Red’s Hot Honky-Tonk Bar Read Online Free PDF

placating and eventually angry. By the time Red pulled in to her parking space behind the bar, the two weren’t talking to each other at all.
    “What’s this place?” Olivia asked.
    “This is where I live.”
    “You live in a bar?” The little girl’s voice was incredulous. “Does Mom know this?”
    “Of course she does,” Red replied. “I live in the upstairs apartment. It’s small, but we’ll try to think of it as cozy, okay?”
    Cozy was not what it seemed a few minutes later when the three of them were standing inside. It looked like what it was. An efficiency apartment with a couch, TV and kitchenette. Its tiny bedroom looked like a cave with the blackout curtains. And a double bed really didn’t provide sleeping arrangements for three.
    “You kids can have the bedroom,” she told them. “I’ll sleep out here on the couch.”
    “What about our stuff?” Olivia asked. “Where are we going to put our stuff?”
    “What stuff?”
    Olivia looked at her in disbelief. “Do you think this is all we have?” she asked, indicating her backpack. “All our clothes and toys and books, it’s all at Abuela’s house.”
    “It’ll be fine over there,” Red said. “Nothing is going to happen to it.”
    “We’re going to need it,” Olivia explained. “School starts in two weeks. We’re going to need all of it.”
    Red didn’t answer that. But she wasn’t worried. By then she would most certainly have handed them over to their father. They wouldn’t be here for long. But even a night or two was problematic.
    She looked around the rooms she’d called home for nine years and the evidence was as glaring as the truth it represented. She had created a place for herself that ensured that she live her life alone. Even with only two small children, the rooms had become claustrophobically close. Red needed some breathing space.
    “Didn’t you say you needed to go to the library?” she asked Olivia.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Then get your stuff and let’s go. I’ll meet you in the van.”
    In three steps Red was out of the apartment, but she couldn’t quite escape her current predicament. Halfway down the stairs, Cam lounged across her path. His hat was tipped back and his eyes were focused on her. She slowed her steps.
    Clearly it was break-up time. She didn’t want to do it.
    It’s like ripping off a bandage, she reminded herself. The quicker it’s done, the sooner it’s over with . Still, she hesitated.
    “I don’t really have time for this right now,” she told him.
    He raised an eyebrow. “Time for what?”
    “Time to…to talk things over,” she dissembled.
    He nodded. “You mean things like why you told me you don’t have any children?”
    “I don’t have any ‘children,’” Red hedged. “My daughter is a grown-up woman, obviously.”
    “Obviously.”
    Cam continued to look at her directly. His gaze was unavoidable. “Okay, so I lied.”
    “Right,” he said. “You lied. Why’d you do that?”
    “Because…because I didn’t think it was any of your business,” she said.
    Olivia and Daniel slammed the door of the apartment and hurried down the stairs behind her.
    “I’ve got to take Olivia to the library,” she said, grateful for the reprieve.
    “Okay,” Cam answered. “I’ll come with you.”
    That wasn’t what Red had in mind, but there wasn’t any graceful way to stop it, so she let it go. At least they wouldn’t be able to have their talk while the kids were in the car.
    In that she was thwarted as well. When they got to the van, Cam had a better idea.
    “Why don’t we walk,” he said. “Hey, kids, you want to walk? It’s a great day for a walk.”
    Both Olivia and Daniel seemed enthusiastic. Red was not.
    “It’s too far, through a rough part of town, and it’s a hundred degrees out here,” she complained.
    “It’s eight, maybe ten blocks. That’s nothing to kids,” he assured her. “And the area’s not rough, just empty. In daylight, it’s mostly