Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
She gives him a dreamy look. “Reason number sixty-eight why you still get laid even though I’ve reached the waddling stage of pregnancy.”
“I’m not doing it.” Leo fights a laugh.
“Yes, you are.”
He closes his eyes, laughing. “Babe. No.”
“Come on.”
Leo arches his brows, meeting her gaze. “Fine. What’s reason sixty-nine?”
She beams at him. “I’m so glad you asked.”
Blair takes a picture of her dessert. I use my fork to get a bite of mine, then hold the fork out to her.
“You can try mine.”
The table goes quiet as she looks at the fork, her cheeks that sexy shade of pink once again. I shouldn’t be doing this, but I couldn’t help myself.
It’s just flirting. I’m being careful, but I’m only human. Blair is a single mom. She’s used to balancing nursing school, raising two kids, and household chores. I want her to know she’s also a beautiful woman, and she makes me wish I could have more.
Her lips part and she takes the bite of dessert from the end of my fork. I’m secretly hoping she won’t demurely cover her lips with her fingertips and daintily wipe her mouth with her cloth napkin.
“Mmm.” Her eyes widen. “It’s like a Little Debbie cake, but better.”
Lainey bursts out laughing. “It really is. I love me a Zebra Cake and an ice-cold Dr Pepper.”
I should set my fork down on my plate. Or eat my own bite of dessert. But getting the fuck out of my stank hotel room and having some fun has lowered my guard.
I take another bite of the dessert and offer it to Blair. Her light-blue eyes dance with happiness, her smile making me smile.
“Did you guys see that new thing the Coyotes social media team is doing?” Jules asks. “Where they have a kid interviewing the players?”
The rest of the people at our table discuss it, but Blair and I remain completely focused on each other. I feed her my entire dessert, and then she switches her small dessert plate with mine.
When I get a bite of it and offer it to her, she laughs and says, “You’re sweet, but that one’s for you. There’s a capacity to this dress, and I’m pushing it.”
Her phone buzzes with an incoming text. She’s reading it when the auction begins, the room going silent.
The auction is long and not all that interesting to me. Others are hanging on every bid, paying attention to who’s willing to shell out six figures for a meal from a private chef or team memorabilia.
Hudson McClain let the foundation auction off a one-hour call with him for business advice, and that is going for almost twenty-six thousand dollars. He casually bids on a rare collector’s bottle of bourbon, competing with another man for it until he finally lands it for thirty-three thousand five hundred dollars.
He and I are not the same, but I admire the way he’s built an empire after coming from a regular middle-class upbringing. He has a reputation as a fair team owner who is a generous supporter of charities.
Finally, the auction ends, and people start leaving. Jules and Coach Turner stay where they are, deeply engrossed in a conversation about the trip Coach Turner bought in the auction for the two of them.
Blair appears exasperated as she pushes a button on her phone screen, taking a video call.
“Hey, guys, stop sending me FaceTime requests. I’ll be home soon.”
“Mom, look! I ate all the Nerds ropes Chloe brought.”
“Nice. Who needs teeth, anyway?”
“When are you coming h—is that Magnus? Hi Magnus!”
Coop is grinning on Blair’s phone screen, Eli nearby.
“Are you coming over?” Coop asks. “I still have some Skittles left.”
He’s a sweet kid. I glance at Blair, then back at the screen.
“I’d love to come hang out sometime when it’s okay with your mom,” I say. “I’ll give her my number so we can set something up.”
“Mom, can he?” Coop’s eyes are like saucers as he pleads. “Please?”
“Tonight?” she blurts.
“Please.” He breaks out prayer hands and I try to suppress my smile.
“Coop, it’s after ten. He doesn’t want to come over this late.”
“Yes he does! He wants to play cars.”
She shakes her head. “It’s too late for that.”
“But it’s not a school night.”
“I know, but–”
“Mom, please, please, please.”
I jump in, hoping to help. “How about if I come over just for a little bit? You can show me your room and we’ll make plans for me to come back another time.”
“Yeah!”
He puts the phone down and leaves, Blair rolling her eyes.
“He does that when he’s excited,” she says. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Not at all. I’ve only got a stuffy hotel room to go back to.”
She locks eyes with me for a second, her cheeks lightly flushed. “Okay then. You can follow me home, I guess.”
“Damn, son.” Lucien claps me on the back. “Heading back to her place already? Well done.”