Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Pax: For your dress and shoes. The very least I can do…
Pax: Got the Venmo address from Pike. See you Thursday. I’ll pick you up at 6.
I’m still thinking about the money. There’s definitely a Pretty Woman vibe going on here, but I can’t afford clothes for an event like that on my own, either. I asked my mom to pick Jasmine up from gymnastics tomorrow evening so I can go shopping.
I’m dreading that. I’m a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl, and I don’t know the first thing about what to wear to something like this. I’m searching Google for ideas when I get a text from Indie.
Indie: I hear you’re coming to the dinner thing Thursday night. Want to go shopping together?
Perfect timing.
Me: Yes! I have no idea what to wear. Can you go tomorrow evening?
Indie: Yes. Dinner before? There’s a new Mexican place I thought you might want to try.
Me: That sounds great. Pick you up at 5:45?
Indie: See you then.
“This is the first time I’ve had you alone since this thing with you and Pax started,” Indie says over chips and queso the next evening. “Details.”
“You know it’s not real, right? This is just to keep the new owner’s daughter from chaining the poor guy to a bed and making him her sex slave.”
Our margaritas arrive and we both take sips before she answers. “I know, but still. I never said anything, because, well…” She shakes her head. “I’m sorry, never mind.”
My brother can be a dumbass at times, but one of the best things he ever did was convince Indie to give him a chance. She’s practical, down to earth, gorgeous, sweet, and a great mom. And since Jasmine and I moved here, she’s become my friend—something I’ve been missing for the past several years. In Kansas City, I spent so much time either at the nursing home or researching things that might help Eric, and cultivating friendships wasn’t exactly a priority anymore.
“No, what were you going to say?” I say, taking another generous sip of the margarita.
Her eyes soften. “Well, it didn’t seem right to say anything when Eric was still alive,” she says gently. “But I’ve always noticed Pax looks at you a lot. I think he’s a little shy, but when we’d have pool parties, he would just…look at you, like he couldn’t keep his eyes off you.”
I smile, skeptical. “It was probably just because of what was going on with Eric. People back home have always stared at me and Jasmine because we were the ones with the husband and father who had been in a coma for years. People are oddly fascinated by it.”
“Well, they’re assholes who need to mind their own business.”
I shrug. “You just get used to it, I guess.”
“I don’t think that was it with Pax, Kylie. I think he’s a little shy with women.”
“A shy pro athlete?” I laugh.
“Yeah, I think some of them are. Like they know what to say to puck bunnies, but not women they really like. Don’t you think there’s a reason that Pax thought of you when he needed to say he had a girlfriend?”
“I was the first single woman he thought of.”
Indie gives me a knowing look. “And why do you think that was?”
I scan the menu, my heart beating a little faster. Surely Indie is just trying to build my confidence; she wants me to believe I can have a man in my life again at some point, if I want to.
Pax is my brother’s friend and teammate. He’s never been anything but kind and appropriate toward me. There’s no way he’d ever back me into a wall and kiss me, or whisper his dirty thoughts of doing more, his hands roaming places that haven’t been roamed in years.
“You’re blushing,” Indie says, grinning with amusement. “You like him, too.”
“Everyone likes Pax,” I say dismissively.
Indie bursts out laughing. “I won’t say a word, I promise. Not to Pike or anyone else.”
“I mean, he is pretty easy on the eyes.”
“Can you imagine wrapping yourself around six and a half feet of solid muscle?” Indie fans herself. “I’ve heard he wears a size fourteen skate and that his feet aren’t the only extra-large part of him, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh my god.” I close my eyes, a laugh busting out of me. “Where did you hear that?”
“The Saints’ wives and girlfriends are a bunch of gossip queens. None of it is mean spirited, though; they just like to know all the things about the players and their lives.”
“Ugh, I’m not sure I’d like that.”
She shrugs. “You get used to it. They’ve all been very welcoming. Nolan gets invited to sleepovers with other players’ kids and I get invited to girls’ night. They just accepted both of us into the fold, no questions asked.”