Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
“What’s your pregame ritual?” he asked now.
“Whoa. Personal.”
“We’re going to be sharing a bedroom for a week. Might as well start getting personal now.”
She squinted an eye. “Should we lay some ground rules for that, by the way? I mean, we’re not actually together.”
Out of nowhere, there was a rock stuck in his windpipe.
“I know you’re going to be passing on some tips and tricks,” she continued. “But we’re here for a purpose.”
Robbie did his best to maintain his affable expression, even though his lungs felt deprived of oxygen. “I don’t exactly need a reminder after you nearly fainted at the sight of ol’ Madden in the front yard. Should I be carrying smelling salts on me at all times?”
“Am I that obvious?” Skylar winced.
“Yes.” He cleared his throat. Stop now before you start to sound jealous.
Was he jealous?
Come on, guy. You’ve been jealous since the coffee shop.
The sick feeling in his belly worsened now, minute to minute. “If you want ground rules, lay them. Otherwise, we’ll stick to your calendar. You tell me what is a yes or a no.” He looked her in the eye. “I know how to listen, Skylar.”
They maintained eye contact for several seconds, him impressing on her that she was safe and in control, her searching him with surprise for the second time since they’d walked into the room. “My pregame ritual is listening—in my AirPods—to Whitney Houston sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl in 1991,” she blurted, seeming a little shocked that she’d admitted it out loud, but also excited to share. “Have you seen it?”
“I . . . don’t know.”
“You would know,” she said, full of passion.
“Then I haven’t.”
“Try it someday, before a game. It’s the best live performance by anyone. Ever. It makes me want to go out and pitch the innings of my life. It makes me want . . .”
“Immortality.”
“Yeah.” Skylar breathed a laugh that left a smile on her face and it hit Robbie, right in that moment, that there was definitely no one more beautiful than her in the fucking world. “Yeah, it sounds weird, but I want to leave something like that behind.”
“I throw up before every game,” he said, distracted enough by her sparkling eyes to ruin the moment. Or he might have ruined it if Skylar was someone else. But she wasn’t. She was a person who’d pushed their body to limits it couldn’t handle and . . . visibly understood.
Damn. I have to find me a woman who doesn’t get grossed out by throwing up.
You did.
She’s right here.
And she’s in love with someone else.
“Wow. Interesting choice to bring up pregame rituals when that is yours.”
“I should have lied and said I listen to Lil’ Wayne,” he managed on a chuckle, feeling more than a little winded.
“Why didn’t you lie?”
Mildly insulted, he drew back. “I wouldn’t tell you I know how to listen to yes and no, then lie to you in the same breath.”
Skylar scrutinized him from a distance that had definitely grown smaller since they walked into the room. Who had moved closer? And when? “Maybe it’s premature to say this, but I’m not sure anymore that . . . you’re exactly who I thought you were.”
It wasn’t easy, but Robbie managed not to show on his face how relieved he was to hear that. How . . . honored. “Thank God for that.”
Skylar seemed to realize their bodies were about to brush and stepped back, quipping, “To be fair, you’ve still got a long way to go.”
Robbie scrubbed at his beard. “Oh, yeah. Obviously.”
“Was that flirting just now?” she asked, after a beat, clearly thrown that their proximity hadn’t registered earlier. He’d been close enough to kiss her.
God, I’d die to kiss her.
“If so, you’re getting better at it,” Robbie said. “I couldn’t even tell you were trying.”
“I wasn’t,” she said, mostly to herself, her brows drawing together. “Trying, that is.”
Maybe . . . she didn’t have to try.
Maybe she was a little bit attracted to him?
Normally, women being attracted to Robbie was a given, but not with Skylar. This new possibility that the chemical reaction he experienced in her presence might go both ways was the best news he’d received since getting drafted by the Bearcats.
It was also dangerous.
Robbie was already falling for Skylar. The only thing keeping him realistic and grounded about his chances was the fact that she loved someone else. But if he had attraction on his side? Hope opened doors. Hope made him feel like he had a shot.
And he didn’t. So he needed to keep his eyes wide open.
“I’ll go get the bags out of the car,” he managed on his way into the hallway. “You want your planner?”
That threw her. She opened her mouth, closed it. “Yes, please.”
He turned and went before he could reach too much into the silent appreciation arranging her features.