Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 116597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
I knew how to relax in the summer. I knew how to go on a vacation, golf with the guys, or spend an entire day on the water without a care in the world. When it was offseason, I could easily turn things… off — my brain, my body, my routine.
But in the middle of a season where we were in a race for the playoffs, I found it impossible.
I decided to stick to as much of a routine as possible. Instead of practice in the mornings, I woke up around six to jog or hit the bike. I got soft tissue work done and worked through any physical therapy I needed. Once a week, I went to Doctor Arman.
But every day there was this gap — the place where practice or travel or a game would typically go.
There was no practicing on break — league’s orders — and so I filled that time as best I could.
I did go for a round of golf with the guys, which was fun, especially since Aleks still really sucked and we all got to make fun of him for a few hours.
One day, I cleaned my house top to bottom. I had a housekeeper, but I really dug in, organizing and decluttering and all the things that usually went ignored during the season.
I took Zamboni on long walks around the Bay, everywhere from the Riverwalk to the Fort De Soto dog beach.
But most of the time those first five days of break?
I thought of Livia.
She was the first thing that popped into my head in the morning, and the last on my mind before I drifted off to sleep each night. I saw her sultry eyes in the shower, felt her any time I wrapped up in a towel or blanket, smelled her when I lit a candle — vanilla and jasmine. I heard her smoky voice on replay without trying, all the words she’d said to me the night I surrendered to her in a way I never thought I could.
“No one turns me on like you do. You know that? No one does this for me the way you do.”
I tortured myself wondering if it had just been talk; if she’d just been praising me as part of the play, or if she’d meant it.
Because if she did…
It lit me on fire to think so, to think that I could be something more to that woman than just a project and a paycheck.
Her sporadic texts had fed me in the days of not seeing her, though I wished for more. But two nights ago, the texts had stopped, all the banter gone and my patience along with it.
I had to see her.
And so, I found myself “coincidently nearby” her dental practice on Wednesday afternoon, about ten minutes before I knew she’d be done for the day. She’d mentioned in an offhand comment during our date night that she took a half day in the middle of the week, letting her partner take over while she got caught up on admin or just fucked off for the day.
I hoped with everything I had in me that she was in the mood to do the latter.
The glass doors whispered shut behind me as I entered, the cool blast of air-conditioning cutting the humid sting of the afternoon. The faint smell of mint and something floral floated in the air, a perfect mask for the tang of antiseptic underneath.
Soft piano music played over hidden speakers, barely loud enough to compete with the gentle hum of a water feature in the corner. The reception desk gleamed white and gold, like it belonged in a luxury hotel lobby, and every chair in the waiting area looked too nice to actually sit in.
“Mr. Fabri,” Tasha said with a warm smile that morphed into a polite frown as she glanced at her monitor. She wore her usual fitted blazer over a silk blouse, nails painted a pearly nude. “I don’t see an appointment for you today…”
“I’m here to see Liv,” I said easily, or at least I tried to. My tongue tripped on the next part. “As a… friend.”
My heart rebelled at the use of that word, but I tamed it with a swallow and a straightening of my spine.
Tasha’s brows ticked up, but she reached for the phone on her desk. “One moment.” She murmured into the receiver, glancing at me with a knowing smirk I wasn’t sure I liked, then set it back in its cradle. “She’ll see you. Come on back.”
The hallway was hushed except for the faint whir of something mechanical in one of the closed operatories we passed. The scent of mint got sharper the deeper we went. I couldn’t help but look around the office with new eyes. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been there plenty of times before, but I knew the woman behind the name more now, and I felt invigorated being in the place she spent so much of her time, in the practice she dreamed of opening for so long.