Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Okay…no. Some days passed in a blur. I could barely remember July or half of August. I seemed to recall living out of a suitcase in a ridiculously expensive hotel that Ger insisted was the best in my situation.
“You’ve been hibernating and good for you, but it’s back to reality, and Joe Public wants you.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I liked the privacy and the only way to ensure it in a city was to spend big bucks for a penthouse apartment in an exclusive skyrise with elite security. It was a far cry from the neighborhoods of Wood Hollow. I couldn’t think like that, though. I was here to do a job, and I fully intended to earn my salary.
I hit the gym two or three times per day, ran till my quads ached and my heart pounded in my skull. My job consumed me. I studied tapes, practiced routes over and over, willing exhaustion to claim me so I’d be too tired to stare at my cell and wait for a text from Ivy or Chase…and a chance to send a daily heart emoji to Cooper.
I missed him so much, I could have fucking cried.
On the bright side, my new teammates accepted me enthusiastically. They invited me to their houses and included me in locker room silliness. I appreciated it. I’d always thrived on teams. It was familiar chaos—unlike coaching youth flag football, which was just…bonkers.
See? It happened all the time. Just as I thought I’d hit a new groove, a memory would send me spiraling into a melancholy state. I’d end up sitting in the dark in a quiet condo with bare walls watching old movies on a seventy-inch flat-screen. I hated the silence. It made me long for something I couldn’t have.
That made me angry. I preferred anger to fear.
Why couldn’t I be an out bi man? My sexuality had nothing to do with my athletic ability. I wasn’t going to forget how to play football the second the truth was out. And it was going to happen…at some point, anyway, ’cause I’d already come to the conclusion that I couldn’t keep living in the closet. I was suffocating.
But I could do this for six more months.
At least that was what I’d thought till Alli arrived in Boston and invited me to lunch. She’d booked a table for two in a quiet corner at a chichi restaurant downtown. We were almost finished with the appetizers she’d ordered when a camera flashed from a nearby table. Whoever it was had been escorted out, and the manager had apologized profusely.
I’d been less annoyed than Alli. In fact, the hullaballoo gave me an excuse to read a new text from Ivy with a pic of the olive oil cake she’d made and one from Chase.
I rock at the Madden game. Have u played?
That looks delish. Yum emoji, star-eyes emoji to Ivy.
Yep. I’m a beast at those games. Winky emoji, football emoji, biceps emoji to Chase.
Nothing new from Cooper. I decided to play offense.
I saw Ivy’s cake. I’m jelly. I read the message twice and pressed Send.
Buzz buzz
Cooper: You should be. It was amazing.
Holy shit. My pulse skyrocketed and my heart swelled in my chest. From a text.
“Who’re you texting?” Alli asked, her honey-blond hair cascading artfully over one shoulder. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought she was posing.
Heart emoji? Yes, no? Too much?
Fuck it. I sent the emoji, then flipped my phone facedown and—was it me or was everyone staring?
I frowned, reaching for my water glass. “Friends.”
“Bullshit.” Alli coughed into her napkin. “Who is she?”
“There’s no she. I mean…there sort of is, but she’s eleven.”
Alli’s WTF expression made me laugh. “Are we having separate conversations here or what?”
“No, no. I—” I studied the beautiful woman I’d once been married to. Alli was lovely, inside and out. It was a testimony to us both that we could be friends in spite of everything we’d put each other through. I could trust her. At least, I hoped so, ’cause I couldn’t keep this in anymore. “Ivy is the daughter of the person I…”
Alli gasped. “Oh, my God! There is someone! I want to hear everything. Did you meet her in Vermont?”
“Yes and no.”
“Okay, I don’t know what that means, but I’m listening.” Her bracelets jangled as she leaned forward. “Talk.”
I drank more water, flitted my gaze to a nearby table that was definitely watching us. Weird. They were too far away to overhear, though, so…
“I met someone.”
She squealed. “What’s her name? What’s she like? Tell me everything!”
Here we go.
“He is amazing.” I chuckled at Alli’s blank stare. “I met a guy, Al.”
She wrinkled her nose in confusion. “Huh?”
“You heard me. A man. Not a woman. His name is Cooper, and he’s a single dad with two kids.”
Alli’s jaw dropped. “You’re not kidding, are you? I know your joking face, and that’s not it.”