One Night with her Bachelor by Kat Latham Read Free Book Online Page A

about… about how to make a lot of money in a short amount of time?”
    Lily’s brows snapped together. “No. Don’t even think about it.”
    “But—”
    “Seriously. No.”
    Despair tinged with relief swept through her. “Yeah, it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. I mean, I know my body’s kinda mommy-ish.”
    “You have a great body compared to some of the women I worked with. That’s not the issue. You’re sweet and optimistic and believe the best in people. Stripping would kill that. Some women can hang onto that part of themselves. Some women can distance themselves from what they’re doing and who they’re doing it for. Not you, Mol. I know you well enough to be absolutely sure of that. It would kill the best parts of you.”
    Molly rubbed her forehead. There it was again, though not in so many words. She was nice . She couldn’t pay her bills because she was too nice for the best-paid profession available to her. How unfair that tearing off her clothes and gyrating for strangers would leave her flush with cash while teaching kids to read and count had left her in crippling debt.
    “I’ll figure something out.” She had to. She wouldn’t take Josh away from the comfortable home his dad provided and force him to grow up in a hovel just so she could stay close to the community she’d grown up in. She would figure out a solution. She had to.
    They talked about nothing important as they ate, and then Lily left so Molly could get ready for the long drive to Colorado. She packed up her crochet bag—one of the only things that had kept her sane on the long, lonely evenings when she felt Josh’s absence most. Not having the brainpower to focus on a real project, she’d crocheted hundreds of squares in dozens of colors. She had no idea what she would do with them all. Maybe burn them, since they would only remind her of the worst months of her life.
    She hoisted her overnight bag over her shoulder, locked up the house, walked down the porch stairs—and froze. Slowly she turned back around and looked at the stairs.
    Shit.
    The curse word fumed inside her as darkness and fury melded into a hot, living beast. The day after tomorrow, she would come home with her son in a wheelchair, and the only way to get into their house was up three stairs.
    “ Shit! ” Five months ago, she had complete control over her mouth. Five months ago, she’d never had a violent impulse in her life. Now she needed to hit something, bad. Her gaze flew around the front yard, but everything was covered in snow. Fortunately her boots were heavy because she kicked the wooden stairs so hard she heard the crunch of wood breaking.
    She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then another. And another.
    Still angry, she stomped over to her truck, opened the door and threw her bag onto the passenger-side floor. She climbed in and turned the key in the ignition, watching the gas gauge climb steadily to the right. The familiar sight only made her more uncomfortable. A full tank, just like every Friday. She would have to fill up in Boulder for the journey home, but after she got home she would wake up to a full tank again. Her gas had been magically topped-up before and after every long trip.
    Lily wasn’t her only guardian angel.
    She reversed out of her driveway and let her mind wander to Gabriel. Though he would never know it, he’d been her constant companion on these long, lonely journeys. Sometimes her imagination put him in the passenger seat, and she poured out all her emotions while he silently listened, only occasionally speaking to tell her exactly what she’d wanted to hear. Sometimes her fantasies pulled her away from the empty stretch of highway in front of her and transported her somewhere else, somewhere exotic and far too warm for clothing. Never his cabin. Her brain couldn’t take her there. If it did, she remembered all the horror of that September day in mind-bleeding detail. The way Josh’s pale, broken