Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64493 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64493 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Mary-Kate held her dad’s hand, twirling her hair with her fingers as Ronnie introduced his long-lost best buddy to his daughter. Vinnie’s grin took over his entire face. He kneeled on the grass and offered Mary-Kate his fist to bump. She shyly complied, then must have said something that made Vin laugh. And damn, he had a contagious laugh.
That was the problem with Vinnie. He was charming, funny, and gregarious. He slipped into conversations as if he’d never left. He was no stranger here. He was one of us. And if we were going to coach together and bump into each other at family barbecues, I had to put in a little effort.
With that, I guzzled the last of my beer and hauled my ass out of the hammock.
Two more beers, two tequila shots, two hamburgers, a heap of Mom’s potato salad, and too much watermelon later, I was stuffed—and buzzed. After a decent period of a prerequisite catch-up, followed by a relentless Q and A about life in the NHL, Ronnie insisted on a game of badminton. That required setting up the net, finding racquets, and keeping the shuttlecocks away from my mom’s mutt, Spencer.
It was good, clean summertime fun with raucous laughter amid the buzz of crickets and the Top-40 tunes blasting over a portable speaker. Mary-Kate danced and flitted happily about the yard, having lost her initial inhibitions around the “stranger” at the party.
To his credit, Vinnie didn’t feel like a stranger. He finished Ronnie’s sentences, teased Clay about the time he’d let the frogs free in Ms. Steinbeck’s first-grade classroom, and held a serious conversation with Mary-Kate about horses.
“Did you know that Thoroughbreds are one of the fastest animals in the world?” Vin asked, leaning casually against the tree with Ronnie while Mary-Kate dragged her toes in the grass under the hammock. “Quarter horses are even faster.”
“Oh! I didn’t know that,” she replied, pushing her glasses into place as she squinted up at Vin.
“It’s a fact. Right, Nolan?” Vinnie raised his beer as if welcoming me into their mini sidebar meeting.
The evening was winding down now. Our cousins had left and my mom was cleaning the kitchen with her childhood friend, Margaret, who was pretty much a fixture at every Moore family gathering. Which left me, my brother, my niece, and the other honorary Moore…whose membership had seemingly been fully reinstated.
I handed my brother the water bottle he’d asked for and shrugged. “Uh…I honestly don’t know.”
Mary-Kate squinted. “Have you ever ridden a horse, Mr. Vinnie?”
He pulled a funny face. “Just Vin or Vinnie. And yeah, I’ve been on a horse a few times. A friend of mine owns a ranch in Colorado. We used to do team bonding weekends…ride horses, herd cattle, till the land. It was fun, but man, it was hard work. No television, no Wi-Fi, no wives or girlfriends allowed. But we did have a cook, and I don’t think I’ve had better barbecue in my life.”
Ronnie glared playfully. “What about those burgers I made tonight? Those were darn good.”
“Excuse me. The second best,” Vinnie corrected with a laugh.
Mary-Kate tilted her head from side to side, a telltale sign she was working out a puzzle in her mind and formulating a barrage of questions. With her avid imagination and penchant for embracing a wide medley of topics at once, it could be anything from humane farming practices, her recent thoughts about maybe, possibly becoming vegetarian, or she’d steer us back to horses.
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
Okay. I hadn’t expected that one.
“Nope. I’m single,” Vinnie replied.
“Do you have kids?”
“No.”
“Do you want kids?”
Vinnie took the twenty-question treatment in stride. “Yeah, I think so. Someday. I’ve been traveling a lot, and that’s not easy to do with kids.”
“That’s no excuse. Plenty of hockey players have families,” Ronnie pointed out. “And what about that pretty redhead who’s always photographed with you? Isn’t she your girlfriend? What’s her name? Sierra or—”
“Sienna. But we’re friends. That’s all.” There was a finality in Vinnie’s tone that didn’t invite further questioning on the subject.
Seven-year-olds didn’t always pick up those cues, and I knew from experience that Mary-Kate assumed any single man might be a potential mate for her gay uncle. Even Vinnie. Not okay. I couldn’t risk her going there…especially after he’d resurrected that night from the dead. Talk about awkward.
I opened my mouth, a witty segue on the tip of my tongue, but Mary-Kate beat me to it.
“I don’t like hockey,” she announced.
Bold words in present company. I met my brother’s gaze and bit back a grin. We were used to Mary-Kate’s proclamations and strong views, but it probably wasn’t cool to openly diss someone else’s career and passion, though.
Ronnie mussed his daughter’s hair. “Hey, Mary-Katie-kins, we don’t—”
“Wacka-wacka-what?” Vinnie blinked in exaggerated dismay and held his free hand up like a stop sign. “Hate hockey? How? Why? When? Who says that?”