Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I was curious what I would find when we walked in the door—the first to arrive, might I add—and blinked when I saw the food.
“Ummm.” I hesitated as I looked at it. “What was ordered again?”
Merrill came in with baby Margie on her hip and said, “I asked that, too. Apparently, man food. Hot dogs, burgers, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, and more.”
“Then what is this?” I shook my head.
I had zero clue what I was looking at to be honest.
“Salad,” she said. “Potato salad with honeyed pecans in it. Greek Goddess Salad. That one is apparently one that has regular pecans in it. And every dressing that you can think of.”
“What happened to the ‘man’ food?” I shook my head.
“They were out, so they brought the ‘next best thing.’ For free, might I add. They left the check on the table that one of the club brothers dropped off two days ago.”
I looked at the salad, then made an executive decision.
I pulled out my phone and ordered pizza.
I was munching on pizza crust—all of the crust that Lysander and Iris refused to eat—and dipping it in a cup of ranch when Nettie found me.
“You have my baby.”
“It’s nice to have one that doesn’t complain when you give her kisses.” I laughed.
Iris would do hugs, but kisses were a big, fat no—Unless you were named Beau.
She walked up to me and nuzzled her nose against Margie’s sleeping face.
“You can love on her all you want.” She frowned. “Are you ready to go?”
No.
No, I was not.
But we didn’t really have a choice.
“One more game,” I said. “I’m lucky we know the owner, and they had no problem with us arriving the day before the game.”
“No joke,” she said. “I just heard Beau in the hallway bitching to Apollo about his sister. Any news on that?”
“Just that she ‘worked it out with the judge’ that she can leave the state for games. As long as she’s back within forty-eight hours,” I grumbled.
“And Cain?” she asked.
“He hasn’t left that ski resort since he was released,” I answered as I passed Margie back to her mother and led her out of the room with my arm looped through hers. “Gentry and Black have a hawk eye on him. The man won’t be going anywhere without someone following his every move.”
When we got to the living room, it was to find the Dixie Wardens drinking whiskey, passing around a bottle.
Boone was in the middle, looking clearly heartbroken as his sister leaned into his side, asleep.
The rest of them were passing the bottle around but not saying much, not wanting to wake Ida Bell.
I let Nettie go and went in search of Beau.
I found him on the porch, looking angry.
“What’s wrong?”
His jaw worked. “My sister decided to take the company jet and take off to Seattle without letting us know. Court is currently filing a report with the FAA and any other agencies that’ll listen. The plane was made to turn around, too.”
“It’s not very easy to steal a plane,” I admitted. “How did that happen?”
“She knows the pilot,” he growled. “She actually tried to do it several times this season. Once because she wanted to fly to Paris, and another because she wanted to go to Milan.”
I hated his sister.
With a passion of a thousand burning suns.
If I could erase her from his memory and this planet, I’d do it without hesitation.
I never thought it possible that I’d find someone that I hated as much as I hated Cain McDuff, but Seraphina Vanderbilt was definitely competition.
They’d both tie in the worst person in existence award.
“What now?”
“Now, I guess we go up in the morning instead,” he growled. “As long as we get there by nine, we should be on time for the game at noon.”
There were rules and regulations with the league that I didn’t understand and had no desire to.
This time tomorrow, I will have played my very last soccer game. Maybe not ever, but definitely professionally.
I was so dang excited, I could barely stand it.
If only everything else in life wasn’t so bad.
TWENTY-SEVEN
For every girl that doesn’t treat him right, is another girl out there that’ll eat onion rings off his boner.
—Merrill to Magnolia
MAGNOLIA
The one good thing about having a different flight time meant that we got to take some people with us who weren’t originally going to be able to go due to work.
Those people being Lysander, Beau’s nephew, little “don’t call me Frankie,” and Beau’s mother.
Who was noticeably not there, thank God, was Seraphina.
Whether she took a different flight or was in jail, I didn’t know.
I didn’t want to ask, either. The less I reminded Beau of his sister, the better.
Plus, Boone looked like he was one second away from cold-blooded murder on his sister’s behalf.
Ida Bell was noticeably heartbroken.
His sister had returned to the hospital this morning per the request of Boone and Nettie.