Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Standing, I shove my phone into my pocket and join my friends. Foster’s right—I’m moping, and that’s not me. I’m not that guy. I sit next to Sloane on the edge of the pool, and help her ref the game of chicken, which is more laughter and ribbing each other than actual game play.
“You doing okay?” Sloane asks.
“Yeah.”
“She still avoiding you?”
“She had lunch with me earlier this week, but I pretty much begged her to come with me today, and she turned me down.”
“She’s scared, Reid. She wants you, but it goes against everything she ever claimed she would steer away from. It’s going to take her some time to adjust to that.”
“I know, and I’m going to be here when she figures it out. I wanted her here. I just talked to her, and she’s not feeling well. So now, I feel like an ass.”
“Then go to her.”
“I don’t know where she lives. I can’t go there, and I can’t ask her to meet me when she’s not feeling well.”
“Okay, watch them.” She points to where Rowan and Corie are still going at it, trying to knock the other off their husbands’ shoulders. Sloane pulls out her phone, taps at the screen before placing it to her ear. “Amanda, hey, it’s Sloane, how are you?” she asks.
My head whips around to stare at her. Sloane rolls her eyes and points to our friends, telling me I’m not doing my job. Turning back, I stare at our friends, but all of my attention is on Sloane and the conversation she’s having. Amanda, that has to be Bellamy’s best friend, Amanda, right?
“Hey, so I need some advice,” Sloane says. She pauses. “We’re all at Landry and Rowan’s place for a cookout before the guys have to live, eat, and breathe training camp. Anyway, Reid’s bumming that Bellamy wouldn’t come. He called her, and she’s not feeling well. He wants to go check on her, but he doesn’t know where she lives.”
Another long pause. “He cares about her, and honestly, he’s stressing out about training camp. He’s not going to be able to pursue her like he would like, and he’s worried about losing any momentum that he might be making,” Sloane says, reading me like a damn book. She listens again, then nods. “Sure, hold on.” She hands the phone to me. “She wants to talk to you.”
“Hello?” I ask, my hands suddenly sweaty as I grip the phone.
“What are your intentions with my best friend?” Amanda asks.
“Everything,” I answer.
“Explain that,” Amanda says, her voice calm.
“The night we met, she didn’t recognize me. She wasn’t sitting next to me to try to rise on the social ladder or to latch on to a meal ticket. She was just Bellamy, and I was just Reid, and getting that time with her was the greatest gift. I want more of her time. I want to hear her talk and see her smile. I want her. All of her, whatever that looks like.”
“You don’t just have a hill to climb, Reid Montgomery, you have a damn mountain. She’s got some deep-rooted anger at her father, and it’s not just him she blames. It’s football. It’s irrational, but we were young when her parents split, and she needed something and someone to blame.”
“I know.” I’ll scale the fucking mountain if that means when I get to the top, she’s mine. I wish I could explain it. I don’t have the right words. I can say she’s different or that she’s special and that we had a connection. All of that is true, but it’s more than that. It’s everything: the laughter, the conversation, the sex… It’s her. I know with everything inside me that she’s it for me. I can’t explain it, but I’ve always trusted my gut, and my gut tells me that no matter how many mountains she makes me climb or how long I have to wait to prove to her that we’d be different, it will all be worth it. She’s worth it.
“She’s not feeling well, but you already know that.”
“Yeah, I just talked to her.”
“She’s not sick, just ate something that didn’t agree with her.”
“I’d still like to check on her.”
“I’m going to text Sloane her address. I’m also going to call my best friend and confess my sins. Don’t make me regret this, Reid.”
“I won’t. I just want to take care of her.” I didn’t realize that was my intention until the words left my mouth. “She’s sick, and I want to show up. I need her to see that she’s important to me, and no matter what’s going on in my life, she’s a priority.”
“Good answer,” Amanda says, approval in her tone. “Be good to her, Reid. She deserves nothing but the best.”
“I promise.” My words are firm and a vow, if you will, to her best friend for tossing me this bone. “Thank you, Amanda.”