Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“Hey yourself. What’s up?” I headed back in the kitchen to figure out what to cook for dinner. Something that would be good cold if Dexter came in late.
“Hollie, I fucked up.”
I closed my eyes, willing down the fear rising through my body. This was it. This was the conversation I’d been dreading for years now. “You’re pregnant,” I said.
“God, no.”
I collapsed onto the couch. I didn’t care what came next, as long as Autumn’s future was still waiting for her.
“But it might be worse,” she said. “I ended things with Greg. And he didn’t take it well.”
No surprises there, and as far as I was concerned, the fact that Autumn was single was only a good thing. “Okay. Well he’ll get over it. Or he won’t.” Did it matter?
“Except that he’s out for revenge. I’m really fucking sorry.” Her voice faltered as she spoke. What in the hell had happened?
“Mind your manners,” I replied. “What are you sorry about? What’s the worst he could do?” He’d probably spread all sorts of gossip about Autumn, but people who knew us would know the truth. It wasn’t like Greg was the type to get violent.
“You got a letter today. Mom and Dad got one too. From the park.”
“And . . .?” My stomach squeezed into a ball, winding my breath tighter and tighter.
“His dad has tripled the rent on our trailer and Mom and Dad’s starting next month.”
“Tripled? But that’s impossible. We weren’t getting a great deal to start off with because Mom and Dad have been late with payments so often. How can they just triple our rent?”
“I don’t know. I’m so sorry.”
I needed a solution. Something to make it right. “Can you make up with Greg? Apologize?”
“He saw some messages between me and some guy at the college. He got all bent out of shape and there’s no talking him down. I’ve tried, believe me. There’s nothing I wouldn’t have done to set this straight.”
I dreaded to think what Autumn had offered Greg.
Just when I thought things had moved on in Oregon. My last conversation with Autumn had unsettled me. I’d questioned whether I should have left years ago to leave everyone to fend for themselves, seeing as they seemed to be doing so much better without me. But now? There was no way we could afford triple the rent on two trailers. We’d have to find an apartment in town. It would be more expensive, but likely not triple what we were paying now. I wouldn’t be able to walk to work. I’d have to get a car, plus insurance . . . Costs were adding up in my head.
What a mess. “At least we’ve got a month to figure things out.” Hopefully, I’d win the lottery.
“What do you mean a month?” Autumn asked. “It’s three days until the rent’s due.”
The bitter taste of diesel fumes coated my tongue and all at once I was transported back to Oregon.
Ten minutes ago, my biggest problem was which dress I was going to wear tomorrow night. Now it didn’t matter because I wasn’t going to make it. I switched the phone to speaker and started to look up flights.
“I’ll come home,” I said, defeated.
My time in London had come to an end. I’d been stupid to think I could have a new life just because my sister was graduating. Life just wasn’t that easy. I’d thought that with some experience, I’d be able to get a job and leave Oregon with Autumn. That wasn’t going to happen now. I was going to be trapped paying expensive rent.
“No, don’t do that,” Autumn said. “I’ll try to talk to him again.”
It wouldn’t work. I knew it in my heart. I’d go back to Oregon and figure something out. Because that’s what I did.
I should have saved more while I’d been in London. I’d been frivolous buying flowers and fancy cheese for Dexter’s place.
I scanned the flights online. There was one I could afford in three hours. I’d have to Usain Bolt it, but I could just make it. In just a few clicks my future was sealed.
I needed to accept my fate. I wasn’t getting out of Oregon. By tomorrow night I’d be back at the Sunshine Trailer Park and everything in London, including Dexter, would be five thousand miles and a million lifetimes away.
At least I’d had this time, this experience—Dexter. Even if it had been so temporary. I’d hold these memories close for the rest of my life.
Twenty-Eight
Dexter
Three missed calls. Three voicemails. I hung up on the last one just as I stepped into my apartment after working through most of the night. My phone had been on silent at the office as we’d been focused on saving Daniels & Co’s place in the competition.
One crisis bled into another. The new stone was in place on the tiara but Hollie was thirty thousand feet up on her way back to Oregon.