Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
There is still so much I don’t understand.
Why did Greg Wallace force Nancy to marry Taylor? Nancy claims she’s not gay, and now that I think about it… I wasn’t on the team for very long, but I never saw her with another woman.
Of course I didn’t see her with a man either.
Brandon came to one of our games, and some of the other players’ significant others would show up now and then. But no one ever showed up for Nancy, at least not that I can remember. Of course I wasn’t on the team for long.
That doesn’t mean anything. If she says she’s not gay, I’ll take her statement at face value. It was clear that she and Taylor weren’t in love, anyway.
Greg Wallace will have those answers.
Will he be forthright with me?
I have no idea. The man is a psychopath. A criminal. Serving a life sentence for what he did on that island. Serving a life sentence because Chris Pollack snitched on him.
No wonder they’re keeping Pollack at the county jail. If they ship him off to prison, he’ll be dead in twenty-four hours.
“What are you thinking about?” Buck asks. “You’re being quiet.”
The warm ocean breeze drifts over us, and Buck’s hair flows gently. It’s dry now, and he has that polished-by-saltwater look about him.
Part of me wishes the beach were empty, so we could lie down in the soft sand and make love.
Of course, that’s just a fantasy. Making love in the sand is anything but sexy. The tiny grains get everywhere. Brandon and I tried it once when we were vacationing in Florida.
I sigh. “I’m wondering… Once you find answers, there are always more questions.”
“I know, baby.”
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
“What would’ve been the point?”
I can’t help but laugh. He’s right of course. I had it in my mind that I was going to find these people and make them pay. I’ve done that, but I still have so many questions.
“Thank you for standing by me,” I say. “For putting up with my quest.”
“My place is at your side, Aspen. It has been since I first laid eyes on you.”
I smile as warmth gushes through me. “I didn’t take you for a romantic, Buck. Do you really believe in love at first sight?”
“Love took a few days,” he says. “But I certainly believe in being knocked off my feet at first sight, and you sure as hell did that to me.”
“You did that to me too, and I never thought I’d ever let a man touch me again.”
“I wasn’t sure I should touch you, baby. But you… How could I resist you? You’re everything. You’re so beautiful.”
“I never thought I was beautiful.”
“Are you kidding me? That face, that body. Everything about you. Your beautiful brown eyes are so big and round. You look like a Disney princess.”
I raise my eyebrows and stop in my tracks. “A Disney princess?”
“Your eyes are so big and brown. Your lashes are so long.”
“Wait a minute. You watch Disney princesses?”
“You going to give me a hard time about that?”
I laugh. “I absolutely am.”
“Of course you are.” He squeezes my hand. “I wouldn’t have you any other way. And for the record, I don’t watch a lot of Disney, but the princesses are everywhere, baby. I grew up with a little sister who loved Cinderella and Belle and all of them. Plus, we’ve been in LA for only a little over a week, and how many billboards have we seen with Disney princesses on them? Every time I see one of them with their big doe eyes, I think of you. You could’ve been the model for Belle in Beauty and the Beast.”
“Now I know you’re kidding me.”
“Why do you doubt me? Do you really think I’d be talking to you about Disney princesses if I weren’t telling you the truth?”
He has a point there.
“I’ve never seen a Disney princess with short hair,” I say.
“Rapunzel has short hair at the end of Tangled.”
I laugh. I laugh hard, and man, it feels good. “You know entirely too much about Disney princesses.”
“I know that you’d make a perfect one. Seriously, you could be Belle.”
“My skin’s a little darker than Belle’s.”
“Okay, Jasmine then.”
“My skin’s a little lighter than Jasmine’s.”
“You’re bound and determined to fight me on this, aren’t you?”
“I suppose I am. You see, Buck, things that have happened to me just don’t happen to Disney princesses.”
“That’s not exactly true,” Buck says. “You’ve had it much worse of course, but Belle was kidnapped by a beast. Rapunzel was locked in a tower. Sleeping Beauty was put into a coma. So was Snow White.”
“You do watch the movies.” I give him a good-natured punch on the arm.
“I watched most of them when I was a kid.”
I shake my head, smiling. “I suppose the Disney princesses didn’t have it much easier than I have. Of course, the fact remains that they’re not real.”