Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
“Do you think you’re going to be in trouble?” she asked him.
“With my father, or yours?”
She shrugged under his black hoodie. “Both.”
“My actions have consequences; severity always depends on my choices after the actions. I choose to accept them regardless of who hands it out. I brought you home a day early. I’m hoping that helps on your father’s side of things. As for mine...whatever.”
Her stare caught him slipping the cigarette back into the pack. He tossed the lighter into the middle console, as those were good to have for certain things. The pack of smokes, he handed over to her.
“Here, shove it in that Birkin I know Carina paid way too much fucking money for, and toss ‘em the first chance you get.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Yeah, babe. Really. I’ll figure it out.” He tried cracking his neck, willing himself to ignore the nicotine craving that hit practically the moment he decided he would quit. What a bitch. “Besides, fuck me. It’s not good for you. I bet you’d feel it in your lungs after sitting next to me smoking for a year and then you try to run twenty laps on a field or something. Screw it.”
“You seem pretty convinced I’m heading somewhere to play soccer.”
“Aren’t you, after the gap year?”
“I’ve had a lot of offers.”
“Since when?” he asked, honestly curious.
“Scouts came in grade eleven.”
“Seriously?”
Frankie nodded while playing with items in her bag that he couldn’t see. “I kinda do have my pick, even if I preferred one place over the other. What freaked me out a lot was that the Olympic team kept getting mentioned, like that was a real possibility if I could show up and show out like I already had.”
Nico jerked to turn sideways in the seat, in awe of her all over again, as he repeated, “Seriously?”
“A couple years playing college first and attending Team USA training camps.”
“Why haven’t you told me?” he demanded.
“I don’t know I want to go forward and do that, Nico.”
“Because it’s not amazing enough for you, or what?”
She shot him a dirty look. “No, but I don’t want to be doing amazing things all alone, either.”
“You wouldn’t be. And I’ll be hollering the loudest from the sidelines, trust me.”
“Yeah, you say that, but then work comes up, and some cute bitch you let ride on the back of your bike.”
He picked up and threw the brown paper bag, plus the contents, at her. It stopped her from going down that ridiculous path any further and earned him the sweet sound of her laughter filling his car. Pretty soon, silence would take its place because they were running out of time here.
“Didn’t you just say we were gonna be together in fifty years with kids, and you think I’m letting somebody else play backpack for me? Frankie, you don’t even play backpack for me.”
“Kid,” she corrected.
Nico rolled his eyes. “Get real, the moment I have you barefoot and pregnant the first time, I’m keeping you that way until I have half a baseball team out of you. At least.”
The way her nails became interesting, and her smile deepened told him she liked that idea, too.
“You want to be a dad?”
“Not right now, but someday.”
This time, she echoed it. “Yeah, someday.”
The idea scared the crap out of him, too, but he wouldn’t admit that to Frankie. Him being frightened of fatherhood came down to his own insecurity and lack of a proper father himself growing up. Parenthood didn’t look so fucking entirely terrifying with her beside him.
“I bet you’d be the best mom,” he murmured.
Her smile inched higher on one side. “You think?”
“Do you wanna be one?”
“Ever since I was little.”
“Why?”
“That’s a sad answer, Nico.”
“I’m a sad guy,” he returned.
Frankie shook her head, playing with the hardware of her purse as a distraction to avoid looking at him, no doubt. “I wanted something to love, like my cat and dog. Something that was mine. Someone that would love me back. Like my dad. I used to play mommy to my dolls, too. It was a whole thing. They had bedtimes and feedings. Sissy played along a lot.”
“That’s cute.”
Her cheeks heated all over again. “You’re being a smartass.”
“No, it is. And it really sucks what I’m about to do, given this fucking conversation.”
She glanced his way, clearly confused. “What?”
“Open that bag,” he said, offering nothing else.
Nico gestured at the paper bag in her lap that he’d just tossed at her not very long ago. Frankie’s brow furrowed, but she went about peeling open the top to get better access to whatever remained inside. As her hand froze pulling the item out, he could tell by how her expression saddened that she found the Plan B.
“That’s why you stopped at the pharmacy on the way here?” she asked.
Nico just cleared his throat. She threw the Plan B at him, but Nico just picked it up and held it back out to her. “Take it, babe.”