Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
When we were just outside of Lake City, I pulled into a gas station, ending the game at least for the moment as we both crawled out of the SUV and stretched.
“I’m getting snacks!” Grace said enthusiastically, and then she was skipping inside with me staring at the giant bags of food we still had in the backseat.
I didn’t fight her on it, though. I just shook my head and watched her go before sliding my credit card and filling up the gas tank.
My phone rang when it was halfway full, and I frowned at the words DADDY P lighting up the screen. Will Perry was the best goalie in the league. He was also an unnervingly quiet bastard who kept to himself, which was why I was surprised to see that he was calling me.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard his voice on the phone before.
“Hey, Daddy P. You calling to get some advice on your golf game? Because I gotta tell you, after yesterday, I think you might be beyond my help.”
I heard him grumble on the other end before he said, “I don’t have time for jokes. Are you free today?”
I frowned again at his serious tone, replacing the gas nozzle and taking my receipt. “Uh… not exactly.”
“Goddamnit.”
“What’s up?”
Will let out a long exhale, and I could picture the way his brows would fold together on that sigh. I’d seen it a thousand times. “Nothing, I just… my nanny left me high and dry again, so now I don’t have anyone to watch Ava and I was supposed to…”
His words cut off, another frustrated sigh mixed with a growl.
“It doesn’t matter. Thanks, anyway.”
“Sorry I can’t help, you know I’d be there in a heartbeat to hang with my favorite girl.”
Will paused before saying, “But?”
Shit.
“But… I, uh, decided to take a trip.”
“A trip,” he repeated, and then Grace was sprinting toward me with her arms full of chip bags, candy boxes, random ass drinks, and God knew what else.
“Yep, and I’m about to get back on the road so I better—”
I tried to cut the phone call before Grace got to me, but she was lightning fast, that little thing, and she nodded to the backseat as she scrambled closer. She had a crossbody bag on with a ring of keys and two outrageous keychains — one that looked like a leather whip, and one that was nothing more than a fuzzy puff ball.
“Hurry, open the door before I lose all this!”
I muttered a curse before swinging the door open, and she dumped the snacks with a satisfied smile before beaming up at me.
“I got the weirdest things. They had alligator jerky!” She stripped her crossbody bag off and tossed it into the car, those damn keys jangling like mad. She paused when she noticed I was on the phone. “Who’s that?”
Daddy P’s voice rumbled in my ear next. “My thoughts exactly.”
“I’ll call you later. Try Maven. You know she’s always offering to help you out.”
“Avoiding the question, I see,” Will assessed. “Why do I feel like I need to warn you to be careful?”
I swallowed as Grace skipped around to the other side of the SUV, her flimsy shorts bouncing along with her perfect little ass as she did so.
“Probably because I’m playing with fire,” I mumbled back.
Daddy P barked out a laugh. “Can’t wait to hear about this at the tournament,” he said. “Be easy on the girl, whoever she is. Later, Brittzy.”
“Later,” I said, and then I hustled inside the gas station long enough to piss and grab an energy drink.
When I got back to the car, Grace was head banging in the passenger seat to a Bad Company song, pausing only long enough to belt out the lyrics before she was drumming with the alligator jerky in both her hands and head banging again.
There was that feeling in my chest again.
Just as I slid inside, Grace held her phone out in selfie-mode, taking a video of the two of us.
“Today, I’m starting an adventure. A road trip with my new best friend — Jaxson.” She smiled at me then. “Jaxson, tell me something good.”
I cocked a brow at the camera, flattening my lips as I looked back at her.
“Calm down, no one will ever see this video but me,” she said, reading my concern. “I take a video every day and tell future me what I was doing on this date. I always like to remind myself of all the good in my life, even on the seemingly ordinary days.”
I laughed a little, staring at her like the bizarre creature she was. “And you don’t post it?”
“Post it?” She wrinkled her nose. “Oh, on social media you mean? I don’t have any.”
That shocked the hell out of me, and my widening eyes must have told her so.