Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 99598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
“You good?” Killian asked.
I nodded.
He released my hand, and I watched him as he strolled away. God, it was hard to believe an hour ago I had him between my legs.
Killian Kane had fucked me. It had been… life changing. Just like his kiss eleven years ago.
I didn’t know what to do with that yet. There was so much I didn’t know about him and what worried me was if he’d ever share more than what was on the surface. I couldn’t be with someone again who kept things from me. David had kept lots—women.
Killian did say he’d take me to his place, and I was also here, with his friends. And it wasn’t because he paid me to be.
“Kat painted this,” Sophia said as she showed me a painting above the mantel in the living room. It was a white horse galloping through the waves on a beach.
“It’s beautiful.”
“She has a rare talent and—”
“Mom, stop bragging about me,” a young woman said as she sauntered into the living room with Haven. They each carried trays with glasses and a jug of orange juice and another with water and cucumber slices. “Hi. I’m Kat. Ream’s other half.”
“Savvy.”
Haven smiled warmly, and we all walked through the house to the patio. The women set the trays down on a large iron table while Sophia talked about the guys practicing in the garage when they started out and how bad Crisis was singing.
“Do you know Vincent insisted on Easter egg hunts up until he was seventeen?” Sophia said as Emily came out of the house with a bowl of scrambled eggs. “Savvy, he was incorrigible. Ream wasn’t into an Easter egg hunt around the backyard at seventeen, so Vincent told him we gave a hundred dollars to whoever collected the most eggs. A lie, of course. They raced around the backyard like bulls ramming one another in order to get to the eggs.” She shook her head smiling as she looped her arm around Haven’s waist and squeezed. “Then Killian and Logan showed up, and the four of them wrestled one another for the chocolate eggs.”
I smiled. Killian racing around the backyard for eggs was hard to imagine. I’d never seen him laugh at school let alone race around looking for hidden chocolates.
My chest swelled because it was a part of him I’d missed.
“When Ream found out there was no money, he went at Vincent. What made it worse was my Vincent laughed the entire time. It took both Killian and Logan to break it up.”
Kat turned to me. “Ream was a little volatile back then.”
“A little?” Crisis strolled outside with a plate of what smelled like bacon. “Hell, the guy was a grenade.”
“Vincent Wesson. Language,” Sophia abolished.
“What?” he asked innocently. “It’s hell. Not even a swear word, Mom.”
Emily, Haven, and Kat laughed. I smiled.
I was introduced to Mr. Wesson, who manned the barbecue flipping sausages. Then my eyes hit Killian out in the backyard with Ream and Logan and a little boy who looked about eleven or twelve.
They were kicking the soccer ball around. Well, Killian was kicking it around, and Ream and Logan were attempting to get it from him.
He easily maneuvered the ball between his feet. It was hypnotic.
I was mesmerized by his agile, lean legs and tousled hair with strands hanging in front of his eyes as his head bent while he effortlessly kept Ream from getting the ball. He glanced up at the kid, who looked to be his partner, and kicked it gently to him near the makeshift goal. Then he bodychecked Ream.
The boy kicked it so hard, he fell backward onto his butt, but it shot right between the chalk markers on the wood fence.
“Score,” the kid yelled, jumping to his feet and throwing his arms in the air.
Killian immediately jogged over and high-fived him then bent and said something to him. The kid smiled from ear to ear, obviously pleased with himself while Killian ruffled his hair.
“We’re fostering him,” Sophia said. “His name is Hendricks, and he’s been bounced around homes since he was five.” God, the poor kid. I knew the feeling, but luckily, it had only been a couple years and not until I was fifteen. I couldn’t imagine being in the system from the age of five. “He loves soccer and the guys. He talks about Kite all the time, and he plays soccer with him every time he comes over. Even in the snow.”
I rested my hands on the railing as I watched Killian, and my heart swelled. I never imagined him being like this with a kid. Or playing soccer. But there was something different in him when he was with Hendricks. Something in his eyes, it was almost… painful. Like it hurt.
He must have sensed me watching him because he raised his head and looked over.