Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113130 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113130 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
“Don’t get me wrong, I have burgers all the time.” I don’t even know why I’m standing here defending myself, or if I’m just pushing her to talk to me longer.
“But not the greasy ones.” She grabs her champagne and takes a sip of it before she continues, “The ones that are so greasy it runs down your hand.”
“That sounds like a heart attack.” I try not to laugh at the expression on her face when she just gawks at me.
“If we had time, I would take you to one of the best burger places you’ve ever been to”—she takes another sip—“and blow your mind.” She uses one of her hands to put it to the corner of her forehead before she does an explosion gesture with her hand.
My cock stirs in my pants at the mention of her blowing my mind. “I’d watch what words you use,” I warn her and her eyes go big as a song comes on, and she looks over to the dance floor.
“Well, this is fun, but I’ve got to dance.” She finishes the glass of champagne before putting the glass back down, her hips swinging left and right as she moves from the bar to the dance floor, and my cock stirs even fucking more.
“Here’s your water.” The bartender hands me the bottle as he picks up the empty glass she left.
“Thanks.” I unscrew the top of the water bottle and take a deep pull. “Hopefully this will cool me down,” I murmur before I look over to the dance floor and see her with her hands to the ceiling, moving with her cousins, as she sings the words of the song, her hips moving left to right, the bottom of her skirt flowing side to side on her thighs. “I’m going to need to sit in an ice bath.”
four
Ariella
“There you are.” Brookes comes up to me. “I’ve been looking for you for eighty-four years.” He is tall and lean like our father. His hair is darker blond than our dad’s, but his eyes are the same crystal blue. There’s a smile on his face as he comes in for a hug.
“Here I am.” I rub his back with my hand as we hug. “I was looking for you too, but couldn’t find you.”
“Yeah, Maddox and I,” he says, motioning to Maddox and I smile and go to give him his own hug, “were just sitting at some random table.” I can even smell that they are bullshitting me, they were probably up to no good.
“Hey, Squirt,” I tease him, even though now he towers over me by a good six inches, “you are looking good.” My hand comes up, along with my tippy-toes, to touch the top of his hair that is shaggy compared to the sides of his head which is shaved. “I see the hockey flow”—I gently tug the hair to the side of his neck a bit—“is still a trend.”
“Who knows.” He shrugs. “I like skating and feeling the wind blow through my hair.” He tries to keep a straight face. “Kind of like Beyoncé.”
He and Brookes burst out laughing until Callie surfaces next to me. “We are about to do another round of shots,” she tells me, then looks at the guys. “It’s a girl thing. Sorry, you aren’t invited.”
“It’s going to be a girls’ thing when you are heaving into the toilet all night long.” Brookes shakes his head. “You would think you would learn.”
“You are ruining my buzz,” Callie accuses.
“Last time you said that”—Maddox points to her—“you threw up in my car.”
“Hey.” Callie points to him. “I paid to have it cleaned.” She glares at him. “And you blackmailed me for about six months. I set you up with five of my friends who have stopped talking to me because you ghosted them."
"I didn’t ghost them,” Maddox denies, “I lost my phone.”
“You have the same number you did when you were ten.” Callie rolls her eyes at him.
“Okay, you two”—I use my mom voice—“to your respective corners. Maddox, I love you big.” I drag Callie away from them and to the bar, where my shot awaits me.
I look over and see that Jaxon is still at the bar, staring at me. “Are you having a shot?” I ask him and he just shakes his head and tries not to smile, but fails. “Borrrinnnngg,” I repeat what I told him before and pick up the shot and then cheers with the girls.
A song comes on and I have just enough time to put down my glass before I’m pulled to the dance floor. “I’ll be back,” I say over my shoulder and all he does is nod at me.
Then he turns around and is in deep conversation with Nash and Gabriel.
I don’t know how long I spend on the dance floor, but one song leads into two, then into three, and all of a sudden we are singing “Dancing Queen” at the top of our lungs.