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)
Nathan leaned in to press a kiss to the side of my head. “I know it’s overwhelming. Every time we get the whole family together, it’s a whole, big production.”
“Good thing I love big productions.”
“Now, Kace,” I heard Nathan’s dad say from behind me.
I turned to him. “What’s up, boss?”
“I hear you’re the guy to talk to about this whole cold plunge trend.”
“I am your resident cold plunge expert,” I said. “I fucking love them, and I also totally hate them. Dunking your body into icy cold water for minutes at a time has that effect on a person.”
“Tell me everything,” Bruce said.
I spent the next ten minutes getting deep with Bruce about the benefits of quick cold water plunging—about how it was life-changing for my mental world as much as for my muscle recovery after tough games. As we spoke, I realized quickly that everyone in the Wood family had the same way of immediately treating me like I was any other person, even when they were already aware of my fame.
So many other people that I met only wanted to hear about football, or fancy clubs I’d been to, or which rappers and actors I had met and hung out with.
There was none of that with anyone in the Wood family. They were curious about me, and who I was, not just about the trappings of fame.
And that’s why it was so easy to feel at home with them. At home next to Nathan, and now, as someone who his family totally accepted. My conversation with Bruce morphed into a dozen different conversations with others at the table. As the night really got started, and everyone started getting a nice buzz going, we mingled all around the bar, getting up and floating around instead of just sitting at the table.
For long stretches of time, I was able to forget I was famous.
At one point, someone put on Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie,” and I watched as Jolene started swaying to the beat.
“Oh, they’ve done it, now,” Jolene said, shimmying out of her seat toward the dance floor, which was currently only occupied by two young couples.
A huge smile spread over my face as I watched Jolene start to dance like nobody was watching.
“If you’d told me your mom was such a Shakira fan, I never would have believed you.”
“You should have seen her when this song first came out,” Nathan said.
“Yes! Let’s go!” Lindsay called out, getting up from the end of the longer table and joining her mom out on the dance floor.
“I’ve got to do it,” I told Nathan, giving him a look. “You know I’ve got to.”
Nathan bit back a smile, and I could already see a slight blush on his face. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Nathan led the way and I followed, and before I knew it, the whole Wood family was out dancing, shaking their hips to Shakira. Charlie bounced his way over soon after, dragging his crowd of admirers with him.
We all shook our hips like nobody’s business, and for once, I didn’t even think to record it on my phone to post online later.
“Hey,” I said to Nathan over the music a minute later. “Look behind the bar.”
Nathan looked over, his eyebrows waggling. “Oh, I see,” he said.
Jax was looking over at the dance floor, eyes completely glued to Charlie as he shook his ass.
“I mean, Jax is straight, so who knows. Right?” I teased Nathan.
“Very funny,” Nathan said, turning to me and putting his hands on my hips. “I thought I was straight, too, you know.”
“I know, sweetie,” I told him. We danced for a little bit longer. “Hey. Aren’t you going to protest me calling you that?”
Nathan was just looking in my eyes with a level of affection that heated me from the inside. “I think you can call me any damn thing you want, now.”
He leaned in and pressed a slow kiss to my lips. Right here, in the middle of a dance floor in public, surrounded by family and friends.
Nathan really had come a long way.
The whole family tore it up on the dance floor for another couple of songs before we all scattered and dispersed again. For most of the night I stood by Nathan’s side, in my happy place, but even the times when we broke off from each other were perfectly comfortable.
I felt like I belonged.
And, as the night wore on, I realized that tonight I was forging something that I’d been deeply missing from my life. A family connection. Not my blood family. But, just maybe, a family that I could be a part of, one day. A family that I already felt I was a part of, more than my own who had cast me away. A family that liked the real Kace Tomlin.
After everyone had danced, drank, and talked their asses off all night, Nathan and I wound up in the same place we’d started the night: together in my car.