Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 124494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 498(@250wpm)___ 415(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 498(@250wpm)___ 415(@300wpm)
Flip smiles. “She’s a good friend to have. Honest, loyal, and good at board games.”
“I feel the same way. She’s a rare gem. She’s doesn’t place expectations on people.”
“She feels seen with you,” Flip confides and motions to the table. “These girls have been good for her.”
“She’s been good for me and the girls, too,” I reply.
“We all need a friend like her in our lives.” I could try to use this as a segue to dig into his history with Grace, but I don’t want to make it about that. Not when he’s being real and honest and making me and the girls feel like part of their family.
“Ugh. I’m so full.” Callie pushes Roman’s sundae toward him and wilts against his side.
“You want me to finish my sundae for you?” Roman asks cheekily.
“Please.” She slides her arm through his and hugs it, rubbing her eyes with her fists.
I’d be worried about her eating all this sugar so late in the evening, but they’re off school for the holidays, so she can sleep in tomorrow morning.
Roman and I exchange a smile, and he digs into his dessert, finishing what she couldn’t. Twenty minutes later, we’re ready to go, but Callie is completely passed out.
“I’ll carry her to the car. It’s my fault she crashed so hard with all the sugar I let her eat,” Roman offers.
“I could have stopped her,” I argue.
“I’ll own this one.”
I quickly hug the girls goodbye before Roman scoops Callie up and carries her to the waiting car. Our fingers brush as I help secure her seat belt, and it’s everything I can do not to huff his cologne. The memory of that kiss, of his hands on my skin and tongue sweeping my mouth still feels fresh.
“Thank you. You were really sweet with her tonight,” I whisper as I carefully close the door.
“Honestly, it was my pleasure. Drive safe, Lexi.” He holds my door open while I climb into the driver’s seat. “’Night, Fee. I’ll see you again soon.”
She waves and smiles. “Bye, Roman.”
He steps back and waves as we exit the lot.
“Roman’s a really good guy, isn’t he?” Fee muses.
“Yeah, he is.” He’s the complete package.
She glances over her shoulder, checking on her sister in the back seat. “Callie loves him.”
“Yeah, she basically ate his sundae tonight, and he let her.”
“Sounds like Callie.” She leans her head against the rest. “This team feels like a family.”
“It is.” I give her a soft, sad smile. “I know no one can replace Mom and your dad, but it’s nice to have people in our lives who fill some of those empty spaces.”
“Yeah. I’m glad we moved here, Lex.”
“Me, too.”
And that’s the reminder I need to watch myself with Roman. Fee and Callie have already lost too much. They can’t lose this new family, too.
CHAPTER 17
ROMAN
Roman
Reason number 6982 why I can’t wait for the end of the season.
Ifollow it with a picture of an oversized bathtub filled with bubbles and rose petals. It’s the tub we spent a glorious hour engaging in the most torturous, incredible foreplay before I carried Lexi—soapy and needy—back to bed, where I fucked three orgasms out of her.
It’s been sixteen days, seven hours, and five minutes since we shared that kiss at the holiday party, and I can’t stop thinking about it—or every single other kiss, touch, and sensual moment we’ve ever had.
Lexi responds a minute later with an image of apple slices and caramel sauce. That weekend started my green apple addiction. That’s when I learned exactly how much of a pleaser she is, and how amazing her sweet mouth felt when she was trying to swallow my entire cock, like a good girl.
Roman
You’re killing me.
Lexi
You started it.
Roman
Hmm… True. I’ll cease the torment for both our sakes.
Waiting for the season to end is increasingly challenging. If it was just sexual chemistry, it might be fine. But it’s so much more than that. When she’s in the room, my eyes are on her. We’re on the ice together constantly.
She’s smart, driven, and has quickly gained the respect of the team. Watching her confidence blossom as she leads this team is inspiring. I’m falling more for her every day. For her take-no-shit attitude on the ice, the soft moments when she gives a player a pep talk, the woman who has lost so much and puts everything she has left into her sisters, and the friend my daughter and the rest of the girls have embraced so wholly.
She would fit seamlessly into my life and world, and it’s the most unreal mindfuck to be frozen like this. That we’re adults with a history doesn’t matter. Should something happen now, she’d forever be the assistant coach who was involved with one of her players.
Even if we don’t make it to the playoffs, I have another four months of limbo ahead of me. I could retire early. It’s not the first time I’ve rolled this possibility over in my head.