Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61199 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61199 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
“Holy hell, man. You scared me.” Eventually I managed to tear my gaze away from his bronzed, muscled chest and look up at his smirking face.
“Sorry?” He shrugged and reached across my body, his heavily corded forearm brushed across my stomach as he reached for a bottle of water in the fridge. “I thought you heard me.”
I took a few steps back and rolled my eyes. “Well maybe if you didn’t walk around like a ninja, I would have heard you.”
Alex barked out a laugh and shook his head. “You’re the first person to ever say that. I’m only graceful and stealthy on the ice.”
“Obviously none of those people have ever lived with you.”
“They wish,” he answered with a smile before he turned the bottle upside down and finished it in just a few seconds. His gaze settled on mine, his expression suddenly serious. “I should apologize for Jack. He can be a little over the top at times.”
Jack was exactly what I expected of a man who looked out for tough guys like Alex. “Don’t apologize. It’s good that you have people in your life looking out for you.” It was more than I had in my life, so who was I to judge?
“Yeah well, he could look out for me without being so overbearing about it.” Alex’s laugh told me there was genuine affection between the men, which only made me more curious about their relationship. “I ordered everything you left in the shopping cart,” he said, changing the subject. “It should all arrive tomorrow morning.”
My eyes rounded in shock. “You bought it all?”
His brows dipped in confusion. “Yeah. You said she needed it all, right?”
I nodded, words escaping me for a minute. I didn’t know how to ask the question that formed on the tip of my tongue in a nice way. “But what if, ugh, never mind.”
“What if she’s not mine.” It wasn’t a question because clearly, it was on his mind too. Alex’s broad shoulders shrugged. “If she’s not, then she’ll go wherever she’s going in style.”
His words surprised me and caused a pinch in my chest, not because his words were sweet and kind, okay not just because they were sweet and kind, but because it meant Dixie’s young life would be filled with upheaval and uncertainty.
“That’s nice of you.”
“What can I say? I’m a nice guy.”
“So far, I have to agree.” I started to relax, well as much as I could with him standing in front of me showing off steel-cut abs and bulging pecs, and I even managed a smile. “How are you doing with all of this, really?”
A sigh of what looked like relief escaped, and Alex put his hands on his hips, his green gaze studying me closely almost as if he was trying to decide whether or not to trust me with his feelings.
“I have no fucking clue, Sasha. I mean one minute I was enjoying a solo dinner of steak and beer and the next there was a little girl with my eyes clinging to me for dear life. How am I supposed to feel?”
It was a lot to deal with for anyone, but especially for a guy like Alex who’d been living a mostly carefree life. “You’re supposed to feel however you feel. Are you angry? Scared? Whatever you’re feeling, own it so you can deal with it.”
“Just like that, huh?”
“Yeah, that’s the abridged version of course, without all the steps of owning it and dealing with it.” There were plenty of issues in my own life that required those same steps so I knew the work needed to deal with it. “It’s a process.”
His smile came slowly. “That’s the catch, then?”
I nodded. “There’s always a catch. You can be a superstar hockey player without the press invading your every waking moment.”
He growled his disapproval at my words. “No kidding. Now I’ll have both you and Jack on my case.” Once again his gaze studied me and I resisted the urge to squirm under his appraisal. “What about you, Sasha?”
I blinked and then frowned. “What about me?”
“Where are you from? How did you get into the nanny biz?” He shrugged and slid between me and the fridge, in search of food, no doubt.
I hated talking about my past, but it had been so long since someone actually asked about it, that the words tumbled out easily. “I’m from Connecticut, born and raised there until I left for college.”
“Where did you go to college?”
Okay, so we’re really doing this. I sighed as I answered. “Undergrad in Chicago and graduate school in California.”
“Wow. Smart. Your folks must be proud as hell of you.”
I laughed bitterly at his words. “I can assure you that they’re not proud. They would be proud if I married the right man, which means a man from the right family with a good name.” I shook off the thoughts of the last conversation with my mother. “Anyway I received my degrees in early childhood development and education and child psychology and I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it. While I was trying to figure it out and dodge my parents, Serenity found me and I ended up here.”