Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
I didn’t really care.
I didn’t live here. Then again, even if I had, I wouldn’t care.
It was hard to care when your heart wasn’t in it anymore.
Well…at least it wasn’t until Kayla had entered my life.
I looked down at her to see her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She was partially standing in front of me, semi-blocking my body with hers. As if she was protecting me.
It would’ve been comical had she not been doing it almost instinctively.
God, I fucking loved her.
Ohhh, fuck.
I loved her.
Kayla, with her beautiful hair, and her pretty eyes. Kayla with her fascination with holes, and her inability to keep any single word in her mouth when she had the urge to speak. Kayla, who stood up for me against my father. Kayla, who was slowly beginning to be the reason I breathed easy.
Goddamn. I wasn’t just in love with her. I was enraptured by her.
Love like nothing I’d ever felt before.
Because this felt deeper. Stronger. More visceral.
Love was just a four-letter word. It didn’t seem like it was adequate enough for what I felt for her. Shouldn’t it be a longer word with more umph to it?
“And now you’re mocking his soon-to-be-wife?” Gunner laughed. “That’s pretty rich. If anyone has room to judge, it’s definitely not you. You have four wives and a girlfriend. All of which are stupid—or gullible depending on which way you look at it—enough to agree to do this with you. Who in their right mind would want to live like y’all live?”
Nobody said anything.
The sound of crickets could be heard in that large stadium…and it was the dead of winter.
“Go sit over there away from everyone so we can live in peace.”
My father literally had no choice but to turn and leave, otherwise he’d start something he knew that he couldn’t finish. At least not in a public place.
Gunner waited until he left before he turned to us.
“What. The. Fuck?”
I pulled Kayla into the curve of my arm and then offered my free hand to him. “You made it.”
“I was tired of being a coward,” he answered. “I just…I felt like this was my year. Like I could do it this year.”
I let Kayla go and then pulled Gunner in for a hug.
“I’m proud of you, kid.”
Gunner shuddered before pulling himself away.
Like me, he wasn’t much of a hugger. We also didn’t like airing our dirty laundry in public. Clearly today was an exception to all rules.
“Anyway, let’s go get a seat. And while we’re doing that, I need to call a hotel and book a room for the night. Apparently, I won’t be staying with them ever again,” he growled.
“Good luck with that,” I said. “With the ceremony, every fuckin’ room in the vicinity is taken.”
“You can stay with us. We have double beds,” Kayla blurted.
I turned to look down at her.
I knew where she was coming from, but I couldn’t very well fuck her with Gunner there tonight, now could I?
Something in which she knew by the look in her eyes.
“Oh, sweet. Thank you.” Gunner accepted the offer before I could so much as rescind it.
My eyes narrowed on Kayla, who was studiously avoiding my gaze.
She was embarrassed about what she’d done, apparently, and trying to make it to where I couldn’t confront her about her use of the word ‘fiancée.’
She was clearly trying to avoid anything that had to do with being alone with me, so I went ahead and rocked her little world again.
“I accept.”
She blinked at me.
“What?”
“I accept your offer of marriage.”
She opened her mouth and closed it.
“You…we…can’t…what?”
“Is it you who gets the engagement ring, or is it me? I’m not really sure of the protocol when the woman is the one to propose. Do I wear it, or do you wear it?” I continued.
She blinked worriedly at me.
“I don’t…”
“I don’t want to get married in the summer. Just FYI. It’s hot, and I’ll sweat.”
She continued to blink, this time her mouth falling open and then snapping closed as if she wasn’t quite sure what to say to make this situation better.
“I thought that was a joke,” Gunner added his two cents.
“Nope, not a joke,” I snorted.
“It was most certainly…”
I covered her mouth with my hand.
“There are quite a few people still milling about around us. Do you want them to know that you lied? It’ll make your whole story less believable,” I teased.
She licked my palm, and I chuckled as I pulled my hand away.
“Very mature of you, dear.”
“It’s been said that I’m just a young girl and that I don’t quite have the grownupness of an adult quite yet.” She snickered.
Then she sobered.
“I didn’t really mean that,” she whispered.
“You’re taking it back?”
She opened her mouth to reply, but Gunner once again interrupted.
Jesus, the little cockblocker—literally and figuratively.
“I think I might throw up.”
I looked at him, thinking he was meaning how Kayla and I were behaving, but his eyes weren’t trained on us. They were trained on the hundreds of pictures that lined the bulletin boards that were just below the stage.