AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Alcoholic, in case that wasn’t clear.
Seriously?
I know you enjoy pointless arguments, but I’m not in the mood for one right now. Consider it the price of doing business.
A few dots appear, but I decide I’m done with him and pocket the phone again so I can put my gloves back on.
I try to stay peppy and excited, but there’s a sinking sensation in my chest that Shane’s messages have hooked into.
It feels like everything is falling apart. Again.
This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to make a mobile business happen. There’ve been other iterations of Vanny that took months for me to plan and only weeks to fall apart.
A pet clothes boutique. A mobile store selling only unicorn toys…I mean who wouldn’t want that?
Everyone, apparently.
Maybe it’s time to give up and accept that I’ll be waiting tables and selling shit on eBay until I’m seventy.
Shouldn’t it be enough for me to be Izzy’s mother? There are other moms at her kindergarten who send their kids in with charcuterie lunch boards accompanied by homemade pickles and bread. Moms who volunteer every time a message goes out over ParentSquare and walk their kids to school without looking like they’re on the verge of having a stress-induced heart attack at twenty-eight. Maybe I could be that kind of a mother if I tried hard enough. Maybe being that kind of mom would be enough to satisfy me.
I sigh, and then my mouth drops open as I glance in the rearview mirror and see Tank driving in with his tow truck. It doesn’t speak much toward his faith in reviving Vanny, but I guess he’s as aware of the time crunch as I am.
He parks, then gets out, and I do the same.
“Why’s your window open, Ruthie?” he asks with a frown.
It’s a good question. It was supposed to be warmer today—high forties, they were saying—but it’s probably in the thirties. “I wanted some fresh air?”
He frowns. “Why didn’t you tell me it stopped rolling all the way up?”
Because it’s one thing to ask for help when your van won’t start, and it’s another to constantly request small favors.
Tank’s just my friend—not my boyfriend or partner—and I can’t go treating him differently.
“There were more pressing matters,” I say. “Like the fact that he won’t turn on.” I try not to pout as I add, “How unprofessional am I going to look if I get towed in?”
A corner of his mouth lifts. “Less unprofessional than if you didn’t show. I don’t have time to figure out what the problem is if you’ve got to be there in twenty minutes.”
I submit with a stoic nod, and he spends the next ten minutes getting Vanny hooked up. The last ten minutes before I’m supposed to show are spent on backroads, since no one wants this beast on the highway.
Finally, we pull into the back of the Buchanan lot, which is more empty than it is full.
I glance at my phone. There are half a dozen alerts, including messages about a school Parent Team meeting I won’t be attending, a text from my estranged mother, and a SPAM notice that my Facebook Page for Vanny is scheduled for deletion.
The first time I got one of those, I called Danny in a blind panic, and he explained that it was a phishing scam. Of course, he ended the conversation with a five-minute lecture on Facebook being a massive security risk. “What are they going to steal?” I finally asked. “My debt? They can have it. Maybe I’ll start using 1-2-3 for all of my passwords.”
That shut him up.
Now, I breath out a sigh, because at least the numbers on the top of the phone tell me what I’d like to see. We made it, with just a minute to spare.
Maybe luck hasn’t forsaken me yet—a thought that immediately has me reaching for the fake wood of the dash to give it a knock.
Chapter Four
Ruthie
My heart starts to soar again, even though my van’s still attached to a tow truck. We beat the odds. We’re here. Then I see my contact from Dog is Love through the front window, talking to Jack Durand, the events coordinator from the brewery. They’re standing on the sidewalk attached to the parking lot.
