interjected.
Gracen rolled her eyes. “Actually, I was thinking more like ... you’d want one.”
Delaney was exactly the type. Her commitment-phobe nature didn’t stop her from getting baby fever every time the two found another invitation for somebody’s shower shoved in their mailbox. Whenever it happened—if it did—for Delaney, she’d make a great mom.
Rolling in her lips in consideration, Delaney hummed a sound before swinging away from the view of the window. “Yeah, maybe not.”
Gracen wasn’t like Delaney.
She couldn’t turn away.
“I wish they’d put something there,” Gracen muttered. “Whatever it is, you know? I can’t stand looking at it like it is.”
Every single day, too.
In the morning, the girls woke up to it. The sight of the empty lot with its charred ground and new black fencing was the last thing on Gracen’s mind at night, too. She just couldn’t seem to move past it for some reason.
“They need to do something with it,” she repeated. “Anything.”
Delaney sighed across the salon. Her voice reached back to Gracen like an echo; a confirmation of what everyone in their valley town was thinking when they had to look upon the new hole in their once-picturesque landscape. “Yeah, I know. And soon.”
*
“Hey, beautiful.”
Gracen couldn’t stop the smile forming at Malachi’s greeting. It wasn’t new, but when she told him she didn’t mind the first time he used it, he’d been calling her beautiful every time he said hello. “Hey, yourself. Is the job running on time this week?”
Malachi groaned on the other end of the phone. “We mostly caught up.”
“Yeah?”
“And then the overnight shift had an accident on the job site last night, so shit’s closed down until the health and safety people come in to make a call.”
Yikes.
Construction didn’t sound like a whole lot of fun.
“Whatever, my cheque is paid,” Malachi added after a moment. “How was your week?”
“Busy.”
“Oh?”
“And boring,” she tacked on just for good measure, “without a certain bike driving up and down the town half the day, I mean.”
Malachi laughed a rumbly sound. “I barely even took the bike out when I was there, come on.”
“You took to out enough.”
Fair was fair, after all.
Their last phone call had gone much the same way, only the shoe was on the other foot. She had let him rant about his boss—who was also a friend—and the crew of guys he worked with until he relaxed enough to mention he missed her. And she’d be something far better to do with his time than work.
She’d agreed.
“What are you up to on this beautiful Saturday night?” he asked, the mumble of his words making her think he was getting ready for sleep.
“You don’t know the weather here. Just because it’s nice on your side of the province doesn’t mean it’s sunshine and rainbows every day here.”
In fact, they had a few days of rain since he left. Although, the weather was nothing she couldn’t handle, and sometimes, it made for a good jog up the mountain. Gracen had even started taking to sending pictures from her treks to the water tower to Malachi when she’d captured a particular shot she was proud of overlooking the valley.
“First of all,” he returned, “I check the weather everyday for there.”
Gracen couldn’t contain the surprise. “You do?”
“I wonder what you’re jogging or hiking in when we chat, you know?”
Her smile was back.
In a fucking instant, too.
“Did you have a second point?” she asked. “You said first of all, so ...”
Malachi chuckled a wonderful sound. It reminded her of the way he’d sounded tucked naked against her back while she’d been lamenting her piss poor alcohol intolerance. Just like that, with a memory he triggered from the sound of his voice, she was left shivering where she stood alone on the boardwalk.
“Secondly,” Malachi said, bringing them back to the conversation at hand, and she could almost imagine his sharp blue gaze turning on her like he expected her attention. “You were the one who told me it was a nice night for a run down the boardwalk. Or was that not the text I got an hour ago?”
Damn him and his second point.
She’d hoped he’d forgotten about that message.
“Then why are you asking what I’m doing tonight if you already know?” she questioned.