Page 277 of Branded
A moment after that, she and Ethan had gone.
Only then did I allow myself a tiny fist pump.
“Good boy, Spark,” I whispered.
Sparky’s tail thumped against my abdomen…and then I took my pooch on the remainder of his walk, Spark’s fluffy body warm in my arms.
Ten
Jules
I hefted the bag of trash out through the backdoor of CeCe’s.
It was late.
Last call had been made.
And all I wanted was to get home to Ethan.
Plus, if I made it home before three, I wouldn’t have to pay Mary for another hour. Mary was awesome, but money was always tight, and with Ethan in big kid school now, things were only going to get more expensive.
My baby was getting bigger.
Which meant the kid was eating more, and he was outgrowing his clothes and his shoes, and?—
Every hour I wasn’t spending on childcare meant more money to save for clothes and food and hockey gear, and, heaven help me, college one day.
I dropped the trash bag to the ground, tied it off, and then rose on tiptoe to push open the top of the dumpster, having to do it a couple of times before it banged back against the brick wall and stayed in place. Then I waited, eyeing it warily.
It had fallen down and crashed onto my head too many times to count.
But when it remained resting against the wall, I bent for the bag, hefting it up and launching it into the dumpster.
The rim of the dumpster was high, and I was short, so even with practice, that still took me a couple of tries to be successful in my bag launching. A leap had my fingers reaching for the top, sending it crashing down, and I turned back for the bar, brushing my hands off as I went.
All I had left to do was close out a couple of tables, bus a few others, and then I was going to clock out and head home.
Smiling, I tugged open the door to the hallway.
And just that quickly, my smile faded.
I sighed, my head falling back, gaze hitting the ceiling. “Jesus Christ, not again.”
Cas’s ex.
The woman’s name was…Chester? Charmaine? Colette? No. Chelsea.
It was Chelsea.
And that woman was a Do Not Engage Zone.
Thus, I didn’t say anything, just started to brush by her. I’d learned my lesson the last time Chelsea came in. The daggers that woman had thrown my way…yeah, I didn’t want any part of that crazy.
I needed to focus on Ethan. On the new clothes he was going to need. The shoes. The hockey gear. The college fund.
All of which would be really difficult to give my son if I got my ass fired.
Talons gripped my arm, yanking me roughly to a halt.
