Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I saw Konstantin as soon as I walked in. He was hard to miss. Tall and lean, he had inked arms and short, dark stubble coating his cheeks.
“Hey, Kon,” I said, forcing myself to smile even though I still felt sick from Nate’s texts.
“Lucy.” He nodded, not smiling. “I’ll take your bags.”
“Oh, you don’t need to”
“Give them to me.” His voice was gruff.
I wasn’t in the mood to argue about anything, least of all who was going to carry my bags. I just wanted to get the hell out of there, and fast.
“How was your trip here?” Kon asked as he took my bags.
“Fine,” I said. “But I accidentally left my phone on the bus.”
He turned to me, his brow furrowed. “We should let someone know, so they can return it if someone turns it in.”
He had a distinct accent, though I had no trouble understanding him.
I waved a hand. “No, I’m not worried about it. It was an old phone anyway. I’d rather just start fresh and get a new one.”
“Okay.”
I fell into step beside him. “Hey, how’s my brother doing?”
He was silent.
“That good, huh?” I cracked.
“You will see.”
CHAPTER TWO
Kon
It was rare to have a full day off during hockey season, so the last thing I wanted to do was get dressed and drive thirty minutes to pick someone up from the bus terminal. My friend and teammate, Sawyer, had been the one to ask, though, and I didn’t have it in me to say no. The last couple years of my life had been a shit show, but his had been a million times worse. Watching him slowly lose his wife to cancer had been hard and watching what had happened to him since was even harder.
The whole team had rallied around Sawyer, willing to do almost anything to alleviate some of his suffering, but nothing worked. If anything, the more we tried, the more we pissed him off. So I sure as shit wasn’t going to refuse when he’d reached out and asked me to pick up his sister, Lucy.
I’d briefly met her at Annie’s funeral. What a fucked-up day that had been. I was pretty sure no one liked funerals, but that one had been gut wrenching. I was Russian and had been taught at an early age to keep my emotions in check, but two funerals in two years had been a lot. We’d lost our team captain and his wife the year before in a car accident, so it felt like a lot of grief for such a small group.
“Kon?”
With a start, I realized Lucy had been talking to me and I glanced over at her apologetically.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“Could we stop at the grocery store? I was thinking I’d make dinner tonight. I’m willing to bet Sawyer hasn’t eaten a decent meal in a while.”
I nodded. “This is probably correct. Yes, we can stop. There is a store close to the house.”
“Thanks.” She paused. “I hope I didn’t take you away from anything important today.”
“No. Usually I rest on days off.”
“I’m sorry to disrupt your routine.” She hesitated, as if something was on her mind. “Do you know why Sawyer couldn’t come get me?”
I blew out a breath, unsure how much to tell her. She was here, so she was going to see for herself what was going on with her brother. I hated throwing my buddy under the bus, but his behavior lately hadn’t been pretty and I didn’t know how much longer he could continue down the path he was on.
“I am not sure,” I said carefully.
She made a face. “Annie had a feeling he was going to spiral, so she made me promise I’d keep an eye on him. I meant to come sooner, but I had some things to deal with at home before I could get away.”
“You live in Seattle?”
“No, Spokane. Well, not anymore.”
“No? You will move here?” I asked curiously.
“I don’t know yet. If I can get Sawyer squared away, I’m thinking about going on an adventure.” She grinned over at me almost shyly, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“What kind of adventure?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“We’ll see.”
The momentary mischief on her face was cute but there was something in her eyes that was wary too, as if there was more to the story. Not that it was any of my business.
“What about your boyfriend?” I remembered a stocky guy who was losing his hair that had been with her at the funeral. “Is he going to move with you?”
She lifted her chin a fraction. “I ended it before I left. That’s partly why I waited until now to come back to St. Louis. I needed to…make a clean break.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Luckily, I’d just pulled up to the local grocery store and we made our way inside. She grabbed a cart and made a right toward the produce department. “Would you like to have dinner with us tonight?” she asked over her shoulder. “My way of saying thank you for picking me up.”