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)
Well, Mimi strolled along, of course.
The purple hair was a huge hit with every person her grandmother came in contact with that day. Only instilling Mimi’s belief that she needed a color refresh because she could already see the fading after a couple of washes.
She had been lucky enough to get more than a few pictures of Mimi on their day out. Grinning wide over a plate of French toast smothered in maple syrup next to Delaney at a diner table. Eating a cone of ice-cream as she scootered along across the bridge. Even her pile of audio books and an e-reader on her lap at the end of the afternoon after a quick trot to the falls for something new to keep Mimi’s time occupied.
It was great.
Better than a half hour at the end of a long workday because Gracen hadn’t been able to pull herself away from the work and life schedule that kept her constantly plowing through it. Whether she wanted to or not.
By the end of day Tuesday, Gracen and Delaney had found their way downriver. Far down, in fact. All the way to the top floor where a double room suite in a four-star hotel overlooked the Saint John harbor. The four-hour drive coasted along with the darkening sky until they checked in a little after eight in the evening.
The room was the most expensive part of their trip, really, at almost four-hundred dollars a night. The jacuzzi tub, restaurant with a harbor view, and great staff made the cost worth it, at least. Delaney and Gracen spent more time outside of the hotel, visiting the coast’s hiking trail and watching the phenomenon that was the Bay of Fundy for the first couple of days. For once, Delaney didn’t complain about early morning jogs or the occasional rain. It might have had something to do with the fresh salt air.
As Thursday and Friday rolled around, the two made their way through the large mall on the east side and the massive farmer’s market in the middle of downtown.
Delaney got Gracen out of the hotel for one night on the town—Malachi might have helped by secretly conspiring with her best friend to get Gracen to let loose when a VIP club pass for the hottest place in town showed up at their hotel room with a corresponding liquor card in the middle of a bouquet of flowers.
Have fun, babe.
That’s all he wrote.
Delaney knew the right cards to play. Gracen said yes, but it was only on the agreement that she didn’t have to wear heels. A night bouncing from one club to the next with Delaney usually meant a lot of time on her feet either standing in line or dancing. Gracen refused to do that in shoes that felt like they were breaking her toes with every step.
No heels? Check.
In the end, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. After two clubs downtown, including the one where the VIP pass let them pass the wait at the front, both ended with the girls leaving because accepting a drink also meant saying yes to unwanted attention, they rounded out the night at the Dooley’s bar across from the hotel shooting pool with middle-aged businessmen who had won the rights to the closet table to the windows from a pair of bikers that later won it back.
Gracen could have managed the night in heels, but was glad that she didn’t all the same. It meant everything from the soles of her feet to her thighs didn’t ache when she crawled into the hotel’s bed that night.
She couldn’t help but call Malachi, too. Just to tell him how the evening played out and that she did make good use out of the liquor card, at least. The city’s lights and it’s timeless buildings and streets seemed so much prettier in the back of a yellow cab at night when she was a tad bit drunk.
“As long as you had fun,” he told her, sleepy but the grin she could envision him wearing was audible in every word. “That’s what I wanted, Gracen.”
“Yeah, I know, and we did,” she assured. “I’ll send some pictures tomorrow.”
“Mmm, yeah, before you leave, huh? What time are you checking out?”
“Before ten.”
“Call me when you get home?” he asked.
He didn’t even have to ask.
“I’ll let you know when we roll back into town.”
She could tell he’d rolled over in his bed—a place she only knew through the occasional video chat between the two where his apartment’s bedroom was in the background—by the noise, and his muffled grunt.
“Go back to bed,” Gracen said.
“What if I want to talk to you?” Malachi asked back.
He didn’t work weekends, and the only thing she had to look forward to was the long drive home. The fact the time had just crawled past two in the morning, and she could already hear Delaney’s snores from across the suite in her own room, didn’t change that there was nothing else she would rather do.