Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113130 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113130 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
She looks fucking pissed by the time she realizes I’m looking at her, and I see her put on a fake fucking smile. “Hey,” she greets, pulling out the chair beside me and sitting down, “did you guys grab something to eat?”
“What happened?” I ignore that she’s smiling, and my body goes on alert.
“Nothing happened.” She shakes her head. “It smells good.” She rubs her hands on the thighs of her jeans. “Is it cold in here?” She glances around, avoiding looking at me. “It’s a bit cold in here.” She’s having a conversation by herself, which means something is up.
“Ariella,” I say her name and she looks back at me, “what the fuck happened?”
“Nothing.” She tries to play it off and I can see something happened. I just don’t know what it is, but I’ll be fucking damned if she feels uncomfortable here.
“You were fine when you went into the bathroom.” I look around, not seeing anything that would have made her switch like that. Until I look over to the bathroom and see Angela coming out with two of her cronies who follow her around everywhere. They aren’t even dating anyone on the team, but because of Kirby, they let them in all the time. She is in the middle of the two and she’s saying something and the other two just nod at her the whole time.
“Did she say something to you?” Kirby is the one asking her now, and his look isn’t one I want to mess with. It’s a look I’ve seen often over the years, especially on the ice. “Ariella,” he says her name, his voice tight, “what did she say to you?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “It’s nothing.” She tries to avoid even prolonging the conversation by looking around. Then she spots them coming closer to the table. “Can we not do or say anything? I swear I’m okay.” She looks at Kirby, nervously giving him a fake-ass fucking smile and then she reaches for my hand. “It’s okay, I’m fine. We should eat.” She looks around nervously. “Let’s go eat.” She then looks at Kirby. “Do you want to eat with us?” He just stares at her, then looks at me, then his look goes to the three girls.
Kirby pushes away from the table and I watch him with his eyes straight on Angela, who is now laughing with her friends as she makes her way over to us. Her face goes white when she sees Ariella sitting at the table and Kirby in front of us on his feet. She quickly puts on her mask, no doubt for the sake of her friends. “Hey, baby,” she coos, “are you going to get something to eat?”
“We’re leaving,” Kirby declares, staring at her. His glare is making it known that he’s fucking pissed, and he’s pissed at her. Angela looks at him as if she’s not bothered at all, but I can see the nervousness in her stance. Kirby breaks eye contact with her, turning to Ariella. “I’m sorry for whatever bullshit she said to you.”
“She didn’t say—” Ariella quickly tries to cover up for her and Kirby moves behind his chair and tucks it in.
“I promise you,” he vows to Ariella, “it will never happen again. I give you my word; it will never, ever happen again.”
“It better fucking not,” I cut into the conversation.
“Jaxon,” Ariella cries and I feel her hand on mine.
“No,” I quickly say, my eyes on Angela, who has turned her glare to me. “Fuck that. I’ve held my tongue for far too long.”
“You and me both,” Kirby seethes, walking to Angela. “Turn your ass around and walk out of here with me or”—his voice goes even lower and it’s filled with so much anger, it’s a surprise the room hasn’t iced over—“I’ll get fucking security to drag you and your posse out of here.”
“Kirby,” Angela defends, shaking her head, “you heard her. I didn’t say anything.” She points to her chest, trying to be all brave.
“Okay, well, I’m leaving,” he states, smiling, “and if you aren’t behind me, we know what decision you made.” He walks out of the room. I look over at Angela, my eyebrows going up and I secretly fucking hope she doesn’t follow him. It would be my absolute pleasure to get security to drag her ass out of here.
“This place is lame anyway.” She flips her hair off of her shoulder. “Let’s go back to my place and chill.” She looks at her girls, who look like they want the floor to open up and swallow them. They turn and walk away, and only when they are out of the room do I relax a bit.
“You going to tell me or do I have to call Kirby and ask him to ask her what she said?”