Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Something bumps my shoulder and I see Coen standing there.
“What’s up?” I say, my eyes still on the staircase, even though Kiera is gone.
“Don’t go there, dude.”
I turn to face him. “Go where?”
“Anywhere near Drake’s sister,” he says. “He made it clear from day one on this team she’s off-limits.”
“I wasn’t here on day one,” I reply, unwilling to have this woman taken away from me before I have a good shot at her. “So I didn’t get the message.”
Coen shrugs. “Your death, not mine.”
I snort, because that’s being overly dramatic.
Still… I’d take Drake on.
His sister can’t look at me that way, tell me it’s a shame she can’t scratch my itch and not assume I won’t come after her.
CHAPTER 2
Kiera
“I’m tired, Aunt Kiera.” Jake tugs on my hand and looks up at me. As the eldest of Drake’s three boys at age seven, he’s never the whiner. He’s always helping to take care of his younger twin brothers, Colby and Tanner. But in fairness to him, watching his dad play hockey is exhausting. The boys don’t go to a lot of games, mostly because it makes for very late nights.
But on weekend afternoon games, such as today, Drake likes them in the stands watching and they’re over the moon to be there. Drake has four season tickets right behind the Titans’ goal, where he defends twice during a game—first and third periods. It makes it so he can turn around and shoot the boys a wink during TV timeouts and yes, while it’s cute… they all three go apeshit when he does that and they’re almost impossible to get settled down.
All three of them stood at the glass the entire time, watching their dad stop shot after shot. Unfortunately, two slipped through and the only goal scored by Stone Highsmith late in the third period wasn’t enough to win the game.
Now all three boys are tired and pissy that Daddy lost.
I put my hands to Colby’s and Tanner’s backs, leading them across the family lounge to a grouping of chairs and couches. “Sit here. Your dad won’t be long.”
Once the boys are situated, I unlock my phone and hand it over to Jake. He takes it without hesitation and expertly navigates to the Disney+ app that I keep downloaded with some movies for them to watch. I’m not sure how parents or caretakers of children ever survived without something like this to keep them occupied.
“Do you guys want anything to eat or drink?” I ask. The Titans keep the family lounge stocked with fresh buffet foods and an arrangement of drinks for both before and after the game. This is usually where the players will come to meet spouses and kids or visiting family members. Brienne often comes in before the game, walking around and introducing herself to every single person she doesn’t know.
On days like today, when the boys are here, I expect her to arrive any moment for the handoff. She’ll keep an eye on them until Drake showers and changes, but she’s probably giving a quick postgame interview.
“Cookies,” Colby says with bright, hopeful eyes.
“Carrot sticks,” I reply, and he wrinkles his nose.
“I’ll get you a plate you can share,” I promise.
I know Drake and Brienne are going to take the boys out to dinner, so I put some veggies on a plate along with ranch dip, which will induce them to eat it. I grab water bottles and set them down on the coffee table. They’re all three hovered over my phone, watching Toy Story and ignoring the food.
My stomach rumbles since I haven’t eaten since lunch and I’m not going out with the gang for dinner. Brienne invited me, but I declined, more so just to give them time together as a family. I’m around them so much by virtue of being the boys’ secondary caretaker that I try to give them as much family bonding time as they can get. It’s only been a few weeks since they all moved in with Brienne and I want them to solidify. The boys need to feel stable and settled, especially given the upheaval their mom has caused over the last few years. It appears she’s gone for good since none of us have heard from her in months.
I also declined the invitation to dinner as I’m looking forward to having the evening to myself. The workweek starts early tomorrow, back to my day job and picking the boys up after school and caring for them until Brienne or Drake are home.
Best of all, because there’s food here, I won’t have to cook.
I head back to the buffet line and see a couple checking out the offerings… a man and a woman who appear to be in their late fifties. I haven’t seen them here before, but they have the look of someone’s parents.