Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 62128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Emotion clogs my throat, so I clear it and take a long sip of scalding hot coffee. She's not wrong. I’ve spent the last decade busting my ass trying to be both a parent to her and a support system to my actual parents.
“Well,” I say. “It's all been worth it,” I continue. “Dad's doing better. Mom is able to focus on him without having to worry about shuffling three jobs just to pay the bills, and you're all set to become one of the best sports-medicine-neuroscience-scientists in the world,” I say, exaggerating her title, but it's just too fun not to.
The way she’s focused on her career goals for the past few years has been nothing short of incredible, her taking the fast track working on both her bachelor’s and PhD at the same time. It's a program that she had to get authorized from the dean of the college, but she managed to convince him that earning these degrees was her sole focus, and she was lucky enough to have college paid for as well as living expenses so school would be her only job until she graduated. Which was coming up quick with a little over a month left in her college career.
She laughs and shakes her head. “I wouldn't be able to do what I do if you weren't doing what you do,” she says. “I know my college has cost almost as much as Dad's medical bills, and trust me, the minute I secure a job, I’m going to pay you back—”
“No, you're not,” I cut her off, rolling my eyes. “Paying for your college is not a favor or a loan. I can do it, so I’m doing it. Watching you do what you love will be enough of a reward for me.”
She smiles at me, leaning back in the booth slightly as the waitress sets our food in front of us. “You're pretty amazing,” she says once the waitress has left, and we start digging into our food. “You know your giant heart almost makes up for the fact that you're super overbearing and annoying sometimes,” she teases.
I take a giant bite of my avocado toast. “I’m not overbearing.”
She glares at me from across the table. “You so are,” she says.
“Am not.”
“Are too,” she says more forcefully. “How do you explain my freshman year of college then?”
“I have no idea what you're talking about,” I say, looking at her like she's grown another head. “The only thing I did to you in college while I was in my final year was help you move into your dorm.”
“That's such BS,” she says, laughing like I'm the most ridiculous person on the planet. “You literally scared off every single guy who might’ve been interested in me, threatening to ram a hockey stick up their asses if they so much as looked at me.”
I bark out a laugh, totally forgetting I did that. I take another bite, shaking my head. “I only said that to the guys who were jerks.”
“In your eyes, every guy who was interested in me was a jerk,” she counters.
“I was just looking out for you,” I argue. “I have a little more experience with assholes than you do. I’m around them constantly.”
“Well thank goodness you were only at the same school as me for a year, at least when you went off to start your rookie contract men were actually able to speak to me without fearing for their lives.”
“What men?”
Hadley laughs at me. “You're insufferable.”
“I go from amazing to insufferable in the span of a few minutes?” I tease her. I reach for her plate, scooting it closer toward me. “Maybe I'll just finish this off for you since I'm so insufferable—”
“Don't, I'm starving!” She pulls her plate back, guarding it with her life as she pours syrup over her hashbrowns. She takes a few bites before sipping her coffee again and eyeing me suspiciously.
“I'm not going to steal your food,” I say. “As much as I would love to dig into that, I have to eat things that are fueling my body as of right now. But once the off-season comes it's going to be waffles for a week.”
“Do you have any plans for the off-season?” she asks. “Are you going to actually do something for yourself for a change or are you going to spend the entire time in New York with Mom and Dad, fixing every little thing in the house you can or hiring people for the jobs you can't?”
My eyes widen at her, and I look around like I’m searching for answers. “What’s got you in such a mood today?”
“Oh please, I'm in a mood every day,” she says. “You know I'm constantly begging you to take more time for yourself. You've already done more than enough for the family. Mom and Dad agree.”