Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
That made me burst into tears, and Mom pulled me into a hug. Dad was enveloping us both in the next breath, and I felt like a little girl again. It gave me permission to fall apart.
When I could catch my breath again, I swiped the tears from my face. “I’m scared,” I admitted.
“Well, obviously,” Dad said. “Why do you think you pushed him away in the first place? This was never about the fight with Nero.”
“It’s about the fact that you’re in deep,” Mom chimed in. “And it scares you to death. So, to combat that fear, you pretend like you’re in control. You push him away just to prove that you can.”
“It’s like you understand the feeling or something,” Dad mused.
Mom nudged him with a smile.
Then, my phone rang.
It made all of us jump because I had the ringer turned all the way up. And when we all looked down to find Leo’s name on the screen, Mom swatted my knee.
“Speak of the devil,” she said.
I just blinked, heart in my throat as I stared at the photograph on my screen. It was us on the couch at The Pit, me in Leo’s hoodie that I was still wearing now and him wrapping me up from behind. He was kissing my cheek while I laughed and tried to shove him off me. It was dark and grainy and blurry. It was him who’d taken the picture even though I’d threatened him not to.
It was my favorite now.
I picked up the phone with numb fingers, and Dad kissed my hair before grabbing Mom’s hand and tugging her inside to leave me alone.
I tapped the green button on the screen to accept the call.
And then Leo was there.
He looked so good it hurt.
He must have just had a shower because his hair was slightly damp, a bit mussed, his jaw freshly shaven. There were dark bags under his eyes, but they lit up when I answered, and he sucked in a breath of surprise, dropping his chains that he’d been chewing on.
“Hi,” he breathed.
My heart.
It squeezed so painfully tight I hiccupped.
“Hi,” I said.
Leo licked his bottom lip, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, I… I know I said I’d leave you alone. And I am. I will,” he amended. “I just…”
He swallowed, unable to finish the thought. And for a moment, we just stared at each other, as if the other wasn’t real.
“Can you check your mail?” he finally said. “I sent you something.”
I frowned, getting up and pulling the blanket snug around me as I padded inside. Dad always dumped the mail on the kitchen counter before Mom would sort through it, and everything was already in neat piles.
There was a large, thick envelope addressed to me.
I propped the phone against a candle and carefully opened it, pulling out a brick red jersey with gold trim sleeves.
“The rivalry game is in two days,” he said as I unfolded it. I held it up, using it as a barrier to cover my smile when I saw that it was his jersey, the number thirteen and his last name sprawled across the back.
I lowered it, finding Leo staring back at me hopefully.
“I have a ticket waiting for you at will call,” he said. And before I could reply, he hurriedly added, “You don’t have to come. I understand if you don’t want to. I just… I wanted you to know that you have a ticket.” He swallowed, shaking his head. “No, I wanted you to know that I want you to be there.”
I swallowed, looking down at the jersey in my hands with my parents’ words circling in my mind.
“I’m sorry I went back on my promise to leave you alone,” he said, the corner of his mouth crooking up a bit. “But to be fair, I warned you I’d likely leave you disappointed.”
Someone yelled his name in the background, and he cursed just as Palico hopped up onto the table. I carefully draped the jersey over the back of one of our dining chairs and pulled the cat into my arms.
“I have to go,” Leo said. “We’re—”
The phone was snatched out of his hand then, and after a dizzying blur, Kyle was staring back at me.
“Mary!” He gasped. “Palico!”
That caused a scuffle behind him, and then Braden and Blake were flanking his sides, all battling to fill the screen.
“Palico!” Braden and Blake said in unison, and then they were all fussing over the cat, telling it how much they missed it while I bit back a smile and held her at the right angle for them to adore her.
“We miss you, too, Mary,” Braden said. “I need my yoga buddy.”
“And I need to know how you ever kept this place clean,” Blake added grimly. “Because we’re struggling here.”
“Pancakes on Sunday morning aren’t the same without you,” Kyle added, and with each word they said, my eyes stung more.