Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 80930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
"You are always so uplifting and motivational," I say, and she throws her head back and laughs. Nothing can beat when she really laughs. It’s full of heart and makes you want to join in.
"I’m my own eat, pray, love." She takes a sip of her protein shake. "What time are you due at your lawyer’s?"
I look at my silver Rolex watch she gave me when I signed with Dallas four years ago. She even had Every Minute Counts engraved on it. "Twenty minutes."
"Are you sure you want to do this alone?" she asks, and I nod. "I can be there in fifteen minutes." I shake my head and smile at her. She really is my fucking rock. "Then we can go back to wherever and do some shots."
I laugh at her, knowing that if I really needed her, she would cancel everything and stay with me. "It’s all done. All I have to do is sign the papers." The divorce was a shock. I’m not even going to pretend it wasn’t. Were we happy? Fuck no, not even fucking close, and only Erika knows that I was slowly dying inside. But I made a promise, and I was going to stick to that promise. No matter what, I was going to stand by my vows until the bitter end.
"Call me if you need me," she says. "Whenever." She puts the phone down, and I can see her starting the shower. "I’ll have my phone on me all day."
"Thanks, kid," I say, and she laughs. She gave me that nickname when she met me. I was only eighteen when I was drafted. It made me laugh, and it just stuck with us. When she wants to bug me, she calls me kid.
"I’m older than you by four years," she points out. "I’m already in my thirties."
I roll my eyes. "Whatever. You look like you should still be in school." She puts her face close to the phone. Her green eyes are lighter in the sun.
"Do you see this?" She points between her eyebrows. "That’s a wrinkle." She looks like she just graduated high school.
"You have lost your mind," I say, and she shakes her head. "Be safe," I advise before I hang up and put the SUV into drive.
The green trees never really change color in Dallas like they do in New York City. Not only was it my home but it was also the first team that picked me in the draft. They were doing a rebuild, and I got fucking lucky to start my career with my family behind me, literally.
My grandfather was none other than Cooper Stone, who I was named after and compared to every fucking day. My father, Matthew Grant, was also a first pick in the draft, but the glitz and glam of Los Angeles was his downfall. New York snatched him with a condition, a chaperone, which happened to be my mother. From the way they tell the story, he fell for her the minute he laid eyes on her and made her his. When he decided to retire, he took on the role of general manager of the team. Just because he was the GM and my father didn’t mean he took it easy on me. In fact, he rode my ass harder than anyone. My game just got better and better as the years went on, and when I turned twenty-one, I met Julianne at a bar in Dallas when we were there for the all-star game. I knew she was trouble, but I was smitten with her Southern talk. She quickly moved in with me, and then we found out she was pregnant with Emma, and there was no way I wasn’t going to marry her.
Every single time she could, she would bitch about New York. She hated the weather, she hated the smog, she hated the people, and she hated my family. She. Hated. Everything.
When she got pregnant with Mia, she said she was leaving. She couldn’t stand being in New York, so I made the painful phone call to Erika and asked her to trade me. I cried like a fucking baby when she called me back and said Dallas was taking me. It was where Julianne wanted to go, and I wanted to make her happy. Happy wife, happy life, or at least that was what they said.
My father was my biggest supporter after Erika, who knew how much I hated moving. She was the one who called me almost every hour to make sure I was okay. When we moved here, Erika was the only friend I had. Nico, the team owner, was the best, and I knew Manning, Miller, and Ralph, who included me and helped me settle in, but Erika was the one I turned to for everything.