SCARRED - Part 2 (The SCARRED Series - Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

by her house or the club just to see that she was alright. She final gave in and sent him a text that simply said: “I’m fine. I’m not ready to talk about this. I will let you know when/if I am.”   He must have accepted that because she didn’t get another text back from him.
    On Saturday she did a 5K run with Lexi for breast cancer awareness. The run wasn’t bad at all, but it was hot outside and it left her exhausted. After she got home and took a long bath she went to bed and finally got a good night’s sleep. She woke up feeling so refreshed on Sunday that she decided maybe she should increase her run every day.
    Lexi was up when she went out into the kitchen. She hadn’t said anything more about the man she was seeing that had just disappeared on her or the idea that maybe she should start stripping. Chloe was relieved about that and she didn’t want to remind her in case she’d forgotten it, so she hadn’t brought it up. She fixed her toast and tea and joined Lexi on the back patio.
    “Good morning. I thought you were going to sleep all day,” Lexi said with a smile.
    “It’s only nine-thirty.”
    “Yeah, but you’re usually up before the surfers and they’re already pulling it in for the day.”
    Chloe looked out at the water. There was one lone surfer out in the middle of the ocean and two who looked like they’d just come in, sitting in the sand. She’d often thought about trying it. Something about watching them out there on the water made her think it would give you a real sense of freedom. She might try it yet.
    “True,” she said. “That run yesterday kicked my butt I guess.”
    “Mine too,” Lexi said. “But I needed it. Roxi said I can start dancing if I lose ten pounds.”
    “What? Please tell me you’re kidding?”
    “About dancing or losing ten pounds?” Lexi asked her.
    “Both. You don’t need to lose ten pounds and you don’t want to be a stripper...do you?”
    “The ten pounds won’t hurt me. I’m getting love handles. As far as the stripping, Chloe, I’m just tired of watching everyone leave with hundreds of dollars in their pocket every night while I collect my paltry thirty or forty bucks after I split with the servers. These guys don’t want to spend their money tipping a bartender. They want to save it for the entertainment and I want a piece of that. We both know this job is not going to be a career for either one of us. The faster I make some cash, the quicker I get out of that place.”
    Chloe knew that she was the last person who had a right to argue that. Lexi was only reciting what Chloe herself had said a million times. She just hated to see her friend have to go down that road.
    “Well, I can’t stop you from stripping, but Roxi’s crazy telling you to lose weight. These creeps like the curves. She made me gain weight when I first started.” The whole business perpetuated a crappy self-image no matter what you looked like, Chloe thought.
    “Yes, but you were a stick.”
    “Don’t get too carried away with this, Lex, okay?”
    “Carried away how?”
    “Do you remember Tracy?”
    Lexi looked reluctant but she finally said, “Yeah, of course. I’m not Tracy though.”
    “Tracy probably didn’t think she was the type to get so addicted to the money that she’d do anything for it either. This stripping crap messes with your head and your values and everything else.”
    “I have my head on straight. I promise. No sex and no drugs. Only rock n roll. So enough about me. How is tall, dark, rich and dreamy?”
    “I assume he’s fine. I haven’t talked to him for about a week.”
    “Why not? I seem to recall an empty bed last Sunday morning...”
    Chloe sighed and rolled her eyes. “It’s not going to happen again,” she said. “We don’t have anything in common.”
    “I’d find something,” Lexi said. “Maybe you should switch majors and go for a real estate license instead of teaching credentials.”
    “Let’s talk about something