Page 80 of Freak Show

My stomach clenched.

“Uhh,” I was really winning in this communicating thing.

“Martina,” someone called out. “Do you want me to go grab some snacks?”

I blinked some more, my brain firing about a million miles an hour as I tried to think of something to say.

“Martina, who’s this?” the other woman who’d called her earlier asked.

Still, I was silent. I’d never met a man’s mom before.

“This is, apparently, my son’s wife,” Martina murmured. “Helena, meet Caristonia.”

Had Slone told her about me?

“Oh, hi. I’m Helena. We know you’re not married. Don’t worry.” She cast Slone’s mother a look. “What’s with you?”

Martina sighed. “How am I supposed to come off as a badass if you don’t stop giving me away?”

I couldn’t stop the smile that played at my lips.

Oh, and my skyrocketing heartrate was finally under manageable levels.

“And don’t tell him I was here. I don’t have time to stay until he’s done with his game. I’m here for literally two hours. We have to leave before it’s even over.” She looked at her watch. “I’m traveling through. I have a retreat in Minnesota in the mountains that I have to be there by seven tonight. And that’s six hours away from here.”

I looked at my watch.

It was just barely one in the afternoon. If she stayed for two hours, that would put her at three. Way too late to make it there by six.

But I supposed she knew that and didn’t care.

“Well, where are we getting food?”

So that was how I watched my first almost-full game with his mother.

Turns out, she was great.

Also turns out, Slone was quite disappointed that he hadn’t gotten to see her.

“Can’t say it’s not a good thing, though,” Slone muttered as he met me outside the locker room. “I’m not in the best of moods.”

The game went fast, despite how horrible of a game it was for them, and before long, we were back at the hotel and in the process of trying to figure out what we were doing that night.

We’d gotten in on the flight late yesterday, and sadly, today, Slone was in absolutely no mood to be personable. Whatever we were going to do, it had to be where he had nobody around to tell him how shitty the game was.

Something brown caught my eye on the bed as we entered the hotel rom.

I groaned.

If my life only stopped catching up to me…

“What’s your issue?” Slone asked as he stared at me from across the room.

He was in cutoff sweatpants and a t-shirt.

Nothing fancy, but it was one of my favorite outfits to see him in. Mostly because it showed off his spectacularly muscled legs and his incredible shoulders.

I pointed.

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