Room For More(40)

He sighed but didn’t speak.

“I called my mom, absolutely hysterical. I don’t even remember what I said or what she said, I just remember crying. Then, all of a sudden, she was there. She was calling the landlord and making arrangements for me to leave. She was packing up boxes, she was doing all the things I should’ve been doing but couldn’t, because I was either sobbing or puking.”

“Kacie—”

“Don’t,” I interrupted. “Don’t apologize. I know you’re sorry. You’ve already said that.” I finally turned and looked him in the eye. “What I need from you now is for you not to act like I owe you something for all the time you’ve missed out on. That was your fault, not mine. What’s done is done and I want the girls to know you and to build a relationship with you slowly, but you have no right to give me your opinion on what you feel I should do with my life.”

“Understood.” He nodded.

“I mean it, Zach,” I continued, not sure my warning had hit home just yet. “I will date who I want, go where I want, and do what I want and it’s none of your business. If you try to make it your business, we’ll put a stop to all this and do it the ugly way. Got it?”

“Loud and clear.”

“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to clock in.” I turned on my heel and walked away, knowing damn well that he was staring at me as I went.





“What are we looking for again?”

Kacie stood up from behind a pile of boxes and a piece of her hair fell in between her eyes. She blew it out of her face. “A can of clear, sparkly spray paint.”

I looked around the garage at the stacks of boxes and odd tools laying around. “You’re sure it’s in here?”

“Yes. At least, I think it is.” She walked in front of me and bent over to make sure it hadn’t rolled under the shelf.

Tilting my head to the side, my eyes traveled Kacie’s entire backside all the way to the floor and back up again. She sighed in frustration and spun around quickly, totally catching me.

“Were you just staring at me?”

“Me? No. Why would I stare at you? You’re hideous with your perfect round ass and pouty, pink lips. I mean, come on. Ew.”

She stomped her foot and punched me in my arm. “Come on. This is serious.”

“What do you need it for again?”

Empty boxes went flying as she started flinging them off the top of the workbench. “For Piper. She lost her first tooth today at school.”

“I can’t believe this shit. I missed her first day of school the other day and now I missed her losing her first tooth.”

“You didn’t really miss much with the tooth thing,” she disagreed. “The real excitement comes in the morning when she wakes up and realizes that the tooth fairy came to her house. There isn’t going to be any excitement, though, if I can’t find the damn spray paint.”

I ducked as a box narrowly missed hitting me in the head. “Obviously I’m an idiot, but what does spray paint have to do with the tooth fairy anyway?”

“You take the dollar you’re going to leave under their pillow and spray it with the glitter spray paint. It’s clear so they can still use it if they want, but it’s covered in sparkles so they think the tooth fairy really touched it.” A tiny smile appeared on her face as she shrugged. “My mom used to do it with me and I wanted to continue the tradition with my girls. I still have all of my glitter dollars. I never spent a single one.”

“Wow. Your mom has some pretty awesome ideas.”

“She does, but none of it’s going to matter if I don’t find that damn can.” She threw her hands up in the air and turned back to the row of metal shelves that lined the side of the garage.

“What time is it?”

She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Eight forty-five.”

“The hardware store closes at nine, correct?” I grabbed my keys and headed toward the door.

“Yeah, but it’s a fifteen-minute drive to town. You’ll never make it.”

I laughed. “Challenge accepted.”





Forty-five minutes later, I walked back into the garage to see Kacie sitting on the floor with a bunch of boxes scattered all around her, none of which appeared to contain spray paint.

“I can’t believe you made it!” Kacie jumped up and threw her arms around my neck when she saw the plastic bag filled with glitter spray cans in my hand.

“Barely. I called when I was five minutes away and begged the manager to wait for me. He was grumpy about it until I showed up and he saw it was me.” I hugged her back and set the bag on the workbench. “He asked for a picture, but I did him one better and gave him a signed puck. Thank God I always have extras in my truck.”