Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
I was meant to ask the last question in my head, but I’m glad I didn’t when McKayla says, “Anyone who knows you knows you’d never cheat, Cash.” She groans before murmuring, “I really need to go. Something about fire codes and long-distance rates.”
“All right.” Before she can hang up, I blurt out, “Will you be at the game tomorrow night?”
She takes her time replying, and the delay fucking kills me. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”
“Okay.” I smile like she didn’t tear my heart in two only a month ago. “I’ll see you there.”
Her voice is more throaty during her reply, “You will. Bye, Cash.”
I keep the phone squashed to my ear until there’s no doubt she’s gone before returning it to the base and walking up the stairs to join my father for a glass of juice. When he complained about headaches when I was nine, my mother constantly told him, “You’re not tired because you work too much. You just have no energy. Have another glass of juice, then get back to work.”
He believed her when she said juice was the solution for everything.
We all did until she left him at a mental hospital for three years with no outside contact.
He’s not been the same man since.
When I spot Trenton at the stoop of the stairs, I expect him to rib me on my smile being the exact reason I should have picked Tiph over him, but he shocks me by declaring, “She’s good for you, Milo.” He hasn’t called me Milo since the accident. “But if you don’t do something to fix the gap between you two, you’ll lose her for good.” I want to smack him out of his chair just for putting the thought of McKayla not being a part of my life into my head, so you can imagine how bad the urge is when he says, “Then maybe I might need to roll on in and show her the real Mancini genes. Unlike you, my brain isn’t my biggest muscle.”
I chase him into the kitchen, leap onto his lap, then noogie his head like he did mine throughout our formative years. “A penis isn’t a muscle nor an organ. It is a flabby bit of tissue with a ton of veins.”
I howl like a wolf when my father joins our conversation. “That can pop under pressure. Right, Cash?”
Trenton’s mouth gapes open when I shoot my eyes to our father and scold, “We were meant to keep that between us.” His panic that I’m mad at him only lingers as long as it takes for Trenton and me to corner him in the kitchen and torture him with our ‘claws’ like Jim Carrey did in Liar Liar.
It worked every single time our mother let us down as kids, and it fairs well this time around as well.
Chapter 36
McKayla
It could be my imagination, but I swear this time around, when I enter the gymnasium tonight’s game is being held at, the crowds’ hums dull to barely a murmur. It only took a day for the rumors about my fight with Cash to die down, so their silent gawks are a little off-putting.
“Hey,” I greet when I spot Jasmine a couple of rows back from the court. “How did your exam go yesterday?” She removes a hoodie from the seat next to her before gesturing for me to sit. “Are you sure? My seat is right up there somewhere.” I glance at the last handful of rows.
I return my eyes to Jasmine when she says, “Of course.” When I sit, she discloses, “And I think it went well. I’m confident.”
“That’s good. I’m glad.”
I brush off her praise with a wave of my hand when she murmurs, “Thanks to you.”
“I gave you some notes. It was nothing.”
Her reply is gobbled up by the crowd leaping to their feet to cheer the players spilling out of the locker rooms. Even feeling a little out of place my first time here alone, I haven’t missed a game in the past four weeks. I love the atmosphere, and the happiness Cash can’t hide while playing is merely a bonus.
“This should be a good game. These teams have been rivals longer than the campus has been built.”
Jasmine wasn’t lying. The scoreboard has been neck and neck the entire first half, and it doesn’t look as if it will settle anytime until the final siren.
“I’m going to grab a bottle of water.” I have to shout to project my voice over the halftime antics. “Do you want anything?”
When Jasmine replies, “No!” I assume she is denying my offer. I have no clue she doesn’t want me to leave until she yanks me back into my seat by tugging on my shirt. Upon spotting my shocked expression, she says, “They’re about to announce the seat number for tonight’s competition. It’s a big one.”