Page 111 of Vegas Heat

I let out a grunt that I can’t even bother to fill with any sort of merriment. “Fat chance, Stace. You lost that game when you slept with Hamilton.”

She sighs, her eyes turned down to the ground and a forlorn look across her face. I keep my distance because I willnotget wrapped up in her tangled web ever again.

“You just…you wanted all these things I wasn’t ready for back then,” she says. Her tone has an edge of begging to it, but she can beg all she wants. It’ll never happen. “You were talking kids, and back then, I was scared to be a mom. I didn’t think I could do it. But I’ve changed, baby. I want those things, too. And I want them with you.”

It strikes me as I listen to her beg that she’s the polar opposite of Gabby when it comes to certain physical attributes. She has short blonde hair and brown eyes to Gabby’s nearly black hair and green eyes, but she’s tall and thin like Gabby. She doesn’t walk in like a ray of sunshine the way Gabby does. Instead, it feels like the skies opened and a cloud settled over her white Lexus the way Olaf’s snow flurries follow him around in the secondFrozenmovie.

Yeah, so I watched it with my nephews a few years ago.

And I liked it.

I got a little choked up at the end, and I will fight anybody who has a goddamn word to say to me about it.

“That’s nice, but I no longer want them with you, and the more time we’ve spent apart, the more I’ve come to realize that Ineverwanted them with you.” I shrug.

She looks momentarily shocked at my words, but she takes a step forward toward me rather than my words having the effect of pushing her back.

“You don’t mean that, Cooper. You’re just upset, but we can get through it.” She runs her fingertips along my chest, and in my periphery, I hear a vehicle moving along the street behind me. It stops for a second, and I’m tempted to turn around. I’m tempted to start screaming for help.

But I don’t. Instead, I fist her wrist in my hand. The vehicle behind me peels off, and I keep my eyes trained on my ex-girlfriend’s face.

I shake my head. “No, that’s not it.” I let out a heavy sigh as I drop her wrist. “You hurt me, Stacy, but I’m not sure it mattered. There’s a reason we were together five years and I never once actually considered proposing to you. It was a waste of time, and I actually think I should bethankingyou for cheating on me. It helped drive us to the end, and I’m much happier here on the other side.”

“The bags under your eyes tell a different story,” she retorts.

“I’m sure they do, but they have nothing to do with you. They’re not your business anymore. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have shit to do that doesn’t involve you.”

“I drove all the way from LA and you won’t even invite me in?” she whines.

God, what did I ever see in her?

I nod and twist my lips. “Yep. That pretty much sums it up.” I move to walk past her, and she grabs onto my arm.

“Coop, wait.”

I turn and look at her. “For what, Stace? You stole five years of my life, cheated on me, and now you come crawling back because you heard I’m back in the game?” I shake my head. “I see right through you. It’s over. I’ve moved on. I fell in love with someone who made me feel valued.”

“I always made you feel valued,” she says, her tone suggestive.

I shake my head and offer her a sad smile. “You valued what I did for a living. You never valuedme. If you did, you wouldn’t have run to Alex Hamilton’s bed right after we broke up, and you wouldn’t have snuck into it before we did, either.” I turn to head back inside, and her voice halts me.

She sighs. “I’m pregnant.”

I stand for a beat and stare at the door in front of me. So close. So goddamn close to getting inside without her confession.

She says the words as if they’ll be the thing that changes my mind.

“Congratulations,” I say, turning back toward her. “Whose is it?”

She presses her lips together, and that tells me a whole lot. She used to do that every time she didn’t want to tell me something, and in this case…I think she doesn’t want to admit she doesn’t know who the baby belongs to.

But it’s not my circus, not my monkeys, and no longer my problem. “I hope you figure it out,” I say gently. “I do wish you all the best, but a future with me is absolutely out of the question. Go back to LA. Go back to Alex. Take care of yourself, but please, Stacy…leave me alone.”

With those words, I head into Troy’s house without inviting her in and close the door behind me.

CHAPTER 25: GABBY

Cooper was holding that woman’s hands when I drove by. I went slowly and blinked a few times as if it would clear the image out of my vision, but it didn’t go away. It didn’t change. He was holding her hands, and they were talking, and I idled for a beat as I debated whether to step in and blow that up as I claimed Cooper as mine or if I should just stay out of it.

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