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)
“Yeah, Mom and Dad are looking for you.” Tori looks at Jaxon, who just nods his head at her as he looks over toward where people are walking into the two doors pushed open. My eyes are transfixed on the ink on his neck, and I’m curious to see if his whole chest and arms are tattooed.
“I was coming,” he says and waits for me to walk ahead of him before he follows a step behind me.
“Did you just get here?” I ask him over my shoulder.
“We got here together,” Tori fills in for him, “but he forgot his phone in the car.”
“The horror,” I joke with him as we walk into the ballroom. The green, white, and black balloons are everywhere, mixed in with gold all around the room. “Wow.” My gaze travels around, noting the pictures of the Dallas Oilers organization throughout the years. “Look at our dads.” I point over to a picture of my dad with Manning on the ice from when they won the Cup. Manning is holding the Cup in the air and handing it over to my father.
“I still remember that game,” he says with fondness in his voice and I laugh.
“That’s how old you are.” I push him with my shoulder jokingly, and it hits him mid arm since he’s so much taller than me.
He doesn’t have a chance to answer, he just smiles while his father comes up to him. “Was looking for you,” he states. “Come say hi to the guys,” he tells him and then Jaxon looks over at me, then Manning notices me.
“Holy shit, Ariella,” he blurts, coming to me and giving me a big hug and kissing me on my cheek. “I didn’t even—” he starts to say, letting me go. “You look different. More grown up.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Jaxon counters right away, “she looks the same.”
“Well, I hope I look a bit older than I did when I was sixteen with braces,” I joke. “It’s nice to see you, Manning.” I nod at him. “If you guys will excuse me, I have to find my sister and my mother, who are blowing up my phone right now, thinking I’ve been kidnapped.” I look around. “Got to say, I’m a little disappointed they haven’t sent out a search party.” That makes Jaxon laugh and, for the life of me, I don’t know why I like to hear it so much. “I’ll see you guys later.”
He doesn’t say anything to me. He just nods his head as I walk around them and look around, spotting my Aunt Zara with her twin sister, Zoe, who have their heads together, no doubt talking shit about someone.
“Hey,” I say when I get close enough and Zara’s eyes light up. Zara is married to my Uncle Evan. The two of them have the best meet-cute story of life. When she found out her ex-boyfriend was getting engaged a couple months after he broke up with her, she tweeted my uncle, who was playing for Dallas also back then, and asked him to crash the wedding with her. Never thinking he would answer her back, he did, and it caused a media storm. It’s a story everyone always tells because they did all that and ended up falling in love and never going to the wedding. It’s also karma since the ex-boyfriend has been married three times and she’s still with my uncle.
“My favorite niece,” she smirks and then corrects herself, “My favorite twentysomething niece.”
I laugh at her as I give her a big hug. “Hi,” I reply and then get the same hug from Zoe. “What are you two in the corner gabbing about?”
“Nothing,” Zoe and Zara both say at the same time before looking at each other and laughing.
“Go away and let the grown-ups talk.” Zara shoos me with her hand in the air as I turn and look around, spotting my cousin Zoey, who is right beside her husband, Nash, who has a hand on her hip.
“Well, well, well,” Zoey starts in. She was named after her Aunt Zoe, but they added a Y to not confuse anyone. It didn’t help since it sounds the same. “Look who decided to join the party.”
“I got here earlier but I ran into Jaxon and Tori,” I inform her, pointing over my shoulder. “Where’s Callie?” I look around for my sister and don’t spot her. Callie? My sister is eight years younger than me, Brookes is two years older than her. He reminds us all the time that he suffers from middle child syndrome since we constantly forget about including him in things. We do that because he’s a guy and not because he’s the middle child.
“Last I saw, she said this was her final goodbye and she was dying of embarrassment,” Zoey says laughing. A waiter comes over with a tray of champagne and I take a flute.