Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
She gives me a sheepish look. “Would you mind if she brings a couple of friends home?”
“Are you kidding? I’d love it. I wish I had some skincare samples with me. I get way more than I can use. I’ll bring some stuff to the arena and Carter can bring it to her.”
“She’ll flip. That’s so nice of you. It’s just about impossible to impress her now that she’s a teenager.”
Carter scoffs in agreement. “No shit. I’m just her embarrassing dad. I’m not even allowed to wave at her when I drop her off at school.”
Rachel starts fussing, and Suki repositions her so she can pat her back. “I’ll let you guys get to it. You might have to wait for her to stop crying to take video.”
I wave a hand. “It’s no problem. We’ll do photos first, and I can edit out any background sounds on the videos.”
“Where do you want us?” Carter asks.
I look around the room, finding a couch with a long ramp on one end. “Is that how he gets up on the couch?”
“Unfortunately. Then he takes up more than half of it.”
He makes it sound like he’s annoyed by Darling, but based on the way the pig stands next to him and gazes adoringly up at him, I think Carter secretly loves him.
“Let’s start with you two sitting together on the couch.”
Carter sits on the end of the couch, and Darling immediately heads up the ramp and flops down beside him. He’s so much bigger than I imagined he would be, his jersey snug around his ample belly.
“Is he house-trained?”
“Yeah, but we really have to coax him to go out when it gets cold. He’s a pain in the ass, but the girls love him.”
I’m glad my camera is ready when Darling puts his head in Carter’s lap. Even though Carter’s not smiling, he has a hand on the pig’s back and he’s rubbing it affectionately.
“Yeah, you’d be a freezer full of pork chops if I had my way,” he says, patting Darling’s belly.
“You guys seem like best buddies to me.”
He sighs through his nose. “He’s grown on me. Rachel loves him. He’s really patient with the girls, which is good.”
“What made you decide to get a pig?” I ask, still taking pictures of them.
“Leo. We couldn’t get a cat or a dog because of allergies, so he suggested a micro pig and I asked him to find one for me, kind of a last-minute thing. Obviously, he fucked that up.”
“Let’s get some pictures in front of the fireplace.”
He gets up from the couch. “Suki has some of me and him in the matching Christmas pajamas she got us if you ever want those.”
“Are you serious? I’d love that. They’ll be perfect for December posts.”
Darling follows him over to the fireplace, where Carter tells him to sit, and I’m surprised when he does, just like a dog would.
Carter puts a hand on Darling’s back, and this time he smiles. I could swear Darling is smiling, too. He looks really happy.
“How do you like the job so far?” Carter asks me.
“I love it. I love content creation and it’s been very good to me. But I missed working with people and now I get to do both. It’s nice to have that again, and there’s so much excitement from the fans on the socials that I feed off it, in a way.”
“Makes sense. We feel that during games, too. They’re the extra man on our roster.” He gets down on one knee and puts an arm around Darling.
“That’s perfect. Stay just like that.” I take several photos.
“The guys are all treating you okay?
“Oh, definitely. Everyone’s been really nice. I think even Coach Turner is getting used to having me around.”
He huffs out a single note of laughter. “Coach can come off abrasive, but he’s a great guy.”
Noel. It feels off for me to call him Coach because when I think of him, I think of Noel. I’d never say that out loud, though.
I take more photos and videos of Carter rubbing Darling’s belly while the pig smiles directly at my camera. This stuff is going to kill it on the team’s socials.
When Olivia gets home, she has two friends with her, and they all give me starstruck looks.
“You’re so pretty,” one of them says.
My heart. I adore my nephews, but there’s something about girls that makes me see myself at their age.
I sit down in the dining room with the girls and they pepper me with questions about skincare, clothes, and social media. It’s kind of hilarious that they think I’m a star when there’s an actual star pro athlete sitting in the next room.
After about half an hour, Carter walks into the dining room, Darling on his heels. “Okay, girls. Let’s let Jules get back to her day.”