Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“We’re not watching a movie.” I pull over the mock exam she prepared, grinning when the simplest of questions smack into me. This is basic mathematics 101.
Well, it would be simple if McKayla didn’t request I offer receipts for my answers.
“I don’t know what they are,” I push out in frustration almost twenty minutes later. My sheet of paper is covered with equations, but none of them are right. “Can we move onto the next question?”
I breathe out in relief when McKayla nods. “After you remove your pants.”
“What?” I call her a cheat under my breath when her eyes lock with my sweatpants and plain white shirt. I’m barefoot since my boots got muddy in the downpour, and it’s too warm inside to need a hoodie.
“Now the snowsuit makes sense,” I gabber under my breath before yanking my pants to my ankles and kicking them to the side. “That beanstalk better be ready,” I murmur while straying my eyes to her bedroom door, gulping when I notice it isn’t closed.
“Now this one is a little harder. It might take you a few minutes to solve it.” I groan when McKayla slips the second question under my nose. It’s a mess of numbers, letters, and percentages. “Take your time. There’s no hurry.”
“Says the lady not sitting in her underwear in her girlfriend’s parents’ house.”
Girlfriend? Where the fuck did that come from?
McKayla is quick to cover her shock with pleasure before muttering, “And as I said, they’ll be gone for hours. We have plenty of time.”
Twenty minutes later, McKayla checks my answer with the back of the textbook. Her brows are crinkled, and I’m gripping the neckline of my t-shirt, ready to pull it over my head. If I couldn’t get a basic math question right, there’s no way I answered this one correctly.
“What the fuck?” I gabber to myself when McKayla closes the textbook before her hands shoot up to the zipper in her snow vest. “I got it right?”
Her smile is brighter than the moonlight peeking through the curtains of her room when she nods her head.
“No fucking way.” I backtrack on my reply when the lowering of McKayla’s zipper exposes she isn’t wearing a shirt. Her bra is lacy, hot pink, and giving the slightest peek of her nipples, which are standing at attention. “Where the fuck is the next question?”
McKayla giggles at my eagerness before handing me another quiz. This equation is longer than the previous one but a little easier to comprehend. It only takes me ten minutes to finalize instead of twenty, and my swiftness has me confident McKayla is about to lose her ski pants.
When that occurs, suspicion overtakes my cockiness. “Why aren’t you accusing me of cheating?”
Her panties match her bra, so you can picture how hard it is for me to shift my focus to her face when she replies, “Because I know you’re not.”
I love the ease of her answer, but it won’t stop me from asking. “How do you know that?”
“Because you don’t need a tutor, Cash. You need harder questions.” An ulcer burns into my stomach when she thrusts her hand at the questions she prepared and announces, “They’re not college math-level questions. They’re genius high.”
“I’m not a genius. I am a—”
My jaw works through a stern grind when McKayla interrupts, “Jock who does anything he can to hide his academic abilities?” She assumes the mashing of my teeth means she’s on the money, even though she couldn’t be further from the truth. “Why, Cash? It doesn’t make any sense. You have a brilliant brain—”
“That will eventually whittle away and die like his.” I thrust my hand to the door of her childhood bedroom like my father is standing on the other side. “He had everything. The brain, the looks, the bimbo wife every nerd wants. And now he has nothing.” I whack my palm on my temple. “His big brain broke him.” I shake my head, subconsciously knowing what I’m saying isn’t true but incapable of holding back. “I won’t let mine do the same to me.” I snatch up my sweatpants and yank them back on with aggression. “We should probably have an early night. I need to get back to training before Coach has a coronary.”
“Cash…”
McKayla’s confused tone is still ringing in my ears when I gallop down the stairs and race for my room under the stairwell, but since she isn’t the only one stunned by the turn of events, I flop onto the bed and burrow my head under the pillows before pretending the life I am living is the one I want.
Chapter 30
McKayla
My mother’s hugs make the world’s coolest day seem a whole heap warmer. She wraps me up like she is aware of how hurtful Cash’s silence was this morning at breakfast before adding a little bit of sugar onto her endeavor to pull me out of a moody trench. “I packed pulled pork sandwiches, lemonade, and freshly baked cookies into a picnic basket on the back seat. Dad also put some gas money in the glove compartment.”