Page 10 of Run, Run Mistletoe
“No, thank you.”
“Tell me about your ex.”
Rolling my eyes, I groan. “Right. Well, I don’t know why I’m telling you this. But when I got pregnant with our daughter, Velvet, we’d been married for seven years. We’d been trying to have kids for a long time. But it didn’t happen.”
“So what happened?”
“Same old story. He had an affair with a girl that was interning in his office. She was barely twenty. And she got pregnant the same time that I did.”
“And he picked her over you?”
I laugh at the shock on his face. “She was ten years younger than me and had a rich daddy that owned the company that my ex worked at. So yeah…he picked her.”
“Does he see Velvet?”
I shake my head. “Nope. Doesn’t pay child support or anything. Signed over all rights to me.”
“He’ll regret that one of these days.”
“Yeah. My mom says that too. I don’t know if Donny will. He’s a self-centered jerk.”
“Sounds like it.”
The phone rings and I jump to get it. That was a lot faster than I was expecting.
“Hey, Irv?” My heart feels like it sinks to my toes. “Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Transmission gone?”
“Yeah.” Hanging up the call, I let my whole body sink into myself. I cannot afford to buy a new car now but I can’t afford to be without a vehicle either.
“I’ll take you to pick up your daughter and then we’ll go look at some trucks.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I really do. How about a cup of coffee, Misty?”
I turn away and set up the coffee pot, my hands shaking a little until I take a deep breath and let it out.
The man behind me, the one that I thought was a huge jerk, settles in and starts to chatter about little things.
Things that I don’t need to respond to. And the more he talks, the better I feel.
I push the thought out of my head and just listen to his story about one of his employees who went car shopping and came home with a bug.
And she had a Great Dane that loved to ride with her.
I giggle and turn to hand him a cup of coffee and just let myself be. Let his hand gently run along mine.
Just let myself be a woman talking to a man.
And it feels better than I’ve felt in a long time.
6
FRANKINCENSE
Misty walks out into the traffic in front of the school since they wouldn’t recognize her in the SUV with me. She waves a hand and a little girl with pale blue eyes and a sweet smile along with pale blond curls like her mom runs up to her.
