Page 142 of Vegas Heat

The strangest thought bounces into my brain at that moment.

Could Troy be my father-in-law someday?

I never thought about marrying Stacy despite how many hints she dropped that she wanted to. But Gabby?

I think about it all the time.

I think about a future with her all the time, and I want our future to start now. I want her to work for the team so she can travel with us. I want her by my side through every victory, through every loss, through everythingthat happens in season and out of it.

I want our future to start now…but I also know I can’t rush her. She’s still in college, for fuck’s sake.

He ponders my words a while as he chugs down the rest of his beer. “Hey Doug,” AJ yells over the bar noise to his agent across the table, interrupting the conversation between the three men. Doug turns toward AJ, who says, “Make it happen.”

Doug nods once and resumes his conversation with the Heat brass, and I chuckle as I shake my head. “Just that simple?”

He nods. “He knows what to do. We’ve been together a number of years, and he knows if I ain’t happy, he ain’t gonna be happy, either.”

There’s a lot of truth in that statement, I suppose.

“You seeing anybody?” he asks, and he flags our waitress down to order another beer. I hold up my bottle, too, to indicate I’d also like another.

“Can I plead the fifth on that one?” I laugh, but it comes out hollow. For as much as I was just thinking about a future with her, I know I can’t exactly blurt out the fact that we’re together. I like AJ, but I don’t know him all that well. I’m not ready to trust him with something as huge as the fact that I’m currently banging the manager’s daughter.

He laughs. “Is this one of those complicated situations?”

“Something like that,” I mutter. Complicated doesn’t really even begin to describe it. “You?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, man. Tried it and failed, and I made the decision a long time ago that I will only fail at something one time in my life.”

“So the next one will be a success?” I guess.

He lets out a laugh. “Nope. There won’t be a next one to fail. I live out of a suitcase, anyway. It’s just easier this way.”

I’ll be living out of a suitcase again shortly, too, and I can’t help but feel a little melancholy over the whole idea. I like having a place to call my own…especially if Gabby is there. There’s no better place to sleep than home. But I’ll be out of town for at least eighty-one away games a season, and the thought of that much time away from her causes my chest to ache.

I don’t even like tonight.

The thought that AJ just told his agent to make it happen gives me hope that we can head back to Vegas as early astomorrow, but the logical side of my brain knows it won’t happen that way.

Which is why I chug down another beer.

And another, and another.

Troy suggests a strip club, likely as a bargaining tool to get the very single AJ even more amped about the idea of moving to Vegas, where the strippers are of an elite class, and even though I have no interest in looking at tits that belong to anyone other than Gabby, I’m simply along for the ride. It’s not like I can stay back in the car while the rest of the guys in my group are getting lap dances and tucking twenties into G-strings.

So I go along.

I should tell Gabby. I should be honest with her. I know this, but I’m also stuck in beside her father. My only chance is to escape to the bathroom and send a text on the down low…but as I make my way toward the restroom, guess who accompanies me?

Troy.

Guess who sits beside me at our table?

Troy.

Guess who orders me another beer?

Troy.

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