Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 130307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Men are trash.
Her father left her, and then my father left us. Being raised by her and my grandmother, I was surrounded by the reminder to be independent and guard my heart.
After my one and only experience with a boy in college fell flatter than a pancake, I realized they were right — and I was content to live the life of a twenty-six-year-old cat lady.
Until Will Perry blew my quiet world to smithereens.
Starting goalie for the Tampa Bay Ospreys and the kind of hot that scrambles your brain, all I was ever supposed to be to him was his daughter’s kindergarten teacher. Then, in a twist of events, his temporary nanny.
But temporary turns to permanent, and when I move into his pool house, everything changes.
He’s impossibly grumpy and focused on only two things: hockey, and taking care of his daughter. I’m only focused on using this new income to pay back my student loans.
But in that house, I feel his heated gaze beneath that permanent scowl, the way it lingers and warms my skin. And though I know my mother would lose her mind if she knew, my dreams have become midnight fantasies about my long-haired, muscle-lined mystery of a boss.
When the tension becomes too much, we break, and we make a deal.
He still needs a nanny. I still need a paycheck and for my matriarchy to not disown me. But Will agrees to teach me everything I’ve always wanted to learn, and I’m all too eager to be his student.
I can do this. I’m a grown woman. I can explore my sexuality with the hottest goalie on earth and still remain one-hundred percent professional. And I can definitely do it all without catching feelings.
I have to.
Otherwise, I’ll end up heartbroken in my mother’s arms while she shakes her head and asks me if I’ll ever learn my lesson.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Yes, Sir
Will
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
I growled the words, ripping my mask off as I skated past our wide-eyed assistant athletic trainer. She was new to the team, joining us for her first season, and I didn’t mean to make her pale as a ghost with my reaction to the message she’d delivered — but I couldn’t help it.
Grumpy was my natural state of being lately.
And I was extra grumpy at the moment from being interrupted in the middle of our practice by a trainer telling me my daughter was here.
Ava was my fucking world. Other than hockey, she was all that mattered to me. I looked forward to every minute I got to spend with her.
The issue was that she should have been at home right now with the newest nanny I’d hired — not standing in the penalty box.
I tried and failed to school my breathing the closer I got, both frustrated by a clear sign my latest nanny had bit the dust, and worried something might have happened to Ava. But she looked content as could be, perched on the seat inside the box, pressing up onto her toes to get a better look at the rink through the glass. She was watching the rest of the team as they ran drills, her mop of dark brown curls falling out of the ponytail I’d tried to wrangle them into earlier that morning.
Like me, my daughter didn’t smile much. It was an unfortunate side-effect to having me as a father and the only steady parental figure in her life.
But right now, her eyes were big and filled with excitement — well, as much excitement as she was capable of showing, anyway. The kid loved hockey just as much as I did, and any time I let her come to the arena, she lit up like I’d taken her to Disney World.
Except this time, I hadn’t let her come. This wasn’t an approved visit.
She was supposed to be at home — playing house or running in the yard or swimming in our pool.
Instead, she was watching pucks fly.
And it wasn’t her nanny standing beside her and making sure she didn’t fall.
It was Chloe Knott — her kindergarten teacher.
She stood out like a sore thumb, not just because the stands were empty, but because that woman wouldn’t be able to blend in anywhere no matter how hard she tried.
Her bright copper wave of hair was lobbed just above her shoulders and parted down the middle, her brown eyes framed with thick, dark lashes that dusted her rosy cheeks every time she blinked. Other than that blush, her skin was like porcelain, pale and smooth like she bathed in sunscreen every morning before leaving the house.
She wore a long black skirt with white polka dots and a white t-shirt with a rainbow on it. Under the rainbow, it said no rain, no rainbow. Jade green arches dangled from her ears to complete the look, and they shimmered in the stadium lighting the closer I got.
I remembered the relief I’d felt in my chest the first time I’d met her, how she’d warmed at the sight of Ava as if she were her only student. Chloe had bent down to her level, looking her right in the eye and talking to her like an adult. She’d managed to get my daughter to smirk, and I’d felt the weight on my chest dissipate.
It was one thing to have Ava in a half-day of early learning last year, but to have her officially in school had put my emotions through the wringer. I didn’t want her to grow up. I didn’t want to have to face everything that came with school — bullies, friendships breaking down, the struggle of learning.
I wanted her to hold onto her innocence forever, to always stay this young.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Perry,” Chloe said when I was close enough to hear her. She smiled apologetically, her coral-painted lips curving up just a fraction as she looked at Ava and then at me. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
I could put the pieces together before I even got an explanation.
After the run of bad luck I’d had with nannies over the summer, I’d made sure to let Miss Knott know when I hired a new one. I’d also written consent for Miss Knott to be able to drive Ava to me should anything happen.
She had already been added to my approved list from when she’d tutored Ava in the first semester of the year, as my daughter had struggled with speaking in front of a class of twenty kids. When Ava finally started feeling comfortable, she excelled — but I didn’t revoke Miss Knott’s access even now that we were in the second semester, because I had a feeling I’d need her.