Page 37 of Everything I Promise

“I don’t even care, I’m just so excited to open! I have to clean and call all my clients. But, shoot, I have to go get Oliver in an hour.” She’s rambling to herself, pacing her office.

I grab her hands and force her to slow down and look at me, “Hey, slow down, I am done for the day. I can go get Oliver and he can help me paint some more upstairs.”

“Oh, well, that would be super helpful. Not to mention he would love it. If you want to swing by the grocery store I can cook us dinner afterward.” She’s leaning into me using that look she knows will get me hard in about a second flat.

“Sounds good. We can do that.” I choke out.

“We could go celebrate real quick together, upstairs. Before you leave,” she’s whispering to me now, running her hands up my back under my shirt.

“I think I might like to celebrate with you.” I pick her up and carry her upstairs as fast as I can.

This is going to be the sweetest celebration I’ve ever had.

Chapter Seventeen

Lacey

I am so thankful for Colton. I don’t know how I would have finished all I had to do today without him getting Oliver at school. All my appointments for tomorrow are confirmed, and as promised Mrs. Smith is my first appointment. I am also thankful that I had the forethought to not schedule an appointment until after lunch so that I can have all morning to make sure that the salon is set up and ready to go. Maybe that will help keep my anxiety at bay about the first day.

“Hello? Lacey, are you still here?” I hear Lauren’s voice coming from the front of the salon. I must have forgotten to lock the front door, but since it is dark at 4:00 now, she could still see that light was on.

“Hey! I’m back here in my office!” I yell out.

Lauren walks through my office door and takes a seat on the chair in front of my desk. “Am I interrupting? I just saw the light on and thought I would pop in. I heard you passed all your inspections today!”

“Yup, small town gossip at its finest! The salon is officially opened tomorrow, and Mrs. Smith gets to be the first client as she requested.” I laugh when Lauren rolls her eyes. She knew that would happen. “I can’t beat the free advertisement from her so I figure I should keep her happy.” I shrug.

“Of course. Free advertisement is best. The salon looks beautiful. I can’t wait for my appointment next week. I’m so happy that you filled all your appointments so fast. Oh, I brought you a present!” She pulls out a sign with my new salon name on it.

“I love it, Lauren! Thank you so much! It will look perfect up on the wall. You even got my brand colors!” I exclaim looking at the sweet gift.

“I might have asked Colton for some swatches,” she says sheepishly.

I’m so happy to be home and have my friends back in my life. Back in Portland I really only had the girls who worked for me, and I tried to not socialize too much outside of work to keep it professional. I was always a little jealous of how close the girls were with each other.

“So, how are things with Mr. Hotpants upstairs? Distracting?” She chuckles, using the nickname Addy gave Colton.

I’m pretty sure that won’t die down anytime soon.

“He is very distracting to work with. But he picked Oliver up for me at school today so I could finish work. Michael never spent any time alone with Oliver since the day he was born. If he spent any time with him at all, I had to be there. Now Colton has even kept him overnight,” I gush.

“I’m so happy for you, Lace. I wish I could find someone in this damn small town.” She pouts.

“What about Brad? You definitely should ask him out. I’ve seen how he looks at you!” And I have. Brad looks at Lauren like she hung the moon, and she has no idea. Maybe they both need a little push.

“He doesn’t look at me any type of way! You are just thinking that because you know I want him to look at me like that. It is like some sort of friend thing. You see what you want to see. Anyways, I’ve got to get to a showing, and you need to get back to that man of yours.” She slides her coat on and gives me a hug goodbye.

“Thank you so much for coming by and the present. Text me later?” I open the front door for her.

I do need to get upstairs so I can make dinner for my boys. Colton has really brightened up the evening routine for us lately.

As I’m locking up behind Lauren my phone dings to let me know that I have a text message. I pick up my phone to open the text message and freeze. It’s Michael. Again. Why can’t he just leave me alone? Our divorce hearing is coming up in January and I just want to be done with him. It can’t come fast enough.

Michael:Lacey, I am done playing. I want to see my son and I want to see him now. You have until next weekend to schedule a time.

I know there is nothing behind his threat because I legally don’t have to let him see or talk to Oliver, but I still don’t like to even see his name on my phone. I’m also a little worried that he still hasn’t let this go. He hasn’t said anything in a couple weeks but every time I let myself think that he is done with whateverfit he’s throwing, he pops back up in my life. I wish I could just block his number, but until the divorce is over I’m stuck.

I open the apartment door and hear giggling coming from the master bedroom. “Boys, I’m here!” I yell out.

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