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)
“Fuck,” she whined under her breath, and stuffed the problem into her pocket where she could pretend like the phone didn’t exist for the moment.
“You good?” came a groggy croak.
Malachi didn’t sound drunk, or hungover. Hell, he’d ended up drinking less than her when he’d not even finished his one glass before hers was entirely gone.
Stupid, she chastised herself.
“I missed a color this morning,” she told him, heading for the door where she had toed her shoes off on a welcome mat just inside the door next to his combat boots.
“Oh?”
She didn’t need to check her calendar to know the appointment she was expected to show up to next, never mind the long-time customer Gracen would need to contact to apologize for her terrible morning.
“Yeah, and something in a half hour,” she muttered at the front door.
“Kay, I guess,” Malachi returned with a smack of his mouth, “but you could have kissed me goodbye.”
Really?
Gracen let out a stressed laugh as she pulled open the door. “Get real. Neither of us need to be kissing anything until we’ve had a shower. I’ve got no time to get ready as it is, and I’m already late, so—”
“I’m calling you later,” he called at her back as she walked out of the apartment. “You want a coffee, or something? I could bring it once I get around here.”
They were definitely doing this together again. His offer said so, no questions asked.
Jesus.
Why’d she shiver?
From head to toe, too.
Damn him.
“You better,” she returned before slamming the door closed.
*
“Are you seriously not going to tell me where you ended up last night? I almost called to report you missing!” Delaney hissed across the salon’s floor.
Squeezing the backrest of the swivel cutting chair at her station for all it was worth, Gracen wished she had taken just five extra minutes to grab something to shove in her face for food. Even if it had only been plain toast and a glass of milk. Anything to put a bit of weight in her terribly empty stomach that was still running on the night before. She never had problems with being faint or feeling nausea unless hunger came into play.
Then, her whole body revolted.
As if her day was trying to prove it could get worse, she was also out of the gum she kept in a drawer at work just to give her something to chew on.
Gracen should have gone home, and stayed the hell in bed.
“I will—” she tried to tell her friend.
Not that Delaney was hearing it.
“You’ve basically ignored me since you walked in the door!” Delaney returned. “Even after I told you the manor called because you didn’t return their message over the weekend, too!”
Slightly louder than before.
Gracen really needed to get in to visit her grandmother at the nursing home in the upper river valley before Mimi drove the staff crazy while they looked after her daily care. Just a few days of no contact with her gram could send Mimi into a panic about her granddaughter’s well-being.
“Everything okay down there?” came the gentle prod—or reminder, depending on how Delaney would see it—from the woman upstairs currently doing a constellation piercing on a client.
“Perfect,” Gracen called back.
All lies.
She didn’t even look great in the reflection of her station’s mirror which showcased how little time she spent on throwing up her hair into a ponytail that air-dried. She spent most of her twenty minutes at the house throwing on an acceptable outfit after taking a five-minute shower that felt like it only scrubbed the surface clean.
Gracen wanted a soak in the bath.
Why did her feet hurt?
Her back, too?
“Stupid couch,” she muttered.
“What couch?” Delaney questioned at Gracen’s back.
Apparently, she hadn’t said that quietly.
“I met up with a friend,” Gracen lied—sort of—easily, “and ended up staying the night. I’m sorry I didn’t call you back, I must have put my phone in silent mode when I was trying to set an extra alarm but I drank a—”
“You drank last night?”
Gracen swung around at the worry that pitched her friend’s voice slightly higher. Delaney stood halfway between her station and Gracen’s with her fists pressed to her hips like a worried mother ready to face a battle with her unruly teenager.
That was not happening.
“It wasn’t even that much,” Gracen said, rolling her eyes. “But I didn’t want to stumble home, wake you up when I figured you were already asleep, and then—”
“I wasn’t asleep. I was up until twelve when I first texted you.”
Yes.
By that time, Gracen was on the couch.
Getting off again with Malachi.
“Wait, a guy? Was the friend a guy?” Delaney asked out of the blue.
Christ.
Was it written on Gracen’s face?
I got fucked?
Her silence answered Delaney’s question who laughed in disbelief and stared at Gracen like she was suddenly seeing a whole new person standing in front of her.