Page 6 of Hitting the Gap

“What guy?”

“A player who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the girl’s feelings.”

“Bay, I don’t want to offend your sensibilities here, but the women I bring home aren’t like you.”

“Obviously,” she muttered.

“They know the score. They’re here for one reason and one reason only. Because we both want to have sex. That’s it. Once we’re done, we’re done. There’s no reading the paper over breakfast or shit like that.” He ran his hand through his dark brown hair. “They aren’t here in the morning, Bay. It’s not something to even worry about. As soon as we’re done, they leave.”

Was that seriously how his sex life was? No emotion, like a contact sport, just a fun way to end the evening. That seemed pretty empty. “Don’t you ever date?” she asked.

“I don’t have time for that during the season.” Gonzo wandered over to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer. He held one up in the air and she nodded in acceptance. “And it feels like too much work the rest of the time.” He handed her a cold bottle of beer.

“Don’t you get lonely?” she asked.

“Come on, let me show you the spare bedroom.”

Apparently, he wanted to avoid that conversation. Bailey followed him through the lavish apartment. “Did you decorate this place?”

“I picked out the TV. Does that count?”

“Not really, no.” She ran her hand over some kind of sculpture. The metal felt almost alive beneath her touch. She had no idea what it was supposed to be, but it was beautiful nonetheless. “Did your mom or your sisters’ help?”

“Does this look like my mom’s style?”

Bailey paused in front of a large painting that filled the wall facing the foyer. “No, not really. But then it doesn’t really look like yours either.”

“Eh, it’s an investment piece, or so I’m told. The colors are cool.”

He continued down the hall then turned right at the first doorway. Bailey followed him into the room. She sucked in a breath when she saw the ocean view. “Oh my god, this is your spare bedroom?”

“Want to stay now?”

“Little bit, yeah.” Tearing her eyes off the view, she scanned the room. A queen-sized bed covered in pillows took up one wall of the room. She ran her hand over the plush, deep purple comforter. How did they make a blanket feel like that? She’d never felt anything so soft in her life. A beautiful abstract stormy seascape hung on the wall over the bed. The slash of purple in the skyline perfectly matched the comforter. She touched the bedside table. “I love these. They look like driftwood.”

“That’s the idea.”

“If this is your spare bedroom, I gotta see yours.”

Gonzo walked out of the room and she rushed after him. Bailey sucked in a breath when she saw the view from his bedroom. A huge king-sized bed took up one wall, facing the expansive ocean view. “Wow.”

Gonzo rested his hip against a large dresser, one foot crossed over the other as he watched her.

“Wow, you really have everything you ever dreamed of, don’t you?”

A look crossed so quickly over his face she almost missed it. “What?” she asked.

“No one has it all, Bay.”

She looked around the bedroom, her gaze landed on a picture of Gonzo with his family on what looked like a Hawaiian vacation. She picked up the picture and smiled. “Looks like you’re pretty damn close.”

He walked over and glanced down at the photo. “Mom always dreamed of going to Hawaii. She said when she moved to the states that was the place everyone said you had to see.”

“You took your whole family, nieces and nephews and everyone?”

“Yeah. There was no money for our family to do something for my parent’s twenty-fifth, but I managed to do it for their fortieth.”

She smiled down at the photo. “I’m sure it was everything they could have ever dreamed of.”

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