August drops his head with a groan. Some of the filling from his own sandwich slips from between the slices of homemade bread andplopsonto the driveway. “Come on, man. Don’t make me be the only single one there again.”
Our family marries young and stays together, making August and me the black sheep of the Nolan clan for two very different reasons.
Our cousin Molly married her husband right out of high school. Most of the others were more sensible, waiting until after college. There are kids everywhere. It’s impossible to keep up when all of them seem to have at least four. We multiply like rabbits.
I kick him back. “You still have a few months. Surely you can get a girlfriend by then.”
The bread of his sandwich flops over when he shoves it toward me like that’s going to help him make his point. “I could get ten girlfriends. But I’m not like you. I enjoy the single life too much to give it up.”
“So do I.”
“Mmmhmmm.”
I tear off a piece of crust and toss it at his infuriating head. “Don’t do that shit.”
He doesn’t even bother dodging it, just lets the chunk land on the shoulder of his ugly sweater “What shit?”
“Act like you know something when there’s nothing to know.” He always does this to me.
“Says the guy without a truck.”
CHAPTER 29
LOREN
Mom
What do you want for your birthday?
My stomach is growlinglike a hungry lion but there’s no way I’m going to step out of line for my rental car to grab a burrito from the food truck outside. Whoever chose this lot to park that thing in is either a genius or a super villain.
After I dropped off Elliott’s truck, Meg ferried me to the rental car place. Turns out everyone and their freaking mother is trying to snag a car for the weekend.
If I don’t eat something soon, I might die.
The moment I get home, I’m going to throw on my comfiest sweats and order Chinese takeout from the good place, not the dirt cheap one like I usually do. But before all that, I need to swing by the grocery store and buy myself a whole dang cake.
Might even splurge on the cookies ’n cream kind instead of boring old vanilla.
What reason do I, a car-less Loren Piper, have to be celebrating?
Fergal spoke to Newman Systems and, after a great deal of sweet-talking, they agreed not to cancel their contract.
Fate must’ve taken pity on me for the whole car incident.
Either way, today is infinitely better than the last few days combined.
With this job and the subsequent pay raise, my time in Nashville is about to get a whole lot more bougie. Even the fact that I’ve spent the last hour standing in line waiting to get the car the guy’s insurance company is giving me can’t get me down.
When the elderly couple dragging suitcases finally get their keys, it’s my turn.
This must be the guy’s first day. It takes him forever to key in my responses and photocopy my ID, which baffles me because I already filled out all my details online.
We’re talking DMV slow, folks. Then the tablet I’m supposed to sign goes dead and they have to go old school and print out the rental agreement. But of course, no one can find the paper and when theydofind it in some back-office cupboard, the printer gets jammed. By the time they sort it out, I’m ready to chow down on the contract he clips to the board and hands across the counter.
“Sign here, here, and here. And initial here.” He indicates each spot with the tip of a pen.
I pray the sound of ink meeting paper masks my howling stomach.
