Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“But no guarantees on tomorrow?” Pike asked, offering her his arm.
“You know I don’t make promises I can’t keep,” she said with a wink. “And I’ve only got a week to get in enough abuse to last me until Christmas.”
“Animal.” He smiled as he led her inside and began pressing hands and pretending to enjoy himself. He loved that his sister was back to the feisty woman he remembered, not the shattered person she’d been after her last relationship. Pike had only met Sawyer briefly, but he could already tell the man was a solid guy, devoted to Mia’s happiness, and so in love he couldn’t keep a smile off of his face for more than a minute at a time.
Pike remembered what that felt like. There had been a time when smelling Tulsi’s shampoo on another woman in the grocery store had been enough to put a goofy grin on his face and have him reaching for his phone to text something sickening about how much he missed her. That first summer, he’d spent every moment they were apart plotting ways to make sure they never had to be apart again, pining for the girl he was sure he was going to marry, while Tulsi had been busy sleeping with another man. Not even a man, a nineteen-year-old boy at the camp where she was working, a fucking asshole who’d bailed after getting her pregnant and hadn’t been seen or heard from since.
Pike didn’t talk to Mia that often, and even more rarely about Tulsi, but the subject of Tulsi’s single-motherhood had come up throughout the years. He knew Mia had been the one helping with the baby’s feedings when she and Tulsi were rooming together at Baylor, and that Tulsi had done without things she needed for years so she could pay for diapers, food, and toys for Clementine. Mia had loathed men on Tulsi’s behalf for years, but Tulsi refused to go after the deadbeat who’d knocked her up for child support, insisting she didn’t want help from a person who didn’t care about her or the baby. The way Mia described it, it sounded like Tulsi had loved the guy and been hurt that he didn’t love her back.
That was what had torn Pike up the most, realizing that while he’d been aching for Tulsi, she’d been falling for someone else. It had made him feel like the world’s saddest fool, and ensured he’d kept his heart locked away ever since. Something that pathetic couldn’t be allowed out of its cage. His heart was too stupid to fall for one of the beautiful, famous, accomplished women he’d dated the past few years. No, if set free, it would go running back to Tulsi, like a dog eager for another whipping from the only master it had ever known.
“Don’t you think so, Pike?” The fifty-something brunette leaning across the autograph table giggled, drawing his attention back to the present, and the cleavage hovering inches from his face.
“I try not to think.” Pike winked, deciding even flirting with a woman old enough to be his mother was better than letting his thoughts dwell in the past. “At least whenever I can get away with it.”
“Oh honey, I totally understand,” the woman said, brown eyes crinkling at the edges as she laughed. “And if you’d like help not thinking while you’re here, I’m at the country club pool almost every day in the summer. My name’s Gina and I’d love to buy you a drink, hear all about your big adventures.”
“Tempting offer.” He passed the picture he’d autographed across the table, noticing with a flash of disgust the wedding ring on the woman’s left hand as she picked it up. “But I’m busy with my sister’s wedding. She’s got me booked solid. No time for anything else.”
Pike shifted his gaze to a bearded man wearing a faded Cardinal’s jersey standing behind Gina, dismissing her without another word. It wasn’t the first time he’d been hit on by a married woman, but it still got to him. Didn’t anyone take their promises seriously anymore? And a marriage was more than a promise, it was a vow. That ought to mean something, and people should think long and hard before they violated something sacred for a roll in the hay with a stranger.
“You look the way I feel,” a familiar voice said as Pike passed the bearded man his signed picture and turned to the next person in line.
Pike smiled his first genuine smile of the night. “Chad, what’s up?”
“Not much, not much.” Chad, who looked the same as he had in high school, minus a few inches of brown fuzz around the hairline, clasped the hand Pike offered. “I think I’ve watched every game you’ve played since you left town, man. It’s good to see you back home again.”