Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
I planned to stay tucked away within its walls until the game started, until I could sneak through the back and be escorted to my suite. I’d put on a bit of a show there, wear Aleks’s stupid fucking jersey, and then let the cameras catch us leaving together.
He’d drop me off at home, I’d get a good night’s sleep, and this time tomorrow, I’d be in New York City with the rest of my band, dancers, and crew.
It was where I should be right now. I wanted to be there with them. I wanted to be rehearsing, even though I knew we’d rehearsed so much I couldn’t miss a step of choreo even if there was someone throwing buckets of water at me or buttering the bottom of my high heels.
I’d buried myself in this album release, in this tour, more than ever over the last two months.
Anything to not think about Aleks.
The proposal had messed me up more than I wanted to admit to myself, let alone anyone else. I thought I’d be fine after I got away from him for a while, after I got home to California and dove into work.
But everything just got worse with that distance between us.
I was so confused, trying and failing to dig through my thoughts and feelings so I could pull them out, one by one, and face them. I thought if I could name them, I could put them behind me just the same.
Joke was on me.
Any time I did see Aleks for a planned publicity stunt, I felt that irrational anger inside me bubble up again. It was infuriating that I couldn’t dust off the whole ordeal. So what, he’d said some lovey-dovey stuff on a boat at sunset. So what, I had more feelings for him than I admitted to Isabella or anyone else.
It was a show, a game, a part of a bigger plan.
And I was a professional.
I needed to get my shit together and stop being such a little crybaby about it all.
The truth was that I wasn’t mad at Aleks. I was mad at myself. I knew what I was getting myself into, and yet I had the gall to be upset when my feelings got tangled up in all the pretending. It didn’t matter that he made it feel real sometimes… that was his role to play.
And how was he supposed to know that, deep down, I wanted to believe what he said.
It was me who had broken my own damn heart.
I tried to move on. I tried to shake it all off. But just when I’d think I was on the up and up, when I’d be focused on the album and the tour, Aleks would show up or I’d fly out to see him.
And I’d realize that no matter how I iced him out, he was always going to find his way inside my heart.
I repeated the steps of my plan the whole flight here, finding comfort in the fact that I was in control, that this was just one more thing to get through before I could kick off this tour that I’d thrown my all into. I couldn’t wait to see my fans, to dance and sing with them, to finally feel this album come to life.
I just had to survive the next twenty-four hours first.
“Surprise!”
I startled at the chorus of voices that shouted that word at me, nearly fumbling my phone as I hit the tarmac. When I realized who the voices belonged to, I blinked, unsure of how to react. Fortunately, I’d faked enough shit in my life up to this point that a smile slid into place easily, and I peeled off my sunglasses with a delight that almost felt real.
“What in the world are you gorgeous ladies doing here?”
Standing in front of a pearl white SUV with very tinted windows was Maven Tanev, Livia Young, Grace Tanev, and Chloe Knott.
AKA — the wives and girlfriends of Aleks’s friends.
Er, maybe friends was a strong word. Teammates was probably the more accurate one. And technically, Livia was their team dentist and no one’s girlfriend. In fact, I was pretty sure Isabella tried to make her her girlfriend a couple times, only to be broken hearted that Livia didn’t seriously date anyone.
But she was Maven’s best friend and they seemed attached at the hip. Also, I was pretty sure Carter Fabri had a massive crush on her — whether she saw it or not.
They looked like the final curtain call of a high-end fashion show, all of them dolled up in dresses or curve-hugging suits with heels strapped to their feet. While Maven and Livia sported theirs with confidence, Grace and Chloe looked a little more out of their element, like they’d been wrangled into dressing up by the other two. Still, they were all absolutely stunning.