Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 80045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“How did your meeting go?” she asks as she lets me into her apartment, and closes the door behind me
“It was everything I've ever wanted to hear,” I admit.
Her shoulders drop, but she forces a strong smile on her face. “So you'll become a Shark now,” she says. “That's great. That's been your dream since you were a kid.”
I take a few steps toward her, tipping her chin up from where she’s dropped her eyes to the floor. She looks up at me, and everything feels aligned in my world in a way it never has before.
“I'm a Badger, damsel,” I say, inching my lips toward hers. “I'm not going anywhere.”
“But you love the Sharks,” she says.
“I also love you,” I say, and the act of saying it is somewhat freeing.
“Lawson, I love you too. So much. I don't want to be the reason you're staying—”
“You are a reason, you are not the reason,” I explain. “The fact that you’re willing to pack your bags and go to Seattle with me means more to me than you'll ever know, but you have family here, you have a life here. Not only with your father but with your friends, and my friends. And I’ve found a family here too in this team. I know trades are inevitable, but if I have the option to stay here, I'm staying.”
Her eyes water, but her smile is bright as she throws her arms around me.
I catch her easily, hauling her up to my level, her ankles locking behind my back. Our mouths meet in a passionate kiss that shakes loose any darkness clinging to my heart from our fight before.
“No more secrets,” I say against her mouth.
“Never again,” she says.
CHAPTER 19
BLAKELY
The Queen’s Rum is packed with the entire Badgers team and half of its staff, the New Year's Eve party in full swing, everyone dressed to the nines to celebrate.
Lawson is looking downright edible in an all-black suit with just a pop of color as he wears a hot-pink tie. His hair is tousled in that way that makes it look like I've been running my fingers through it all night, and that notion isn't too far off. We’ve practically been inseparable since our reconciliation, and I have no intentions of ever being apart from him that much ever again.
“To the Badgers,” Monroe says where me and Reese and Hadley—Nash’s little sister who finally tore herself away from her college schedule to hang with us—sit at a little round table that we claimed as ours early in the night.
We raise our drinks and echo her sentiment before clinking them together and taking fast sips.
Pax saunters up to our table, looking quite dapper in a dark navy-blue suit as he reaches out his hand toward Monroe. “They're playing your favorite song,” he says. “Let's go dance.” Monroe takes his hand without hesitation, waving and smiling at us before heading off with her other best friend.
Hadley is looking down at her phone, typing furiously and looking more concentrated than anyone should ever look on New Year's Eve.
“What are you working on?” I ask.
She looks up from her phone. “It's a last-minute assignment. I'm just trying to turn it in on the portal.”
“No one can ever say you aren’t committed,” Reese says from where she sits to Hadley’s left. “I mean, I’m the team’s social media manager and even I'm taking the night off.”
“Huh,” Hadley says. “I would think you'd have your camera out and rolling.” She scans the crowd. “Everyone looks super-hot and inhibitions are down, who knows when your next viral video is just around the corner?”
“Next?” Reese laughs. “I'd have to have a first, and that’s been just out of reach.” A look of disappointment flashes over her features before she straightens her spine and picks up her drink. “But I'm not thinking about work tonight, so cheers.” She takes another drink.
“Done,” Hadley says, blowing out a breath as she slips her phone into her clutch that matches her dress. “And look, it's almost midnight. I made it just in time.” Her eyes roll when she sees her brother heading toward our table, and she ducks out of her seat, heading in the opposite direction as if she knows he's about to come over with some kind of unwanted big-brother lecture.
“Where is she running off to?” Nash says as he takes a seat in the one she just vacated.
“Probably off to celebrate,” Reese answers. “It’s almost midnight.”
“I hope she's not trying to kiss anyone at midnight, seeing as this bar is filled with hockey players.”
“Says the hockey player who has a gaggle of women trailing him around in the hopes that he'll pick them to kiss like Prince Charming in some fairy tale.”
Reese eyes the aforementioned gaggle of women, one of them actually wearing a Get Banged in Bangor T-shirt.