Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“I don’t think so.” I hesitated. “Can I ask you something personal? If you don’t want to answer, you can tell me to fuck off.”
She finished her champagne. “Go ahead. I’m the one who put all my personal business out there last night.”
Lightning flashed again, the reverberation of thunder close behind. I felt it rumble beneath our feet. “Has anyone ever come close to the goal?”
“Yes,” she said tentatively. “The goal has seemed attainable a few times. Like, things were in place, and it felt like the timing was going to be right. But somehow . . .”
“They still managed to miss the shot.”
“Exactly. But—never mind.” She faced the water.
“Oh, come on. You can’t do that to me.” I nudged her with my elbow. “We almost died together. We’re bonded for life.”
She laughed. “It’s nothing. I was just going to say that I know it’s possible, because I can get there on my own just fine.”
The scene immediately came to life in my head—Mabel Jane Buckley sprawled out on her bed with her hand between her legs—and my cock sprang to life in my pants.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, I wanted to get this girl going. And I wouldn’t stop until she was good and gone.
“God, sorry—that’s TMI,” she said, mistaking my turned-on silence for discomfort. “I don’t know why I just said that. I made things even more weird, which I wouldn’t have thought was possible.”
The door to the balcony opened, and Paul poked his head out. “There you are,” he said. “Lisa wants us to sit down now.”
“Of course she does,” I muttered. To my brother, I called, “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Paul disappeared again and I looked at Mabel with an apologetic expression. “I guess I should go in.”
“It’s fine.”
I reached out and touched her arm. “Can we continue this conversation later?”
She looked surprised I’d asked, blinking once. “Sure.”
Fat drops of rain began to splatter the deck, and we moved quickly for the door. I reached it first and held it open. As she passed by me, I caught the scent of her perfume again.
And I realized what she smelled like.
Yellow cupcakes, fresh out of the oven and still warm, the kind my mom used to make for us to bring to school bake sales.
Behind me, thunder growled like a hungry wolf, the sound resonating in my bones.
FIVE
mabel
“Tell me everything!” Ari demanded when I took my seat next to her. “You were gone forever.”
“I wasn’t gone forever; it was like twenty minutes.”
“A lot can happen in twenty minutes. For example, I can Google someone’s name and find out internet gossip about them.”
I rolled my eyes and spread my napkin on my lap. “Ari, come on. We’re grown women. We can be more mature than that.”
“But we’re not.”
“True, so tell me what you found.”
She picked up her phone from the table and tapped the screen. “Okay, aside from a lot of boring hockey stuff, I did find an Instagram account, but he’s not super active on the app. Mostly more hockey stuff, but also it looks like he’s a good uncle.”
“Let me see.”
She flashed the screen toward me, and I saw a photo of Joe sitting on the couch surrounded by four kids—a girl and boy who looked elementary school age seated on either side of him, a younger girl on one knee with her arms looped around his neck, and a baby in the crook of one arm. The kids were all wearing Christmas pajamas, and the caption read “merry xmas from the zoo” with a few holiday-themed emojis. He was laughing in the photo, his mouth open and his eyes crinkled at the corners.
“Cute,” I said. Something about seeing Joe with kids all over him made him even more attractive, if that was possible. I glanced over toward the head table. From where I sat, I could see him only from the side, but he had a fantastic profile thanks to his angular jaw and strong nose. My insides twisted.
“I think those older ones belong to his brother Gianni.” Ari took the phone back from me. “Dash mentioned they have three kids. Not sure about the baby.”
“Might belong to his twin brother. What else did you find?”
Ari made a face and exhaled. “There’s a girl.”
My heart plummeted. “A what?”
“There are some photos with a girl—not a ton, though, and none in the last couple months.”
“Show me.”
Ari frowned and scrolled, then handed me the phone again. “Here.”
When I looked at the screen, it made perfect sense. The woman was tall, blond, and beautiful. Big eyes with perfectly sculpted brows, gorgeous sun-kissed skin, plush, pillowy lips, and long, golden, Rapunzel hair. She looked like a Miss America contestant. In a couple of the pics, Joe had his arm around her shoulder. “She’s very pretty,” I said, handing the phone back.