Page 12 of A Very Miller-Cooper Life

“Are you sure? Because I heard the girl you fell for has been a pretty sucky wife lately.”

“I’m positive. I love you more than anything in the entire world, Charlie, and I absolutely adore the life we’ve made together even if it has been a little messy lately. So, you’ll give your two week—”

“Sixty-day,” I interrupted. “According to my contract I have to give them a sixty-day notice, or I’ll owe them money for the days I don’t work during that time.”

“Fucking assholes.”

I chuckled at Reagan’s bluntness. “You’re telling me. I think I’ll actually do three months though. It gives us slightly more time to figure things out.”

“Are you sure? Three months is a long time to torture yourself.”

I nodded. Lately, every day felt like a year, but knowing it wasn’t going to last forever made it not seem so bad anymore. “I think having an end date will make things easier for me.”

***

It turned out, I was right. As soon as I gave my notice, I felt a million pounds lighter. Getting up for work didn’t feel like complete torture. I was so much happier that I almost convinced myself maybe this job wasn’t as bad as I had made it out to be in my mind.Almost. The job fucking sucked, and the way I ran outand didn’t even look back on my last day, only proved how true that was.

“Congratulations!” Reagan shouted when I walked into the house after work that day. “You’re officially no longer employed by the devil.”

I followed her voice and the sounds of “Yay, Mommy!” through the house and into the kitchen, where I found balloons decorating the room and a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing (my favorite) sitting on the counter. “Congrats,” was written sloppily along the top of the cake.

One at a time, each of our kids ran over to me and wrapped their arms around my legs in a hug. I felt my eyes burning as tears threatened to fall, and at the moment, I wasn’t sure if they were happy tears or sad tears. When had these three gotten so big? I felt like I missed them growing up over the past year, but I also knew that wasn’t going to happen anymore, and relief flooded through me.

“Did you have a good last day?” Reagan asked as she wrapped me in a hug.

I laughed at the question, feeling lighter than I had in a very long time. “It was awful, which in a way, was wonderful. Averygood reminder of why I left that place.”

“I’m so happy to hear that. I have some good news of my own.”

“Oh yeah? What is it?”

“Remember how I was messing around and drew a scene from the one book I was reading?”

How could I forget?I had to remind myself to breathe when Reagan reluctantly showed me what she had been working on, because it was so beautiful. “Of course I remember. And if that’s you messing around, I’d love to see what you can do when you actually try.” I poked her in the side to show her I was onlykidding. I never again wanted to make her doubt how proud she makes me.

“Well, I put it up on my Instagram last week and tagged the author, and she shared it in her story. After seeing it, a few people reached out asking if I do commissions, so I’ve been thinking about doing it. But you’ll never guess who messaged me today.”

“Who?”

“Laurel Lake!” The way Reagan’s face lit up as she said the name told me I should know who that was. It sounded so familiar, but since I didn’t really read, I wasn’t sure why.

“That’s amazing! Now, remind me again who Laurel Lake is.”

“Really, babe?” Reagan rolled her eyes at me. “We literally met her at Ethan’s charity event a few years ago. The Christmas one.”

“Oh! You mean Kinsley, right? The one who is married to Grace—the girl who went to my school. I would have known if you said her real name.”

“Okay, okay. Whatever.Anyway, she asked me if I wanted to design the cover of her next book.”

“No way! Are you kidding me?” I asked as I pulled Reagan into another hug. “That’s amazing. You told her you’d do it, right?”

“I told her I would let her know. I wanted to talk to you first. Since it’s the first one I’m doing, I don’t want to charge a ton, so it’s not like we’re going to make a bunch of money from it, but I think this could open the door to more opportunities like this for me. I thinkthismight have been what I was waiting for, even though I didn’t realize it before.”

“You need to message her back immediately. This is a huge opportunity, Reagan. Don’t let it pass you by!”

Reagan’s eyes lit up even more, and it was so cute, it made me want to kiss her from head to toe. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure! Get your phone out and tell her you’re doing it.”

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