Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“He’s drinking way too much,” Van continues. “I think you should talk to him.”
“I have,” I say glumly. “After the infamous lasagna incident. He assured me he was fine.”
“And you accept that?” Van asks a little aggressively.
“Do I look like the type of woman who would accept the first words out of a man’s mouth?” I retort, giving a little jab of a reminder that I’m not so easily persuaded about some things.
“Fair point,” he mutters. “What are you going to do?”
“Keep an eye on him,” I say with worry as I look past Van’s shoulder to where Lucas is standing quietly with a group of teammates, a liquor drink in his hand.
“Were you leaving?” he asks, and my eyes come back to him.
“Yeah. Was going to take advantage of an early night to bed, but I’ll stay with him. That’s more important.”
Van doesn’t say anything for a moment, but then his chin jerks up and he nods toward the exit. “You go and get some sleep. I’ll stay with him tonight and be his DD.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Just go, Simone,” he mutters, and I see something in his eyes other than friendship he’s offering to my brother.
“Are you trying to get rid of me?” I ask him suspiciously.
“Why would you ask that?” he inquires with a casual smirk.
“Because you can’t stand to be around me,” I snap at him.
For the first time since I met Van a little more than three weeks ago, I’m boggled to see actual amusement on his face when he says, “Now that’s absolutely not true. But I do appreciate you keeping your word that you’d stop the come-ons.”
I want to smack him. Then kiss him.
Instead I roll my eyes at him. “Call me if you have any trouble, but my advice is to try to get him home early and not let him get too drunk.”
“On it,” he says, and then he turns and walks away.
And fuck if I don’t like Van now more than ever.
Chapter 7
Van
I wipe condensation off my drink glass, ignoring the liquor inside it. Lucas thinks I’m along for the ride tonight to get hammered and bang some anonymous pussy. At least that’s what he said when he’d invited me out tonight, and because I’ve been on partial baby-sitting duty this past week along with Simone, I didn’t have any qualms about accepting his invitation. The only problem is that I knew he’d be making a mistake if he screwed another woman. Not because he has a duty to Stephanie, which he doesn’t…she broke it off with him.
But only because if they do have a chance of working things out, he’s going to hate himself later if he goes through with this insane idea.
Unfortunately, I needed reinforcements, because if it was just Lucas and me out on the town together tonight, I’d be hard-pressed to keep him off a woman. He knows that’s not my nature ordinarily, and he’d also expect me to be getting some tonight. I don’t feel like going through the guise of acting interested in someone just so Lucas doesn’t catch on that he’s being handled like a kid who can’t be trusted not to put his hand in the cookie jar.
So I told Simone she had to come out with us.
“Why?” she asked curiously. Since that night at Hoolihan’s a week ago, we had sort of a silent pact that we would double team Lucas to keep him out of trouble until he could get his head out of his ass. One of us was always with him, and oddly I didn’t really mind the responsibility. I’d like to say it was completely altruistic of me to have Lucas’s back, but truthfully I’m doing it for Simone. She may be a brazen little brat who turns my world upside down, but I can’t lie and say that I don’t like who she is at the core of her being. And that’s because she’s kept her word and has left me alone. It shows she’s honest and trustworthy, so I kind of like helping her out in return.
I had to tell Simone the truth of her brother’s plans. “Because he intends to get laid tonight, and you and I both know it’s a bad idea.”
She nodded in agreement and “Operation Stop Lucas From Having Sex With Another Woman was in effect. Lucas wasn’t altogether too happy about it, but I don’t think he’s deterred. Not if the way he’s looking at that blonde across the bar is any indication right now.
Tonight has not gone well. A perfect storm was brewing, and it got launched when Lucas, Simone, and I went over to Max and Jules’s to have dinner before we went out. Since we took the second round in game five, we had a full week until the start of the conference finals, and chilling and grilling seemed to be a good idea.