Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 79670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“What did you tell her?” My palms are so sweaty as I ask this question.
“I told her I had a lot to think about.” She looks into my eyes. “And I do. I kept playing it over and over in my head.”
“You should make a list,” I tell her, trying not to make my voice crack.
“Do you want to go out with me tonight?” she asks, and I know the answer right away. It will always be yes. “There is a hockey game tonight.”
I look at her, not sure if I heard her right. “The hockey game?” I say again. “The press will be there for sure.”
“I don’t care.” It’s like music to my ears. Like the symphony is playing. “I don’t care,” she repeats, and I have to wonder if she is trying to convince herself or me.
“Are you sure?” I ask, and she just nods at me.
“They usually go out after the games,” she tells me.
“You want to go out?” I ask. “Do you usually go?”
“Not really, but Matty and Christopher are still in town,” she replies, and my heart soars that not only does she want me to go with her to the game but she wants me to go out with her afterward.
“So let’s go out. I’m going to go change,” I tell her, walking past her but stopping beside her. “I’ll be five minutes.” I bend to softly kiss her lips. Her hand comes out and cups my cheek. “You look beautiful.” I kiss her one more time before I walk into the bedroom.
I walk over to the bed and sit down. My head hangs now as the tension leaves my body. “What’s wrong?” I look up toward the door at her.
“Just catching my breath,” I answer her. “It’s like it’s been a roller coaster every day since I got here.”
She laughs as she walks in and sits next to me. “Well, that happens when you are in the public eye.”
I nod at her. “I mean, I’ve been tagged about a thousand times, and I have thirty-four thousand new requests to follow me on Instagram.” She looks at me. “I did get calls from both my brother and my father.”
“Which brother?” I ask, knowing I could probably get Christopher on my side, but Dylan looks like he could body-slam me and not look back.
“Dylan,” she says, and I close my eyes and hiss.
“I was really hoping you wouldn’t say his name,” I finally admit and she laughs and pushes my shoulder with hers.
“What are we going to tell your family?” I ask, looking down at my hands, not sure what the right thing to do is.
“What do you want to tell them?” she asks and I look over at her.
“I don’t want to hide that I’m in love with you,” is the first thing that comes out of my mouth. “But then again, I’m embarrassed and ashamed of what I did.” She smiles sadly at me. “But it’s what made me the man I am.”
“Why don’t we say we met at the hockey game, and then you asked me out?” she suggests.
I let out a little sigh of relief. “But what if they find out that we lied to them?”
“No one is going to find out,” she assures me, and I just raise my eyebrows at her. “You know. I know.”
“My father, mother, and sister know,” I inform her. “And if I’m honest, my sister would probably put my face up on a billboard in Times Square with the words cheater stamped across my forehead.” She can’t help but laugh.
“Well, my sister knows and so does my mother,” she says. “They won’t say anything.” She stops talking and then thinks. “I want to say she won’t tell my father, but I’m not sure.”
“If it comes up, we’ll deal with it. So for now, we met at the hockey game, and I charmed you into a date.”
She just laughs. “Yeah, let’s go with that.” She comes over and kisses my lips. “Now can you get dressed so we can make our entrance?” She gets up. “I’m going to raid your minibar.”
I get up, walking over to the closet and grabbing a pair of black jeans and a gray sweater. I slip out of my basketball shorts and replace them with black jeans. I grab a T-shirt before I put on the sweater and then walk into the bathroom. I wet my hands and push my hair back before spraying some of the cologne I know she loves on me.
I grab the leather jacket off the chair and walk out, seeing her snatching the bag of peanut M&M’s. “How does this look?”
She laughs as she tosses one into her mouth. “Like we match.” She looks down at her outfit. “United front, I like it.”
“Shall we go?” I ask, and she nods at me.