Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 41935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 210(@200wpm)___ 168(@250wpm)___ 140(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 210(@200wpm)___ 168(@250wpm)___ 140(@300wpm)
Dara Houser wouldn’t be bad. She’s a model who’s famous because she has famous parents, but she’s twenty-four. She does a weird, pouty thing with her lips all the time, but that’s better than Cara’s selfie obsession.
I lie back in the sand, putting my knees up as I look up at the bright stars in the night sky. I’m not ready to go back to the beach house. I don’t want to run into Alice, and I’m tired of socializing with celebrities.
I don’t think of myself as a celebrity. I’m just a hockey player, and that’s more than enough for me. So far, Alice is the only person I’ve met here who seems down to earth.
I’m flipping through the new round of pictures Trinity sent of my baby nephew Micah when I get a text.
Rita: Did you get my voicemail? I’ll be there tomorrow late morning.
Fuck. The only Rita I know is Rita Kenney, the head of PR for the league. I push a button on my phone screen to listen to her voicemail.
“Dalton, Rita Kenney. The producers of the show are letting me come on set tomorrow with a photographer to get some content for socials. I’m bringing you some T-shirts and hats to wear with our logos. Give me a call back and let me know what size tumbler you’d like. I have twenty ounce, thirty-two ounce and forty-six ounce. They all have the logo for the foundation, but I don’t have room in my suitcase for all of them. Call me back, thanks.”
Grimacing, I sit up. I’m not getting paid extra for doing this show, and I’m not walking around in a league T-shirt and hat. Just the thought of Rita coming here puts me on edge.
Last season was my first as team captain, and it was rocky. Lincoln was our team captain, and he was great at it. He always knew what to say. When we got cocky as a team, he knocked us back down to earth. And when we were down, he built us back up.
Me? I fight our opponents. But leadership is more than that. I choked in the final game of the playoffs and we lost. Coming here was supposed to be a break for me. A way to recharge.
Now I’m going to have Rita up my ass. Hopefully it’ll only be for a few hours.
I get up, brushing the sand off my clothes and out of my hair. Between pissing off Alice and finding out Rita’s coming here, I need a drink.
“Better not be anything but water in there, Lorenzo.” JP grins as he passes me coming out of the library the next afternoon, nodding toward my stainless tumbler.
“Unfortunately, there’s not,” I call after him.
The producers nixed Rita’s idea to make me a walking commercial for the league, thank fuck. The hat she brought looked like it had been balled up in her bag, and it smelled like powder. I’m appeasing her by using the cup.
“There’s our resident motherpucker,” Alex quips when he sees me. “Can you close the door, please?”
Rita, sitting in one of the library’s plush wingback chairs, shoots him a shocked look.
“He better not be sleeping with the contestant who’s a single mom. Or even trying to. I said that was a non-starter during the contract negotiations.”
Alex waves a hand dismissively. “No, we’ve got someone else picked out for Hailey. That was just a bad joke on my part since he’s a hockey player.” He claps his hands together. “Have a seat, Dalton. I’m staying on schedule today if it kills me, so let’s get started.”
I sit in the chair next to Alex’s. He has a habit of clicking the top of his pen on repeat, and he does it as he asks me, “How are you feeling about things so far, Dalton?”
I shrug. “Fine. We’re just getting started, so I don’t have much to base an opinion on.”
Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. “Right, sure. So tonight, we’ll be kicking things up a notch. The men will play a game of beach volleyball, four on four, and the winning four players each get to choose one woman to take out for a one-on-one date.”
“How are you at beach volleyball?” Rita asks me.
Is she serious? I play fucking ice hockey and I live in Minneapolis. “Uh...it’s been a while.”
“With two pro athletes on the same volleyball team, I’m confident they’ll have no trouble,” Alex says.
“And who are the options for his date?” Rita asks.
“June would be my preference.”
“No way. She’s only twenty and she was arrested last year for disorderly conduct. The league doesn’t want one of our players associated with her.”
Click. Click. Alex considers. “Well, I wanted to wait longer to ramp up to you and JP both vying for Farrah, but if you get to pick before he does, you could go for her.”