AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After leaving the Riverwalk, Roni drove straight to her apartment, went upstairs, and climbed into bed. She set her alarm for twenty minutes. That’s all she needed. A twenty-minute reset to settle her mind. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was asleep. When the alarm went off, she hit the snooze button again and again, until Spooky jumped on her head and made her wake up.
She groaned as she forced herself to sit up. “This is all your fault,” she told the cat. “You were supposed to be magic. You were supposed to bring me my happily ever after.” But even as she said the words, she realized how ridiculous they sounded.
She grabbed Spooky in her arms and hugged him tightly for as long as he would allow it. Which wasn’t long.
“Okay, you’re right,” she told the cat. “I need to put on my big girl pants and get moving. We have a festival to attend. It’s a big night for all your animal friends.”
She’d called Brianna and told him what Mrs. Duarte said but tried not to let on how upset she was. If Brianna or her sister, Jenni, saw her lying there crying her eyes out, they’d give her a good scolding, and they’d be right. She was too old to be carrying on like this over a lost love. “Who needs men?” she asked Spooky. “I don’t. I have you, right?”
She scooped him up and squeezed him again until he let out a loud howl.
“Okay, okay. Enough kitty loving. I gotta get going.” She let him go, then ran into the bathroom and washed her face, pressing the cold washcloth under her puffy eyes.
It was no use. She was a mess. She reapplied her makeup and tried to fix her hair until she heard her phone ringing and gave up. That was probably Brianna wondering where she was. She looked at her watch. She was more than an hour late.
Brianna was going to be so mad at her.
She grabbed her phone and shoved it in her back pocket, then pulled on her coat. “I have to go, Spooky. I’ll see you later. Maybe I’ll even bring you back a kitty friend.”
She could have swore Spooky’s eyes widened in horror as she ran out the door and hurried across the street toward the festival.
“There you are,” Brianna called as she ran up.
“I’m so sorry. I got hung up.”
Brianna took one look at her, and her expression softened. “Is everything all right?”
That look alone sent the tears rushing back to her eyes. “Yes. It is now. Earlier, not so much.”
“I’m sorry. Anything new about Jimmy?”
“Other than he went back to Denver, what else could there be?”
“Maybe there is more to the story,” Brianna suggested.
“If there was, he would have told me he was leaving for himself. I had to find out from his mother. Talk about awful.”
Brianna cringed. “I’m so sorry. Men can be such cowards.”
“And complete idiots,” she added, starting to feel better. She turned toward her booth and saw all the people wandering in and out of Jimmy’s booth set up next to hers.
For a second, hope surged in her chest, which was ridiculous. If Jimmy was there, Brianna would have told her. “What’s going on over there?” she muttered and walked toward the booth. She saw several of Jimmy’s small paintings hanging inside.
“I just love these,” she heard a woman saying. “I’m getting two. One for me and one for my sister.”
“That’s seventy dollars,” Owen said and collected the money from her.
Owen.
“Where did you get these?” she asked, not knowing if she was pleased or disappointed that Owen was selling Jimmy’s paintings.
“Jimmy’s house.”
“You heard from him, then?” Her voice broke as she said the words.
“I did. He told me where to find them.” He started to say more, but she turned and headed back to her booth as anger surged inside her.
“What’s wrong?” Brianna asked, hurrying forward.
