Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74844 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74844 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
“I got sent back down to the Bears,” I reply in our native tongue. “Not happy about it.”
“Oh, they’re stupid to do that to my fat boy. It’s okay. You go and play and win.”
“That’s the plan, Ma.”
“And then you come see me when you’re done.”
I chuckle. “I know, Ma.”
“Have you found my new daughter yet?”
I roll my eyes. My mom’s obsession with my finding a wife is getting annoying. It’s all my brothers’ fault, all three of them finding love and getting married within the last three years. Now, there is only me, and Mom wants me to have a wife.
“If you had one, you wouldn’t be so sad about not playing for the Assassins. You’d be like, who cares. I’ve got a wife.”
I snort at that. “I don’t know if there is a woman out there I’ll ever love more than hockey, Ma.”
She makes a sound of pure disgust. “Alejandro, then they are not the woman for you.”
Warmth fills me head to toe, knowing she is absolutely right. My mom is my everything, and her love for me is always shining, no matter the distance between us. She is my biggest fan, and I love her for it. I just wish she’d lay off the wife shit since all I can do is think of her in a wedding dress walking down the aisle to me to start the rest of our lives.
Even knowing I’m a dumb fuck for thinking that, I can’t help but grin as I turn onto the road to Ciaran’s home.
“And don’t be sad over being sent back down. It isn’t your time to shine yet. You obviously have some work to do, but the good thing is, you are strong enough to be sent down. Some would let it ruin them, but not my fat boy. No. You’ll thrive and show them. Everyone else gets to play golf, but my fat boy gets to keep playing hockey. Be happy you can still play and can still grow.”
My mom is the best. She reminds me a lot of Elli Adler, which is probably why I love Elli so much. My mom’s words and love are what I need, and I appreciate her take on this. It’s time for my pity act to end. I get the chance to help the Bears win the Cup. We missed it last year by one round, but not this year. This year is our year, because I want to prove to the Assassins’ organization that they need me. That I am valuable, and I can show up when I’m asked to. I want the whole hockey organization to see that. This is my time to shine. I won’t let anything distract me.
Not even the girl I want more than I want to be between the two pipes.
The one my mom would say is it for me.
CHAPTER 5
Elliot
For the eighth time, I make sure that my oversized tee is flowy enough and hangs over my massive tits so that my sisters don’t notice my stomach isn’t flat anymore. It’s getting hot out since Tennessee only has a week of spring before it’s full-fledged summer. Because of this, I have no choice but to wear shorts so I don’t die of heat exhaustion. As I take in my reflection in the bathroom mirror of the Drippy Drip, the coffeehouse my sister and her husband own, I bite my lip. While I look like my regular self, I know something is very different. I know there is someone growing inside me, and I’ll be lying to all of my sisters today.
This is the first time in months that all four of my sisters and I will be together.
Austen has been living in Nashville for over two years now, and we don’t see her much anyway, but she made the trip down with Louisa and Eliza since Dimitri’s season is over and they’re heading to Russia in a couple weeks. Louisa has been in Nashville for over a year with Ciaran, coming back and forth here to Knoxville to take care of her bookshop. Eliza has been there for the last eight months as her husband has been recovering from a nasty injury he sustained back in November. They’re coming in to check on Drippy Drip and to spend time with us. I had to drop off the keys to her new place since Coleson is still struggling with stairs.
With my three older sisters four hours away, that’s left only Clara and me, which has made it easy to hide the child growing in my belly. Clara is completely distracted with her mobile dog business, and I hardly see her since I’ve been living in Louisa’s apartment to keep an eye on the bookshop at night. Clara was going to move in with me, but she decided to have a small house built on the property of her dog resort. It’s still being built, so for now, she’s staying with our peepaw because the land she’s building on is right by his estate.