Except nothing felt normal to Josie.
She had no way of contacting Reese.
There were only two choices.
Wait for him to come and find her.
Or just show up at the clubhouse.
* * *
If anything, having Steph around made it so Josie didn’t have to go home alone. She wasn’t afraid to be alone. She wasn’t afraid of the dark, monsters under her bed or any of that kid stuff. It was just the notion of being alone. Having nobody to talk to. Having nobody there. It wasn’t the most pleasant feeling. In a way, it was her own fault for not getting out there and dating more. Sometimes the moment she mentioned the wordsstrip club, it ruined her own image to whoever she was with. The guy across from her at the table suddenly began to picture her naked. Stripping. Dancing. Or better yet, Josie became the person to get the guy alone with areal-lifestripper. Which was childish, but it happened more than Josie cared to admit.
In fact, the last guy she had dated - Gary - had actually played the birthday card as a way to get a bunch of strippers to his house privately for an all-night event. When Josie said she wouldn’t do that because the girls weren’t rental items like chairs or tents, Gary got mad and made it clear that they were all whores, including Josie, while he was an adult in real life. So that ended that relationship, which was fine with Josie. She could convince her mind not to compare everyone tosomeone else,but her body had its own way of thinking and feeling.
When she got home, she checked on Steph.
A bucket next to the bed, a washcloth curled up and dried on the covers, Steph sound asleep, the TV on.
Josie sat on the edge of the bed and touched Steph’s head and moved hair out of her face. She hoped by morning Steph would be back to normal. Because things were about to change. Like really change. Everything Steph knew in her life of mooching was going to get flipped over.
All because of…
Josie stood up.
“Shit,” she whispered.
She hurried to the door and got out of the room without waking up Steph. Her heart raced as she scrambled to the kitchen, going for her cell phone. There was literally no way she could call Reese. Chances were he was probably still awake or just settling into bed with some woman for a night of comfort.
Something then hit Josie hard.
She had completely forgotten about the pregnancy test. She had dropped it in her bag on her way out the door to work. The plan had been to deal with the results of the test later.
But there was no later.
The test was positive, and the reality was here.
And Reese had her bag, which meant he had the test.
She thought back to what Harvey had said.
The match and the gasoline.
That’s what she and Reese had always been.
Her father had been the cop trying to go after bad guys, while Josie had fallen in love with one of those bad guys, putting everyone at odds.
The match and the gasoline.
Josie shut her eyes and sighed.
One word came to mind.
Boom.
Chapter Seven
“You look like shit, brother,” Hawk said as he sat down at the breakfast table.