Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“What does she have to say about all of this? Surely, this isn’t coming out of the blue.”
“I might have fucked up.”
“You might have?” He laughs. “Well, now I know why you sucked so bad on the ice. What happened?” he asks. I leave out the whole going down on her in public because he’s still my dad, and it’s awkward, but I definitely tell him about not going into the house.
“Shit,” he says. “I mean, I get it. I don’t think I would have been able to do that, but did you talk to her before that?”
“Dad, I just admitted to you for the first time that I’m falling for her. You think I’ve admitted it to her? What if she thinks I’m a creep?”
“If she thought you were a creep, she wouldn’t stick her tongue down your throat.” I groan. “You need to put your big-boy pants on and have a conversation with her. She needs to know what you are comfortable with, just like you need to know what she’s comfortable with. Nothing will be solved if you run away from her.”
“I’m not running away. I was away for work.”
“Did you call or text her?”
“I was giving her space.”
“You were being a scared punk-ass bitch.” He doesn’t skip one single beat. “And then you took it onto the ice and let your team down.”
“This pep talk is amazing, Dad. We should really do this more.”
“Just keeping it real, son.” He laughs. “Now I’m going to let you go so you can call her and talk to her. I’m also coming down there this weekend.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I’ll give you until next weekend, and then I’m coming down.”
“Fine.” I sigh. “I’m going to let you go.”
“Talk to her and not in a punk-ass-bitch way. In a way that is actually communicating.”
“Again, Dad, you really should do motivational speaking.” I chuckle. “Love you,” I say, hanging up. Then I take a big breath before pulling up her number and calling her.
I don’t even know if she’s going to answer me or not. I look down at the phone, willing her to pick up and then making a plan for going over to her house. I’m almost going to hang up when the phone connects. “Hello,” she breathes heavily, as if she ran to the phone.
“Hey,” I say softly, my heart feels like it’s beating normal for the first time this week, “it’s me.”
“Hey.” Her voice stays neutral.
“I was wondering if I could come over and we could talk.” I look down at the phone, wishing I would have FaceTimed her so I could have seen her face.
I wait for what feels like an eternity, waiting for her to tell me to go fuck myself, but instead, her words shock me. “We’re gone.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
dakota
Talking to Christopher was not on my agenda today, but if I didn’t answer the phone, I would have to tell my mother why I wasn’t answering it. So now I am here in my teenage bedroom on my bed, talking to the man I’ve been thinking about obsessively. “We’re gone.”
“Where are you?” he asks so quickly.
“The girls were off this week, so I decided to come up to my parents’ house for the week.” I close my eyes, hoping he doesn’t think I ran away from him, which I did, but he doesn’t need to know that.
“Oh,” he says softly, and I close my eyes. “Okay, when are you going to be back?”
“Sunday night,” I tell him.
“Can you call me when you get back?” The question doesn’t surprise me. I knew we would have to talk, but I didn’t know when it would be. I also didn’t think it would have been this long before we talked. But I know he’s been on the road traveling because we’ve been watching his games with the girls.
“Yeah,” I give in.
“Give the girls a kiss for me,” he urges, sounding so defeated, and even though I hate it, it serves him right.
“I will,” I reply and then just hang up. I fall back on my bed and close my eyes, wishing I was home so we could have this talk and get it over with. I don’t know what the talk is going to do exactly, but I know I want it out of the way. For both our sakes.
The phone rings again on my chest, and I pick it up, seeing he’s calling me back. “Hello,” I answer right away.
“Hey.” He sounds nervous. “I was wondering if you would go on a date with me?”
I swallow the golf ball that was stuck in my throat before that now feels like a baseball. “No.” I close my eyes when I say the word. “I don’t have the time when I get back.” I give him some bullshit excuse. “I’ll be swamped with work emails since I’m not really working this week.”