Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
I love being on the ice and am grateful for my hockey career, but the off season is my favorite time of the year because it brings me my one true love—my daughter, Bowie Jane. Between my job and my ex-wife living across the country, the time I get to spend face-to-face with my kiddo is limited, though we make up for it with summers full of fun adventures. We’re thick as thieves and take full advantage of our time together, but the distance away from her is killing me.
My fortunes change when my ex walks away and I find myself with full custody. But with the hockey season looming, I know I’m going to need help taking care of Bowie Jane. Enter Mary Elizabeth Archer—otherwise known as Mazzy. Highly recommended to me through the Titans’ network, Mazzy crashes into our life like a hurricane. She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met and to say I’m intrigued is an understatement. But no matter how attractive she is, no matter how I crave to know everything about her, I can’t go there. It’s inappropriate. Just wrong, wrong, wrong, even though she might be the most right thing I’ve ever known.
Being the indescribable force she is, there is soon no corner of our lives that Mazzy hasn’t impacted in a positive way. And my desire for more with her becomes far stronger than my misguided idea that I could ever resist this woman. Our attraction burns hot and keeping our eyes, hands and mouths off one another gets harder by the minute. It doesn’t take long for me to know that I’m all in with Mazzy. She’s my end game and, lucky for me, winning is my specialty.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER 1
Foster
Glancing in the rearview mirror, I adjust in my seat so I can see Bowie Jane in the back. She’s slumped sideways, head against the window and her mouth slightly parted as she slumbers. Her long dark hair is in two braids with loose pieces pressed against what had been, not too long ago, a hot and sweaty face.
My daughter.
My reason for existing.
Having just turned ten years old, she looks so much younger when she’s sleeping like this.
She’s out cold, so I turn up the music a little and bop my head along to Taylor Swift, knowing it won’t wake her. A full day at Idlewild—an amusement park here in Pittsburgh—has her down for the count. Hell, my grown ass is exhausted from the heat of the day, the spinning rides and roller coasters, and keeping pace with my kid.
I glance back again at her, a smile coming to my face, but I can’t ignore the heaviness in my heart. We’re leaving in four days to take her back to her mom in California. My summer with my little angel is rapidly coming to an end as she’ll be starting school next week.
And what a summer it’s been.
I flew out to California to get her the day after our team—the Pittsburgh Titans—lost our bid for the championship in the second round. Yeah, I was bitter and broken up about the loss but when the wheels touched down in San Francisco, I put it out of my mind. The season was over and my summer with Bowie Jane was starting. I spent a few weeks in the Bay Area until she finished school, then we were on a plane and back in Pittsburgh for a full three months of daddy-daughter goodness.
Divorced from her mother, Sandra, for the last two years, it’s been an adjustment, to say the least. At first, it was managing shared custody and my hectic career as a second-line center for the San Francisco Bay Brawlers. Those first six months were all about eking out every bit of spare time I could to spend with Bowie Jane on my days in San Francisco to help ease the pain and heartbreak of her parents divorcing. Then I came to Pittsburgh to join the newly reformed Titans after their original team died in a plane crash and my world turned upside down.
Getting traded is always on the table in professional sports but I wasn’t prepared for how hard it would be moving across the country from my daughter. At least in San Francisco, I had proximity to Bowie Jane and she was with me as much as possible. Sandra and I had agreed on fifty-fifty split custody, but it didn’t always work out that way. Even when I wasn’t on the road, the nights I had home games meant she was with my ex instead of me.
Still… I got to see her every week for at least a few days and while I never thought it was enough back then, in hindsight, I realize it was such a luxury.