Page 139 of Vegas Heat

I gently shake Gabby awake, and she startles as she hears the banging.

“We need to go!” Troy yells from the other side of the door.

“Quick, hide in my bathroom,” I whisper to Gabby. We both leap out of bed, and if this was some scene I was watching rather than living, I’d be laughing hysterically at the two clowns half-asleep as they stumble around.

“Fuck!” I yell as I bang my leg on the nightstand.

I make sure Gabby is out of sight, but I’m pretty sure she tripped her way into my bathroom and shemayhave fallen and I hope she’s okay.

I open the door, trying to remain calm.

“Oh, hey there, Troy,” I say, leaning casually on the doorframe, and I’m certain I fail at that whole remaining calm thing.

“Our plane leaves in ninety minutes and we need to get to the airport. What the fuck have you been doing?” he demands.

“Uh…sleeping?”

“Have you seen Gabby? Her car’s here but she’s not in her room. I was hoping to say goodbye to her before we left.”

“Oh, nope, haven’t seen her anywhere, sorry. Just been sleeping here in my bed. Alone.” I’m lying, and I’m a bad liar, and he must see right through me because he narrows his eyes at me.

“Why are you acting so strange?” he asks.

“Who, me?” I ask, a little too overly dramatically.

He squints a little, andcome on, Noah, fucking THINK!

“I need to jump in the shower before we head out. Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready to go,” I promise, and then he finally nods and turns.

I practically slam the door behind him and run to the bathroom. “I’m so sorry!” I whisper-yell.

She giggles. Fucking Sunshine giggles, and those giggles turn into cackles. Quiet cackles, but cackles nonetheless. “Oh my God, Cooper, you are the absoluteworstliar I have ever seen in my life!” She’s laying on the floor of my bathroom laughing so hard at me right now that literal tears are falling from her eyes, and I can’t help my wry smile.

She isn’t wrong, and this is our first close call with her father…and I have no idea how I’m going to continue this charade. She sucks in a few deep breaths as she tries to calm the laughter, and I reach out a hand to help her up.

“I need to get ready to go,” I say.

She nods, and the laughter subsides as we both know what this means. Two to three days away from each other. I’m traveling with her father and the general manager of the Heat, and I really don’t know whether I’ll even get a chance to call her and talk to her since this is a business trip.

I pull her into me, and we stand in my small en suite bathroom simply clinging to one another for a few beats. I leandown and touch my lips to her forehead, and she squeezes her arms around my torso.

“Travel safe and keep in touch,” she says.

“I’ll try to call but I have no idea what this trip will look like. I don’t even know if I have my own room,” I admit.

She nods, and she tips her chin up so I can lean down to press a kiss to her lips.

“I love you,” I murmur. An intimate beat passes between us, and then I swat her ass. “Now scram. I gotta get in the shower before your dad comes back up here.”

She giggles and kisses me once more, and then she heads out while I cross my fingers that Troy isn’t waiting in the hallway to catch her coming out of my room.

True to my word, I leap down the stairs ten minutes later so we can head out. Gabby’s sitting rather calmly at the kitchen table with a bowl of Cheerios, and her father is leaning against the counter sipping a cup of coffee. He sees me and dumps the rest of the liquid in his cup into the sink, and then he sets the mug in the dishwasher.

“Ready?” he asks.

“Let’s go. I can grab coffee and breakfast at the airport.”

He nods once, and he passes by Gabby, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. I wish I could kiss her goodbye once more, but I settle instead for waiting for him to pass by, and then I offer her a wink and blow her a silent kiss while his back is turned. She smiles at me—a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes as we both face the reality that this is our first time apart, that we’re doing this in secret, that I might not even get to talk to her for the next few days while I bond with her father.

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