Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
“This is it,” he said. “What we have worked for.”
I slapped him on the back. “I didn’t do much. Not compared to you. This is your idea. You drew out the plans, you pitched it, you built this.”
He smirked as he looked over at me. “None of which I could have done without your money and the investors you got involved.”
I shrugged. “My part was easier. What you’ve done here is something I will forever be grateful to you for. I may even let you beat me at a game of pool.”
He chuckled. “I doubt it.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I agreed.
We were silent a moment as the first car pulled into the parking lot. It was Aurora’s dad. “What you did for them, for Aurora, for Hunter… it really is fucking incredible,” I told him.
Nash shrugged. “I wanted to have something like this. To build it and give kids a future, or at least some hope. Hunter was one of us. He didn’t get to fall in love… or come to the last field party. I couldn’t think of a better name for the place. Besides, you’re the one who is funding the scholarship in his name.”
“He would have been my brother-in-law one day,” I said. “And that wasn’t the last field party. Remember in ten years we’re having another one.”
He chuckled. “I’d like to think we will, but who knows where we will all be, what we will be doing.”
I wanted to argue, but he was right. We didn’t know what the future held for all of us.
“Last night was good,” I told him. “We all needed it.”
“Yeah, it was. Even with the spread of food and girly drinks,” he replied.
More cars began to pull into the parking lot, and we waited to greet them all as they walked through the gates.
* * *
With the stands packed full of family, friends, and people from this town we had known all our lives I watched as Aurora stepped forward to the microphone. I was so fucking nervous because I wanted to be up there holding her hand. I knew this was a big deal for her, and I was struggling to let her do it without me.
“Thank you for being here today,” she began. That smile that owned me lit up her face, and I watched as she glanced at the notes she had written, then put them down as if she had decided not to use them.
“I entered this world with a best friend. Not everyone is blessed with that, but I was. We shared our mother’s womb, a baby bed, a bedroom, a trampoline, and a swing set. With my brother, I was always accepted. He never treated me differently like other kids would do when they realized I spoke with my hands. When I was with him, it was as if nothing were different about me at all. He was my twin brother, my very first friend, my protector, even when I wished he would back off a bit.”
Laughter spread across the crowd, and I felt a lump so damn big in my throat that I wasn’t sure I could swallow.
“Hunter Maclay will always be a part of me. There are times I swear he is right beside me. I feel a peace, and I know it’s him. And today, as I look out over all of you and this facility, I am…” She paused and took a deep breath. I could see the struggle in her features. My own eyes were fighting back tears. “I am honored that he will be remembered this way. With such an amazing place. He would love to know kids were given this opportunity to play the sport I believe he was born loving.”
I wiped at my eyes before the tears could fall. Aurora continued to talk about the work put into the place. She thanked the investors, and she thanked my family for the donation of the land. I wasn’t sure there was a dry eye in the stands when she stepped back and Nash whispered to her and hugged her before taking the microphone.
I waited until she moved behind the stage to walk across the grass and go to her. She had not only spoken in front of hundreds of people, she had used her voice. With all her fear that her voice was different, she had overcome that. My long strides got me to her quickly, and when she turned to me I pulled her into my arms.
“You were incredible,” I said into her hair.
“I sounded okay?” she asked me.
“Baby, your voice is the sweetest damn sound on the earth. I’ve told you that a million times.”
“But you love me,” she replied.
I looked down at her. “Oh, it’s more than love. Worship, adore, those are closer descriptions.”
She laughed softly. “I worship and adore you too.”