Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
“Oh, okay then,” Sal murmured, eyes back on the field. “And the ref got spit on because...?”
“Elbow to the face; the ref said she barely touched her.”
“Right.”
The tussle with the ball twenty to thirty meters from the net had Frankie breaking away and running closer to the goalie. This maneuver had been practiced by the team repeatedly. They only had to get the ball and move it to her.
Frankie looked back to catch the sight of a kick her way, and she immediately positioned her body for the oncoming ball. Everyone stood up when she caught that ball mid-air for the shot. A shot that cleared the net with inches to spare to tie the game with less than a minute on the clock.
Approving cheers reverberated within the stadium. Larkin grabbed Salvatore by the shoulders, shaking him in congratulations as if he’d just done that amazing fucking thing.
“That’s all yours, boss man,” Larkin praised.
In a way.
“There she is!” Nico shouted through cupped hands that he clapped after.
Salvatore used two fingers to whistle across the field, a sound that Frankie would’ve recognized could she hear it while the team celebrated on the field. It spilled into the outbound line, while those on the sidelines scrambled. Another, louder, horn blared.
“Timeout!”
The speakers around them crackled. Teenagers scrambled up in their grass-stained jerseys to head for their respective benches at the sides of the field. Francesca, the first up from the pack of tumbling, happy girls, didn’t seem to hear the call for a timeout as she headed their way.
The coach shouted for her, but she didn’t hear him, either. Her run picked up speed as Nico, wide-armed, leaned further over the barrier. The section brought them near field-side, but the border had some height to it. Nico needed to lean out to catch Frankie’s outstretched arms. The exchange happened fast, but while everyone else continued to celebrate the shot, Salvatore watched his daughter.
She didn’t see him.
“Did you see that?” she practically cried to Nico.
“That was all you. I told you so.”
She pulled him in for a hug, and he one-armed it back with a laugh.
“You gotta clinch this up in less than a minute, do you get me?” he asked her. “You got this. We’re not running into overtime here.”
Her head bobbed in response.
“What’s the fuckin’ deal?” he asked when the two pulled away, gazes locked in a contest that rivaled Salvatore’s earlier moment with Giorgio. “What’s the job?”
“Get me the ball,” Frankie replied.
“There you go.”
“Are you in on this or not, Gallo?” the coach shouted. “How much time do you think we get for a timeout? Come on!”
His yell didn’t matter.
She already turned back.
Halfway to the team’s benches, Frankie looked over her shoulder at the section meant for her. This time, she did see her father standing next to the two women sitting on either side. Her smile brightened her entire face, instant and brilliant. He made the heart she loved so much with his thumb and pointer finger, earning him one back.
The exchange drew Nico’s attention, as well.
“They’re going to win this,” he told Salvatore, who nodded back.
Totally oblivious.
But not Salvatore, he saw it. That moment between them that proved even an unlikely friendship could bring connection. He seriously considered, if not monitored or discouraged, whatever that had been between Nico and his daughter would quickly grow. Or rather, it could.
Salvatore felt a tug on his hand. Carina’s pointed fingernails scratched gently against the inside of his palm as his ass hit the seat. He let her take his hand. It gave him time to think. Her other hand patted the top of his before her fingernails drummed a beat. It stung enough to get his attention given the way she found his newly healed scars without trying at all.
“What?”
“I know what you’re thinking,” she told him.
“You don’t.”
A cherry red nail poked him again. “It’s nothing.”
“Right now, maybe.”
Carina met his gaze, unflinching. “Tell her no and mean it, Sal. You’ve never done it in her entire life. Tell her no.”
“How about if we just don’t give it attention?” Sissy asked them both.
“Well—”
“Well, nothing,” returned Sissy. “She’s going to be eighteen in a couple of days, and a good drive away in an entirely different location a short while after that. Where’s the boy going to be? Hopefully busy. It’s nothing.”
Salvatore wanted to believe her. Carina, too. His best option did boil down to leaving the two kids alone unless something happened that required him to step in.
“What would it really hurt, anyway?” Carina asked beside him.
“Don’t even go there.”
She knew very well what it would mean.
The implications...
A possible in to Salvatore’s life for Giorgio.
“Ignoring,” Salvatore chose to say.
A snort came from Sissy.
Carina patted his hand again.
A horn blew, and the girls booked it to the field. Carina muttered something about not being able to watch as the teams faced off in center. This time, she used her fingers as a shield in front of her eyes, yet they were spread to peek.