Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“Fuck you, Shepherd. You don’t know shit! I love her, okay?”
That makes everyone stop and stare at me in shock.
“What did you say?”
I don’t know who asks. It doesn’t matter because in the next second, the door of the locker room flies open and Joy barrels in with a security guard hot on her ass. “I’m allowed here!” she insists, but she’s not stopping either way, even as the guard tries to grab her arm.
I instantly move in to make sure the guard doesn’t touch her, informing him with a hard stare and a raised, gloved fist that if he lays a hand on her, he will die by mine. “Put your dicks up in front of my woman,” I snap at all the guys, breaking the other rule about Joy Barlowe.
“Did he say his woman? Did we suddenly end up in a Bridgerton episode?” Max stage-whispers.
“He also said dicks, so I don’t think so,” Randall answers. “And ssshhh, this is about to get good, I can tell.” I’m pretty sure he mimes eating popcorn too.
The security guard freezes when he sees me staring him down like he’s two seconds from death. His eyes quick-scan the room, noting the crowd of players, all of whom are eyeing him like he’s the problem here, not Joy, even though she steps right up to the team’s star player, plants her finger in his face less than an inch from his nose, and snarls, “If you punch Dalton again, I will light your truck on fire and piss on the ashes, tell Mom and Dad about graduation night, and make sure you never get a moment’s airtime again. Capisce?”
Shepherd’s brows jump up his forehead at her laundry list of threats and then drop down in bewilderment. From behind her, I can’t see her face, but something there makes Shepherd pause. “What the hell’s going on, Joy?”
“I’d like the answer to that too,” I say.
Joy holds up a finger to Shep, telling him to wait one second, then spins in place and meets my eyes. At first, hers are full of fire, but they soften the instant she sees me and she snuggles into my chest, looking up at me like I hung the moon and stars. Her voice goes sweet as she says, “Heeey there, so I’m gonna defend your honor against my asshole brother, and then we’ll figure us out, okay? Plus, after that, I’m gonna need you to keep me from murdering that lying bitch Mollie the Moosette. Yeah?”
Too stunned to speak, I nod mechanically. Before she turns away, though, I’m smiling. “Did you say you’re defending my honor?”
She places a gentle hand on my cheek. “Of course. The only thing my brother’s scared of is me, so I got this.” With that, she spins to face Shepherd, leaving me stupid and shell-shocked.
“I’m not scared of you,” he insists, crossing his arms over his chest.
She cocks her head, letting him know that no one believes that. Least of all her.
“Look, Dalton and I are dating.” She waves a hand like that’s not quite right. “Well, we were until last night when I went and fucked it all up. And you’re gonna have to get over your little temper tantrum about it because I love him and I’m gonna do my best to fix things with him.”
“You’re dating?” he echoes, not sounding any less confused. “For how long?”
I think he got stuck on the first thing Joy said, but I heard it all. A tiny spark of hope starts flitting around in my heart. It tried to start when I saw her sign, but Shep’s punch kinda blew it out. It’s back now, glowing brighter by the second.
Joy glances back over her shoulder at me, but tells Shepherd, “Since October.” It’s a dropping bomb and she knows it.
“October!” Shep roars. “The fuck?”
“We didn’t mean for it to happen,” I try to explain. “At first it was—” I stop, not wanting to tell Shepherd how things started between Joy and me, and he narrows his eyes as if he can guess. I assure you, he cannot. Never in a million years would anyone come up with something as wild as a good luck penis peekaboo meet-cute. But it worked for Joy and me. “Things that we didn’t plan for kinda fell into place.”
I lay my hands on Joy’s shoulders, pulling her back to my chest.
She might think she’s defending me, but she’s not going up against her brother alone. We’re doing this together. It was always gonna be us telling Shepherd as a team. I’m trusting in what she’s said—that she loves me and we’re gonna fix things. At least for the moment, she deserves that trust.
We deserve this chance.
“I want you to get your fucking hands off my sister,” Shepherd growls at me.