Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
But she could barely move off the chair by the dressing room.
“Yeah, I’m good. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Shit.
Liston didn’t deserve to be snapped at.
“Sorry,” she said with a groan as she heaved herself out of her chair. “I hurt my back over the weekend. Thought it would be better, but it’s making me a bit crabby.”
Liston nodded. “I get it! My mom hurt her back a few months ago, she was hobbling around, snapping at everyone for ages. I know it gets harder to recover from injury as you get older.”
“Right.”
Liston did realize that Opal was only a few years older than her, right?
Although today she felt centuries old.
The bell chimed as the door opened.
And she barely smothered her groan. Why couldn’t everyone just leave her alone today? They just kept coming in here and pestering her.
What size do you have in this?
What other colors does this come in?
Urgh. Leave me alone.
Well, this is your job, you know.
She was really starting to wish that she’d listened to Renard and hadn’t come in to work today.
All she wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep for the next century.
Not deal with people and all their demands.
“Opal! Why didn’t you tell us?” Lilac asked, walking in.
“Yeah. Why were you keeping this from us?” Ryleigh added, pushing a sleeping Kye in front of her in a stroller.
Drat. Alec Malone had a big mouth.
“Liston, do you think you can handle the shop for fifteen minutes while we go out back?” she asked.
“Yeah, go for it!” Liston said cheerfully.
Opal moved slowly out to the back room.
“Oh, Alec said you had hurt your back,” Ryleigh said. “Are you okay? He wasn’t real happy at you moving that carpet by yourself, by the way.”
Awesome.
“Neither was Tanner. He wanted to come have a few words with you,” Lilac added. “I managed to convince him not to. But the Malone men are upset. I think you’ve insulted their manhood or something.”
“Their manhood? Doesn’t that mean their dicks? How have I insulted their dicks?” Opal asked as she poured them all coffee.
Opal doctored hers with four spoons of sugar and extra creamer. She didn’t usually have sugar, but she needed the energy boost.
Ryleigh just shrugged. “I’d rather not think about my brothers’, uh, privates, thank you very much.”
“There’s only one Malone dick I’m interested in,” Lilac said as she took a seat, sipping on her coffee. “And it’s just fine, thank you very much.”
“Gag,” Opal replied without heat. She lowered herself into a chair with a moan. “Fuck. Who knew your back could hurt so much?”
“Have you taken painkillers?” Lilac asked with concern.
“Last night. I have to get some liquid stuff, you know I have trouble with having pills near me.”
“Opal, you need to take some,” Ryleigh told her, leaning forward. “Do you need us to go get some for you?”
“No. I can do it.”
“I have some in my bag,” Lilac said, pulling some painkillers out.
Right. Lilac poured two out and Opal stared down at them.
Nausea bubbled in her stomach.
Great.
She breathed in deep and started to bring them to her mouth. But all she could remember was Stefan shaking her, yelling at her.
Stupid bitch!
What have you done?
I swear you’re a lot of fucking work for a hole! If you weren’t so damn good at blow jobs, I wouldn’t waste my fucking time!
“I’m gonna be sick,” she mumbled before a garbage can was shoved in front of her by Lilac.
She gagged, but since she’d barely eaten today there wasn’t anything to come up.
“Oh, Opal,” Ryleigh said, rubbing her back. “You poor thing. What can we do?”
Lilac put the garbage can down. “We’ll go get you the liquid stuff.”
“I’ll get it on my lunch break. Promise.”
“You’re looking a bit pale,” Ryleigh said. “Maybe you should go home and rest.”
“Pale? Me? I don’t think so!” She’d looked pale this morning, though, when she’d woken up. Which is why she’d put extra make-up on.
Crap.
How bad did she look? She searched through her handbag for a mirror and held it up.
Fuck.
She did look like shit.
“I need to put some more makeup on. I can’t believe you can see the bags under my eyes.”
This wasn’t acceptable.
It couldn’t be happening.
“Opal, it’s fine, no one will notice,” Ryleigh told her.
“I’ll notice,” she grumbled as she grabbed her foundation from her handbag.
“You could have called us, you know,” Lilac said to her. “We would have helped you clear the carpet out and move furniture.”
“Ah, honey, I think you’ve forgotten about your man. No way is a Malone letting either of you lift heavy furniture or move shit around,” she replied.
“They aren’t the boss of us,” Ryleigh said hotly.
Lilac and Opal turned to look at her.
“What?” Ryleigh said defensively. “All the men in this town can be so darn bossy. They need to tone it down. If I want to dress up and go dancing, I can do that without needing a whole police escort.”