Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Feeling my gaze, Brett looked over. Our eyes caught and held, and I saw the unspoken question from him. He was asking if I was okay. My cheeks pinked again, and I gave him a little smile before nodding. He gave me the slightest bit of a nod back and lifted his beer for a sip. Olvander said something to him and Brett’s attention returned to his teammate.
I turned back around, lost in thought.
Dusty cleared her throat. “We just want him to know we care. That’s all.” There was another note in her eyes.
“What?” I asked.
She blinked, frowning slightly before saying, “We—” She glanced to the other women as if drawing strength from them. “We know, obviously, about your situation.” She rushed ahead, seeing me sitting straighter in my chair. “We don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, but…” Her eyes closed, and she lowered her head.
She lost her nerve to say whatever she was going to say.
Emma said it, “Are you okay?”
Dusty and Kayla shot her grateful looks.
Emma added, “I can’t imagine how people react when they recognize you, but we’re not like that. As a human being, we want to make sure you’re okay. Are you?”
The other two quieted, all waiting for my response.
An old conversation came back to me, one I had with Brett.
“People can get weird when they find out about me. You know about some of the more unhinged reactions, but there’s other reactions too.”
“Like what?”
“I once had a psychic who could feel him, and she ran away from me. Literally. She yelled over her shoulder that she couldn’t handle the feel of death that hung over me so prominently. Imagine hearing someone say that in the mall, the looks I got. I didn’t even know a psychic was there. That was the last time I went to a mall, no matter how much Howard likes their food court.”
Of all people that could understand the price of fame, and in some circles, I was famous, it was these people. I could tell them stories. They’d understand. They’d probably nod in understanding or sympathy, but I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to talk about myself. Tonight was meant as a reprieve from my normal life, where the roles were switched and I could be a nobody around these new and very cool and very beautiful people because their fame wasn’t like my fame. They’d earned theirs. They had adoring fans, people like me. They hadn’t gotten notoriety because a serial killer didn’t kill them when everyone else died around them.
It wasn’t fun.
Dusty leaned over, her hand touching my arm softly. “You don’t have to say anything, because in a weird way, we get it.”
I didn’t know what she saw to prompt her to say that, but a knot swelled up in my throat and I jerked my head in a nod. She gave me another smile before her hand dropped away. I caught it with mine, not thinking about what I was doing until her eyes lit up with surprise. I only squeezed her hand, the same softness that’d come from her before I let her hand drop.
I liked these women. A lot.
I wanted to be friends with them.
My voice cracked, but I still said, “I’m okay. Also, I don’t just know football stats. I know chicken stats too. You know, if you ever want to learn about chickens.” I pointed both of my thumbs toward my chest. “Consider me your hen lady.”
There was a brief moment of confusion.
I asked, “Do you know who Sylvia Rivera is?”
That’s when someone yelled out behind us, “We’re here.”
At the same time, all three around me stiffened with varied expressions of tension.
I took in their reactions.
Then I heard, “Oh. My. Gawd. Say that’s not who I think it is?”
My heart dropped.
I turned around and two things happened at the same time.
One, I was rocked. Colby Doubard had arrived. A part of my inner geek wanted to start buzzing because he was the Kings’ first string quarterback. He threw the football four thousand eight hundred thirty-eight yards last year, with thirty-seven touchdowns.
Oh yes. I was buzzing again, or starting to, but he wasn’t alone.
The second thing that happened was that after the woman who accompanied Colby Doubard said what she said, she followed that up with, “Holy shit! It is Butcher Girl! I thought no way, but it is way. It’s a sign from the universe.”
Kayla had begun to stand up from the chair beside me, and this new arrival rushed forward, dropping into it, even before Kayla fully vacated it, and she gawked at me. Live and in person and three feet from me. Her hand went to her chest, to her heavily tanned skin that was showing because she was in a strapless dress, and she dramatically hunched forward. “You have no idea, but you and I were sisters from a past life. I swear to Mother Gaia.”