Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 114951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Shane’s smile was tight as he slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks, and when a member of the public relations team came over to steal Nathan away and prepare him for the press conference, I was ready to slither back into the shadows and watch him from a distance like I always had. I waited for Shane to excuse himself, knowing he’d be a part of this press ordeal, too.
But he just stood there, rooted like a tree, his eyes fixed on mine.
When he looked at me that way, I couldn’t help but soften. It didn’t matter how my heart was still broken from his actions, the cracks splitting fresh in my chest at the sight of him as if to remind me not to get too close. Danger, my common sense whispered. Stay away.
And yet I couldn’t move, either.
Shane finally shook his head, the motion subtle, his eyes trailing down my modest navy-blue dress to my nude kitten heels and back up. “I’m sorry for staring, I just… I believe I may be in shock.”
I didn’t want to smile, but damn it if I could fight against the tilt of my lips. “Like seeing a ghost, huh?”
“After all this time, life has brought us back together.”
With that, my stomach soured, and finally, the cold resolve I’d been wishing for found me.
How dare he?
How dare this man look at me this way, all reverent and wonder-struck, and say those words like this was some happy reunion?
“Yep,” I snipped, standing taller and smoothing my hands over my dress. “And you can’t get away from me this time, unless you quit your job. And we all know nothing is more important to you than hockey.”
I held the emphasis on nothing so that he understood what I meant.
And by the way his face fell, I knew he had.
“Ari,” he started, but before he could plead whatever sorry excuse for a case he had, Nathan was back at my side.
He reached for my face to pull me in for a quick kiss, but instinctively, I flinched.
It was only a micro-second of a moment, a reaction that no one should have noticed. Nathan surely didn’t. He smiled post-kiss and told me to wish him luck before he was following the staff to the room where the press was waiting for him.
But when I turned back to Shane, his face was ashen, his jaw slack.
He’d seen it.
And I shouldn’t have been surprised.
This man had always seen right through me, since the very moment we’d met.
You Don’t Know Me
Ariana
2006
I’d like to say I didn’t pay one single ounce of attention to Shane McCabe after that first day of class, but it would be a lie big enough to grow my nose four times in size.
Curiosity raked through me like claws as I walked back to my campus dorm, and it was all I could do to pause long enough to pee before I was at my laptop and googling him.
The top of the search revealed instantly that he played for the university’s hockey team — that must have been why the room ooh’d and aww’d when he said his name.
A few more scrolls and I discovered he was drafted to play in the NHL at eighteen, and he’d be on his way to Jacksonville as soon as he graduated.
Then, in a gut-wrenching surprise, I stumbled upon an article about the death of his parents in an ice storm when he was just seven years old.
That one sat with me long after I closed my laptop.
Each week, I’d walk into the classroom and sit in my same spot. I always arrived early — it was just part of who I was. But Shane was the same way.
He’d take his seat just minutes after I did, always two rows back.
And he’d look at me the whole way into the lecture hall, offering me a smile and a wink just before he was out of view.
I never turned around to look at him.
I knew better than to entertain whatever fantasy my stupid girl brain was trying to get me to latch onto. I’d seen firsthand what love was, and it wasn’t anything like the story they painted in the movies and books.
Love wasn’t passionate kisses and thoughtful dates planned from beginning to end.
It was fists to the face and bruised ribs, often paired with a cheap piece of jewelry and a hollow apology.
And I wanted nothing to do with it.
But one month into the semester, Professor Reid blew up my attempt to stay away from the dark-haired, gray-eyed boy.
Reid clapped his hands together at the front of the room, the sound snapping everyone’s attention forward. “All right, folks, listen up. Your first big assignment is a field observation paper. You’ll spend a few hours volunteering at a local school, youth center, or after-school program of your choice. Then, you’ll write a paper connecting what you observe to the theories we’ve been discussing in class.”