Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 86857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Layla laughs. “Is that what your coach told you to say?”
“No.”
“Now can we go for ice cream?” Reagan returns with her bag and glove.
“We’re going for ice cream too,” Nora says.
Reagan frowns. “Is ice cream only for the team that won?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. What do you think? Do you deserve ice cream too?”
Her little lips do their fishy pucker. “I think so.”
“Good game, Reagan,” Layla says. “Tell your dad you definitely deserve ice cream. Oh, and did you and Nora get to meet?”
Reagan shakes her head.
“Well, this is Nora.”
The girls share a quick hi.
“There’s an ice cream truck a block north of here. We can walk together,” Layla suggests.
“Okay,” Reagan answers for us.
I grin and shake my head. “Sounds like a good idea. Thanks.”
Reagan and Nora walk in front of us, chatting like they’ve been friends forever. It reminds me of the instant friendship I made with Josie.
Layla and I don’t say anything right away. Then she sighs. “Are you as afraid as I am to say anything? I mean, the weather is probably a safe topic.”
On a chuckle, I nod. “It’s hot. Too hot. Too soon.”
“Agreed,” Layla says. “We’re on the schedule to get a pool next month. It was a promise Joe made to Nora. She’s a little dolphin.”
“You’re getting a pool?” Reagan nearly squeals.
I find myself shaking my head at her again. “How is it you pay no attention to me when I’m talking to you, but the second I’m not talking to you, you hear everything?”
Layla giggles.
“My dad died, but he promised me a pool before he died,” Nora says.
Six-year-olds talking about death makes me think of a young Josie. So matter-of-fact.
“My dad’s Josie maybe died too. The police are still looking for her, but she might be dead. She was sick.”
“My dad was sick too,” Nora says.
Layla and I share uncomfortable smiles. What can we say? Kids process things differently.
“Look, Mom!” Nora says, pointing to a fire engine.
Layla nods, offering her daughter a tiny smile. “Her dad was a fire fighter.”
“My dad’s a detective,” Reagan says.
“What’s a detective?” Nora asks as we approach the food truck.
“He finds bad people and puts them in jail,” Reagan says.
Nora nods, seemingly good with that explanation or just too distracted by the ice cream.
“Detective, huh?” Layla says.
“Yeah. Homicide.”
“Oh, you put the really bad people behind bars.”
“I try.”
We order ice cream and eat it on the short walk back to the ball fields.
“Can Reagan come swim in my pool?” Nora asks when Layla opens the minivan door.
“We don’t have a pool yet.”
“When we do.”
Layla glances up at me.
“She gets plenty of trips to the pool. She has a pool pass.”
“Well…” Layla shrugs “…we could exchange numbers. Nora doesn’t have that many friends in the neighborhood. She’d love to have someone to play with in her pool.”
“Yeah, Dad!” Reagan’s not giving me a choice.
“Sure.” I bring up my contact info and share it with Layla. “Reagan’s at her mom’s house more than mine. So if you message me when she’s at her mom’s, I’ll give Katy your info if that’s okay.”
“Perfect.” Layla sets her phone on the seat and pulls a wipe out of a plastic tube. “Wipe your sticky hands before you get in the minivan.” She glances over her shoulder at me. “Help yourself to a wipe if you don’t want sticky hands in your car.”
Reagan holds up her sticky fingers and wiggles them.
I frown at her before smiling at Layla. “Thanks.”
When both girls are in the vehicles, I head to the driver’s side of my car.
“Colten, thanks for being the sounding board I didn’t know I needed today.”
I smile. “My pleasure.”
“Maybe we’ll see you when the pool goes in.”
I nod. “Maybe. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. It was nice meeting you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“If your wife dies, will you find another wife?”
“I’m sixteen. I have a girlfriend, not a wife,” I said to Josie while we washed my truck in the driveway.
“Jennifer is your girlfriend?” She stopped her motions and stood ramrod straight while the sponge dripped water and suds down her leg.
I shrugged.
“You’re an asshole. Do you hear me?”
I was thankful that her parents had gone to dinner, my parents were seeing a counselor, and Chad was glued to the screen playing games because I had a feeling it was about to get bad.
“You had your hand up my shirt and your tongue down my throat last Friday night. And now Jennifer is your girlfriend?”
I glanced around to see if any of the neighbors were outside and within earshot.
“You can’t be my girlfriend.”
Josie hurled the sponge at my head then grabbed the hose nozzle and turned it onto the hardest stream, spraying every inch of my body. I just stood there with my eyes closed, letting her do her thing. I liked her thing. All of her wild emotions and her willingness to let me stay in her dad’s good graces by not telling him about us. Had he really known what we did when no one was looking, she would have had a 4:00 p.m. curfew, and I wouldn’t have been allowed on their property past the driveway.