Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
I glance at my cell phone and see it’s only five in the morning. Fucking horny ass woman. I should probably go back to sleep since Noah and Brady are still sleeping, but now that I’m up, I know it’s not going to happen—especially with what today is: draft day for the MLB.
After joining Harper in the shower, where she insists I take her again, we get dressed for the day. The house is quiet at this time of the morning. Harper loves to get up early so we can have our morning coffee together and talk in peace. It’s become part of our daily routine and I love it. We talk about everything and nothing, enjoying each other before the kids are up and the house becomes a zoo.
“I can’t believe the day has arrived,” Harper says with tears in her eyes as she sips her coffee. “It feels like only yesterday I was holding him in my arms, praying I would know what to do.” Her tears fall down her cheeks, and I reach over and wipe them. “I was just a baby, having a baby,” she says, absently rubbing her belly. “And now he’s a high school graduate and is about to be drafted into the Majors. I don’t know what I’m going to do when he moves out.”
Her tears turn into sobs, and I bite my lip to stifle my laugh. This isn’t the first, second, or fifteenth time she’s cried about Hunter graduating and leaving the nest. I made the mistake of laughing at her the first time she did it, though, and will never make that mistake again. There was yelling and screaming and a door slamming, and I was on the couch for half the night—yes, half the night, because around two in the morning, she came out wanting to get laid and let me come back to bed. See? Horny. Fucking. Woman.
“Mom, are you crying again?” Hunter asks, rubbing his eyes and scratching his head.
“I can’t help it,” Harper cries. “You’re going to move out and leave me and I’m never going to see you again.”
Hunter almost laughs, but like me, he sucks his bottom lip into his mouth to stop it from happening. He’s seen what happens and isn’t dumb enough to do it.
Walking over to his mom, he wraps his arms around her and kisses her temple. “I’m not going anywhere, Mom.”
“Yes, you are.” She nods, still sobbing. “You already know you’re getting drafted.”
Hunter’s agent has already told him he’s almost positive he’ll be drafted in the first round.
“I’ll be back for the holidays and during off-season.”
“I know,” she says. “I’m just going to miss you.”
“Mom, why are you crying?” Ella asks, joining us in the kitchen. She grabs a cup of coffee and sits at the table.
“Because your brother is leaving,” I tell her, filling her in.
Ella laughs, and Harper glares at her, effectively shutting her up.
“What time are we leaving?” Ella asks, glancing at her cell phone.
“Around four,” I say. “They want us to get situated so the camera crew can get set up.”
“Can I go to Greg’s for a little while and meet you guys there?” Ella is technically asking both of us, since she knows her mom and I always make decisions together, but she’s avoiding eye contact with me, afraid of what I’m going to say.
When I found out my fifteen-year-old daughter was dating Greg, the seventeen-year-old quarterback with a Camaro, I damn near lost my shit. Hunter and Ella might not be biologically mine, but from the beginning, we’ve been close. Hunter and I obviously bonded over baseball, but with Ella, our relationship is special.
Harper tells me all the time I spoil Ella too much, but I can’t help it. For one, she’s the only girl in a house full of crazy, rambunctious boys, and two, she has mastered the puppy dog eyes. All it takes is for her to give me that damn pout and call me Dad and I’m a goner. That’s right, she calls me Dad.
Five years ago, when her piece of shit father decided to take a position over three hours away, choosing his career over his children, Ella was heartbroken. While Hunter is a verbal, say what’s on his mind, kind of kid, Ella is the shy and quiet type. When she hurts, she hurts quietly. And her father leaving hurt her. She didn’t understand what she did wrong. Why he was only going to see them every other holiday and a few weeks during the summer.
I hate that he left them, but his loss was my gain. Through his absence, my relationship with Hunter and Ella only grew, and the next thing I knew both of them were calling me Dad on their own. I’ve never been so fucking honored in my life. I take that title seriously, which leads me back to my point: Ella wanting to take off in a Camaro with her boyfriend, Greg.