Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 125257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
“Sorry. I know you hate surprises,” I say, as she takes off the headphones.
“Hi.” She sounds distant. Because you’re chasing her too much.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. I just came here to plot a date for a new client. Someone from my podcast. They didn’t even mention the breakup. Yay,” she says, but she sounds unenthused.
She brandishes her notebook. It says World Domination on the cover—so her, so fucking her—but when she opens it she shows me a mostly blank page with just the words:
First date night in two years since their kid was born.
And the only other words are maybe a paint and sip.
Hmm. That doesn’t seem inspired, but what do I know about the kind of fancy date planning she does? “It’s a good start.”
She shakes her head. “It’s really not.”
I scratch my jaw, unsure what to say as I crouch down to her level. “I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”
“Maybe,” she says with a heavy sigh.
She’s really off tonight. Is it from this afternoon at my place? I should ask, but I’m not sure I want to know. “That animal rescue thing tomorrow? You still need players?”
“You’re always welcome there,” she says, a smile shifting her lips at last. A real one. “It’s pretty simple anyway. Hockey players holding dogs and cats looking for homes.”
“I can do that,” I say impulsively.
“Yeah?”
“I can.”
She arches a questioning brow. “Are you just doing this because—”
Because I like you? Fuck yes. But that’s not a good answer. “Because I’m your boyfriend?”
“I don’t want to look like I’m, I don’t know, using you to get ahead?”
My chest twists. I hadn’t thought of all the ways she’d be perceived or misperceived. But I should have since I know what that’s like. “You’re not,” I insist, since that’s all I can do. “I want to be there.”
“You never used to before,” she adds, gentle, but a reminder.
“I do now,” I say, then try to figure out what else is going on. But maybe she just has a lot on her mind. “Thanks for the cat tower. That was a surprise.”
Another real smile comes my way. “You liked it.”
“Yeah. I was going to finish putting it together,” I say, scrubbing a hand across my jaw. “Eventually. But it was nice to wake up to.” Something nags at me though. Something I know the answer to, but I ask anyway. “You didn’t nap?”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“You just slipped back in when you were done?”
She nods. “Sorry.”
I’m not mad though. She’s clearly telling me the truth, and that’s all I’ve wanted from her. But I also want to help her. She’s got a lot on her plate, and I can take some of the burden off. “The next thing on the list?”
“Number two? Go on a road trip before you say I do?”
“Yes. We have this Evergreen Falls game coming up this week. Do you want to—”
“Take a road trip there?” She sounds so enthused, and it’s the first true spark I’ve heard from her tonight. “Like, go up a day earlier?”
More than I want to win the cup. “Let’s do it,” I say. “I’ll handle all the plans.”
“I’m in,” she says, and my chest doesn’t feel so hollow anymore.
Until she nibbles on the corner of her lips, and furrows her brow. And shit. We’re not good after all.
“What’s wrong?”
She sighs heavily. “I ran into Jameson during the game.”
I look around, ready to pummel that jackass. “Where is he, and when do you want me to fuck him up?”
“I wish. But also you’ll need to get in line. Caroline offered to murder him a few weeks ago.”
“I’m down with that. With anyone who hurts you.”
“He wanted to talk about his beer, of course. And I said something vague and left, but I kept thinking…someday, someday soon, I’m going to have two exes in this building.”
Something turns sour inside me. I hate everything she’s saying, especially because she’s not wrong.
“And I worry about that,” she adds.
“I get it.”
“I worry that if we…do anything again,” she says, then makes a rolling gesture with her hand, “like this afternoon, that it’ll just be too complicated.”
My heart sinks like an anvil’s tied to it. But I can’t be a little prick and whine that she doesn’t want to let me bury my face between those sweet thighs of hers. I need to be a mature adult. “It would be complicated,” I say, speaking the plain truth.
“Right?” Her voice is wobbly, a touch desperate. Like she needs the confirmation from me.
“Definitely.”
“I just think maybe we should focus on the wedding and this list. I don’t want to make things harder when they end.”
My bones chill with the clear reminder—maybe the one I needed—that this fake romance will finish.
I’m frozen, but this icy feeling is for the best. I was getting in too deep. I was too obsessed. Thank fuck someone pressed the brakes.