Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 47854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
David stepped up next. “I wouldn’t be on the starting lineup if it wasn’t for him. He’s got the most integrity of anyone that I know. When he saw that a few of the guys were roughing me up and trying to keep me from displaying my skills, he was willing to risk his career to show Coach that I was worth my salt. I wouldn’t be where I am if Luke wasn’t the great guy that he is. Dick or not, I can’t deny that he’s been an amazing friend.”
“Luke’s pretty cool,” Mason said, and then stopped.
“That’s it?” Cody said from behind the camera.
Mason shrugged. “What? I’m not gonna sit here stroking his ego.”
“He’s not gonna see it, it’s for Khloe,” Cody responded.
Mason let out a loud, exasperated sigh. “I mean, what? He’s a really cool guy! Whenever we go out, people gravitate towards us. Not just women, but guys too. People just wanna be around him.” He sighed again. “Honestly, I haven’t seen him at all this week and my life just feels…” He let out a gruff and then walked away from the group and back inside the apartment. In a way, it was the most perfect ‘Mason’ way to show his true feelings.
I looked at Brett and he was looking back at me. It was down to us, the ones who’d taken the greatest issue with Luke. Brett stepped up and I was relieved for a few more seconds to figure my stuff out.
“I’m still pissed at Luke. I’m probably going to be for a while, but not because he fucked this up for us, but because he’s had like 10 years to be with you and he wasn’t.” A bunch of the guys hummed affirmations; we all felt that. “We just met you six months ago, but he’s known you since high school. He should have been with you way before now. He’s a fucking idiot.”
I stepped up. “Yeah, but…” I got it. Luke passed up a great opportunity 10 years ago, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel the same way about it that Brett did. “Luke brought us together. Can you imagine if he’d been with Khloe back then? He probably wouldn’t have had us start sharing women, hell, he might not even have met us.” I looked right at the camera. “Either way you shake it out, we can’t deny it. If it weren’t for Luke, we wouldn’t have ever even met Khloe, we definitely wouldn’t have had the bravery to be with her.”
Brett smiled and nodded as he realized what I’d said was true. “Regardless of what that dumbass has done to hurt us and you, the fact remains, that he’s what brought us together. We have him to thank for what we have, Khloe. We have him to thank for you.”
I exchanged looks with Brett again, and it happened for us both at that moment. We forgave Luke, and we definitely didn’t want him going to Miami.
We stepped back into the line and Cody turned the camera to face himself again. “We miss you, Khloe. We hate that we lost you, but now we’re risking losing Luke too. He’s leaving for Miami tomorrow and he may not come back. You’re the only thing that would convince him to stay, so now we need you to be the glue that he was before. We promise to spend every day of the rest of our lives apologizing for what we did to hurt you, please. Just come home.” Cody stopped recording and then fell silent as he clicked around on his phone. A few moments later he looked up at us, his expression as nervous as we felt. “It’s sent.”
“What do we do now?” David asked.
“The only thing we can do,” I said. “We wait.”
25
Khloe
My heart felt full to bursting. When I saw the video come through on my phone, and heard Cody saying that they had some things to say about Luke, I assumed they were going to bash him in an attempt to get me back. I couldn’t have even begun to expect that they were actually going to praise him. They weren’t even defending themselves anymore, they were just trying to get me to forgive him. I knew they were close, but I had no idea how huge it was. The stories they’d told of Luke caring for them and being an amazing guy shocked me. I was beginning to see it myself back in Puerto Rico, but I didn’t anticipate the size. Luke had affected all of these mens’ lives in such a profound way, and he had done the same for me.
“Wow,” Cece said. She was sitting next to me on the couch and had watched the video over my shoulder. “That was amazing. They really stood up for him. Is this Luke guy really like that?”