Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 191421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 957(@200wpm)___ 766(@250wpm)___ 638(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 191421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 957(@200wpm)___ 766(@250wpm)___ 638(@300wpm)
I agree with Poe. Alaric is a history professor AKA total academic geek. So yeah, it was a surprise for us too. But apparently, there is nothing that he can’t do.
“Well, I already knew.” Wyn shrugs, watching her man, Conrad, who’s managed to steal the ball from Alaric and is now trying to make his own pass. “My man’s the coach and I totally suck at soccer.”
I high five her.
Conrad is the coach. He used to coach high school soccer — he even coached us at St. Mary’s for a little bit — but now he has a new job, coaching the pro soccer team for New York. Alongside his younger brother Stellan, the assistant coach, and Ledger and Shepard, both players on the team.
Usually they live in New York, Shep, Stellan and Ledger, but they’re here for the weekend.
Anyway, while we’re all perving over and praising soccer players, Tempest has other ideas.
She has Halo in her lap as she glares at one guy in particular, Ledger Thorne with his crazy hair and angry eyes. Who, before Reed got the ball, had scored a goal.
“I, for one, am super over soccer,” she says, her chin lifted.
Is it me or was that really loud? And did Ledger hear it?
He definitely did shoot a glance our way.
Callie glares at her. “Hey, my husband’s a soccer player. Who also happens to be your brother. We met at a soccer game, remember?”
“Whatever,” Pest grumbles. “But just for the record, I don’t like soccer players. I don’t like how they’re always so obsessed with their practice and routine and exercising and scoring and dribbling and running laps around the field. I think athletes, in general, are very superficial and hotheaded. There’s zero depth in them. Zero layers.” She holds her finger then. “Rockstars, on the other hand, I’ll take. All that angst and poetry. Yum.” Then, she kisses Halo’s cute curly head. “Right, Halo? You and me, we’re going to find ourselves an artist. Art’s where it’s at, really.”
Wyn high fives with Tempest at this.
But I don’t think that comment was for Wyn or any of us really.
It was definitely for Ledger. Who definitely heard her and, in response to her comment, kicks the ball so hard that it almost takes down the goalpost when it hits the net.
And then there’s Jupiter.
My feisty, talkative best friend who hasn’t said a word in all this.
So I move closer to her and whisper, “Hey.”
She shoots me a startled glance. “Hey.”
“I think you should tell her,” I say.
Jupiter’s eyes go wide because she knows what I’m talking about. And who: Callie.
“No.”
“I know you’re afraid of coming clean to her. But she’s the nicest ever. She’ll —”
She breathes sharply. “No.”
“But —”
“No. End of discussion.”
I give her a look. “So what, you’re just going to sit here and stare.”
“I’m not staring.”
“You are.”
“Echo.”
“So you didn’t catch that goal he made?” I ask, raising my eyebrows. “Oh, and you totally didn’t gasp and jump when he slipped and fell a few minutes ago.”
She swallows. “It doesn’t matter. It’s gross. And he has a girlfriend.”
My heart twists for my best friend. “That’s why you need to tell her. You need people on your side. And she will be, trust me. She’ll understand. And it’s not your fault. Not the gross thing, which I don’t even think is gross at all. And also not the second,” I drop my voice even lower, “that despite all of that, you like her brother anyway.”
Her emerald eyes cloud over. “I can’t.”
“So you’re never going to tell her who you are.”
“No.”
“But Jupiter, I think that’s a mistake. I think —”
She covers my hand and squeezes. “Just drop it. Please.”
I do then.
Because I don’t want to compound her misery. It’s plenty miserable loving someone without them knowing, without them even acknowledging your presence. It’s even more miserable loving them when you know you’re not supposed to for so many reasons out of your control. And even though I think Jupiter should do what I’m telling her to do, I will support her no matter what.
By the way, the guy we’re talking about here is Shepard Thorne, one of Callie’s brothers. And I so wish that he didn’t already have a girlfriend and that he’d take notice of my pretty best friend. Despite her thinking that it’s gross.
It’s not and he doesn’t.
All throughout the game, and it breaks my heart.
Anyway, if not for my best friend’s misery, it’s one of the best days of my summer so far.
Even when all my friends interrogate me about what’s happening with me and my own soccer player. Who by the way is the best player among all the guys here. He even scores the winning goal, making me so elated for him and sad that he won’t be playing professionally.
My friends flood me with questions.