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)
Grace leaned an elbow on the console, chin in her palm as she watched me. “So, take me to Canada.”
I blinked. “Uh…”
“Come on,” she insisted. “We’re already halfway there, aren’t we? Take me to your hometown.”
I swallowed — not because I didn’t want to take her, because I did. In fact, I wanted to so badly that my heart was ready to leap out of my chest and scream yes for me.
But going to Canmore meant being close to my parents — which I tried to avoid at all costs.
They’d moved back to our hometown once I was in the professional circuit.
“We don’t have to tell anyone we’re there,” Grace said, like she was reading my thoughts. “We’re pretty good at keeping secrets.”
I thought about the video Will had seen, but decided Grace didn’t need to know about that.
“In a town that small, we won’t be,” I said. “Everyone knows me.”
Grace considered. “What if we just drove through it, then? These windows are tinted. You could show me around a little, and then we can run away farther north. Or west. Or whatever direction you want to. We can stay in a cabin in the mountains, order food in, and no one has to know.”
“You really want to go, don’t you?”
“I want to see where you’re from. I want to feel the place that made you.”
I looked at her then, at her wide green eyes and the way they assessed the world.
I’d never known anyone like her.
“Alright,” I said, swallowing the knot in my throat. “To Canada we go.”
“Really?!” Grace lit up like she thought she didn’t have a chance to convince me — as if she didn’t have me wrapped around her finger. “Yes!” She threw both fists into the air and did a little dance that had my hand sliding higher on her thigh. Then, she leaned into me, wrapping her arm around mine. “Okay, what other great snacks do you have?”
“Ever heard of All Dressed Chips?”
• • •
We drove until we hit a sign for Wilson State Park, and Grace insisted it was our home for the night.
It was a different kind of beautiful than the beaches of Florida, an almost barren piece of land surrounding the Wilson reservoir. The shoreline was rugged and colorful, with gorgeous cliffs and rock formations unlike anything I’d ever seen.
We got lucky, snagging up an empty campsite that someone had canceled their reservation for that afternoon. We were right on the water, the soft sounds of the waves lapping at the shore our background music as we set up camp.
There was still plenty of sunlight left before we needed to build a fire, so I grabbed Grace by the hand and we walked the shoreline. It was so peacefully quiet and serene, like all the campers were afraid to disturb Mother Nature. There weren’t many of them, and I doubted anyone out here would know who I was. Still, I wore my hat and sunglasses just in case.
We hadn’t made it more than a hundred feet from our campsite when my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I frowned at my father’s name and photograph filling the screen. I pushed him to voicemail — a move I knew I’d pay for the next time I picked up. But for now, I didn’t want to deal with it. With him.
Grace squeezed my hand as I slid my phone into my back pocket again. “He’s persistent,” she mused.
“This is nothing compared to the season.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re a professional defenseman, in the highest professional league, for a great team with a high likelihood of making the playoffs this season. You scored twenty-two points last season — as a defenseman. I mean, your plus-minus is twenty-five, for fuck’s sake. That’s like… stupid. Insane.”
She shook her head, face reddening like it pissed her off that anyone would come for me. And that was almost as hot as the fact that this girl had just shot off my stats for the season like she was telling me the weather report.
“Little Nova,” I said, stopping us and turning her to face me. I slid my hands to frame her face. “You googled me.”
She flushed but tilted her chin higher. “And what about it? I was getting in the car with you. The least I could do was make sure you weren’t a serial killer — or, worse, a shitty defenseman.”
I tried to fight it, but I barked out a laugh before pulling her into my chest.
“You are so fucking cute,” I said into her hair. Then, I spanked her ass and gripped it in a hearty handful. “But stop listing my stats, or I’m going to lose control and fuck you right here for the whole park to watch.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, seventy-seven.”