AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"She's already in pajamas?" the woman asks when Larkin runs past her into the house.
"It's almost time for bed," I say, giving her a smile I know the woman can tell doesn't reach my eyes.
I wonder if Adalynn and Sage both had opinions about how Larkin was dressed at the bookstore, but I didn't catch a single hint of judgment in their tones or on their faces. I think they're genuinely nice women, and coming from speaking with them to standing in front of Bitter Betty here, it makes it that much more obvious.
She has perfected the fake smile full of ire and distaste, after all.
"She'll need a bath."
"She had her bath," I explain.
The long sigh of frustration is almost too loud to ignore, but somehow I manage.
"Does she have a change of clothes in the bag?" Nora asks, looking down at the thing as if it carries some sort of disease.
I've used the same bag for Larkin for years, and although worn in a few spots, I keep the thing clean. It goes in the wash just like her stuffed toys and pillows do. We don't live in filth. We just don't have as many material things as a lot of others have. Living a minimalist lifestyle is chic and fashionable unless you're poor, and then people just see it as sad. It's the same as having a nanny versus needing a babysitter. One is classy and the other is trashy, at least in Nora’s eyes.
"For tomorrow, yes," I tell her, knowing she's asking if there's another set of pajamas in there because she has every intention of giving Larkin another bath.
"Claire," she says. "You know I have more clothes for her inside, but why are you always so difficult? If you prioritized, you'd—"
"I'll be here to pick her up tomorrow evening after work," I say instead of explaining exactly why I have to work two jobs. I know the reasoning would somehow once again be turned around on me.
Huxley Kennedy has been enshrined in this town. He did no wrong. He wasn't a young man who always got into trouble. He was mischievous. He wasn't destined for his parents' basement because he had no goals in life. He was evaluating his options.
That's the thing about someone dying. Most people ignore who they really were in life in favor of rose-colored glasses.
I'm not speaking ill of my deceased husband, but the facts didn't change the day he went to work and didn't come home.
He had his faults like every other person walking the earth, but no one would ever be able to convince the Kennedys of it. Hell, a lot of his problems were created by them, and that's something they'd never admit.
"Claire," Nora says in that frustrated, annoyed tone. "You wouldn't have to work two jobs if you took the offer of our garage apartment."
I simply wave my arm in the air and climb into my car.
I know I'd have to work a million-and-a-half shifts at The Hairy Frog before I'd clear that stack of bills off my dresser, but at the same time, I can't give up. I also can't give in any more than I already have to the Kennedys. I'm so very grateful to have their help. I know they love Larkin, and that is the only saving grace for dropping my daughter off at their house up to six days a week.
Living right under their noses? I'd never hear the end of it. I'd be miserable, and they'd be right about me not being able to take care of my daughter on my own.
The bills keep me going. I tried ignoring them and it brought a man to my front doorstep with court papers and a threat of getting sued on his lips. It terrified me that going to court over credit card debt would also mean my parenting would be called into question, and I'd never put Larkin's future at risk like that. It's also why I haven't opened my mouth to the Kennedys. I feel like they'd see it as an opportunity to try and take her from me.
They suggested it more than once, trying to appeal to that part of me that wouldn't want to be a single mother. The one they thought existed.
Chapter 5
Walker
How can I look forward to and also despise the sight of her?
I know it's my own selfishness making me feel one way and my guilt making me feel the other. The two tangle together until I'm so frustrated and annoyed, I disappear into that tiny office of mine until the end of her shift.
The way she works a room is awe-inspiring. She smiles and gives each customer exactly what they need without ever crossing a line. She dodges handsy guys from the college as easily as she converses with the women here for a girls' night out. All of it is done with ease and professionalism.
I don't know her story. I don't know how she met Hux, but I don't think my guess that she met him at the bar she worked at in El Paso is very far from the truth. The man drank like a fish out of sheer boredom before he joined the service. I remember having a slurred conversation with him when it was suggested by his parents. He wasn't afraid of going and dying. The man was a little too egotistical to even consider a world without him. He was worried about the effort and work that went into being a soldier. He'd been handed almost everything in life, and when that rug was pulled out from under him, he wanted no part of it.
I watch as she waggles her finger in the face of one smiling man when he reaches out for her.
She says something to one of his friends and, instead of them going to his defense, they nod at her while one man wraps his arms around the guy and says something in his ear. She smiles at him when he speaks to her the second time, and I can tell by the look on her face that he has apologized.
