Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 119680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Her jealousy turns to worry. “Be careful hanging out with those people, Winter. You’ll start wanting things you can’t have. We can’t afford hockey right now. It’s too expensive. We’re barely getting by as it is.”
“Yeah, I know, Mom.” I take another bite of my toast and swallow the rest of my words. I already want things I shouldn’t—one of them being BJ. Another is to play hockey with them again.
It doesn’t matter what I say or how I say it, to her and my dad, hockey is an expensive waste of time. So I keep the biggest news to myself: that Alex Waters and Randy Ballistic offered me an opportunity to try out for a spot in their program, that they see real potential in me. That it’s subsidized.
That’s the part I need to find out more about. Because even if I don’t have to pay for the things I can’t afford, hockey takes up a lot of time, and there are only so many hours in a day. I still have school and work, and those are my top priorities.
I finish my toast while Mom tells me about her shift at the diner. It’s always the same. The teenagers are rude, and half the time they don’t tip. I hope Lovey and Rose don’t fit into that category. Although, mom was already home by the time they got to the diner.
When she’s gotten it all out, I excuse myself to my room and get ready for bed. When I put my phone on the charger, I notice new messages. There’s one from Rose telling me she’ll see me at Boones in the morning and she’s glad I came out tonight.
Under that are several from BJ. My stomach does a somersault and my throat tightens as I open the thread.
Hey, Snowflake.
It’s followed by several more:
I have private ice time tomorrow afternoon.
Four o’clock. Same rink as tonight.
A gif of a guy getting checked into the boards follows. And then:
I’d love it if you’d join me. *fingers crossed*
A grin forms. I don’t answer his messages, even though my thumbs are itching to. Better to wait until morning, give him time to stew in his uncertainty and me to marinate in mine.
6 PERSISTENCE AND PAYOFF
BJ
I’m lying in bed with my phone on my chest, half asleep, when there’s a rap on my sliding door.
“Come in,” I call.
Lovey steps inside and kicks off her sandals. She crosses the room and flops down beside me on the bed. “Hey.”
We’ve been best friends for a lot of years. Many people wonder if there’s more between us, but there isn’t. Although, I’m partly to blame for that since sometimes I flirt with her when I want to avoid awkward interactions with previous hookups. Only once in all our years of friendship did we cross the line. It involved a game of spin the bottle when we were fourteen. Far too many of us were related to each other for it to be anything but awkward and incest-y. And when Lovey and I had to kiss, it cemented our friends-for-life-and-nothing-more status.
“Hey yourself.” I move my phone to the nightstand and fold an arm behind my head.
She rolls to her side and props her cheek on her fist. “Give me the deets on the Winter situation. Rose shared her version of events, but she’s good at embellishing for the sake of an exciting story.”
I explain what happened, from the near miss this morning to inviting Winter to free skate.
She lets out a low whistle. “Wow. Rose wasn’t wrong about the six degrees of separation.”
“A lot of threads pulling us all together,” I agree.
“What happened when you dropped her off?” Lovey asks.
“I met her dad.”
Her eyes widen. “You did? What’s he like?”
“An asshole, as far as I can tell. And she had me drop her at the end of her driveway. She’s close to the Kingstons’ place, but I didn’t even realize there was a house there. It’s kinda hidden. She told me she doesn’t volunteer at the foodbank.”
Lovey nods. “I think her life is pretty hard. She’s a regular at the foodbank. Everyone who volunteers there knows her.”
“Interesting that her dad can afford cigarettes, but they can’t keep food on the table,” I muse. “It must be frustrating to watch someone literally burn away your grocery money.”
“Logan said her last name was familiar,” Lovey murmurs.
After meeting her dad, that’s not hard to believe. “I’m guessing it’s not for their community involvement.”
“He didn’t elaborate, but his facial expression said it all.” She rolls onto her back. “Clover says she’s at the library a lot and uses the computers. And with what I know, it all seems to add up to things being tough.”
“Yeah. I got that impression.”
“So maybe don’t go pulling your usual routine with her.”
I look at her out of the corner of my eye. “What routine is that?”