“That’s impossible, Mia. I’m back on duty in four days.”
My stomach knotted up. I wanted to stay pissed at Kate, but Mia was right. Again. But there really was nothing I could do. There was no way I could drive all the way back there, get her, and make it back to Ohio in time to get moved into that apartment before I had to be back on duty. Absolutely no way. Besides, she hadn’t called me once, hadn’t even tried talking to me since I left. What good would it do to show up there if she didn’t care enough about me to actually talk about why her family was so terrible that she had run away?
“Whatever, Kai,” Mia snapped, pulling me from my thoughts. That was all I needed was another woman pissed at me. “I’m flying there no matter what’s going on with you two. Those babies are my niece and nephew. And since you’ve been gone, I bet you a million bucks she’s been working her ass off to keep busy and stay on top of her bills or whatever Kate likes to do. I can damn well guarantee she isn’t resting.”
She was right about that as well. If I knew Kate at all, she wouldn’t be resting one bit. She probably even went back to working full-time, since I hadn’t sent her any more money and we hadn’t even gotten those groceries that day. So I was being a giant dick and was still freaking pissed at her.
Mia and I chatted a bit longer, me telling her the whole story of what had happened with Miss Louisiana of 2015. Mia said she looked like a nutjob after googling her, too. Then she looked to see if that picture of me and Kate at the market, the one Rita had taken on her phone, was anywhere. Luckily, she couldn’t find it. Despite looking like a nutjob, maybe she’d decided against doing anything with it. We could only hope.
When we got off the phone, I tried calling Kate once, but she didn’t answer, which didn’t surprise me. She wasn’t going to talk, wasn’t going to confide in me.
My choices weren’t very broad. Getting a hold of her by phone was basically my only option, unless I flew over there and hurried back. In all honesty, I didn’t feel like putting myself out there like that again. Having her shut me down again.
I’d had enough of that for a lifetime.
16
Chloe
My last table was an old couple who was so stinking sweet, but also pretty freaking high maintenance. They kept doting on me, talking about how cute my belly was, and then would ask me to get them more ranch, a side of cheese, a new ketchup bottle because the one they had just wasn’t full enough. On and on. It was getting late, and I was surprised they kept on sitting at that table talking with each other. My feet had swollen to the size of Texas, my back was aching, and I’d had five contractions in the hour they’d been sitting there. I was freaking ready to go home.
My new boss, Vicki, found me hunched over the counter in the server’s station, breathing hard. “You’re lookin’ pretty rough, doll,” she observed. I sighed. “You should probably head out. I can finish off the old people and take the hunk that just sat in your section.”
My shoulders slumped. We were open for another two hours, but I’d been hoping no one else would come in, or at least they wouldn't sit in my section that was all the way in the back of the restaurant where no one usually sat unless the place was full. Which it wasn’t at this hour on a Tuesday night. Why would they even sit someone in my section to begin with? Though, if it was a hunky guy who was by himself getting a nightcap, I could probably do a bit of flirting and get a pretty good tip out of it. I needed every little bit I could get.
Even if Kai had stuck to helping me out with my bills and such after he left, I wouldn’t have accepted the money. Not after what happened. But he hadn’t. Which was why I’d gone and gotten a new job the day after our explosion. It was a little French café on the east side that was only open for dinner. I’d easily landed the job, and at a place that I could just work five hours a night and make out with a pretty decent-sized wad of cash no less. I hadn’t even given myself a day to mourn what was lost. While I may have been dying on the inside, every breath agonizing, I moved on and got a job to pay my bills like a big girl. Working as much as I was wasn’t good for me or the babies, but it was essential.
I straightened, glancing down at Vicki, who was about a foot shorter than me. She raised her chocolate brown eyebrows, crossing her thin olive-toned arms over a nonexistent chest. “You’re gonna tell me you wanna take that table, aren’tcha?”
“See, Vicki? We’re already getting to know each other so well. Didn’t I promise you at my interview that you would love me once you did?” I gave her my best smile that was not real at all but very well practiced. The same smile I’d been wearing in that picture with Jared that Kai had seen.
Fuck. Don’t think about those things!
She snorted, shaking her head, her short, pin-straight ebony hair swishing in her face. “You sure have an attitude you didn’t mention in that interview.”
“And you wouldn’t have me any other way.”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “The hunk’s at table fifteen. He wants Glen on the rocks. I can go grab
