Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 147021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 735(@200wpm)___ 588(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 735(@200wpm)___ 588(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
“Are you sure you don’t have some unresolved feelings? You’re pretty tense about it. I don’t want to push you.” Roman sips his bourbon.
I run a hand through my hair. Roman and I became fast friends when I was traded to Toronto seven years ago. He wasn’t into the party scene the way so many of the players my age had been. He had a teenage daughter, no partner, and a lot of responsibility. I was nursing a broken heart and had no interest in a string of meaningless flings. Using sex to get over having my heart ripped out seemed like the worst possible idea.
I’d always been private about my love life, but even more so after Scarlet and I split. Mostly because the world had a front-row seat to that breakup. We’d been out for dinner when it happened, and the argument was caught on camera. Two days later she gave a statement saying we’d broken up, and it had been amicable, but more pictures of that argument circulated, along with speculation. My lack of comment only fed the rumors. Then I moved to Toronto. Put my head down and channeled all my energy into hockey.
“I don’t have unresolved feelings about her,” I correct. “I have unresolved feelings about how things went down when I was traded to Toronto.”
The worst part had been seeing her on the arm of someone else less than two months after I moved. The breakup was enough of a gut punch, but that she’d gotten over us so quickly…that was a shot to the heart I hadn’t expected. Knowing I loved her so much more than she’d ever loved me.
“You were young. You’re in different places now.”
“She’s here for a few months, and then she’ll move back to LA.” Besides, there’s already enough chatter on the hockey sites about her coming to games. She’s always in the public eye, and with this new movie, that won’t change. Not that it matters since I’m not interested in rekindling our failed relationship.
“Okay, I’ll drop it.” He sips his drink. “I need to plan something for Peggy. Her birthday is just around the corner. I can’t believe she’s turning twenty-one. It feels like she just graduated high school.”
I wasn’t at her convocation, but I celebrated afterward with her family. She’d already been accepted at her university of choice, with a scholarship. Things had been different back then. She was still a kid.
“She give you any hints about what she wants to do to celebrate?” Whatever it is, she’ll want Tally involved.
“Her mom’s coming to visit, but I’m keeping that a surprise—unless Zara can’t contain her excitement and ends up telling her. It’s been a few months since she’s seen her.”
“Is she coming on her own, or bringing North with her?”
“Pretty sure he’s coming,” he says.
“Are they staying with you?”
“If it’s just the two of them, yeah.”
“It still blows my mind that your ex and her partner stay with you when they visit.”
He shrugs. “It’s easy because she and I weren’t meant for each other. If we hadn’t had an amicable split, it would be different. She’s a great mom to Peggy, and we get along better as friends than we ever did as a couple. Besides, her lifestyle and mine don’t mesh. I’m not the sharing type.”
“Yeah, me neither.” I sip my drink.
Zara is a total free spirit. She’s been in an open relationship with North for as long as I’ve known Roman. Sometimes when they visit, they bring an extra friend along and stay at a hotel. I don’t pretend to understand the dynamics since half the time the extra “friend” is a woman and half the time it’s a man, but it seems to work for them. Personally, the idea of sharing Aurora with someone else makes me feel homicidal. Not that she’s mine.
Dallas drops into the chair beside me and chugs a bottle of water. The hair at his temples is damp with perspiration, and his dress shirt is open at the collar. “Roman, you look like a bodyguard. Hammer is safe out there. The entire team knows better than to hit on her.”
“She would never date a player anyways. I would never allow it,” Roman adds.
I choke on my scotch.
Roman claps me on the back. “You all right?”
“Just went down the wrong pipe.” Six months ago, I was playing bodyguard along with Roman.
Tristan is out there with Rix, grinding her body against his. When she tries to spin around, he grabs her hip and drops his mouth to her ear. She melts against him. I look away and my gaze snags on Shilpa and Ash. They’re slow dancing even though it’s a high-energy song, oblivious to everyone around them. What I wouldn’t give to be able to touch Aurora like that.
“Why aren’t you two out there?” Dallas asks, pulling me out of my head.