Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Cooper’s smile lights up the entire stadium. “The rumor is true. I’m marrying my best friend.”
“Does this friend have a name?” the reporter asks.
“Future Mrs. Reeves.” He grins cheekily.
The reporter smiles at him, and then something in her features changes. I can’t describe it, and I don’t have time to because she opens her mouth, and the words she speaks has bile rising up in my throat. “Rumor also has it that she left her fiancé at the altar for you. How well do you know the future Mrs. Reeves?” she asks smugly.
The smile drops from his face, and I know he’s pissed. I can see it in the tic of his jaw and the look in his eyes. “Let’s get something straight right now. Reese is my best friend. She has been since I was eight years old. Yes, she was engaged before, and it never happened. That’s all that you need to know. I love this team, the Defenders is my home, but I promise you that I will not stand for you or anyone portraying her in a bad light. I suggest you take this as your one and only warning.” He then looks up at the camera. “To anyone else out there who thinks they can run me and my fiancée through the mud to sell papers, I advise you to think again. I know you’re aware of my new contract with the Defenders, and I’m prepared to spend it all to defend her honor.” He gives the camera a hard look, then moves to bestow the same look on the reporter before he runs to the sidelines just below where we are sitting and jumps the wall.
I stand still, frozen, waiting to see what happens next. All attention is suddenly on him as he stands before me. His hand lifts to my face, and he smiles down at me. It’s the smile I get from him every day. The one that says he loves me, and he always will. “Hey, beautiful,” he says softly.
“Coop, I’m so sorry, I—” I start, and he cuts me off with his index finger to my lips.
“No, baby. I’m sorry. My job brought this on you, and I promise you I will fight any story. Hell, I’ll give it all up if I have to. I won’t let them talk to you or treat you like that.”
“Nothing they say can hurt me. The only thing that can hurt me is losing you.”
His eyes soften. “That’s never going to happen, Mrs. Reeves.”
“Future,” I remind him, smiling.
“I love you,” he says, shaking his head.
“I love you too.”
He leans in and kisses me, and the crowd goes crazy. We pull away from the kiss and look around to see that we are now on the jumbotron. Cooper raises my engagement ring to his lips and places a kiss there before releasing me and jumping back over the wall.
My mom loops her arm through mine as I stand here and watch him jog off to the locker room with the rest of his team. I don’t want to turn around to face the crowd, but I know that I have to.
“Ready?” I turn and lean out a little to look at our parents.
“Uh, Reese.” Trevor smiles. “I think you should turn around.”
“Why? Are they all staring at me?”
“Just do it, sweetheart,” my dad says.
Mom and Ann grin and nod, as Mom drops her arm from mine. Taking a deep breath, I turn, and tears prick my eyes. There is a line formed, but not to exit the stadium. No, it’s formed, waiting for me.
“He’s my favorite,” a teenage boy says, who is first in line. He takes the hat off his head and hands it to me with a Sharpie. “Will you sign this?”
I nod, unable to speak from the knot in my throat. I sign Future Mrs. Reeves with Cooper’s number and hand it back to him. The next person steps up, and I repeat this same step over and over again. It’s surreal, and these are his fans. I can’t turn them away. They’re showing their support for him and for me. I was scared of being judged by his fans, by the media, but here on his home turf, this is their way of telling me they don’t care about my past, only our future. They support their favorite player and, by association, me.
I stand here with our parents at my side and sign every item placed in front of me. There are maybe ten people left in line when Cooper appears. He shakes hands, and signs items sent his way, and when he makes it to me, he pulls me into his side.
“Looks like you have some fans.”
“They’re your fans.” I smile up at him.
“You better get busy so we can go home.” He nods, and to my surprise, the ten or so people are still there. I figured once they got his signature, they would leave, but they stayed. I take the seat cushion and sign what I’ve been signing all day.