Page 86 of Time for Change

“It was good. Real good,” she informs me, pulling her coat from a locker on the opposite side of the room.

“And all the jerks didn’t hit on you?” I tease, remembering her comment about them hitting on her at her last job.

She slams her locker and slides a crossbody purse over her shoulder. “Well, Walker and the rest of the owners seem like good dudes. So far, that’s a plus.”

I hear what she’s saying, and as I pull my own coat from my locker, I pause. “You mean your old boss hit on you?”

She leans against the wall of lockers. “Terribly.”

Appalled on her behalf, I still feel the need to say, “Well, I’ve only been here a month, but as far as I can tell, the owners are all class acts.” My mind flashes to the guy who grabbed me earlier. “The occasional patron on the other hand…”

“I heard about that. Jameson took care of it though?”

“He did,” I assure her. “Kicked them out.”

“Good.” She walks my way and stops directly in front of me. “Do you have plans tonight?”

“No,” I find myself saying.

“Well, you do now,” she informs me, slipping her arm through mine and leading me out of the break room.

“Uhh, where are we going?”

When we reach the back entrance, she says, “Out. I need to get a few things for my new place, and I’d like to get to know you better.”

“O-okay,” I stammer, caught a little off guard by her directness.

Before we step outside, she stops and looks at me. “We’re friends now,” she declares, making me laugh.

Something tells me this is the start of a unique friendship.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Jack

It’s getting close to five on Friday, and we’re ready to leave the office, when my phone rings. I pull it from my pocket and find my ex-wife’s name on the screen. “I’m heading out. Talk to you soon, Caden,” I holler before pushing through the door and making my way to my truck.

“Hey, Mya.”

“Hi, Jack. This a bad time?”

“Nope. Just leaving work and heading to Miss Libby’s to get the kids. What’s up with you?” I ask, sliding into my truck and starting it up. The Bluetooth picks up, transferring the call to the speakers as I crank up the heat.

“Well, I wanted to let you know we made an offer on the house at the beginning of the week, and it was accepted. Cort and I told the kids last night about the baby. And about the new house.”

“Yeah? How’d they take it?”

She hesitates, which gives me pause. “Well, Christian took it exactly how you’d expect. He was thrilled with the idea of becoming a big brother, though he insisted the baby be a boy because he already has a sister,” she says with a chuckle.

I nod and smile. “Sounds like him. What about Gi?”

“She was…” She hesitates longer than I expect. “I don’t know. She didn’t really react as much as I thought she would.”

As I’m reaching for the gearshift, my hand stops and lowers back to my leg. “What do you mean?”

Mya sighs. “I don’t know. We’ve talked about things like this in the past. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago, she was beggingfor Cort and me to have a baby. But now, with a baby on the way and a new house being finished, she just seemed uninterested. It was weird.”

“Huh, that is odd. Gi usually has opinions about everything. It’s not like her to remain quiet,” I tease, even though it’s true.

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