Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
“I think I’ll let you tell them that, actually.”
“Dane, I need you for a few minutes,” Monica says from nearby.
My excitement at seeing Dane fades as we both turn to look at her.
“I told you I’ll be busy with my girlfriend until tomorrow.”
She purses her lips in annoyance. “I set up an interview for you. We need to get going.”
“I’m leaving with Josie. Cancel the interview and don’t set up any more.”
He takes my hand and leads me toward the exit, Monica hot on our heels.
“Arnold won’t like this. He wants good publicity, not ‘you shall not ass’ hashtags and photos of you with your flavor of the week.”
Dane stops. I look over at him and say, “Ignore her. She’s just trying to get under your skin.”
He turns to face Monica, who is glaring at him with a brow raised and a hand on her hip.
“Did you just call Josie my flavor of the week?”
She scoffs. “Yeah. It’s not like she’s wife material. And you were told no women. Dane, you can either come with me, or I’m calling Arnold.”
“We’re done.” His tone is measured, but I also hear a note of fury. “I don’t just mean tonight; I mean permanently. When you call Arnold, you let him know he can keep either you or me. Not both. I won’t dress for the next game unless you’ve been fired.”
He squeezes my hand as we walk away, my heart racing with a mixture of adoration and trepidation. Dane is risking his career over this.
Once we’re out of earshot, I say, “I don’t want you losing your place on your team over me. Monica is annoying, but I’m used to it.”
“No one talks about you that way and gets away with it. Arnold made his point, and if he thinks this team is better off without me, I’ll let him make that call.”
“But if you get traded--”
“I won’t.” He looks around to make sure no one is within earshot. “My teammates are with me on this. I talked to them after the game. Either Monica gets fired or none of us are dressing for the next game. Arnold will fire her. There’s not a doubt in my mind.”
“Are you sure?” My voice is nearly a whisper.
“About Arnold? Or about us?”
My heart pounds hard as I say, “Both.”
He cups my cheek and smiles. “I love you, Nosy. You had me at ‘touch my cat and I’ll stab you in your sleep.’ And when I’m in, I’m all in. No one mistreats my girl and gets away with it. Got me?”
Love for him swells in my chest. “Got it. And I love you, too.”
He leans down to kiss me, and just before his lips reach mine, I murmur, “Obviously you’re getting laid tonight.”
He laughs. “Obviously.”
After a quick, soft kiss, he leads me from the arena to the car waiting for us in the parking lot. Neither of us looks back as the car pulls away. That’s where the past is, and we’re finally completely focused on our present and future.
EPILOGUE
Dane
SIX WEEKS LATER
“Whoa, Saffron. Let’s get a snack later.”
The horse I’m riding at Linc and Trinity’s Wyoming ranch pays no attention to me, which comes as no surprise. This is the fourth day we’ve been here and every day, we’ve gone horseback riding. Every day, Saffron has had a mind of her own.
Today, she’s decided to detour from the group and snack on a bush not far from the trail. Nothing I say convinces her to move, so I gently dig my heels into her side the way Linc showed me.
“I’ll give you some carrots later, okay? We have to get back to the group.”
The pretty gray horse turns her head back in protest but moves anyway. She clops back onto the fresh trail and I see Josie on her horse, Nutmeg.
The group of ten slows down to let me catch up, and soon, Saffron and I are back in earshot.
“Even having a rose shoved up your ass wouldn’t improve the smell of your shits,” my teammate Justin says.
I wrinkle my brow, realizing I missed a key part of this conversation. But the fact that it includes a rose has to mean they’re talking about the Celebrity Singles show Dalton is leaving here tomorrow to start filming. We’ve been chirping at him nonstop about it since he signed the deal to do it.
It’s a good idea, but that doesn’t mean we won’t make fun of him over it for the rest of his life. That’s what teammates do. He needs a distraction after we choked in the first round of the playoffs a month ago. Our team hadn’t made the playoffs for seven years, and our fans were crazy excited.
All of us felt like we let them down more than anyone else. It sucked having Josie watching us get our asses handed to us at every game. It was especially hard for Dalton, who was in his first season as team captain.