Eat Crow (Cheap Thrills Series Book 6) Mary Moore (read out loud books .txt) 📖

floor. “My parents are grieving as well, though—Dad lost his father, for Christ’s sake. I need to be less selfish and let them start healing instead of taking on my grief and inability to act like a mature adult. I’ve been doing that for seven fucking years now. When does it end?”

Tilting my head to the side, I watched her as she looked around the room, avoiding my eyes. “Bexley, you were dealt a blow that shattered any illusions of security you had here, and I was the one who did it. Staying away was how you protected yourself and found ways to get that security back. Was it the right idea not to come home? Fuck knows. We can’t predict what would’ve happened if you’d come back straight after college—”

“I lost time with him, Logan.” She sounded as tortured as she looked when she finally met my gaze. “If I’d come home right after college, I would’ve had at least one or even two of those years back.”

The guilt was almost suffocating me. “It’s my fault, and I’ll never be able to put into words exactly how sorry I am, honey. I fucked it up for everyone. The shittiest thing is that I didn’t even mean what I said, I was just a massive dick back then.”

Closing her eyes, she shook her head slowly. “I know that, and it would’ve come out sooner or later. At least it happened when I had to leave for college and not once I came back. I don’t know if I could’ve handled the blow from that and losing Pops too.” Lifting her free hand to move a chunk of hair that’d fallen out of the messy bun and onto her face, she gave me a small smile. “He never blamed you, you know. He always said there was a reason for everything happening and that what didn’t break you made you stronger.”

“He said the same thing to me as well. I kept asking him why he didn’t beat the tar out of me, but he’d just repeat that the reason for it all happening would make itself clear in time, and that at least you were pursuing your dreams with fire in your soul instead of just going through the motions until you graduated from college.” I stopped and then decided to fill her in on a funny part of the story. “Although, most of the time when he saw me, he’d pull his finger across his neck and whisper, ‘you’re a dead man.’ Then there were the erectile dysfunction pamphlets, natural cures for it, emails, boxes of the magical little blue pills, and shit like that which kept arriving. I’m thinking what he had to say about it depended on the day.”

Bexley burst out laughing at this, and I knew I’d made the right choice adding it in. “He sent you erectile dysfunction stuff?” she wheezed.

“Sure did. And also taught his dog to hate me.”

Still laughing, she nodded her head quickly. “He did a thorough job there.”

Tugging her with me to the kitchen, I didn’t let go of her until we were in front of the bag of food. Pressing my palm against her stomach, I gently pushed her in the direction of the cupboard behind her. “Get some plates, baby. I really don’t want this to go to waste.”

Snorting, she did as I asked. “You always hated your food going cold. Remember that time we drove to the new Mexican restaurant in Palmerstown and reheated it when we got home?”

“How could I forget? I ended up in the hospital with food poisoning. That’s why I don’t reheat takeout.”

“I told you to have the beef, but you just had to go for the chicken and seafood tacos.”

Shuddering, I pulled out the tacos I’d bought for us—ironically, they were chicken—and made sure they were still warm enough for me.

“They got shut down six months after they opened for repeated violations and multiple reports of food poisoning. I think you need to maybe change your way of thinking to you being lucky not to get food poisoning, too.”

“You’re probably right,” she murmured, unwrapping two of the tacos and putting them on her plate. “It wasn’t even good food.”

Yeah, two tragedies had occurred that day: bad Mexican and food poisoning. It was criminal.

Frowning, she looked down at the taco she was just about to bite into. “Is this restaurant better? I haven’t heard much about it.”

Taking as big of a bite as I could, I nodded as I chewed. “Yeah, they’re family-owned. They used to sell the stuff they made at a small shop with a stall outside when it was warm, but they received a start-up cash injection to open the restaurant. It’s one of the best things to happen to Piersville.”

Finally, she gave in and bit into it, groaning when she tasted it, and I paused with my mouth open just as I went to take another bite of my taco. Closing her eyes, she moaned and chewed, making me shift slightly.

“Okay, now this is a good taco.” Opening her eyes back up, she incorrectly read the expression on my face. “Please tell me it’s not a taco fluke and that they’re all as good as this?”

Swallowing awkwardly, I took another bite and took my time chewing and swallowing it. “No, this one’s always awesome, so the odds are probably in our favor.”

Finishing them off was a test in restraint and patience, and by the time it was over, I’d made a mental note to avoid getting tacos again in the near future.

While we were moving furniture out into the garage so we could shrink-wrap more flooring, she told me about her plans to meet up with Ava. They’d been best friends since they were little as well, even though she was eighteen months older than Bexley.

She also filled me in on the English teacher vacancy at Piersville High that she’d applied for.

“I emailed my CV in to the principal, and it