Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 97382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Ambrosia Mercer: I am in awe.
Jakob Titov: My son-in-law is the definition of if he wants to, he will. He wanted to marry our daughter, and he did without anyone knowing. Then he agreed to hide their pregnancy with our granddaughter because my daughter wanted to surprise us. He worships her, which is what all dads want.
Harper Titov: Can you blame him? Allison watched you woo me, so of course she wants the same.
Ambrosia Mercer: Same. My dad was the best husband. He learned Spanish for my mom. He said it was so he knew what she was saying, but I think he wanted to know when she cussed at him in a different language.
Laughter.
Harper Titov: Love makes you do crazy things—or it makes you run. I wish I had been where he was. I fought it for a long time, but then we got pregnant, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Jakob Titov: I locked her in so I could prove to her that I was more than a one-time thing for the rest of our lives.
I know I’ve been using the podcasts as guides to get Ambrosia, but I refuse to knock her up.
“Why am I here, folding papers?”
I wince as a piece of origami paper I spent entirely too much money to have shipped overnight slices into my skin for the tenth time before I suck on my finger to stop the bleeding. As I told Ambrosia, though, I know when money is well spent. The metallic taste is welcome as a good distraction from the assembly line of family I have around me. She is worth the blood—and the annoyance of my cousins.
“Because I told you, you help me with this, and I’ll commit to the camp.”
That shuts Ashlyn right up. She continues to fold little yellow, orange, and purple papers into the shapes I need for the petals of the flowers we’re making. I don’t know what Ambrosia’s favorite color is, but she tends to wear a lot of oranges, purples, pinks, and yellows. She changed the whole color scheme of The Rowe Report to those colors, so I’m hoping she loves the flowers we’re making. I want them to sit on her desk.
I want her to think of me.
Sighing deeply, I look across the table at Charlotte, who has a Nerds Rope hanging out of her mouth as she makes the stems. Louis is making a vase out of my broken hockey sticks, and my boy Jennings is helping me construct the flowers.
We’ve been at this for four hours now.
Have I lost my mind?
Maybe.
But when I was listening to the episode with Jakob and Harper Titov, I knew I couldn’t give up.
Not when I think she’s finally letting me in.
It’ll be a week since the night I found her crying. Being able to comfort her and feel her against me was like winning every championship imaginable. Even later that night after I walked her to her car and wished her goodnight, I still had her citrusy coconut smell all over me. It was like a blanket I couldn’t let go of as I fell asleep.
The next day, I didn’t relent. I sent my guys with videos of me telling her trivial things. Stupid videos of me making salads and giving her small facts. Instead of posting personal stuff on Instagram, I give it only to her. I also sent my guys with voice messages asking her to come to my games. Ever since she said maybe to attending one of my games, I’ve decided I’m playing if she’s coming. When I had Hunter give her my game ball from when I threw the most touchdowns in my playing history at the beginning of the year, she wouldn’t take it. Told Hunter it was too important for her to have.
I wanted to rage.
I wanted to chase her down.
Make her take the ball and listen to me when I say she is important, which is why I wanted her to have it.
I know I said I wouldn’t contact Dillon, but I’m having one hell of a time not doing so. I want to chase him down and beat his ass for hurting her. For making her cautious, when she doesn’t need to be. I have seen her around, mostly because I wait outside of the communications building for my hit of her, but I don’t approach her. I know she knows I’m there. As soon as she comes out of the building, her eyes find mine, and I swear she fights back a smile. It fuels me and reminds me what I’m doing this for.
To be on the receiving end of that smile when she really lets it loose.
But her giving that ball back really was a kick in the dick.
I was convinced that was going to be my in, the thing to get her to finally talk to me outside of Venmo and really give me a chance, but as she’s been doing since the top, she did exactly the opposite.