Linc smiles. “I guess I’d better let you go.”
And everything inside me fights the truth of his words, even though I hate that he’s right.
Chapter Ten
Collateral Damage
Lincoln
Monday morning, I’m dragging. Manny,the crew, and I stayed at Madison all through the weekend, and I slept like shit. So on the way in today, I dip into Bean & Gone for a nitro cold brew, hoping a highly concentrated caffeine boost will give me the energy to get through another day knowing Ebony’s on the other side of the wall, thinking about men making her toes curl.
Jesus.
“Which reminds me…” I move up in the line, tapping out a quick text to Josiah and Dom.
Lincoln
What time are we meeting up this Saturday?
Siah’s response appears almost immediately.
Josiah
That depends. Bones, Spades, or gym?
I chuckle, ready to opt for the last when Dom, who isn’t great at either game, replies.
Dom
I’m open for anything after noon. Got a brunch date.
Neither Josiah nor I respond. He’ll probably send me a separate text. It’s well established that whoever answers Dom first will end up being his Spades partner.
“That’s all you, Siah,” I mutter, laughing to myself and already figuring how I’m going to convince them to hit up the gym.
I lift my head at the two girls standing side by side in front of me, watching a phone on full volume. Yesterday’s date scrolls across the bottom of the image next to the KTEGNews at Noonlogo. The screen is split. On the right side, none other than Ellswood’s golden prince, Julian, is tuned in live—on the station that fired him—from his house as a guest. On the left, his red-haired former co-anchor. They’re both smiling and chatting, and he’s wearing—
I lean in, straining to make out the…Is that a giant blue gift bow on his head?
What in the world? Why would he subject himself to this torture? They’re not going to rehire him.
Jesus.
“…Well, we want to say a big congratulations to our old friend, Julian Livingston—”
“The third,” a male voice off-camera adds, chuckling. “Julian Livingston III. Can’t forget that third, Parker.”
She straightens, her smile gleaming as she taps the edge of her paper stack on the desk. “Yes, let’s say a huge congratulations to Julian LivingstonIII, on becoming a father-to-be!” The entire news station erupts in congratulatory applause and whistles. “This is a day I don’t thinkanyof us ever saw coming, including you,” Parker roasts him.
The girls in front of me about fall out laughing, and I have to bite my tongue to keep from joining them.
“Honey, the way Julian Livingston becomes a daddy was not on my bingo card…” the one on the left says, her textured dark curls and blazer-clad shoulders trembling as she’s gasping for breath.
Her friend throws her head back, nearly whipping me with a massive ponytail of purple and black braids swinging wildly. “Phew, Lord! The shade Parker be throwing iswild!”
They lean on each other to keep themselves upright, and her finger must hit the volume by mistake because the entire coffee shop is plugged in full surround sound when Parker asks Julian, “What do you think, Daddy? Any comment on the divorcétante casting her dating net for the plenty of fish in the sea? Your mother sure had a lot to say about…”
A collective gasp echoes around the shop, and by the grace of God, through the tiny gap between the girls, I get a glimpse of the phone.
