AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I need to feel useful Mom. Let me do this.” And that was the truth. Oddly, I hadn’t given Brad much thought apart from answering the occasional email from my lawyer. I certainly didn’t miss him, and I’d been too focused on my back and my lack of a job to worry what people thought. It helped that no one had asked about Brad, but the fact I hadn’t thought much about him meant we’d probably been falling out of love for a while. It didn’t forgive him cheating, but it took away some of the sting. Some, not all.
Mom sucked in a breath. I braced for a lecture, but all I got was a soft “Ok.”
“Did you have a dessert in mind, or can I make whatever I want?”
“You choose,” Mom said and sniffed. She cleared her throat and added, “You’re a better baker than me, Rowan. Whatever you make will be delicious.”
“Mom?”
“There are more families with kids on Sullivan now, so make enough for at least seventy-five.”
Her voice lost the wobble toward the end. I decided to pretend I hadn’t made her cry on my sorry behalf, yet again. “I can do that. I finished the flour when I made cinnamon rolls, and the sugar was low. Do you have more somewhere?”
“You should assume I have nothing,” Mom said and sighed. “I may have gone a little overboard in the days between when you told me about the accident and when you finally came home.”
“Got it,” I said. “Need anything else from the store?”
“Some more greens for Chris’s salads. Oh, and whatever you’d like for dinners and lunches. Actually, I have a whole list here. I can send you a picture. Do you have money?”
“Yes, Mom. My credit cards still work.”
“Ok, but save the receipt. I’m paying you back, and I don’t want you rounding down.”
I laughed. “Remember when you demanded receipts so we wouldn’t round up?”
“You never did that.”
“Poppy did.”
“I know. Sometimes I even let her.” Mom’s voice became muffled like she’d pressed the phone to her chest to talk to someone else. “I’ve got to run, sweetie. Thank you.”
She hung up before I could say goodbye. I tossed my phone into my purse, turned off the car, and opened the door to the soupy afternoon. If this heat wave didn’t break soon, my hair would never recover. I’d given up straightening it days ago and kept it in a braid to contain the frizz. I grabbed a cart and dropped my bag in the seat. Usually, I avoided parking near the cart return, but I figured I was already pushing my back more than I should. This way, I could lean on the cart to take some weight from my spine as I walked to the store.
My shirt was already sticking to my skin when I reached the automatic doors, which opened with a rush of chilled air. Once inside, I pushed the cart away from the entrance and pulled out my phone. Mom hadn’t texted me the list yet. No doubt, she was with a customer or managing a minor crisis. I decided to enjoy the air conditioning and call Lauren while I waited. My back was in no shape to wander through the aisles only to start over again once I knew what Mom wanted.
“Rowan,” Lauren said. “Is everything ok?”
I hated how everyone’s first instinct now when I called was to panic. “Everything’s fine. I have something to ask you, and I figured it would be faster to call. But it’s kind of sensitive. You can call me back if you’re busy.”
“Give me a sec,” she said. I heard her shove through a swinging door and all the voices in the background became muffled. “What’s up?”
“You know Cammie who works at the PT office?”
“Oh, yes,” Lauren said with genuine affection. “I meant to ask if you’d met her.”
“I did. She’s really sweet.”
“She is,” Lauren said slowly. “What’s going on in that brain of yours? You wouldn’t normally call me while the café was open to tell me you thought someone was sweet.”
I called instead of texting so I could hear her voice. Something was off with Cammie, and if anyone in Peace Falls knew why, it’d be Lauren, who wouldn’t breathe a word about it. People trusted her for a reason. Luckily, I’d learned how to read her pauses enough to get the gist of any situation. “Cammie doesn’t have AC. I offered to let her have one of our old units.”
“That’s a great idea, but you shouldn’t be lifting it.”
I gritted my teeth. “So I’ve been told.”
“I’ll stop by after we close. If you don’t mind, I can give Cammie your address and meet her at your house.”
“I gave her my address at the office, but feel free to give it to her again. Can the two of you manage the unit on your own?”
