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 saw his eyes flare as he finally connected the dots.
I was the veteran that he’d paid an arm and a leg to get on the team. The one that he’d been corresponding with over the last week negotiating a contract along with Ellis.
“I think we have some mean girls on the team,” I admitted.
Beau crossed his arms. “That’s an understatement.”
It was.
The team had some work to do, and a lot of that work had to do with the mean girl mentality that seemed to infect half the team.
“Are you keeping them all?” I asked bluntly.
It was the first time that Beau acknowledged me specifically since he’d entered the field. “They’re all contracted until the end of the season. Yes.” He paused. “That okay?”
He was asking me?
“I think having Nettie here.” I gestured to her. “Will be a good thing.”
Nettie snorted. “It was you they were in awe of.”
“Hmm,” I snorted too. “I doubt that.”
Nettie patted me on the back. “On that note, I want to go lie down. This baby is going to zap all my energy.”
I watched her go, and all of a sudden, I was left alone with Beau.
“I didn’t know that you were…” He trailed off.
“I thought you were a high school teacher?” I grumbled, finally picking my head up and making eye contact.
His lips quirked up at one corner.
I hadn’t seen them clearly through all his beard hair yesterday.
But wow…he was beautiful.
Square jaw. Full lips. Defined cheekbones.
I liked the beard. But I really liked the definition in his jaw.
“Wasn’t really first-date material to tell you about how much my sister sucks that I had to take over her job,” he grumbled.
I toed a soccer ball, kicking it up to catch mid-air.
“It’s okay,” I admitted. “We owed nothing to each other.”
“No.” He looked like he didn’t like that answer. “I guess not.”
I handed him the ball. “I’m going to sign on.”
His head jerked up. “You will?”
I nodded. “I think you have the potential for a great team, Mr. Vanderbilt. Just have to work out a few kinks.” I paused. “And get your star forward to give birth.”
He chuckled. “So you’ll be here for the beginning of the season in a few months?”
“I’ll be here in a few weeks. Practices start up then…right?”
“Right.”
“Then I’ll be here in two weeks.”
He caught my hand before I could go. “I’ll try to behave.”
I backed up, my eyes not leaving him until I was several feet away. “Maybe at the end of the season, we can talk.”
He looked relieved.
“It’s a date.”
FOUR
Get your shit together. You stress me the fuck out.
—Me to Me
BEAU
Eight months later
The deadline was fast approaching, and I wondered if I should just throw in the towel and admit defeat.
Eight months ago, my father had come to me with a proposal: Make the Montana Cowgirls profitable again, and he’d never ask me to deal with his precious teams again. More importantly, he wouldn’t force Lysander into helping, either. He would find a suitable replacement for us and ultimately sell the teams.
I hadn’t exactly wanted to run the Montana Cowgirls.
I’d wanted to continue my work as a science teacher at Jesper County Schools, continue my volunteer work as a firefighter, and live my life the way I wanted to live it.
I’d lived, breathed, and slept those teams. Every major holiday, we were at the stadium. Every important birthday, milestone, or even personal achievement day, there we were.
We’d missed every important dance at school, including prom.
We’d missed parties.
I’d missed my graduation—from both high school and college.
Lysander had missed both of his as well.
The one single graduation Sonja had—elementary—we’d missed that, too.
Hell, three days after her funeral, we were back at that fucking stadium.
To say that I hated the place would be an understatement.
Then, he’d gone and acquired the Cowgirls.
On one hand, my father purchasing the Cowgirls had come from a good place deep inside his heart. He’d taken her joking “buy the Cowgirls” and run with it. Meanwhile, Sonja had felt the same way that Lysander and I had. We’d been mentally and physically exhausted, traveling back and forth between our home in Montana and the stadium in Wyoming once a freakin’ week—because it wouldn’t do to not present a united front family-wise.
Sonja had jokingly said it to our dad because she’d thought life couldn’t get any busier.
Why not add one more team to our already busy life?
Except, my dad had said the magic words.
If you don’t do it, I’ll let your sister keep the Cowgirls.
And that was something that I could never let happen.
My dad lived and breathed football.
He’d played professionally for several years, which was how he’d met my mother, who also happened to work for the same organization when he’d purchased the Condors.
The two of them had moved to Montana, and after Sonja’s passing, they’d sunk every single cent of their savings into buying the Montana Cowgirls.