Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 124005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 413(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 413(@300wpm)
His bad? Like he forgot to pick up milk and bread. Like it’s no big deal.
Fielding and Vander Zee nod like they completely understand. And once again King Fucking Dallas prevails, winning them over with all his goddamn charisma and charm.
Fielding shifts his gaze to me. “Do you agree with Bright?”
“I don’t know about being incredible, but last night we did talk things through, and Dallas did express so much…joy. I wasn’t there when he posted, so I’m taking him at his word for that part.”
“If you were less capable and Dallas wasn’t already prone to acts of thoughtlessness, you two would be in a hell of a lot more trouble. We need to get Shilpa in here with paperwork. And from here on, you’ll need Hammer—” Fielding frowns. “Or do we call her Peggy? Or Aurora?”
Shirley calls Shilpa in.
“She’s fine with Hammer when we’re at work,” I offer. “But Aurora if you’re introducing her to people outside the team. Roman is still a little stuck on Peggy.” Our friends have a lot of nicknames, and we just roll with it. Her dad is the only one who calls her Peggy anyway.
“Got it. Thanks. Hammer should be the lead on any promo opportunities moving forward for Dallas,” Jamie says.
“Wilhelmina is the best at keeping me level during promos,” Dallas interjects.
“Hemi can be there, but we need another company representative,” Vander Zee explains.
Shilpa arrives with the paperwork. She looks at me and then Dallas, but her expression remains neutral. The woman could be a professional card shark.
She takes the seat beside me. “I have the forms ready, as we discussed.”
They’re extensive. Shilpa reads the document, explaining the parameters, while Dallas and I follow along. Sweat drips down my back, and panic makes my throat tight. This is really happening. I’m committed to being Dallas’s fake girlfriend for the foreseeable future. I have to steady my hand as I sign my name. We now have a legal, binding document that states that Dallas and I are in a relationship.
I think I might vomit.
In contrast, his eyes are alight with an unreasonable amount of excitement and satisfaction as he scribbles his signature on the last page. “It’s official,” he tells me. “You’re mine.”
CHAPTER 8
DALLAS
Isurreptitiously rearrange my anxiety boner before I stand and pull Willy’s chair away from the table. She’s not expecting it, so it screeches obnoxiously across the floor. No one looks particularly stoked about this new development. Except for me. Internally, I’m delirious with joy.
I apologize again to Fielding and Vander Zee and gently press my fingertips against Willy’s back as I follow her to her office. She closes the door and whirls to face me.
Her gorgeous face is a mask of rage. “Was this a ploy?”
“What?” I don’t know what to do with my hands, so I mirror Willy and prop them on my hips, then think better of it and stuff them in my pockets.
“Did you post that so I wouldn’t have a choice about being your date for the reunion?” She paces her office, heels clipping angrily on the floor. She’s wearing navy dress pants, a burgundy blouse, and a matching blue blazer, buttoned at the waist, showing off her curvy hourglass figure. She pokes me in the chest with her pointy fingernail. “You better not humiliate me again. I swear on all that is holy, Dallas, if you screw me over again like you always have, I will make it my life’s mission to destroy you, one humiliating promo op at a time.”
Beneath the very real rage that causes her cheeks to flush, hurt and betrayal lurk in her eyes. It makes me feel like the giant bag of shit I am. My anxiety boner deflates, thank God. “It wasn’t a ploy. I was drunk and not thinking clearly.”
“Do you have any idea how fucked we would have been if I hadn’t gone along with this? You would have been suspended then traded, Dallas, and I would have been the laughingstock of the hockey world. There’s a good chance I will be anyway, thanks to you.”
I frown. “Why would dating me make you the laughingstock of the hockey world?” I run a hand through my hair. “I’m in the top fifteen percent in the league.”
“Check your ego, Dallas.”
“That’s based on stats, not ego. And dating me will be awesome for the reunion. We show up together, and no one will give a shit about Brooklyn and Sean.” And I can keep her safe from their assholery. No one will mess with her if she’s with me.
“Are you serious?” She gives me a disbelieving look. “How can you be thinking about our reunion? Do you not understand how this diminishes my credibility as a professional? I look like a bunny, Dallas.”
Her words hit me like a slap across the face. “I’m not like Flip.” I might flirt with women when I’m approached at the bar, but my family all keep tabs on me through social media. As if I want pictures of me doing inappropriate things floating around the internet for my brothers and sister to razz me about. Or my mom to lecture me over. Shit.