Page 52 of Room 4 Rent

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but what was that?”

“Him and hisdoll.”

It takes me a minute before I understand it, but then I’m disgusted. “Maybe we should take the ad down?”

“No, leave it. These things take time. I once rented out my car, and it took a week before I found someone.”

“You rented your car?”

“Yeah, once. And never again. I think they rented it to bone.”

“Ew.”

“I sold it right after that.”

“I can’t say I blame you.”

Sadie sets her phone down on the coffee table in front of us, careful not to squish a now sleeping Tatum between us.

Am I doing the right thing for her? Is she going to remember anything?

Running my fingers through her blonde curls, I look over at Sadie. “Am I doing the right thing for her? What if I can’t keep her in that school or this house?”

“It’s all going to work out. We didn’t think it would. And look at us now.” She looks at me over the rim of her wineglass. Dropping it past her lips, she gives me that endearing Sadie expression. The one she gave me countless times when I was there for a scared fourteen-year-old who’d lost her parents within two days. All we had was one another, and now here we were, drinking wine, watchingFrozen,and holding my daughter. Together. The way our parents raised us to be. “Mom would be so proud of you.”

Tatum stirs in my lap, curling herself closer to me, as if she knew in that moment I needed to know how she felt.

Sadie chuckles when her phone dings. “This dude wants to know if the room is big enough for him and his snake.”

I blink rapidly. “Like his actual snake?”

She clears her throat and tips her phone in my direction. “If you mean the snake in his pants, then yes.”

And there on Sadie’s phone is a big, fat dick.

“It’s so veiny.” She cringes. “And sadly kinda familiar.”

We both start laughing, but it’s apparent this renting a room out is harder than it looks.

---