Bigger Than the Sky (Serenity Point) by Harper Bentley Read Free Book Online

it’s so sweet.
    “Thank you. It’s a mish mash of pretty much everything you can imagine. I kinda have eclectic tastes when it comes to furnishing a home,” she replies with a laugh. Before she even sits down, she gets back on topic and informs me, “So the reason Brody and I broke up was our kids.”
    I frown in confusion at her. “Your kids?”
    “Yep.” She pops the “P” with her lips irritably and fills our cups from the teapot. “Our nonexistent kids.” She rolls her eyes at me and I wait for her to go on. “So, you know the Kellys, they’re Catholic, right? Well, I’m Protestant.” She says this as if it explains everything.
    “Uh, okay,” I say, still confused.
    She starts laughing. “Catholics usually have big families. You know, like they used to not approve of birth control, so families had, like, twelve kids or something crazy like that.” She wrinkles her cute little button nose.
    I shake my head, still confused.
    She sighs. “I want two kids. Brody wants five. He says it’s because he’s Catholic, but he doesn’t even go to church so I’m thinking he’s just using it as an excuse. I don’t know what else is going on, but anyway, we argued forever about it. Then we finally just ended up agreeing to disagree and that was the end of that.”
    “You guys have been together for, what, twelve years?”
    “Would have been twelve this year. We were sixteen when we started dating but broke up last year. I’m twenty-eight now, so you do the math, Ms. CPA.” She winks at me.
    “Wow. That’s just, well, that’s kinda stupid,” I say with a disbelieving chuckle.
    “I thought so too. But he’s adamant that he wants five kids, wasn’t even willing to compromise, and since I don’t agree, all I could do was walk away.”
    Boy, am I going to give Brody a piece of my mind next time I see him.
    “Well, I’m truly very sorry about that, Piper. You can bet that I’ll be talking to him soon.”
    She laughs. “I doubt it’ll do any good. He’s pretty set on his magic number five for some reason, like he’s wanting to start a basketball team or something.” She shakes her head as she takes another drink. “Anyway, how’s living in the big city?”
    We chat for a bit more and I love catching up with her. She was always such a sweetheart and the store fits her perfectly, so classy and cool with its unique pieces. I tell her I saw the end tables in the window last night and end up buying two of them, a slipcover for my loveseat that’s similar to the pattern on hers but with more reds in it, a beautiful antique looking area rug, a nightstand and a really awesome headboard that looks like it’s part of a picket fence that also has distressed red paint just like the end tables and nightstand. There’s also a big, cushy chair that I find I love because it’s so comfortable and the upholstery is a muted red that’ll go with everything, so I get it too along with a couple other knick-knacky things. After I pay, she helps me load everything into the back of her old pickup and drives me the two blocks to the station.
    After we get everything inside, she helps me get the chair upstairs which is pretty comical what with its huge size and her tiny frame but we manage somehow. “Thanks so much, Mill! Gotta get back to the store, but it was so good seeing you again.” She gives me another hug. “Let’s do lunch or dinner soon, okay?”
    “You bet,” I tell her with a smile. I walk her out the door and she gives me a wave as she hops up into the truck then drives away.
    I glance over at Kade’s store and see him in the window talking to an attractive blond woman who I assume is a customer, showing her what looks like a piece of crown molding. She’s standing so close to him that every time one of them moves, her breasts brush against his arm, and she’s moving a lot . She then says something and he throws his head back and laughs which is so damned attractive. I notice that she thinks so