Free Pulse: Sport Romance (The Boys of Winter Book 6) by Violet Vaughn

“I’ll give you the whole tour. I think you’ll like it.”
    His voice gets lower, and he asks, “Do you have a boat house or something where we can get sweaty?”
    I chuckle. “You watch too many bad movies. But you bring up something I hadn’t considered. We won’t be free to get naked whenever we want.”
    A horn blares behind us, and I scan the tightly packed cars ahead of us to avoid getting stuck in the slow lane. Nick asks, “Are you planning on us living with your mom?”
    He’s sitting up and holding the panic bar above his door. My Colorado boy probably hasn’t done much city driving. I answer, “Honestly? I haven’t thought about anything. I was too busy avoiding the situation.”
    “Well, you’ve got me to help. I can find us something close to wherever it is you work.”
    I dart my eyes from mirror to mirror, preparing to make a lane change. I whip the wheel to the left to swerve in the small space between two cars. “Babe, I’m sorry. I haven’t told you much at all, have I?”
    Nick has a hand on the dash now too. But as the car in front speeds up, leaving a window of space, he relaxes and sits back. “Not really, but none of it matters. I’m looking at this as an adventure.”
    “Good, because that it will be.” We get on another bridge, and the white toll tag I stuck on the dash at the beginning of the trip comes in handy. Nick whistles when he sees the amount we just paid for access to the Verrazano Bridge.
    I say, “I’ll be working in the city. I don’t see you being happy there.” I sigh. “I won’t be happy there. Let’s get through the summer at my mom’s house, and we’ll figure it out.”
    It occurs to me Nick has nothing to do this summer. He’s going to want a job, even if he won’t need money. Because I’ll be working so much, our time together will be limited. The traffic has thinned, and I reach over to take his hand. “Thank you again. Having you with me makes this so much better.” I’m not sure he realizes the sacrifice he’s made, and I vow to keep my man happy so he’ll stick around.

Chapter 12
    T he farther we put the city behind us, the less congested Long Island becomes. I crack open the windows when we’re close to our destination. “Smell it?” I take a deep breath and blow it out. “Isn’t it glorious? I forget how much I miss the ocean until I come back to it.”
    Nick inhales too but doesn’t react with the same glee. I chuckle at the way he’s crinkling his nose like a little boy who has to eat Brussels sprouts.
    “What?”
    “You’re wrinkling your nose, and it’s cute.” The sky roof cover thuds when I slide it back, and the hum of the window as it opens is drowned out by the rush of air. “Once we get past the mud flats, you’ll like the smell better.”
    A seagull swoops down close, and Nick reaches for the bag of chips that is open between us. “Those damn birds steal food.”
    “Bad experience with a seagull?”
    “Yeah. When I was a kid, we took a vacation in the Carolinas. I lost a whole lobster roll to one of those thieves.”
    “Aw, poor little Nick. We’ll have to get you another.”
    “We sure will. I’m going to eat seafood every day.”
    The sides of the road are now adorned with the fresh pale green of spring. “It does smell better now.”
    “That’s the lilacs.” I flip the blinker and pull off to a side road to travel more slowly. Home.
    When I was a toddler, my father left my mother. She had me and my sister, who was just a baby, to take care of at the time Bellae was just taking off, and I suspect my father was the sacrifice that made it happen. But Alex and I never felt neglected. Perhaps my mother learned a lesson from her divorce, because she made enough time for us that we grew up feeling loved. And capable.
    It was driven into us that we were smart and able to run the world. Or a company like Bellae. But I wanted nothing to do with business and majored in psychology to become a domestic violence