Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
None of them caught his eye for any length of time.
And now I was hoping that I would be the person who finally caught Titus King’s attention and held it. Forever.
“Come on,” I urged. “Let’s take an Uber.”
Though, Kilgore didn’t really have an Uber.
We had a Chuck.
But Chuck, the town’s one and only cab driver, always answered when we called, mainly because we got him a shit ton of business.
“Darlin’,” Chuck answered almost immediately. “You need anything?”
“A pickup at my place,” I said. “And no return trip.”
Chuck was there in twenty minutes, and the two of us poured into the parking lot of the event center at the high school thirteen minutes later with a line already out the door of our fellow classmates waiting to get in.
Cursing the people at the front who’d been told to be there to get the party rolling, I shoved past a few people and directly inside to see the staff lollygagging around laughing about something and pointing.
“Hey!” I cried. “What are y’all doing?”
The staff that I’d told to be here from the bar all looked at me guiltily.
“We’re, uh, checking out the football players,” Tiff, one of our regular bartenders, admitted.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You can do that after you start getting them all in the door. Do it. Now.”
Tiff and the others got to work getting everyone inside, and luckily none of my fellow classmates were too mad at my lack of control of my employees.
It took less than ten minutes for the lights to be turned on, the punch machines to start rolling, and the alcohol to start flowing.
Our staff, though slow on the uptake, didn’t take much to get started.
Within thirty, everyone had completely forgotten about the lack of speediness.
“Don’t look now,” Tempy said softly, barely able to be heard over the loud music booming over the top of us. “But he’s here.”
My heart started to pound.
After the first thirty minutes, I’d started to think he wasn’t going to come.
But I should’ve known.
Titus always showed up if he said he was going to be there.
Hell, years ago, with a brand-new child he’d known nothing about in tow, he’d shown up to the town’s biggest fundraiser because he’d said he would be there.
I’d witnessed his arrival from afar—i.e., across the road because there was no way in hell I could get close to him after finding out the love of my life had a child—and I’d been proud of him for coming. Sure, I’d also been sad—because seriously, I’d been pining away for him since before I was in training bras—but seeing him happy and successful was all I could ever want for the man I loved.
I’d watched him grow as a football player, father, and altogether great man over the last few years. And now that my heart wasn’t so broken and admitting to myself that I’d had plenty of opportunities to express my undying love for the man, I’d decided this was the time to admit to him that he was the one for me.
It was now or never.
The anticipation of him walking up had to be why I reacted the way I did when he arrived.
One second, I was sitting in my chair waiting for him.
The next, he was saying ‘hey, Blue’ and I was launching myself at the man.
He’d caught me with both drinks still solidly in his fists.
“Hey,” I breathed.
He set me aside and looked down at me with a massive grin on his face.
Damn, Titus had always had a great smile.
It was even better now with his leaner face and his serious eyes. Eyes that were solely focused on me.
Stomach roiling at the possibility of him there, spending time with me, I asked, “Are y’all gonna sit with us?”
That’s when I saw the chairs he’d dragged over and felt my face flame.
To cover up my stupidness, I said, “Where’s Perry?”
I must’ve missed something, because Slone spoke softly to Titus as they all took a seat.
I was so focused on the man now sitting beside me, and God, he’d even remembered my favorite drink, that I hadn’t realized that ‘Jumper’ had come up to our table until I heard “Titus King!” called.
I looked over just in time to see Jumper hurling herself toward Titus, and Titus saying, “Jumper!”
I slid off my chair when her ass hit me, knocking the almost full glass of lemonade over, practically into my lap.
I cursed and moved quick, my reaction leaning toward ‘bartender’ mode.
Hurrying away, I found the first employee I saw and pointed toward my vacated chair. “Can you go over and get that cleaned up? I’m going to go to the bathroom and see if I can get this cleaned.”
The girl, Judy, nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Then I was off, thinking about how maybe Titus didn’t think I was all that special if he had women throwing themselves at him all the time.