Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
I keep eating my pizza, waiting for a few seconds. “Is there a question in there?”
“I thought it was assumed. Are you?”
“I hope so. I’ve waited a year and it’s almost up.”
“Don’t try to make yourself sound like a Boy Scout to me. It’s not like you haven’t been with any other women in the past year.”
I shrug. “So what? She said she wasn’t dating anyone for a year so I waited. I’m still interested.”
“Interested in...?”
I open a bottle of water and chug half of it. “Interested in her. You know that. I’ve liked Cam since the day we met.”
“Yeah, but Cam’s my family, man. So are her boys. You can’t fuck around with her feelings.”
I scoff. “Between the two of us, I’ve always been much better to women than you. Until you met Tess.”
He lowers his brows, agitated. “Look, there are unlimited women out there for you to fuck around with. Not her. You’re like my brother and she’s like my sister. I don’t want one of you not showing up at my house anymore because you’re worried about running into the other one.”
“Relax. We haven’t even made plans yet. I won’t screw her over. You know me better than that.”
He shakes his head and gives me a rare, serious look. “We’re having this conversation because of how well I know you. Will you just respect our friendship enough to leave things the way they are with her? I’m asking you to do that as a favor to me.”
Tess opens the door to Dom’s office and takes a step inside, smiling at us. “Hey, how’s it going?”
“Just saving the world from total annihilation,” Dom says.
She looks at the pizza and wing boxes on the table in the game room. “Rowan, you never have to bring food over; I’ll always feed you. I made soup tonight.”
“Dom said it was amazing. I’ll remember that next time.”
She beams at Dom. “You really liked it, babe? I thought you might not have.”
“It was fantastic, as always. My baby can cook.”
Tess gives him a warm look and then turns back to me, her expression serious. “Don’t let him stay up all night again.”
“I’m leaving at nine.”
“You should stop playing at nine, too,” she tells Dom.
“I will.”
She closes the door and as soon as it clicks shut, he mouths to me, “I won’t.”
I don’t pick up the conversation about Cam because it won’t go anywhere good. Dom should know me better than he seems to. I guess he’ll just have to see for himself that when the time comes, I won’t hurt Cam.
CHAPTER THREE
Cam
Rowan takes one look at my short-sleeved yellow button-up dress shirt, striped tie, men’s dress pants, huge glasses and short, floppy wig with a part down the middle and busts out laughing.
“Dwight Shrute?”
I smile at him. “And let me guess, you’re Sal.”
He takes a step back, puts his hands on his hips and pops one hip out. He looks ridiculously awesome in his dark, bell-bottom pants, floral-patterned dress shirt unbuttoned halfway down his chest, a fake carpet of black chest hair showing, and a thick, stick-on, black handlebar mustache.
“Did Sal know you guys were doing this?” I ask.
“Yeah, he loves it. No attention is bad attention to him.”
Dom and Tess’s party is in full swing. Tess has their house decorated with fake spiderwebs and life-sized horror villains like Pennywise and Jason Voorhees. Witches on brooms and bats hang from the ceiling and strobe lights flash in time with the music, the regular lights off in every room for effect.
I just got here because Tate had a hockey game this afternoon. He’s still so young and new to the game that he’s learning to skate more than anything, but my heart melts every time he looks up in the stands and finds me and Sam, his face lighting up when he sees that we’re watching him.
We had to race home after the game and get the boys’ bags packed for the party at the Foxes’ house. Beau’s parents are the unofficial Coyotes team grandparents, and they always include my boys in the parties they host for the players’ kids. Sam and Tate were practically bouncing with excitement on the drive over there because they always have so much fun.
“Even dressed like Dwight, you’re still beautiful,” Rowan says.
My stomach does a somersault. “You’re sweet, thanks.”
“I like that you went for something funny instead of just going as a sexy nurse or whatever.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Yeah, I wouldn’t make a good sexy anything.”
His gaze rakes down my body and then up again before he leans in close and whispers in my ear, his warm breath giving me goose bumps.
“Now that’s not true at all. You’d be so sexy that you would’ve barely made it through the front door before some other guy swooped in and stole you away from me.”