Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 103721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
I nod as our gazes lock. “My parents only cared when I was slinging llama shit.”
Her lips quirk. “I’m glad you play hockey. You’re so damn good at it.” I smile a thanks as she goes on. “But she always compared me to everyone else, and she blamed the fact that I was slower to catch on to skills or learn new choreography on my ADHD, and that was annoying.” She swallows, and I know she has more to say, so I just listen. “Compulsory gymnastics was not it for me. But when I got to optionals, I was finally able to shine. Enjoy gymnastics just for me. Ya know? I think I fell in love with it again and started ignoring my mom.”
“For good reason.”
“Yeah. And I tried so hard, to the point of exhaustion, since she was asking my stepdad to shell out so much money.” My heart hurts for the little girl who went through that. “I feel like she’s always resented me. Not only was she forced to have me, but I was defective. I ruined her life in some sense, I guess.”
“I don’t accept that.”
“What?” she asks with a grin. “Why not?”
“You aren’t defective, and you only add to people’s lives, Cameron. I mean, look how happy your content on social media makes people. If you didn’t have all the ideas going through your head, you couldn’t do that. Look how everyone loves you on the team and looks up to you. You are able to see things others don’t, and I think that’s awesome.” Her lips curve as a flush fills her face, leaving me wanting to touch her. “And I mean this with all the disrespect in the world, but your mom is a bitch.”
She snorts at that. “That she is. Sorry for unloading my mommy issues on you.”
I start on the next pile as I scoff. “It’s cool. I’ve got parent issues too. I know they’d still demand I come home and take over the farm. Too bad for them, hockey is what I want.”
“As it should be. You were born to be on the ice.”
Ahfuckbuddy, the pride that fills me at hearing her say that rattles my soul. “But I learned a long time ago, why be in a toxic situation when I could be loved? The right way.”
She smiles. “The Adlers are pretty amazing.”
I couldn’t agree more. “But your stepdad is good to you, right? I feel like I remember you liking him.”
“Oh, I love him. He evens everything out and can reel in my mom’s bitchiness pretty quickly, but her words still get to me.” She rolls her eyes. “Ugh, I don’t want to talk about them. How are your parents?”
I give her a sad smile. “We don’t talk anymore.”
“Really?” she asks, visibly surprised. “I know they were shitty about you coming to the States, but I thought y’all still talked?”
“We did for a bit there, but then I told them about us, and they said America had changed me. Ruined me. That no son of theirs would kill a child.”
Her eyes widen. “Wow. That’s a bold statement.”
“Yeah,” I say with a soulless laugh. “But it is what it is. Elli and Shea were supportive and agreed it was your choice, not mine.”
I notice then that she’s stopped hanging her shirts. “You claim I’m the only one who dealt with the backlash, but you did too. I never wanted to cause a rift between you and your family.”
“The rift was there way before that, Cammy.”
Her eyes flash with sadness. “I’m truly so—”
“Don’t, Cam. You don’t need to. I supported you completely,” I tell her. “I don’t regret anything.”
“You don’t?”
“About the abortion? No,” I admit. “Now, about you cutting me off. Yeah, I hated that. But I get it, eh?”
Her eyes scrutinize mine. “You weren’t mad?”
“I was pissed,” I tell her with a laugh. “But I think if we had forced it, it would have ended really badly, and I wouldn’t be sitting here, folding your clothes, and wishing like fuck I had you in my lap, kissing you and reacquainting myself with all the ways to make you squirm.”
A flush fills her cheeks before she throws a bundle of socks at me. “Behave.”
I bat them away as I scoff. “Behave? That’s not possible when you’re looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” she challenges, that little tip of her chin making me hard in all the right ways.
“Like you want to sit in my lap and allow me to make you squirm.” I gesture around me, and with a teasing, bold grin, I say, “We have plenty of towels if you want to do just that.”
Her face breaks into a wide grin before she throws another sock bundle at me, and I bat it away, much to her delight. Her giggles fill the room, and my face hurts from smiling so widely. I take my phone from my pocket and snap a photo of her because, while I enjoy when she’s all done up, her dressed down, sitting in a pile of her clothes while she laughs, is what really gets my heart pumping. When she looks up at me, heat moves through me like a spark through a powder keg. My heart seizes in my chest, and in a throaty way, I somehow get out, “Come here.”