I rushed to my bathroom where there were still a few pregnancy tests stacked under the sink. Frankie and I had been talking about starting to try for a baby soon.
I shoved the bitter memories aside and ripped open the package.
Frankie was dead to me. Was Cash my future?
With trembling fingers, I put the test on the counter and waited. . .
CHAPTER 18
Frankie, almost 2 years later
“Gonna need that fish, Frankie!” Dale (of Dale’s Premier Fish ’n’ Chips) hollered back at me, even though I was only at the other end of the food truck.
“Yes, sir, coming sir,” I said hastily as sweat ran down my back.
I quickly placed the breaded fish into the fryer, sending hot oil sizzling over my wrists.
Fuck, that hurt.
After almost two years, my wrists were swollen and scarred from so much time around the deep fryer.
Cash strolled by as I choked down a pained curse.
“Remember, as a town we are aiming for 100% customer satisfaction,” he said, adjusting his necktie.
“Yes, sir! It’s hard without good help,” Dale replied, his jowls wiggling agreeably. “But we’re working toward it.”
Cash glanced toward me, dismissively, sardonically. Like I was no longer any threat to him.
“Yes, Mr. Mayor,” I said. “I’ll try to do better.”
After Jillian left me the town had quickly voted on a mayoral recall.
No one liked me or trusted me to lead them anymore.
And I couldn’t really blame them.
I fucking loathed myself, too.
Cash had been elected with 99.9% of the vote.
“I have big plans for this town,” his pitch had been. “Plans far bigger and grander than the previous administration could ever dream of.”
Since losing my job as Mayor, I had been forced to do several different odd jobs to make ends meet and afford my rent at Mrs. Greenberg’s, so now I did shifts frying at Dale’s Premier Fish ’n’ Chips, dish washing at Tuppy’s Pub, dusting knickknacks at Treasured Memories, and cleaning out the bathroom at Earnest’s law offices.
And Earnest did not exactly try to hit the toilet.
But I needed all that money to keep any hope of reconciling with Jillian.
It was hard work, and I barely ever got days off, but unfortunately it wasn’t busy enough that I ever forgot for one moment what an ass and a bastard I had been and what I had lost.
When my shift was over, I hung up my apron.
It was a sweltering day in Ramshackle Bay, and I trudged past groups of happy tourists down Main Street. It was time to wash Mrs. Greenberg’s car and then grab a hasty dinner before going to my shift at Tuppy’s.
My feet were heavy, my eyes crusted over with exhaustion.
It was almost closing time at the Perk Up & Read, and my heart constricted to see Jillian herself leaving the cafe, and Cash coming down the street with their baby Bluebell in his arms.
