Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Maybe what I really wanted, beneath everything, was simple.
I wanted to ask Mason out on a date.
…And then watch him squirm and blush and freak out, telling me a bunch of shit about why we couldn’t possibly date—and then probably go on a date with me, anyway.
“Yo,” Andrew said after we got dressed again, finding me outside the gym lockers. “Max said I should roll through the Hard Spot. Half off domestics until seven, and Robbie says he’s down. You want to come?”
I shut the locker beside me with a thwack.
“Fuck yes, I do.”
Whiskey felt like liquid fire in my throat as I downed my second shot of the night.
It was just me and Kane at this corner of the bar right now. Right now Max was on his half-hour break for the night, and Andrew and Robbie had gone with him to grab some sub sandwiches at the diner across the street.
I’d resorted to talking about the weather with my brother, because I kept specifically avoiding bringing up Mason.
We talked about how Tennessee was hot. Like, fuckin’ scorching, lately.
How the summer was good, but winter was good, too. Hockey, Christmas. Mmhmm.
We’d even freaking talked about how the sky was blue today. Right? Yeah. Very blue!
“Mason said you helped him out the other day,” Kane finally mentioned as he was changing out the cartridge in the soda gun.
My ears perked up immediately.
“He did?” I said instead, thumbing the rim of my shot glass.
Kane nodded. “You took care of his horses while he was fucked up on allergy meds or something?”
“Brought him some consolation food after I heard about the shitty newspaper story. He was falling asleep on those meds pretty soon after. He tried to throw a party that night, actually. I talked him out of it.”
And he was adorable, for the record.
He snorted. “He’s unstoppable. He was in here last night, in peak form.”
“Peak form?”
Kane nodded. “He looked like he was ready to fuck any guy that walked in here. Hell, even any woman, which is saying something when it comes to Mason.”
I bit down on the tip of my tongue for a moment, feeling a flash of heat roll through me. “Sounds like him.”
“Sure does.”
“Could I get another shot?”
He gave me a glance. “Damn. You’re going all in tonight.”
“For the first time in weeks, I actually have a day off tomorrow. No practice, no game, no class. I can drink.”
“Cheers to that,” Kane said, topping off my shot glass.
I neatly downed the liquor, and this shot didn’t burn as bad as the other ones had. I let the conversation pause for a moment before I continued.
“So was he doing keg stands again last night or what?”
“Not this time. He kept talking about breaking his dumb sex-free pact, though. Not that I ever believed he was going make it through the whole summer. Most of the time he can’t make it a week.”
Not the time to get all sad, Sanocki.
Mason has every right to fuck who he wants.
“Did he go home with some hot farmer?”
Kane shrugged. “Don’t know. Wasn’t watching. This place was packed. He needs to quit bitching about it, though.”
If Mason was so desperate, he could have just texted me.
And the most selfish, possessive hockey player in the world award goes to… Jesse! Sanocki!
“He needs someone who can handle him,” I said.
Kane narrowed his eyes at me. “What about you? How’s school?
I slid out my phone and navigated to the screenshot of my exam scores. “I’d say it’s going well.”
“100 is pretty damn hard to beat,” Kane said. “What about the other, though? 84?”
“That’s still a B.”
“You used to get perfect scores on everything, though.”
I raised my eyebrows, suddenly having a distinct urge to punch my brother in the face. “Are you really just going to fixate on the fact that I didn’t get two perfect scores? I’m proud of these results. These are some of the more challenging courses I’ve taken.”
“It isn’t a bad score. It’s just not like you,” he said. His voice was soft, without any real judgment behind it.
But I was still pissed.
Kane was giving me his whole father-figure treatment, even though I was 21 and well past the age where he’d had any hand in raising me.
“Promise you, I am trying my best.” I didn’t bother hiding the anger from my voice.
“I know 84 is a good score. I’m just checking in on you. The asshole isn’t giving you any trouble still, is he?”
Kane exclusively referred to Elliot as the asshole these days, and I definitely supported that.
“He doesn’t affect my life at all anymore. On the ice or otherwise.”
“Good.”
“I barely think about him at all. Have better things to think about, lately.”
The whiskey was hitting my blood now. A few minutes later, Max came back from his dinner break with Andrew and Robbie in tow. Andrew took his seat next to me again while Max got behind the bar.