Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“Come with me,” I try.
At that, he laughs a little, gaze floating to the window.
“Can’t, Strings,” he croaks. “I just… can’t. Not tonight.”
I want him to talk to me. I also know that he won’t — not right now. If he wanted to talk, he would have started as soon as I walked through his door.
He’s in one of those moods where he just wants to shut the world away.
I know better than to push him.
I know what he needs right now, even if I hate giving it to him.
I nod, biting my tongue and all the words I want to say. I lean down and kiss his cheek quickly before I dart out the door, swiping a tear from my jaw. I take a moment in my bathroom to get myself together, then I make my way down to the lake.
Austin pulls me under his arm when I arrive, greeting me with a beaming smile and a kiss that should make me melt. I should be laughing with him and my parents. I should be feeling electricity tingle down my spine as he whispers what he wants to do to me when the night is done.
I should be happy.
But the boy upstairs isn’t.
And I realize then that no amount of time or distance can ever untangle me from him.
Old Sport
Aleks
She wanted to hit me.
I wanted to kiss her.
That was how it had always been with us.
“This is just… great. Just fucking perfect,” Mia said, throwing her hands up in disbelief before she sank down into my giant bean bag with a huff. As soon as she realized where she was sitting, she hopped up with a frustrated growl before stomping over to the couch, instead.
She hated that fucking thing, and I really wanted to laugh.
But nothing was funny in this moment.
The news about the hurricane shift had surprised all of us. It wasn’t unheard of, but the drastic shift toward Tampa had been highly unlikely.
No one like Mother Nature to remind us that highly unlikely never meant impossible.
We were just finishing up our morning skate, most of the team heading back to our homes for a nap and to load up on carbs when the news broke. Coach had quickly met with management, and before we knew it, the game had been canceled, our opponents told to shelter in place while our team was told to go home and prepare to evacuate if we were in an evacuation zone.
With so little time before the storm would hit, evacuation would be difficult.
Daddy P and Vince were definitely in those mandatory zones, one of them on Davis Island and the other right on the beach. Fortunately, they both had places to go that were more inland. Will, Chloe, and Ava would go to Will’s uncle’s house, and Maven and Vince would go to Mave’s parents’.
The rest of us would shelter in place, and I’d had the good sense to stock my condo with hurricane prep supplies just in case. I’d be good.
But I knew the second I picked Mia up and saw the mix of fear and anger on her face that I was in for a rough night whether the storm was bad or not.
She buried her face in her hands, shaking her head.
“What am I going to do?”
Under normal circumstances, I’d toss a smart-ass remark at her and smirk as that perfect mouth of hers gaped open at me, as her cheeks turned red and that little vein in her forehead popped. I knew exactly how to push her buttons, how to make rage pour through that normally put-together woman.
But right now, I just wanted to comfort her. That side of me I always kept tied up in the basement of my cold, dead heart was thrashing, urging me to go to her, to pull her into me, to hold her and find a way to make it right.
We’d barely talked in months.
She’d iced me out.
And selfishly, I was a bit happy about the sudden change in plans if it meant I’d get a night alone with her.
Maybe I could get her to talk to me. Maybe I could get her to tell me what the fuck has been going on since the day she firmly shoved me away.
Her dark hair fell over her shoulders in a silky curtain as I took the seat next to her. I hovered one hand over her slender back before I carefully, slowly, rubbed it. “I’m sorry.”
Mia froze under my touch.
There it was again, that shock of electricity between us, that zap of heat I felt any time my body made contact with hers.
But just when I thought she might melt into that touch, Mia yanked away, uncovering her face so she could properly glare at me. Those sharp blue eyes of hers narrowed into slits. “Well, you should be. This is all your fault.”