Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 44920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
11
DOMINIC
I woke with a slight hangover the next morning. God, I really was getting old—and it definitely wasn’t going to help me study.
When I came downstairs, I found Naomi waiting for me. Tye was already down there, eating breakfast on the terrace. Naomi encouraged me to get some food and then get ready, because she said she was going to test us the whole day.
“So eat some protein—you’re going to need it,” she said, sounding like one of my old coaches. “And can someone wake up Justin?”
She was like a taskmaster all morning. Asking us questions from the study guides. Sending us away to study certain topics and then bringing us back together to go through it again. She was like a drill sergeant, but a hot drill sergeant. If she ever let us take a break, I was going to request a massage, because I was dying to know what it would feel like to have her hands all over me.
She disappeared before lunch. We later found out that she’d had Carlos drive her to a local farmer’s market. Then, probably to avoid Rocco, she’d fixed lunch in the outdoor kitchen on the far side of the lower terrace.
“BLTs!” Justin had exclaimed, his eyes lighting up.
Naomi grinned at his enthusiasm. “You think better with a sandwich.”
In the afternoon, we insisted on a break. I’d already arranged for a guy I knew to take us out on his boat. I’d set that up a few days ago after we learned that Naomi had never seen the ocean before.
He took us out past the surf, and we saw dolphins and even did a little fishing.
Naomi loved it. She was as excited as a little girl when the dolphins started swimming at top speed alongside the boat.
But in the late afternoon, I went off on my own. There was a gazebo on the side of the house, and it was a good place to sit, listen to the waves, and think.
Except my thoughts were dark. Naomi had just been asking innocent questions last night, but it had stirred up a lot of negative thoughts. Yeah, Shitty was an asshole, but if I’d been able to handle him better, he never would’ve made it his mission to get my buddy kicked off the team.
Most athletes I knew were good guys. Shitty was the exception.
I spent an hour alternating between being grumpy and getting some studying in.
Just when I was about to head back and find the others, Naomi appeared.
God, she was gorgeous. That was a detail I hadn’t expected to even notice, not so soon after my divorce from Yvonne.
But Naomi was just lovely. Her body was lean and nimble, and the breeze made her dark, wavy hair dance around her shoulders and breasts. Her tawny eyes seemed to look inside a man.
To complete the vision of feminine beauty, she was also holding a tray with two tall glasses of lemonade on it.
“They told me you might be out here.” She looked around. “It’s a nice spot.”
“I like it.” I took the glass that she offered. “No one ever usually comes here, so it’s a good place to sit and think.”
“About?” She sat next to me on the bench, our backs against the gazebo wall.
“About things I’d better get out of my head if I’m going to get some real test prep in today.”
She took a sip of her drink. She had on another one of her long skirts today, but this one didn’t have as much fabric. It hugged her hips and there was a large slit where her leg extended out. “I didn’t mean to dredge up bad memories last night.”
“You didn’t.” I patted her knee. Then I sighed. “Though I usually manage to do that on my own.”
“Are you worried about the exam?”
“A little. But I think we’re going to be ready.” Or at least I hoped we would be. I’d always been a pretty good student, and we were studying our asses off. “Just about… a lot of things. If we did the right thing by quitting when we did. Maybe we should’ve stayed a while longer and talked to more guys from other teams to tell them about our plans for after law school. You know, like to drum up some business for our future practice.”
Naomi thought that over. “But would you have wanted to stay without Tye?”
“No.” He was like a brother to me. Justin, too. “It’s that, and it’s my marriage—I never thought I’d be in my early thirties and already have a divorce under my belt.”
Naomi scooted closer, and I could feel the heat from her skin inches away from mine. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t get my mind off of it. “Let’s just say that being the wife of a player who’s gone over half the year isn’t easy.”