Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Bailey had been staying with Whitt and Eve since our housing situation had gone up in flames at the start of the summer. She was moving into a new apartment with friends from her program when the term resumed. But right now, that meant I was at my brother’s for the evening.
“Hilarious.”
“First, you kick me out of our house,” she said as she tossed the door open wide. “Now, you come crawling back to stay with me. I don’t know if I can survive this push and pull, Harley.”
“I love you, Bails. You’re fucking ridiculous.”
“I love you, too. You going to tell me what happened?”
“Are Whitt and Eve here?”
Bailey shrugged. “They were out on a date. They should be back soon. I don’t know. I’m not keeping up with them. It’s weird to be back.”
I could see that. Bailey had lived here her senior year of high school, but now, two years into her bachelors, she probably missed the independence.
“So, is this a chick flick and ice cream evening or a plot murder kind of evening?” she asked, heading toward the fridge.
I laughed. “How did you know?”
She shot me a look. “As if you’d show up here out of nowhere on a Saturday night. Weren’t you having dinner with Chase’s dad tonight?”
“Right.” I winced. “That happened. Well, I guess dinner didn’t happen.”
“Right. Ice cream or murder?”
“Ice cream.”
“Damn,” she said as she reached into the freezer and pulled out pints of Blue Bell. “I was hoping for murder. Next time.”
“There’s no one to murder.”
“Chase’s dad, I’m assuming, would be a good option.”
“He’s a dick.”
“Obviously. He preyed on my sister,” Bailey said. Eve had been one of Arnold’s earlier victims and he’d destroyed her life until she and Whitt had gotten together. “I despise him, and I can’t imagine you being able to tolerate someone like that.”
“No,” I agreed with a sigh. “No, we really did not get along. But I think more because I’m a Wright. Though you should have seen him with his baby mama.”
“Ew.” Bailey shuddered. “That could have been Eve.”
“Eve isn’t that stupid. I think this girl wanted a kid.”
“She trapped him?”
I shrugged, uncertain. Dayna had seemed nice and like she was doing the best with a bad situation. I couldn’t imagine wanting to trap Arnold Sinclair.
“Just an accident, if I had to guess. Though Silas is adorable. So, I can’t imagine she’s upset with how it turned out, except for who the father is.”
Bailey passed me a bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough and scooped out hers next.
“Yeah, can’t get much slimier. So, what did he say to upset you?”
“He said I was like Owen.”
Bailey waved her spoon at me. “Not Arnold. Chase.”
I bit my lip. “Why do you think Chase did something to upset me?”
She shot me a disbelieving look. “Because I know you.”
I took a bite of the ice cream and said nothing. How did I even begin to explain what the fuck had just happened? I’d been furious at Arnold, yes. He was despicable in every sense of the word. But I’d also expected him to upset me. I’d sort of prepared myself for his villainy. Owen had prepared me, to be honest. The way he’d treated Dayna set me on fucking fire, but was it anything worse than I’d expected? No.
But then Chase had gone and quit his job.
I stuffed more ice cream in my mouth. Fuck.
“That bad?” Bailey asked.
We flopped down onto the couch, and she flipped on Romancing the Stone. She was a sucker for ’80s romances, especially those with Jack Colton–esque characters. Like the time that Chase dressed up as Indiana Jones. My heart ached at the thought. I shouldn’t be thinking about him right now. It only made it all worse.
“I don’t know,” I said softly.
“You?” she asked, gobsmacked. “You don’t know? Come on. You’re, like, the smartest person I know. You know what he did. Spit it out.”
“It’s going to sound dumb.”
“If it was dumb, you wouldn’t be here.”
I sighed and spilled the details of what had happened with Chase after we got back. Bailey scoffed at first, but then as more and more of the uncomfortable truths spewed out of me, her disbelief diminished.
“Damn,” she muttered. “Well, at first, I thought, who cared that he quit? Fuck him. But I see your point of view.”
“It’s not stupid?”
“That you broke up with him because he’d quit his job over you?”
I nearly jumped out of my seat. “We didn’t break up!”
Bailey reared back with wide eyes. “Whoa there, smartypants! Take a seat. It sure sounded like a breakup.”
I shook my head. “No. I mean, I don’t think so. Oh my God, does he think we broke up?”
“Uh, I don’t know. Maybe you’re on a break.”
My heart raced ahead at that thought. “We’re not on a break! Stop saying that!”
She held her hands up. “Okay, okay. Breathe. I didn’t mean to freak you out. I don’t have words for walking out of your boyfriend’s house because you’re mad at him and telling him to fucking figure it out. What happens if he doesn’t figure it out, Harley Davidson?”