Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 135831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
She shakes her head, but she winces. “No. But maybe he’s suspicious…and he really wants the promotion. He pretends he doesn’t, but he does. And he’s so connected, and he plays into the whole I’m a former athlete thing. Like he thinks that makes him a better candidate.”
My chest caves. I hate that she has to face these challenges. I pull her closer. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I don’t want to do anything to hurt you. Especially at work.”
“We just have to be careful around him. Around everyone,” she says, then frowns. “You know the team has this unwritten rule that employees can’t date players.”
Right. She said that at the rink with the kids when Becca teased her about having a crush on me. I wasn’t sure she’d meant it. My heart sinks to the ocean floor. “You mentioned that before. That’s real?”
She explains the reasoning, and I hate how she has to deal with this sexist rule.
“This thing can’t be anything more,” she says, but her tone sounds heartbroken, and that—that emotion—tells me something important. “Especially in the middle of us working so closely together on this makeover. We have the next event in a week or so. And then another one.”
Right. Step two—a series of community outreach events. And I don’t want to cause any problems for her at the next one like I did today. The next one needs to go perfectly, and I’ll do my part.
“I know,” I say. But I also plan to hold on to that emotion I heard in her voice. I plan to hold on to it and figure it the fuck out. Because I don’t know how to change that rule but I also don’t know how to change these feelings for her that grow stronger by the day. “That’s why I said go on a secret date with me.”
“Max,” she says, but it hardly sounds like a protest.
“You know you want to.”
She doesn’t fight it. She melts into my arms. “Of course I do,” she says, vulnerable and open and a little sad.
I’m not letting her go.
“Then say yes,” I say, wiggling my brows.
She narrows her eyes, swatting my chest playfully. “Are you going to ruin it like you did all my other dates?”
“Did I really ruin them?”
“Yes. You did. You turned down Joe. You didn’t even let Flynn get a word in so he could ask me out. And you sabotaged my date with Lucas.”
“Sounds like I was helpful.”
“Is that so?” she asks, but she’s smiling.
“It was in your best interest,” I say, unrepentant.
“And what is my best interest?”
I meet her gaze unflinchingly. “Me.”
“So you’re my type?” she asks.
“Fuck yes,” I say, then I sweep kisses up the side of her neck, then down her throat and to the top of her breasts, making her tremble everywhere. “So say yes.”
When I meet her eyes, they’ve already given me the answer before her lips do as she says, “Yes.”
35
THE FAKE OUT
Max
On Friday morning I’m in my kitchen, making coffee and plotting my secret date with Everly for Sunday…with my dad.
“I think I’ll take her to Theo and Soren’s restaurant,” I say to him on FaceTime, mentioning some of his married friends who run a restaurant an hour or so away. That’s key because I need to make sure we avoid the arena area and, frankly, the city too, where most of the people who work for the team live. Sure, there’s always a risk I could be recognized anywhere, but I won’t touch her in public. I don’t want her to deal with an in-person encounter with a co-worker though, so getting away from here will help. “Think you can get me a res?”
Dad chuckles from a couch in the teachers’ lounge at his school. “I’m pretty sure you could get your own, but I’ll be happy to do it for you.”
“No one answers the phone anymore these days.”
He clears his throat. “You know you can get reservations online, Max?”
“Really?” I deadpan.
“Technology is an amazing thing.”
“So much sass from such an old man,” I tease.
“And you wonder where you got it from,” he says.
I shake my head. “Nope, I don’t. I know it came from you.”
“I’ll send them a text to get you a good table,” he says, understanding why I asked him for help rather than making one online. I want the best for Everly. Dad pauses, then asks seriously, “So, the woman must be special?”
Easiest answer ever. “She is,” I say, but I don’t tell him anything more. I’m in the convince her stage anyway.
Those two words seem to be enough for him though. A small smile coasts across his weathered face. “I hope it stays that way.”
I hope it becomes that way too, for her.
I say thanks and hang up as Athena saunters into the kitchen, looking ready for some playtime. I pick up her favorite toy from the floor—a ball of tinfoil. Of all the toys in the universe, why do cats dig this one the most? No idea, but that’s the mystery of felines. After I hurl the tinfoil into the living room, my gaze strays to a bag on the tiled floor full of my gear. Gloves, shoulder pads, and helmet…Not the ones I wear in Sea Dogs games, but the ones I use when I coach the kids.