Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Henley snorted. “He was up making the rounds, as you say, because he knew he couldn’t do it at the normal time and the animals need to be fed. He remembered that you were off and he didn’t want me to have to do it again since it should have been your turn today.”
I walked up to the hostess stand and smiled at her. “We need a table for like fifteen.”
“Tyler,” Alana smacked me. “We need a table big enough for the three of us and these babies. I need three high chairs, one of which needs to be capable of holding a car seat.”
Henley handed me the diaper bag that she’d had crossed over her chest and I hefted that up, too, shifting the baby in my arms to the side to balance out the weight.
Henley was right. The more I held the little girl, the heavier she got.
Though…she still felt tiny, just a little awkward since she was so small that she had to be cradled to my chest.
I’ve gotten a lot of baby experience since Autumn, my eldest niece, was born.
But I’ve gotten a lot more since Henley’s three were born.
I’ve become a part of their life again and I was regretting ever leaving it.
I was also pissed that I’d allowed two people to dictate how I’d lived it. Allowed the hurt I’d felt to keep me from my hometown and my sisters.
Because if I’d been here, I would’ve known a whole lot more about what was going on with Rhys and Henley’s relationship and I wouldn’t be totally in the dark about their marriage when my gut was telling me something was off about their interactions concerning the children.
The baby in my arms started to whimper and I turned my attention to her as we weaved through the tables and chairs, not paying any attention to the occupants of those chairs.
If I had been paying attention, I would’ve seen the two people that I did not want to see—despite my promise to myself and others that I was over what had happened.
“Is this good?” the hostess asked as she pointed at a table.
I looked at it and laughed. It was a table for ten.
“Yeah,” I murmured between laughs. “This will be perfect.”
“Okay, great,” she said as she set our menus down. “Have y’all been here before?”
All of us looked at her like she was crazy.
Texas Roadhouse was one of the oldest restaurants in Longview—everyone who lived in the area had been here at some point.
“Uh, yes,” Henley answered. “We have.”
Alana and I were too busy rolling our eyes.
“Okay, good. I like to hear that y’all have been here before, because then you know what to expect,” she said.
“Well, usually y’all bring rolls out when you seat us…” Alana pointed out.
The hostess flushed. “Oh, yeah. I forgot to get those.”
She looked at me once and then both of my sisters looked at me accusingly.
“What?” I asked.
The hostess set our silverware down and gestured with her finger that she’d just be a minute before hurrying away.
“She forgot our rolls because she was too busy looking at you. Honestly, I’m surprised that she was able to weave her way through those tables without falling flat on her face with the way she kept her eye on you,” Alana pointed out the moment that the hostess was gone.
I shrugged and gestured toward the seat. “Sit your ass down.”
“She forgot the highchairs, too,” Alana groaned.
I took a quick glance around and spied them in the corner two tables over.
Moving in that direction, I had my hand on one of them when a woman came barreling out of the bathroom at the same time that I bent over, running straight into me.
I didn’t move.
But the woman did.
“Oh, I’m so so…” Reagan’s eyes met mine. “You.”
I stood up to my full height and raised my brows at the woman. “Are you following me or something? Because I’m forty-five minutes away from the town we live in and this is mighty convenient.”
I had a huge smile on my face, despite the weirdness of seeing her there.
I liked this woman—even if she did have an attitude.
Reagan rolled her eyes and then looked down at the baby in my arms. Her eyes softened. “Oh, so small.”
I grunted, remembering why I was in the corner and reached for two high chairs.
“I got one,” Reagan said. “If you take two, you’re going to end up whacking that poor man in the head. He looks kind of beat up already.”
I had one in my hand when I instinctively turned to see what ‘beat up man’ she was talking about, only to see Rome seated in a booth one down from our own table.
And I didn’t have to see the woman’s face to know that the person sitting across the booth from him was Tara. I knew her based solely on the color and texture of her hair.