Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 157032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
I can definitely think of worse ways to go.
“I would like to take the bar position, please,” I announce.
Without replying, her eyes stay fixed firmly on mine.
She knows I’m tempted to give it a try.
What if Owen ever found out?
With renewed purpose, I walk toward the door. “Thank you for the offer, though. It was very kind. When would you like me to start on the bar?” I ask confidently.
She hesitates before answering. “Wednesday night?” she finally concedes.
I smile broadly and turn to shake her hand. “You got yourself a deal.”
I wake to feel small warm arms around my ribs from behind. My bed partner has stuck to his usual routine. Every night, Owen crawls into bed with me. I never know exactly how or when he comes in. I just know that some time between night and morning I will feel his little arms cuddling my back and he stays there until I wake.
He kisses my back through my pajamas and I smile with my eyes still closed. “Morning, Owie,” I whisper sleepily.
“Hi, Mom,” his husky little voice replies.
I roll onto my back and put my arm underneath his head, my eyes are still closed. “I thought we were going to try and sleep in your bed all night. Remember, we were going to buy you a new truck if you did?” I murmur. I’ve stooped to bribery, but at this point I will do whatever it takes.
“I just don’t like it in there,” he announces.
“Hmm.” I sigh with my eyes still closed. I lean and kiss his forehead. “What’s on today, buddy?”
“Cornflakes?”
“Yeah. Okay.” I doze for a moment. “Momma’s tired today?”
“Rise and shine,” Jenna’s perky voice echoes through the room. She opens the drapes and the sun comes blazing through. “Oh, go away,” I moan as I cover my eyes. “What time is it?”
“Wake up time.” She smiles as she stands at the end of the bed with her hands on her hips. “This time tomorrow you would have been at the hospital for an hour by now.”
I frown. “Don’t remind me. I’m trying to forget.” I instantly feel my nerves rise in the pit of my stomach.
Owen hops out of bed and disappears up the hall. Jenna lies down next to me on top of the covers. “We have to go shopping and buy you some new work clothes.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“So?” She leans up onto her elbow to look down at me.
“What?”
“How was it?”
I rub my eyes with my two hands as I yawn. “It was pretty good, actually.”
She raises her eyebrows in surprise.
“I start on Wednesday.”
She grins.
My eyes meet hers. “Is that okay? I don’t have to be there until after Owie goes to bed and I will be home before he wakes up.”
“Of course it’s okay. I told you already, that’s why I moved here—so I can study from home and take care of Owie while you finish your degree.”
“I feel like shit that you have to babysit for me.” I sigh.
“I feel like shit that I am living with you rent free.”
I smirk. “Thank you. You don’t know how much I appreciate all that you do for me.”
She smiles. “About last night. I want details, all the details.”
I shake my head. “Jeez, I don’t even know where to start.” I pause for a moment as I try to articulate my thoughts. “It kind of looks like an old picture theatre or something that has been converted because it’s tiered down to a catwalk at the front.”
She sits up. “Okay.”
“The stupid fuckwits pay one-hundred and ten-thousand dollars a year.”
“What the hell? What are you donating? A fucking organ or something?”
I laugh and shake my head. “Probably. She tried to get me to be an Escape girl.”
“Escape girl?” She frowns.
“It sounds weird when I to say it loud, but it didn’t sound so bad last night. There are twenty-four men and twenty-four Escape girls. The girls dress up and put on a fashion show in designer clothes—”
“What?” she interrupts. “That sounds fucking stupid.”
I rest the back of my forearm over my forehead to block out the sunlight. Those drinks had some punch last night. I feel like shit. “I know. It really is.”
“Then what?”
“They dress up in gorgeous clothes and do a catwalk thing and then go into a private area for a cocktail party with the twenty-four men.”
Jenna scratches her head. “Sounds like a bad dating television show.”
I laugh. “Totally.”
“Weird.” She frowns.
I remember something else. “Oh my God. Get this: The girls then pick their date for the night and get to go back to this luxury penthouse with the guy for twelve hours.”
“Shut up.”
I shake my head. “Serious.”
Her eyes widen as she imagines it. “Fuck, that’s hard core. It would be so bitchy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Imagine twenty-four guys and only five are hot. You get paid the same if you bang a hot guy or an ugly guy. All the girls would be going for the same guys.”