Read Online March (Calendar Girl #3) by Audrey Carlan - Free Book Online Page A

of power she held over the family.
    “So what do you think we should do?”
    Angelina stood and picked up the clothes we’d decided upon. I went over to the clothes I’d arrived in and started to put them back on.
    “I don’t know about Mama yet. The league will survive just fine. The business, well, we’ll hire Tony an amazing publicist. Someone who can spin the fact that Tony’s gay into something not warranting any news. I run Marketing, and I can brainstorm with my team, come up with some ideas. Either way, it’s our family’s company.” She sounded more confident the more she spoke. “The news that the President is gay may be fodder for some talk for a while, but we have a good product. We won’t go broke or lose the bulk of our business. People love Mama’s recipes, and the prices are solid on a blue collar budget.”
    “It is damn good food. Best Italian I’ve ever had.”
    “Exactly! Tony needs to just get out of the habit of trying to please everyone. Trying to be everything to everyone. You know?”
    Instead of responding, I nodded. It was true. I did know. More than I was willing to admit to someone who was virtually a stranger. Ever since my mom left, I tried to keep the family together. Do everything that needed to be done.
    Take care of Dad when he was three sheets to the wind. No problem, Mia would handle it.
    Help Maddy get through school. Yep, I’d work with her on her homework and stay up late into the evening hours trying to catch up on my own studies. But Maddy always came first.
    I even made sure food was on the table and a roof over our heads. I worked my ass off at sixteen waiting tables in casinos to make a buck. Some nights I’d bring home the leftover buffet items before they changed it over the next day. Those were belly filling nights for sure. Even Dad would pat me on the back and tell me “good work” in one of his drunken slurs.
    Of course, I’d done it all while under the age of eighteen. Hell, I’d worked enough jobs by the time I was eighteen to collect Social Security. Even now. I was an escort to bail my dad out of debt. Really, I had no business trying to tell someone else how to live their life since I’d sucked so horribly at living mine. However, all of that was changing. Things were slowly getting better. I now had resources. People who cared about my wellbeing. Maddy, Ginelle, Millie, Wes, even Alec would help me out of a jam. I couldn’t put a price on that. And I liked Tony and Hector. Believed they were meant to be.
    “I just want to help Tony and Hector in whatever way I can.”
    “How did they find you anyway?”
    I wasn’t sure what I should say. If I told her I was a hired escort would she think poorly of me? Usually when the term escort was used, people immediately thought hooker or call girl, but in my case, it wasn’t true. Well, it mostly wasn’t true. Technically, I did sleep with Wes and Alec. And admittedly, I drooled over Tony initially, but those feelings were long gone.
    Angelina seemed to wait patiently for me to work through my response in my head, which I appreciated. There was a quiet calm about her. An admirable trait for sure. I stopped and glanced at her pretty face. Her eyes were kind, serene and so blue a person would want to swim in them.
    “I’m an escort.”
    Her eyebrows rose to her hairline and she gasped. Then, instead of cursing or calling me out for my profession, she tipped her head back, her hair a wave of black satin down her back and laughed. A full belly, piggy-snorting guffaw that had her in stitches in mere seconds. Her laughter was infectious, and I couldn’t help but join in.
    When we met up with Hector at the register we both had tears streaming down our faces. “What in the world happened to you two?” Hector looked from me to Angelina. We both tried to stop laughing and failed. Finally, I caught my breath.
    “She found out what I did for a living,” I chuckled. That got his attention. He clasped