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)
“Did you tell any of your coaches about this?” Roman, bless his gorgeous heart, looks like he wants to flip the table.
Callie shakes her head.
“Why not?” I ask.
“Because I don’t want to cry in front of my team. So I keep it inside until I’m in my bedroom, and then I let the feelings out,” she admits softly. “But today they came out in the wrong way, and now I’m in trouble.”
My stomach twists, and my heart squeezes. This poor little girl is struggling to keep it together, and I had no idea. “I can share this with your coaches, Callie. They should know what’s going on.”
“I don’t want it to get worse,” Callie admits.
“You’ve done a great job being level-headed on the ice,” I assure her, glancing at Roman, looking to him for support, for assurance, because I’m so new at this and he has experience I don’t.
He dips his chin in agreement. “It’s an important job when you’re the goalie.”
Callie peels a pepperoni off her pizza. “You never lose your cool.”
“I’ve had a lot of years to practice,” he reminds her. “And sometimes I do lose my cool. Ask Lexi. She’s had to school me more than once this season during practice.”
“Really?” Callie’s eyes are wide.
“A couple of times, sure. No one is perfect,” I explain. “I understand that you want to prove you deserve your place on the team, Callie, and that this boy is jealous because you have the position he wants. But not telling your coaches means he thinks what he’s doing is okay, and it’s not.”
“He makes me so angry I want to cry,” she says.
“Your teammates are supposed to be an extension of your family, so it’s okay to cry in front of them,” I explain.
“Tears make you human. And we all cry,” Roman adds.
“Even you?”
“Yup. Even me.” Roman turns his attention to Fee. “Your turn.”
She sinks in her chair. “Lexi can just tell you.”
“We’d prefer to hear your version,” I press. Having a partner to do this with is so much less stressful. I don’t feel like I’m second guessing every word that comes out of my mouth. And I trust that Roman will redirect if it’s necessary.
She sets her pizza on her plate and gives me an imploring look.
I shake my head. “Why don’t you want to explain what happened?”
“Because I feel stupid.”
“Callie, do you have ranch dressing?” Roman asks.
“I dunno.” She shrugs and lines all her pepperonis up on one end of her pizza. It’s what she always does.
“Can you check the fridge for me, please?” he asks.
“Okay.” She slips off her chair and heads for the kitchen. Roman waits until she’s out of earshot before he drops his voice and addresses Fee. “When I was your age, I got my high school girlfriend pregnant because neither of us thought to read the fine print on her birth control pills. So whatever life changing thing you think you did, I’m pretty sure I have you beat. Now, Peggy is hands down the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I wouldn’t change having her for the world, but it definitely would have been better for her if I’d been about ten years older and a lot more settled before I brought her into the world. However, that’s not how it went.”
I didn’t think I could find him more endearing, but this absolutely takes the cake.
Fee wrinkles her nose. “You were my age when Hammer was born?”
“I was eighteen. I’d just been drafted. It was quite the eventful year.” He leans back and crosses his arms. “The floor for questionable choices is now yours. See if you can one-up me.”
“I got caught with all my friends’ vapes in my backpack.”
Roman props his chin on his fist. “Why did you have all your friends’ vapes in your backpack?”
It’s the old repeat-the-statement-back-to-the-person trick.
She cringes. “Because I’m an idiot.”
“Try again.”
She sighs. “Because I wanted to fit in.”
“And do you fit in now?” He’s so calm about it. So unruffled.
Seeing him like this should not get me hot, especially under the circumstances, but damn, he’s good at this.
She focuses on her plate. “Only, like, one of the girls in the group has messaged, and it was to see if I still had their stuff.”
“They sound like a bunch of assholes and not great friends,” Roman observes.
“They’re not.” She sighs. “I don’t know where I fit anymore. I wanted to leave my old school because I was the girl whose parents died at the lake. And now I’m the girl who got caught with vapes.”
“Here’s the ranch dressing!” Callie plops back into her seat.
“Thanks, kiddo.” Roman winks, then looks to Fee. “Why don’t you just be you?”
“I don’t even know who that is anymore! Other than my fandom friends online, I don’t feel people at school even want to make room for new friends. I think those kids just want to be my friend because I get to hang out with you and the other guys on the Terror. I can’t talk about my weekends or who I’m with without it sounding like I’m bragging. Tally gets it, but no one else does, and she’s already in university, so we can’t hang out all the time. And it’s not like she wants to spend all her time with a high schooler. It’s my last year, and everything is hard, and I wanted it to be fun, but it’s the opposite.” She deflates like a balloon.