Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
I hold the phone in front of my mouth and yell, “Aus, are you that fucking clueless? I’ve been trying to tell you for years.”
“Knock it off, Duke.” My dad never raises his tone unless he’s mad or trying to make a point. “Don’t talk to your sister and brother like that.”
“Sorry, Dad, but this is bullshit,” I spit back.
“Kat, I’ll be home in a few days,” Dad says.
“Me, too,” Austin says. “I can stay for a few nights.”
“Please don’t say anything to Dean. Any of you. I haven’t had a chance to tell him yet.”
“He’s dead the next time I see him,” I growl.
“Denny, please don’t do anything,” Kat screams.
“I can’t make that promise right now.”
Before anyone can get in another word, I end the call and throw the phone across the room. It shatters into pieces that fall to the floor. Fuck it. I’m not in the mood to talk to anyone, anyway.
I thought I did everything right with Kat and the twins. But I screwed up. She’s only a few months out of college and now pregnant with that asshole’s baby. I never thought Kat would date a professional hockey player, not after everything our mom went through with our dad.
I close my eyes and try to block out the pain, the feelings, and everything swimming through my head and chest. My muscles relax after a while, my body coming down from the rush of adrenaline. Sometimes, I think my anger will swallow me whole. If it weren’t for hockey, I would have no outlet—no way to expel some of this rage.
An hour later, Marcel pushes open my bedroom door with his cell phone in his hand. I share a house in the Washington D.C. area with Marcel, Lucas, and Benji. They’re Canadian and only live here during hockey season. I usually go home to Chicago, where my dad played hockey for the Blackhawks. It’s a tradition for my family to spend the summer together. But now, all of our lives are about to change, Kat’s most of all.
Marcel runs a hand through his thick, dark hair and then shoves the phone at me. “It’s Austin.” He glances at the broken pieces of my cell phone scattered along the carpet and shakes his head. “Dude, you need to get a handle on that. How many phones have broken this year?”
“That was the tenth.”
When I get mad, I tend to lash out and throw whatever I can find. I can’t control myself. Blinded by fury, I see flashes of color and then snap.
“It’s better than someone’s face.”
He gives me a strange look and then forces his cell phone into my hand. Annoyed that Austin resorted to calling Marcel, I sit up and raise the phone to my ear.
“I’m not in the mood, Aus.”
“How could you do that to Kat?”
I laugh at his question. “Are you kidding me right now? I didn’t do shit to Kat.”
“Duke, your reaction was horrible. She’s scared. She needs us. And you flew off the handle like you always do and made her cry.”
“Shit,” I grunt. “I didn’t mean to… I wasn’t expecting—”
“None of us were,” Austin interjects. “But you have to deal with the reality that Kat’s pregnant. She’s having a baby!”
“I can’t believe she was with that asshole the entire time.”
“I don’t think she was,” Austin admits. “Kat said it only happened recently.”
“So she gets pregnant by the first guy she hooks up with?”
“Yeah,” he sighs. “That’s what I got from Kat.”
“Fuck. How did this happen, Aus? I thought we… We should have…” My chest feels like it’s going to collapse as I choke out the words.
“Duke, just fucking breathe. Stop hyperventilating. She’s not mom. Kat isn’t dying. This isn’t the end of the world.”
Austin is the only person who understands me well enough to pull me out of my head. I don’t know how I would have raised Kat and the twins if Austin weren’t there with me. Our childhood sucked. For most of our lives, we either watched our mom slowly die or had to take on our delinquent father’s responsibilities.
“Duke, listen to me,” Austin says with authority. “Kat can do this. She’s strong like mom. I know you don’t like Dean, but he’ll take care of her. You know he will. It’s not like we haven’t known all along there was a possibility of them being together.”
“Guys like Dean don’t have female friends,” I mutter. “I always knew he wanted to…” I can’t even finish my thought I’m so pissed off.
“Why did you turn off your phone?”
“I broke it.”
He sighs. “Again? Seriously, bro, you need to chill the fuck out.”
“My anger gives me a competitive edge,” I say with sarcasm in my tone.
“I know what you’re thinking. Don’t do it.”
He knows me so well.
“No idea what you’re talking about,” I lie.