Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
He held out what looked like a bottle full of pond scum and algae.
“Um,” I said, “sure. What is it?”
“You’ve never had GXF?” Kace asked like I was the weird one. “Greens Fitness. It has all of the good shit in it, and twenty grams of protein. I have one after every sauna or cold plunge.”
He cracked open a bottle, chugging most of it as we walked through his sunlit backyard, past a landscaped gazebo and a spruce-lined vegetable garden. I cracked open the bottle of GXF and took a sip. First it tasted a little bit like grass, and then it actually started to taste nice.
We dipped under a canopy of trees, still headed down a path that was even longer than I’d predicted. Kace gave me the rundown, pointing out each feature on the property. We passed a tennis court. Another couple of fountains. A little grassy patch at the center of more pine trees. Kace’s property really was like a small resort, all for him, but as he pointed things out to me, he said it as casually as if he was describing the weather.
I gulped down another sip of my green drink. “You said you always drink these after a sauna or a coal plunge?” I asked.
“Cold plunge,” he corrected me, turning back to glance at me, curiosity in his eyes.
“And what’s a cold plunge?” I asked.
He flashed a stunning smile in the morning light, pausing on the path. “Are you fucking with me?”
“I am way too nervous right now to even consider fucking with you,” I said, the truth spilling from my lips before I could shove it back down.
Luckily, Kace’s eyes glittered at what I’d admitted to him. “You’re funny, Nathan.”
I realized quickly that I sure as shit wasn’t going to be able to act cool around Kace, so I may as well just give up entirely and be myself.
Let him think I was a lame older dude. It was fine.
I was who I was, and a 22-year-old superstar with perfect abs and hypnotizing blue eyes wasn’t going to change that.
“No, I’m just 36, soon to be 37, and I don’t know about Tiktok trends or the hottest new drinks or what the hell a cold plunge is.”
He glanced at me before he started heading down the stone path again, keeping his eyes on me for a moment as he walked.
“Damn, Daddy,” Kace said with a whistle, looking me up and down. “37 soon, huh?”
I snorted, starting to feel at ease for the first time since getting here. “Christ, not you, too.”
“What?”
“My brothers and all of my coworkers make fun of me for being in Dad Mode all of the time,” I explained. “I’ve known you for all of five minutes and you’re already doing it, too.”
Kace took another glimpse back at me, something mischievous in his expression. Like he was in on some joke that I wasn’t.
“Oh. That’s not what I meant,” he said, his eyes holding so much that I couldn’t decipher. “But that’s cute, bro.”
Not what he meant? Why else would he have teased me by calling me Daddy?
I was in over my head. I watched the thick, tanned muscles on the back of his shoulder as he kept walking, waving a hand behind him as if to lead me forward.
Bro. For fuck’s sake. I hadn’t thought about what it would actually be like to work for a 22-year-old, but I was going to guess being called things like “bro” and “dude” and, apparently, “Daddy,” were going to be a big part of it.
Kace was a weirdo. A mesmerizing weirdo, but still.
We finally came up to what looked like a tinier version of Kace’s home, situated on the other side of his property.
“I get a feeling I’m going to learn a lot of new things working for you,” I told him. “Should I be scared?”
He bit his lower lip, just for a second. “Maybe. And I think so, too,” he said, his gaze lingering on me. “Anyway, here we are.”
Something stirred inside me as he gave me that look. I had no business being around him, and I knew it. But when his eyes were on me, I wasn’t thinking about the heavy weight of my life’s responsibilities for the first time in… well, decades. For the last fifteen years I’d been raising Maddy, then getting a divorce, then starting a construction business with my brother. It had been nothing but adult mode, dad mode, and daily responsibilities for a long, long time.
Maybe that’s why my eyes were locked on him like he was a fucking magnet. He was young, free, and charming, with the whole world ahead of him.
It stirred a craving in me that had been asleep at the wheel for years.
A little annoying, sure. But also irresistible.
“So this is the guest house?” I said, turning to look at the smaller modern home. It was probably the same size as my actual house.