Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
My lip curls in disgust as memories of my own childhood threaten to invade my senses. “Buttermilk is the worst.”
He nods his agreement, and I turn around and head to the kitchen.
The sound of his suitcase zipper follows me out of the room. By the time I turn to peek around the edge of the doorframe, I see him shuffling across the room and stuffing his swim trunks under the cushion of what Madison called a settee last week.
I chuckle as I grab an unopened bottle of juice from the pantry to bring with us before heading back to the foyer.
I’m leaving the boys overnight with my dad at his insistence. He wants to spend more time with the boys, and despite him being the one to tell me I needed help with them rather than them being at the store all the time, I think he misses them.
It’s a trial basis. Although I’m not as anxious as I was when Emily was taking them to lunch in Detroit, I’ve always hated it when I had to leave the boys. I had to do it so much when I was playing for the Ice Crusaders, I told myself once I was done with them, I’d never do it again.
“Don’t leave without me!” Cole screams from the top of the stairs as if we’re trying to rush outside to the car before he can make it down to us.
“Careful,” I remind him when he gets in a rush.
I swear I should wrap these kids in bubble wrap.
Cale, ever the helpful child, rushes across the room to help his brother. Or at least that’s what I presume until he leans in and whisper-yells, “He’ll know if you take your trunks!”
Cole’s guilty eyes dart up to mine.
“Cale wanted apple juice to take to Papaw’s. Is there anything you’d like me to grab for you?” I ask, needing to offer him the same opportunity I allowed for his brother.
“Apple juice,” Cole snaps out.
I hold the bottle up. “Got it. You two can share this one. You’re only staying one night. Are we ready to go?”
His eyes are frantic as he stares at me. “Umm.”
“Apple sauce!” Cale screams, his twin shaking his head frantically.
“I want apple sauce!”
“Apple juice and apple sauce? You’re sure?”
Both boys nod.
“Okay. Wait right here and I’ll grab it for you.”
Sure enough, no sooner do I get ten feet away, does the sound of a second zipper and scuttling little feet carry me out of the room.
These sneaky little boys are going to be the death of me. Their antics are almost enough to make me forget how sexy Madison was when she walked out of here ten minutes ago.
Chapter 18
Madison
“Umm, what’s that about?” Adalynn asks, waving her hand at me when I drop down into the passenger seat of her car.
“What?” I ask, looking over my shoulder to the grand front porch of the house, expecting to see a delivery I missed earlier.
“Your face,” she clarifies. She puts the car in drive and begins to pull down the driveway as I pull on my seatbelt.
I press a hand to my face. “What?”
“The blushing.”
“I’m not blushing,” I argue, turning my head as if the dusky color of the sky is the most interesting thing in the world. It really is pretty. “That cloud looks like a baby pig.”
She scoffs, telling me that I’m not fooling her. That’s what I get for spending all my time with two four-year-old boys. They’re curious, but they’re also gullible and easily distracted. It seems the same tactics don’t work on my friend.
“Even though you haven’t asked yet, I think you should act on it.”
I keep my eyes locked outside the vehicle. “It’s hot outside. If my cheeks are pink, it’s because of the heat.”
“You weren’t in the heat,” she argues. “And before you open your mouth to tell me a lie that the A/C is broken in that big house, don’t bother wasting the energy. You didn’t ask, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I think a fiery hot night with a sexy hockey player would be exactly what you need to finally close the door on that piece of poo Sam. There. I said it. Now we can change the subject.”
The sound of her blinker as she pulls out of the driveway is absolutely ridiculous. There are no other houses out here, and with the flatness of the land, you’d be able to spot another vehicle a mile away. But that’s just Adalynn, always following the rules. The don’t date your male best friend rule has governed her life for the last fifteen years, and I have no doubt will continue to control her actions for many more to come.
“He doesn’t play hockey anymore.”
“Former hockey player then,” she amends.
“I can’t believe you’d be the one to tell me the way to get over someone is to get under someone else.”