Damaged Goods by Nicole Williams

Author:Nicole Williams
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: romance, The Outsider Chronicles, Adult, contemporary
Published: 2014-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

THAT DOOR STAYED closed for nine days and eight nights. And then . . . it exploded open.

Paige had recovered like a rattlesnake hadn’t bitten her a week ago. After she came home, I’d managed to get a few nights off to take care of her and outline the repercussions of smoking—yellowed teeth, skin, and nails, accompanied by a pair of black lungs—to a receptive and cooperative fifteen-year-old. The girls’ last day of school had been yesterday—they hadn’t stopped cartwheeling since—and the heat-saturated Nevada air had starting whipping about erratically an hour ago.

We were used to storms rolling through in the summer. Actually, we welcomed them. After enduring days or weeks of relentless, stifling heat, a cool breeze—any breeze—was a welcome break. The electric storm hit shortly after the wind started whipping hard enough to threaten the integrity of the trailer’s decades-old sheet metal roof, so we kept our fingers crossed, and I kept the only roofer in town’s number on speed dial—just in case.

Something about Paige’s accident had brought some form of camaraderie between the three of us to the surface. I wasn’t sure how far it would run or how long it would last, but I didn’t let the unknown variables keep me from enjoying it. As this was the last night off I’d been able to squeeze out of Jake, and the girls were fresh into summer break, we decided to make it a girls’ night, which entailed tossing together a couple of homemade pizzas and fighting over what movie we’d watch.

As was typical, the loudest of the bunch got her way. Instead of Reese’s pick of The Notebook, or my pick of Steel Magnolias, we were going to eat our pizza to the tune of Kill Bill. I made a mental note to down a couple of pieces before we got into the true blood and guts of the movie because something about pepperoni pizza with extra sauce didn’t go down so great when blood was literally spraying like a fountain from multiple limbs on the TV screen.

“Who’s ready for a slice?” I called to the girls, who were busy arranging a myriad of pillows and blankets on the floor.

I guessed we were doing this pizza-and-movie night up right—crashing on the floor, slumber-party style. I might not have been invited to any by my co-workers, but not even a month ago, it had seemed ten times more unlikely that I’d be invited to one by my sisters. Progress. It was a damn good feeling.

“I do!” came the chorus of replies from the living room.

I plated three plates with a couple slices each then spun to the oven to turn it off. It turned off all by itself. Along with every other device of an electrical nature in the house.

“Power outage!” Reese cheered.

“Kill Bill!” Paige cried, sounding like she was in the process of falling to her knees and raising her fists at the heavens.

“Dinner. Just in the nick of time,” I chimed in, balancing three plates as I shuffled into the dark living room.

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