Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
He looked like he was angry.
Angry, and hella sexy in his suit.
“I feel like there’s some really juicy story about this divorce,” I murmured, studying the older man who looked like he could peel paint with his glare.
He was tall. Really tall, with silvering blonde hair that made him look amazing.
In the last few years, I’d really transitioned from thinking that older men were gross, to thinking they were super-hot.
And Joe Hoyt really had it going on.
Then again, so did Slone.
When he’d walked out in that suit earlier, I’d nearly had a heart attack. Hell, I still wasn’t convinced that I didn’t have a heart attack seeing as how my heartrate had skyrocketed when I’d gotten my first glimpse of the sexy man in all black.
Dressed down, he looked great. Dressed up? Wow.
Just wow.
“Joe Blow, you’re in my chair.”
I looked up to find every single man that’d come in wearing a suit earlier now openly changing out of said suits into shorts and a t-shirt.
I sank down until the only person in my line of sight was the woman standing up next to Joe’s extra seat that was open beside him.
The woman was around his age standing at the edge of his chair glaring at him.
“Jolene,” he said carefully, almost as if he was trying to control his temper. “I swear to Christ, we go through this every single time. Your chair is in the front with all the other personnel.”
Jolene was a tall woman with fake blonde hair you could tell she dyed so she didn’t have any gray hairs showing. She also looked like she’d never seen a Snickers in her life.
Wow, she looked great for her age.
“That’s his ex-wife,” Slone whispered, his eyes on the two who most definitely had the attention of the whole team. “Watch.”
Oh, I was watching all right.
I couldn’t not watch.
It was like watching a car stalled on a train track with the blockades coming down and the dinging going off all around you. You knew the train was coming. You knew that car was about to be hit.
And you couldn’t look away.
“But this has been my seat for seven years,” she pouted.
Joe didn’t look up from his phone as he said, “That ended when you decided that you’d rather test out a younger model of me last year.”
Oh, boy.
“Joe, you know that was a mistake,” Jolene tried.
So this was the reason for Joe’s bad mood.
“I know our entire marriage was a mistake, and I never should’ve pursued you,” he amended. “However, we can’t take back previous mistakes. We can only learn from them. And what I learned is that this is my last year, and that I want nothing to do with you. I am literally retiring so I can get the hell away from you.”
“Whoa,” I breathed.
“Yeah,” Slone agreed as he, too, started to undress. One second he was completely clothed, and the next he was in sweats and a t-shirt, sans shoes. “I’m sure you can see why he’s mad.”
I could see why Joe was mad. Yep.
“Personally, I think that she should’ve been fired. Because Joe’s now retiring even though he still has some great years left in him,” Slone muttered.
“How old is he?” I asked.
“Thirty-eight,” Slone answered. “They met right when I started. Or, more accurately, they started dating right when I began with the Liners. They got married really fast, and they’ve been together for the past six and a half years. Until last year when he walked into the bathroom on this very plane and found her fucking our backup quarterback.”
“Whoa,” I said. “Is that backup quarterback Ashton?”
I was almost beside myself thinking that it was. I’d liked Ashton upon first sight, but I didn’t do cheaters. Not after all that crap with my mother and father.
“No,” he answered. “He’s gone. The Liners’ manager and owner felt that it was going to be something that they couldn’t contain. The dude was transferred out two months after we picked him up in the draft.”
Yowza.
That sounded like a mess and a half.
“But Joe…” Jolene tried.
Instead of arguing with her, Joe put his headphones on before putting his seat belt on and closing his eyes.
Jolene stared at him aghast that he’d just dismiss her like he did, and I couldn’t help the small smile that lifted the corner of my lips.
“That smile is the kind of smile that gets you in trouble,” Slone murmured.
I twisted in my seat and pulled out the blanket that was in the plastic baggie.
On the blanket it said ‘Longview Liners.’
The headrest said the same thing.
And apparently, the team’s colors were brown and yellow because that was the color of the seats. And all of the seats were ‘first-class’ style.
Two seats to every row, and every row had enough leg room that all these hulking men could fit comfortably.