‘Soon’

“This is bullshit…” I balled the paper up and tossed it across the room.

I immediately checked my door and confirmed that the lock was still working. That meant whoever got into my house either picked it or had a key. I decided not to take any risks. I called an emergency locksmith to get my locks changed and started cleaning up the mess while I waited. Whoever was fucking with me—they weren’t going to ruin my night with Melanie. I was going to make the evening perfect, even if Jackson was in Carson Cove—and even if some crazy bitch was lingering in the shadows. I didn’t care if it was Alexis Devereaux trying to mess with the upcoming wedding, or someone that thought games were going to lead to the rekindling of some romance that had been left in the past.

“Mr. Alcott?” A voice startled me, and I turned around to see a guy in blue overalls standing at the door with a box of tools in his hand.

“Are you the locksmith?” I turned to face him.

“Yes sir.” He nodded.

“Good.” I pointed at the door. “You can start with that one. I want all of the locks changed—and the faster you finish, the bigger your tip is going to be.”

“I don’t—normally get tips.” He raised an eyebrow.

“If you don’t hurry, you won’t get one today either.” I narrowed my eyes.

“I’ll be done before you know it.” He smiled and opened his toolbox as he leaned over to look at the look.

I don’t want this night to be anything other than perfect—regardless of what we have to deal with tomorrow…

Chapter Seventeen

Melanie

“We did it!” Taylor ran up and gave me a hug as soon as we tossed our hats once the ceremony was officially over.

“Yes!” I hugged her. “Congratulations, graduate…”

“Congratulations yourself, graduate.” She leaned back from the hug and grinned. “We should probably find our hats…”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I promised Charley she could wear it home—it was the only way I could convince her to give it back to me once we got here.”

“I still can’t believe you have a kid.” Taylor shook her head in disbelief. “I’ve known you for four years, and you never mentioned it!”

“I know.” I looked down and sighed. “I’m not ashamed of her. I love her to death! I wanted to tell you so many times, but after we had been hanging out for a while, I would have literally had to just blurt it out because we were talking about guys and—everything else but the fact that I was a single mom.”

“I get it.” She nodded. “You wanted to be a normal college student—there’s nothing wrong with that. I admire you for being able to balance everything like you did.”

“So, do you want to meet her?” I found my hat and picked it up.

“Absolutely!” Taylor nodded and grinned.

V

ictoria met us at the entrance, and we exchanged a round of hugs. I had only gotten to meet her once, a few days before graduation, but she seemed to be as nice as Taylor said. Thankfully, my confession about dating Jon was enough for Taylor to steer Victoria away from any plan to introduce me to one of her friends. My mom walked over with Charley, who immediately took my hat. I introduced Taylor and Victoria to my family, and Charley seemed to absolutely adore Taylor from the moment she met her. She wasn’t quite as interested in Victoria—probably because I had mentioned Taylor several times, so she knew we were friends.

“Alright, I should figure out where my family is.” Taylor looked around the gymnasium.

“Oh, my dad ran into a few people he knows from work. I think your mom was staying to be polite.” Victoria pointed them out.

Charley seemed happy to have my hat, so she was ready to go. Mom took her outside while I went over to meet Taylor’s mom and her little sister, Anna. Bryant pulled me aside once the introductions had been made and told me that Jon was there but had to leave because he got a phone call. I couldn’t help but smile. I wanted him to come, but we got distracted by other things and never got a chance to finish the discussion—part of that was my fault—I was the one that screwed up the Martin Construction account, even though I still couldn’t figure out how I made that mistake.

Luckily, Jon agreed to give me another chance—but I wasn’t sure Damien was going to trust me anytime soon. I would have plenty of time to obsess over that on Monday morning. Jon and I were going to spend the evening celebrating my graduation, and I was really looking forward to it, despite the drama at the office. The week had been hectic enough with school, then my mistake at work, and I just needed to relax. The best way to do that was in Jon’s arms. He always managed to take my mind off everything when we were together. That was exactly what I needed because I was officially done with college.

Now I’m officially living in the real world…

* * *

Tags: Kelli Callahan Carson Cove Scandals Erotic
Source: readsnovelonline.net