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)
Mimi didn’t look scared. Ready for the new color, if anything. After today, she would certainly stand out in the crowd of residents when Gracen came for her regular visit on Sunday.
“How’s it go—the way you used to say it?” Mimi asked. “Super cute?”
Gracen laughed and nodded. “Yeah, Mimi, it’ll keep you super cute.”
“I’m n-nervous but excited to get started,” Mimi said, her hands tittering in her lap in the same way she’d used to do when Gracen was younger.
That was all that mattered.
“So, are we doing this in your chair?” Gracen asked again. “Or mine?”
Either was perfectly fine.
*
Gracen couldn’t contain the smile at Delaney’s response to the picture of Mimi with her vibrant purple curls.
“Look at her big grin,” Delaney had texted back almost instantly. “Obviously a winner.”
Oh, yes.
Mimi had loved every second of getting her hair done, and the way it turned out in the end. The color likely wouldn’t stay in more than a handful of washes, if that. And only if her grandmother tried to wash her hair with as cold of water as she could possibly stand. As it was, Mimi’s hair didn’t have pigment to change, so it was all a matter of upkeep for longevity.
When I tell you she had to show EVERYONE on her way back to the block, she texted back to Delaney. Gracen added in a second text: No joke, Laney. Everybody on that side of the complex saw her by the time she was back in her room.
Mimi deserved the attention, though. Something to make her feel extra special because not long after she got her grandmother back to her suite of rooms in her block, Gracen’s time at the manor was up. She’d been able to stay just long enough to get a snack and drink for them both, and start the evening news, but the announcement to end visiting hours came shortly after.
More interested in her phone than the surrounding parking lot, Gracen barely gave a passing car any attention even when it slowed as she approached her own vehicle. She opened the passenger seat after unlocking the Civic, and tossed in her kit and purse as Delaney’s latest reply popped up on their chat thread.
Another new, unread text caught her attention, too. Malachi’s text would have to wait, though.
See you in a few, Delaney had written.
Gracen was in the middle of shooting Delaney a quick confirmation when a car door slammed closed, and a familiar voice called her name.
“Yeah, that is you, Gracen. I thought it was.”
For a split second, she was almost able to pretend like she hadn’t heard Sonny Masterson speak just a couple of parking spots away. Except he kept talking, and by the time she turned around, he stood an arm length from the driver’s door of her car.
At least, he stayed over there.
Gracen couldn't muster a smile for the sight of her ex, but time treated Sonny well, all the same. He was still the same tall, dark, and handsome that she’d fallen head over heels for way too young for more than a few stupid reasons. She saw his face at least once a day because his realty signs popped up all over town alongside the rest of his family who took to the business of selling houses.
She never had to speak to him, though.
Not face to face.
He’d given her that respect, at least. Perhaps all their years of foolish teenage, first love had meant something to him. Or it could have been that Sonny simply realized it meant something to Gracen, because after their sudden split, he’d never tried to overtake her space or place in their shared town.
Hell, she didn’t know—and didn’t even give a fuck—who cut his hair in town, but it could only be one of a few people. All of whom she knew on a first name basis, but who never mentioned any contact with Sonny.
Gracen didn’t mind.
That’s how she liked it.
“Sonny,” Gracen greeted.
Not impolitely.
She didn’t croon it with joy, either.
“You’re a little late,” she told him, gesturing over her shoulder with a pointed thumb in the direction of the manor’s entrance. “They just called the end of visiting hours. The doors will be locked in ten minutes.”
Sonny never glanced toward the building although the parking lot buzzed with a bit of activity from leaving vehicles and chatting people near the front doors. “Yeah, I know.”
He offered nothing else.
Gracen thought to call him on it, but Sonny had already moved on. Or rather, his attention did when another figure exited from the manor, and a smile swept away any other emotions on his features.
“Hey!” he called, waving to the young woman with a matching smile as wide as her cheeks.
Alora Beau still wore the scrubs she must have been working in—black from the pants to the cinched-waisted tops. It was the first moment in the month’s time that Gracen had been coming on Tuesdays where she laid eyes on Alora. Rumor had it ... well, there was no rumor about it. Delaney had the details on Alora and shared them when Gracen had outright asked.