Page 109 of Books and Hookups

I was being paranoid. No one was paying us any attention. Besides Carly’s haute couture, nothing about us stood out. I was wearing a goddamned hoodie like half the people in San Francisco, for Christ’s sake.

Drawing my hood up over my head, I glanced back at the demonstration unit. Babies had never interested me, even before I learned I’d never have one. But I saw something that drew my attention: data. I stepped closer to peer at the tag, but the print blurred.

I patted my hip. I hadn’t brought my bag. “Glasses. Anyone have a pair of readers?”

“I’ve got you.” Savannah dug through her enormous tote and pulled out a pair.

“Thanks.” I slipped them onto my nose. Savannah’s prescription was stronger than mine, but if I squinted, the data came into focus.

“Andrew showed me the coolest thing the other day,” Carly said. “There’s an app for your phone that can magnify. It even lights up so I can read menus in dim lighting. Total game-changer.”

I tuned out Savannah’s answer as I tapped on my phone to analyze the data. In a few minutes, I pointed. “That one.”

Savannah scrunched her nose. “Why that one?”

I ticked off the facts on my fingers. “Five point safety harness. Industry-leading side-impact protection. Anti-rebound bar. Plus LATCH connections and a tether system. It has a five-star crash-test rating from a consumer safety group. It’s the safest.”

Carly caressed the one next to it. “But that one’s hideous. This one comes in shades of gray and black. Lucie’s color scheme.”

“This is her goddamnbabywe’re talking about,” I said, “not a couch or a pair of boots. We go with what’s safest.” A tingle shot down my spine. Authority. Power. Like when I used to run meetings and make billion-dollar decisions. Well, one billion-dollar decision, and the world knew how that had turned out. But I was confident about this one. I stood up straighter, towering over my friends.

“Tessa’s right,” Savannah said, laying her hand on Carly’s arm. “It might be ugly, but we want the safest one.”

“What’s so ugly about it?” I asked.

“Boat print fabric?” Carly curled her lip. “Don’t even get me started.”

I hovered my thumb over my phone. “I could special-order it in all black.”

“No.” Savannah reached her other hand to cover my phone. “No special orders. We walk out with this one, slap a bow on it, and give it to Lucie and Danny. In person.”

“Fine,” Carly huffed.

I grabbed the box from under the display and heaved it into the cart. “Anything else?”

Jutting out her chin, Carly picked up a pair of zebra-striped booties with bells on the toes. “These. They’re adorable.”

Savannah shook her head. “Those bells are a choking hazard. Try these.” She plucked a different pair from the display. They were black-and-white striped with enormous plush ladybugs on the toes.

Carly’s nostrils flared, but she nodded. “Also cute.”

Savannah tossed them into the cart and turned it toward the front of the store. But now it was evident that the two women were staring at me. One of them stepped in front of our cart.

Her eyes glinted dangerously. “You’re Tessa Wright.”

I breathed in deep and straightened my shoulders. “I am.”

“My big sister drove for Red Rover,” she said. “She had breast cancer and needed the health insurance.”

“I’m sor?—”

“Then you took it away. You walked away with a billion dollars. But without her insurance, my sister couldn’t afford her treatments or even her routine checkups. And by the time we found out and made her see her doctor, it was too late. She died seven years ago.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. So, so sorry. Sorry I’d ever let Harry talk me into that deal. Sorry I’d gone to ground instead of standing up. Sorry I hadn’t done enough soon enough.

“Sorry doesn’t bring her back,” the woman spat.

“I know it doesn’t. Can I…” But I didn’t know what I could do. My foundation for Red Rover employees might help her family recover financially, but there were wounds my money couldn’t heal.

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