Page 63 of Returning to Everton

He chuckles again, “Sure thing. I’ll give your mom my card and she can come by when it’s ready. Okay?”

“Okay!”

“You know... your mom’s gonna be busy with work. I’ll take Ben’s number and pick up your sign for you kiddo,” Quinn offers.

I just roll my eyes as Ben does this hot side smile and hands Quinn his card. Well, I’m glad our shopping excursion is helping Quinn get laid. But it’s time to pay for this bike and move on. There’s a little tag hanging on the handlebars that says the bike is $80. I interrupt Quinn’s flirting to pay for it, then drag her away.

“Bye Ben! Thanks for the motorcycle. I’ll call you about the sign. Gotta go!” I call as I walk away dragging Quinn behind me.

When we get far enough away, she huffs at me, “Why’d you do that? He was hot!”

“Oh, I’m sorry did you wanna stay and hang out with some random guy? I thought we were spending the day shopping,” I say sarcastically.

“Oh shut up. You know I wouldn’t ditch you for a guy. But damn you coulda let me look a little longer,” she complains.

“Well, you have his name and number so you can call him later and do all the looking you want. When I’m not there,” I stick my tongue out at her.

I’m not paying attention to where I’m walking because I'm too busy talking shit to Quinn, and I accidentally run into someone.

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry,” I apologize to the woman I just walked into.

“Hey! Watch where you’re...” she says as she turns around. When she sees who I am, she stops midsentence. “Rowen,” Britney sneers. “I should have known you were back in town.”

Oh great, it had to be her, didn’t it? You got this Rowen. Kill her with kindness. You know she hates it when you’re nice to her.

“Oh hi, Britney! It’s so good to see you. How have you been?” I play the bigger person as usual. I know she hates me for whatever reason, but I hate drama. So I always play nice.

She glares at me. “I’ve been great thanks for asking,” she says with this huge fake ass smile on her face. “Beenhappilymarried for six years.” She emphasizes the happily part for some reason, which makes it hard to believe. She also sticks her hand out when she says it, and shows me the huge rock on her finger.

“Wow, that’s some ring! Congratulations!” I’m pretty good at acting happy for people, so her smile turns real when I say that.

She looks around me and sees Violet. “And who’s this?”

“Oh! This is my daughter, Violet. We just moved back to town,” I explain vaguely.

“Really?” she asks in disbelief.Why is that hard for her to believe?“Where’s your husband?”

“Oh... he died about six months ago,” I tell her. I swear I see a flash of anger in her eyes, before it’s quickly masked by a look of what could pass as sympathy.

“I’m so sorry to hear that Rowen,” she offers her condolences. I canalmostbelieve she means that too.

“Thanks, Britney. He was pretty sick at the end, so I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore.”

“So, what are you going to do with your life now that you're widowed? I mean how long were you married for? Do you even know how to do anything but be a wife?”

Damn Britney your bitch is showing.

“We were married for ten years, but I did graduate college before that. So, I plan on putting my degree to use.” Again I’m vague because I don’t feel the need to tell her I’m going to be working with Hudson.

“Oh really?” There’s that damn disbelieving tone again. “What’s your degree in? Art?” she snipes.

Breathe Rowen. You know she’s a bitch. Why would you expect that to change?“Actually, I have a business degree,” I retort with a smile.

“Wow Rowen, that’s so nice. I sure hope you can find a way to use that in a small town like this,” she taunts and I have to bite my tongue so I don’t tell her exactly how I’m going to use my degree in this small town.

“I’m sure I’ll figure something out. Well, I gotta go. Still got a lot of ground to cover if we want to see everything the street market has to offer,” I tell her. “It was nice seeing you again.”

“Oh yeah. You too Rowen. Good luck... you’ll need it,” she says that last part under her breath and I barely hear it, but I do. Now I'm wondering why the hell she thinks I’ll need luck. Whatever, that bitch is crazy.

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