“Why don’t you go grab a couple of your dolls to take with us, Angel?” I say, and then watch as she heads to her room before looking at Jax again and asking, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, baby, I just wanted to see if you need any money before I take off.”

“What?” I ask, feeling something strange creep over me, making my insides turn with unease.

“I know your purse is gone, and it’ll take a few days to get a new card from the bank. I don’t know if you need to get anything from the store for you or Hope.”

“Oh,” I breathe out. “I didn’t even think about that. I need to see about getting a new ID. I have the debit card from my savings account that has about four thousand dollars in it, which can hold us over until I get everything else worked out,” I mutter absently. I can’t believe I forgot my purse is gone. I didn’t have much in it, maybe forty dollars, my cellphone, and my wallet with my bank card. I don’t even have a credit card in my name.

“Are you sure you don’t want some cash just in case?”

“I’m sure,” I say, shaking my head, when Hope comes out of her room with her doll and doll stroller. “Millie wants to go for a walk, Mama.”

“Well, you’re gonna have to wait until we get back here later to take her for a walk.”

“But she really wants to go,” she pouts.

“Hope,” I say her name in my ‘mom voice’, tilting my head to the side and waiting for her to take the stroller back into the room before shaking my head and meeting Jax’s gaze again.

“Are you gonna be okay with my mom?” he asks, reaching out and touching my hand so briefly I wonder if it even happened.

“Of course, your mom seems really nice.”

“If you need me, just call.”

“I’m sure we’ll be okay, and that won’t be necessary,” I assure him.

“I know, but call anyways.”

“You know I don’t have a phone, right?” I ask softly.

“Sh—” His eyes move to Hope, who walks out to stand next to me, and then his eyes sweep up to meet mine again. “I mean, I’ll get you one today.”

“I can get my own phone.”

“You’re gonna be busy. I don’t mind getting one,” he says gently.

Pulling in a deep breath, I let it out slowly. I’m not used to anyone looking out for me, but maybe it’s time I learn to accept help from other people.

“Okay, but I’ll give you the money back for it when I get home. Can you make sure it’s not more than fifty? I need to stick to a budget.”

“Sure,” he agrees immediately, making me feel like that was way too easy. I don’t know Jax very well, but I’m getting the feeling he’s the kind of guy who’s used to getting his way, even if it’s by plowing you over.

“Also, here,” he says, handing me some kind of bar in a shiny wrapper.

“What’s this?” I frown, flipping it over and reading what’s in it.

“You need to eat.”

“This has almost a thousand calories in it,” I tell him, holding it back towards him. If I’m going to get in better shape, I’ll need to lose a little bit of weight. In order to do that, I will need to keep under around thirteen hundred calories a day. Eating that bar would leave me just a few messily calories for the rest of the day.

“It’s good for you.”

“Thank you, but I’ll just grab a banana on the way out,” I say, holding the bar closer to him until he takes it back.

“Ellie, you need to eat,” he insists.

“I will.”

“You need to eat something more than a banana. Your body needs protein to run more efficiently.”

“You’re annoying,” I mumble, snatching the bar from him, ripping it open, and taking a large bite, which I chew twice before shoving the rest back at him and running to the bathroom, spitting it out in the toilet. It tastes like chalk and peanut butter—not a good combo, if you ask me. How anyone would willingly eat that, I don’t even know.

When I step back out into the hall after rinsing my mouth out and brushing my teeth again, both Hope and Jax are laughing hysterically.

“Do you eat that crap?” I ask Jax, and he grins, his body still shaking with laughter.

“Yeah, before workouts.” He chuckles.

“Why in the world would you waste perfectly good calories on that garbage?” I ask, and he places his hand on his stomach and laughs harder while Hope giggles.

Rolling my eyes at them, I ask Hope, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yep.” She smiles, taking my hand and tugging me toward the stairs. When we reach the first floor, Cash and Lilly are waiting at the bottom, both smiling strangely at us.

“Is everything okay?” I ask, grabbing Hope’s coat and then mine.

“Perfect.” Lilly smiles then turns to kiss her husband when he tells her that he and Jax are gonna head out.

“We’ll do dinner here tonight, babe,” Jax says, and I turn to look at him.

“Uh…sure,” I agree, even though I don’t know how I feel about dinner with Jax. This situation is already feeling way more intimate than I’m ready for.

“Also, here’s your key, and you remember the code, right?”

“I do,” I say, placing the key in the front pocket of my jeans.

“Have a good day, baby.” He smiles, making my stomach do something strange.

“Later,” I murmur, watching him tap the end of Hope’s nose, making her beam before walking out the door.

“Ready, honey?” Lilly asks, standing in the open doorway.

“Ready.” I smile, taking Hope’s hand in mine and following her outside. “Wait, I need to get Hope’s car seat.”

“Jax already took care of it.”

“Oh,” I mutter, and she smirks, opening the backdoor to her car. Picking Hope up, I get her buckled in and hand her doll over before getting into the passenger seat.

“How far is the salon from the house?” I ask Lilly.

“About a five minute drive.”

That’s good; I could walk to work. I still need to work out a babysitter for Hope, but I’m hoping I can find a child care program she can go into while I work, since that’s what she did before and she loved it.

When we pull up in front of the salon, I take in the area around it. It’s in a shopping plaza, which would mean a lot of walk-ins, and since I needed to build a new clientele, that would be perfect. In Kentucky, I owned my chair at the salon I worked in. I enjoyed it, because I made my own hours and only worked when I had someone coming in. Here, I will be starting from the bottom until I have enough of a base that I could maybe open my own place or rent a chair from someone.

“I’m really nervous,” I blurt as Lilly turns off her car.

“You’re gonna be great. Frankie is really sweet. You’re gonna love him, and the girls who work with him are all really nice too.”

“I know you’re probably right, but I’ve never really done this. The salon I worked at is the same one I interned at while I was in school. I don’t even remember what it’s like to interview.”

“You’ve already got the job, honey. You’re just going to meet him. I’ll be out here with Hope if you need me.”

“You’re not going in with me?” I ask, feeling like I want her to hold my hand, which is strange, since I have never had anyone around to hold my hand before.

“I can if you want. I just figured you would want to go in alone.” Lilly shrugs.

“No, you’re right. I should go in by myself,” I mumble, looking at the shop.

“He knows you’re coming. I sent him a text when we left the house. It’ll be okay, honey. Take a breath.”

Pulling in a breath, I let it out slowly then put my hand on the door handle. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, Mama,” Hope says from the backseat.

“Thanks, Angel,” I whisper as Lilly encourages, “Go get ’em.”

Opening the door and closing it behind me, I pull my coat tighter around myself as I walk across the sidewalk. When I reach the salon and go inside, I’m bombarded with the familiar smell of hair products. Looking around, the place is more than nice. The décor is simple but high class. A large, dark purple couch sits in front of the shop windows, scattered with white pillows that have gold streaks through them. In front of the couch is a mirror-top table, two small kid-size chairs, and a stack of coloring books and crayons.