Kiss and Make Up (gxg)

Chapter 19

Shiloh's POV

It took us six hours to get me checked for injuries in the hospital. Nina was done much faster, because pregnant women need to be looked at quickly as their baby could be injured as well. But possible broken ribs? Yeah, those don't get looked at nearly as fast. I really wouldn't have survived the afternoon had Harper not got me some food before she left to take Nina home. Nina had protested, having wanted to make sure I was okay, but it was better if she wasn't sitting in uncomfortable chairs for hours on end. She needed to be comfortable and at home.

               But I did finally get done, and then took an Uber to the courthouse to get my car. We'd had a lovely ambulance ride to the hospital, with Harper following along, so I needed to get my little trooper back. It took a few tries to start it this time, but at least it did come to life and got me home.

               Which is where I sat, alone. I'd given up my apartment to go back and live with my mother when she got sick. It saved us money, but it didn't leave me with a lot of privacy. Tonight, it wouldn't have mattered where I was. I didn't think I could be around people right now, unless it was Kenley, so sitting alone in my room let me just mentally kick myself over and over. I knew she was hurt, and I knew I was the one that caused it. I knew I could have done things differently, but if she had been tipped off, then it would have been hard for her to feign the look of surprise when Grant brought me into the courtroom. And as selfish as it was, that money was the only reason my mom was still in this house. I replayed every decision I made to get me to where I was, and I hated it. I knew I fucked up, and now I had to pay for it.

               Blake had given me $500k to get the pictures of Kenley, half up front and half on delivery. Most of that money was gone, and the rest would be soon unless my mom was able to get her strength back. Either way, I was going to have to go back to work since my job was gone. The money had sounded like a lot when he first offered it, but I still had to set some aside for taxes, and then pay for the hospital bills that never seemed to end. Kidney transplants weren't cheap, and the expenses during the recovery hadn't stopped.

We had a nurse come daily, which was more money, but I still took care of mom a lot when I could. I hated to think about it, but because I wasn't really working for the last few months, I was just spending time with Kenley, it gave me a lot more time to spend with mom. If my mom was able to get stronger in the next couple of weeks or months, and she could go back to work then maybe things would be settled down. Before she got sick, she'd made a good living as a 911 dispatcher. It wasn't going to be physically demanding, and she was sure that she could handle it as soon as she was feeling better.

But in the meantime, that was a lot of money that was going out, and I no longer had an income. I guess it was time to go back to being a waitress until I found something new. My art degree wasn't going to give me instant money, and I hadn't had any bites when I put in applications, so I did what I could. I knew I could go back to waiting tables because my cousin was a manager at the steak house that I was working at before, and he always told me I'd have a job there when I needed it. It might not pay well, but I could charm my way into a lot of tips! I didn't have any other options, not that would provide quick money for mom anyway, so I called him up and got back on the work schedule.

It wasn't glamorous, but I'd take it. I'd be starting on the weekend, and just hoped I could keep getting shifts.

But in the meantime, I was supposed to see Kenley the next day for our first date. I didn't really think it would happen, but I had to try. Kenley was the type of person I'd always dreamed about, and I knew I'd want to ask her out as soon as I met her in the office. There are very few people that are both drop dead gorgeous and yet kind to a stranger on an elevator. I'd seen her at work, and I knew she could come off as cold and businesslike, but that was her job. When she was with friends and people she trusted though, she opened right up.