Lone Star Daddy (McCabe Multiples) (20 page)

Jessie gulped. “He?”

No, no, no, this isn’t happening
.

“Since Ben and Rose are staying in the guesthouse, it only makes sense that with their Grady in town, he stays here with them. And why didn’t you tell me you broke up with him? You cried for months. We didn’t think you’d be able to leave for college.”

“Please, stop exaggerating.”

“I don’t hear a denial.” Billy Sue opened the back door of Jessie’s car and took out the plastic laundry tub Jessie had filled with clothes. They were caked with drywall dust and mud, and her mom wrinkled her nose at the smell. “These jeans could get up and walk themselves.”

“I know.”

“Why didn’t you just leave them? We could make a fun weekend out of driving to Fort Worth or Dallas to find you a whole new wardrobe.”

This was all too much. The storm. Grady. Losing her apartment and school. “I don’t want new clothes, I want mine—anything to remind me that four days ago, I woke up in my own bed, ate my own cereal, drove my own car, taught in my classroom. Now I don’t have anything. It’s all just gone. I feel like I’m living in the Twilight Zone, and I need a break.”

“Honey...” Her mother slipped her arm around Jessie’s shoulders. “Don’t you see? Having Grady here will make everything better. You’ll see.”

“Oh, my God, Mom. No, it won’t. If anything, having him around will only make an already awful situation unbearable.”

“Sorry to hear that.” Grady stood on the porch, glaring at her.

Copyright © 2015 by Laura Marie Altom

ISBN-13: 9781460381960

Lone Star Daddy

Copyright © 2015 by Cathy Gillen Thacker

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