Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“Louisa!”
I startle at my name being called before I turn to see my peepaw coming down the hall toward his office that I was just about to enter. I smile brightly at him as he envelops me in a huge hug. “Darling, you know the game isn’t for another four hours, right?”
I nod, hugging him back. “Yeah, I wanted to see you before.”
He beams, his bushy white eyebrows rising. “Little ole me? What do you wanna see me for?” He wraps an arm around my shoulders, tucking me into his side. He’s a big man, over six foot, over two hundred pounds, with an even bigger personality. I love this man, the father I never had. He’d searched for and found us, over and over, since I was born. He would beg my mom, his daughter, to leave and he’d help her restart her life, but she never wanted to. She didn’t want to leave my father and then, when he passed, the Grandmaster. Meanwhile, my sisters and I ran to Peepaw. Without a second thought, he gave us a home and helped us build our dreams.
He saved us just as much as we saved ourselves.
Peepaw pulls at my jersey. “Look at you in your Bears gear. I like it.” He pushes the door open and lets me go in first. “Oh, it’s a Carter jersey. Good guy. He’ll be in the big leagues soon enough. You a fan?”
I sit down and look up at him as he walks around his desk. “You could say that.”
Peepaw’s crooked grin is on full display as he settles in his big chair. It groans with his weight as he leans back. “I hadn’t realized you’d had the opportunity to meet him.”
“He’s a reader, has been coming to my shop since it opened.”
Peepaw seems surprised. “I think I knew that. All the guys will be on their phones or the game consoles, and he’d be in a chair, reading. He’s a shy kid. I’m curious how he’ll handle the captain role.”
“He was born for it,” I find myself saying, and of course, I have that stupid dreamy grin on my face that only Ciaran draws out of me. Peepaw’s grin drops instantly. Fear creeps its way into my chest at the sight, and he leans on his elbows. He presses his thumbs into his eye sockets and groans.
“You’re seeing him?”
I press my lips together as I nod. “I do see him. A lot.”
“Louisa, don’t be funny,” he chastises, and I swallow, the anxiety of all this making me want to flee. “Are you involved with him?”
“I am,” I say proudly, holding his gaze. “He’s very important to me, and I wanted to tell you so that we don’t find ourselves with another Dimitri Titov situation.”
Peepaw exhales heavily and then inhales until his lungs are full before letting out another hard exhale. Almost as if he’s taking cleansing breaths.
I watch him, and my stomach twists. “We won’t have another Dimitri Titov situation, will we?”
“You girls are going to give me a heart attack, aren’t you?”
His eyes are accusatory, and I can’t help but smile. “I mean, you put five girls who grew up in a cult in the vicinity of hockey players. What did you think would happen?”
“Nothing!” he booms. “They should be scared to touch you guys.”
I grimace. “They are when they find out that we’re yours.”
“So, you bait them, get them hooked, and then tell them about me?” he asks, his face the picture of annoyance.
I hold up my hands since I guess I did do that. “Unintentionally.”
“Like it would matter,” he mutters. “You girls are something. Of course these boys come sniffing. I should have moved y’all to Canada.”
“There are hockey players there too.”
He gives me a dark look. “I’d have moved you to the part where they aren’t.”
I don’t point out that I don’t think that place exists. Instead, I say, “I really like Ciaran, Peepaw. A lot.”
He taps his fingers against his desk. “Is it serious?”
“It is,” I confirm, and when he looks at me, I can see the concern in his green eyes. “I may have rushed into this—my feelings came very fast. But I feel that after everything that happened, I’m owed happiness. Ciaran is my happiness.”
The tapping stops and he presses his lips together, but his chest still rises and falls very quickly. “So, you’re in love with him?”
I feel my face burn with a blush. “I am.” We stare at each other, and when a tear slides down his cheek, the breath is knocked out of me. “Peepaw?”
He wipes it away quickly, waving me off. “Oh, my Louisa, I don’t think you realize how scared and worried I’ve been about you. After everything your mom subjected you to, after how you protected your sisters, and that sham of a marriage… Darling, I feared you’d never be able to love.” My heart stops dead in my chest as he holds my gaze. “I prayed and hoped that someone would find you and make you feel all those things your grandma did for me. What your momma should have had.”