Page 61 of Shortcake
“This uh, this was probably a bad idea,” Conrad added after a moment. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Like a punch to the gut, the butterflies all dropped dead. Replaced instead by a hot, sticky braid of mortification and heartache.It won’t happen again.
“Oh,” I said. My voice sounded unfamiliar. Deeper. Like the woman at the gas station who sold cigars out of a plexiglass case.
My cheeks went hot as the embarrassment and hurt of his words shifted into something more palpable… anger. And as it always did when my temper flared, word vomit escaped. “Then I guess I better go get Elijah’s number after all, huh?”
Then, as if proving how immature I truly was, I stormed off, delighting in the fury that flashed across his blue eyes.
ChapterTen
Conrad
Addy didn’t mean that.
She couldn’t have meant that.
Fucking Elijah with his trendy glasses and cool job owning a bookstore and tattoos that covered his arms. Elijah who looked like a quintessential reformed bad boy, matching Addy’s very persona. It was like if you could fast forward fifteen years, Elijah is the exact man a girl like Addy would settle down with.
Only, it wasn’t fast forwarded.
It was now.
And Elijah was my age. With a son Harper’s age. If Elijah wasn’t right for her, then I certainly wasn’t either.
For the rest of the afternoon, things had shifted between me and Harper. Instead of my daughter ignoring me, locking herself in her room, she was chatty and hanging out with me in the kitchen. While Addy, usually so outgoing, was holing herself up in the basement, ignoring me.
It was better this way, I told myself. Addy should separate herself from Harper and me.
Forget the age difference, I had a daughter who was barely clinging to normalcy. I think she might just lose her shit if she found out I was dating a girl that was closer in age to Harper than to me.
When Addy finally resurfaced from the basement around seven, she was carrying an armful of groceries. Where the hell was she keeping groceries down in the basement? Had she found a way to sneak out without me knowing? Had she crawled out the basement window and gone to a grocery store?
Completely unaware of what had happened between Addy and me, Harper bounced over to Addy, taking a seat at the kitchen island as Addy pulled out two large onions from her bag. “You are not going to believe this,” Harper said. “Dad says I can join the book club!”
Addy flicked a glance at me before bringing her attention back to the onions on the cutting board. “He did?”
Each slice of the knife hitting the cutting board made a loud slapping sound of knife on bamboo.Thwack.
“Yeah! We’re going to meet on Mondays, but because we all hit it off so well today, we’re going to meet tomorrow, too.”
“If…” I cut in.
Harper rolled her eyes. “IfI unpack three boxes in my room during the day tomorrow.”
I watched from across the room as Addy’s throat worked a swallow. “That’s awesome, kid.”Thwack. “That means you’re going to spend tonight reading a chapter or two, right?”
Harper nodded.
A knot lodged in my throat watching my sweet girl regress back to childlike excitement. For the past year, it seemed like nothing could crack a smile out of her. Not since my mother passed. And now, here she was, talking candidly in front of me, smiling, and laughing. Excited to go read chapters in her book.
It was like having Harper back after a year’s sabbatical.
“Oh!” Harper hopped up from the chair and ran to her messenger bag, strewn on the floor with several of her new books falling out. “Here, Addy.” She crossed the kitchen, taking the seat once more and handed her a worn book. “I dug through some of the boxes and found this for you.”
It wasn’t just any book. It was my mom’s prized copy ofPride and Prejudice. A sudden ache sliced into my core like a cheese grater.
Addy set her knife down and took the book gently from Harper’s hands. “You found it,” she said softly.
