Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“What happened?” I asked, hurrying over to her.
“It’s stupid.” She shook her head. “I accidentally hit the edge of the pan with my finger. I’m fine.”
“Let me see.” I held out my hand.
She opened her mouth, as if to protest, but then slowly held out her finger.
I grasped her hand and turned it over, gently running one of my fingers over the reddest area of hers. Her hand looked tiny compared to mine, but I liked touching her. Liked being this close to her.
“Does it hurt?” I asked after a moment.
“A little. I’ll, uh, run cold water over it.”
“Da. That is…good.” I’d said yes in Russian because my English momentarily failed me as we stood there, her hand in mine, our eyes linked. She looked so pretty, her plump lower lip between her teeth and her golden hair bouncing around her shoulders.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d wanted to kiss someone so much.
“What the hell are you doing?” Sawyer’s loud voice made us jump, but I turned, giving him a dirty look.
“She burned her hand. Can you grab some ice?”
“Oh.” He stared for a moment before moving toward the refrigerator. “I think there’s some lavender oil upstairs. Annie swore by it for burns.”
Lucy and I seemed to hold our breaths as Sawyer got a big ball of craft ice out of the freezer. This was the first time he’d mentioned Annie in passing with no hesitation or reaction of any kind.
“Here.” He handed Lucy the ice ball. “Let me run upstairs and grab it.”
We watched him go and our eyes met. “Did he just…talk about Annie?” she whispered.
“He did.” I grabbed a paper towel and handed it to her. “Use this for the ice or it will be too cold.”
“Thank you.”
It felt like something momentous had just happened, but we didn’t have time to say anything more about it because Sawyer was back with the lavender oil and Lucy took it from him. While she tended to her finger, Sawyer started putting the warm rolls she’d just pulled from the oven into a basket she’d prepared.
“I hear Boone’s girlfriend dumped him again,” Sawyer said.
“You heard?” I asked in surprise.
“Rory texted, asked if I wanted to go out and help him get Boone drunk.” Sawyer shrugged. “Not really interested in going anywhere since I have plenty of booze at home, but I feel for the guy. Getting dumped during a proposal is shitty.”
“It would be good for you to be there for your friend the way he’s been there for you,” Lucy said, glancing over her shoulder.
“Don’t start, Luce.” He rolled his eyes at her.
“She is right,” I said, leaning against the counter and watching him.
“Not you too. Jesus, can you guys give me a fucking break?” He stomped out of the room and Lucy sighed.
“Like I said, one step forward and two steps back.”
CHAPTER NINE
Lucy
“I had a feeling this might happen,” I told Kon as I walked back into the family room from the basement. “He’s out cold.”
Kon shrugged. “Probably for the best. He did not get in as much beer as usual and he can sleep off his mood.”
Sawyer had gotten salty—again—when I suggested he lay off the alcohol. He drank unconsciously, just cracking open can after can. It was hard for me to watch him trying to drown his feelings in alcohol, but he balked when I tried to get him to stop. He’d gone down to his man cave in the basement nearly an hour ago and when I’d gone to check on him just now, I’d found him passed out on a leather sofa in the room with all his hockey memorabilia.
“Would you like another glass?” Kon asked, getting up from the couch and walking toward my empty wineglass on the coffee table.
“I will later, but for now, will you help me with something?”
“Of course.” He arched his brows and grinned. “What is that smile for?”
“I want to do something that may not amuse my brother but will definitely amuse me.”
Kon laughed, a rare sound from him. “Nothing amuses Sawyer anymore.”
“This might get a laugh out of him. You know how there used to be pictures of him and Annie on that wall?”
Kon turned and looked at the light gray wall behind the biggest couch in the room and nodded.
“I assume he took them all down because it was too hard to look at them,” I said. “I was hoping you could text your teammates for some funny selfies and I thought we’d decorate the wall with those instead. I went to Target earlier and bought a bunch of frames.”
We stood close enough that I could see the flecks of brown swirling in his hazel eyes, and as a couple seconds of silence passed, I wanted to ditch my picture idea and just stay lost in those eyes.