Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
I squint as I approach the driver’s side of my vehicle, seeing what looks like a scratch at the very bottom of my door. When I bend down to run my fingers over it, a jolt of pain in my left knee makes me cringe.
It’s weird what does and doesn’t trigger it. I’m pretty sure I know the cause, but it’s going to have to heal on its own. I can’t sit out with an injury. At age twenty-nine, keeping my first-line position gets harder every season. There are endless younger players willing to play as hard as they have to in order to take my spot.
And it wasn’t even a scratch. The mark on my car rubbed away when I brushed my fingers over it. I get in and turn on some music, glancing over at the passenger seat.
Birdie always sits there, and she’s left a little light-brown hair behind. When I brought her back from the bachelor party with me, I planned on finding her a good home. But I’m not sure how I can give her to a stranger, not knowing if they’ll take good care of her.
I use my car’s connection to my phone to call in an order to the restaurant, getting Mara what she wants and ordering ten steak tacos for myself. I’ll eat the leftovers tomorrow.
After a stop at the grocery store for a few essentials, I find a bougie bakery and get a whole pan of brownies. When I walk into the kitchen with the food, her eyes widen over the dessert.
“Holy shit, with the flaky sea salt on top of the frosting? I may need to go change my underwear.”
A corner of my mouth tilts up over her enthusiasm. “You get one now, and another one for every hour you don’t make any shitty comments about me.”
“Ha! Good one.” She holds out her hands. “That would take at least a month unless you count the hours I’m asleep.”
I unload the food from the Mexican place onto the kitchen island, and she’s eating her first bite of a brownie before I’m even done.
“That tastes better than sex feels,” she practically moans.
I furrow my brow. “Who are you having sex with?”
“Only deaf men, remember? You once said they were the only ones who would be able to stay hard during sex with me.”
I flick my gaze to hers, detecting a note of hurt in her voice. Which is weird, because she usually dishes out the insults much harder than I do.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
She lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “I know I’m not for everyone.”
“What’s that like? When people don’t like you? I’ve always wondered.”
Rolling her eyes, she sets the brownie down on the counter. “Please. When I’m down, I look up Tweets about you and there’s no shortage.”
I shake my head and smile. “Did you see the one about me not being able to score in a brothel with two fists full of hundreds?”
“See it? I believe I retweeted it. And the one about trading you for a bag of used pucks is also a favorite.”
I sigh softly as I unpack the groceries I bought. “Zero goals in the last sixteen games—Abbott is nothing if not consistent. Can’t even score on an empty net. His shooting percentage would be lower than his GPA if he’d gone to college.”
“Wait. Does that stuff actually bother you?”
I glance at her. “Did you want to grab a pen and paper and write some of these down for future use?”
“Fuck the haters.”
I bark out a laugh. “You’re one of my haters. So...fuck you?”
“What? You got a bottle of my favorite wine?”
She just noticed me pull the bottle of red wine from one of the bags I’m unpacking. I make a show of pulling a second bottle from the bag, too.
“Whoa! Are you calling me an alcoholic? Also, where’s the corkscrew?”
I look around the kitchen, realizing something important is missing. “Shit, where’s Darling?”
I sprint into the living room, where I find him lying on the couch, Noodle curled up against his belly. They’re both asleep.
“I need to get a picture of that for Suki,” Mara says from behind me.
Birdie pads into the room from the kitchen, sitting down so she’s brushing up against the side of my shoe and ankle. She likes to always have some part of her body in contact with mine.
Mara takes a photo, then gives me a devilish grin. “We should prank Carter and Suki.”
“I’m down, what do you have in mind?”
“Let’s send them a pic of the two of us and tell them we’ve decided we like each other.”
I bust out laughing. “They’ll never buy it.”
“Maybe not, but we should at least be able to get them to wonder.”
“Carter will shit his swim trunks.”
She turns and rushes into the kitchen. “The wine will help!”