Page 146 of Vegas Heat

“Well, what’ve you got going on here?” I ask. We head toward the lobby bar and slide into an empty booth.

A waitress approaches our table before he can even answer that question. “What can I get y’all?” She glances up from hernotepad at the man across the table from me, and her jaw drops clean down to the floor. “Oh my God, you’re AJ Winters.” Her head twists toward me, and her eyes widen. “And you’re Cooper Noah!”

“Ball fan, I take it?” I ask. AJ looks a little too preoccupied to answer her with charm, so I take over.

“Only the daughter of like thehugestRed Sox fan alive,” she confirms. She looks like she’s around Gabby’s age, maybe a couple years older. “And I’m also secretly a Dodgers fan,” she whispers in my direction with a huge smile.

I chuckle. “But not them damn Yankees, right?”

“Right.” She nods resolutely.

“Can I borrow your pen and a sheet of paper?” I ask her.

Her brows dip, but she rips a sheet off her notepad and hands me her pen. I glance at her nametag and write on the paper.

Hannah – thanks for all the drinks. Cooper Noah

I pass the paper over to AJ, and he signs it, too.

Hannah squeals.

“Two Miller Lites,” I order, and she grins.

“Coming right up.”

She spins and scampers away to get our drinks, and I turn back to AJ.

“What’ve you got going on here?” I repeat.

He sighs as he settles back into the booth, and he lifts a shoulder. “I’ve been here a long time, you know? It’s like leaving family, and it’s not usually in the player’s court like it is with this situation. If Jim knew I was even considering it…” He trails off as he mentions his general manager.

“I know. It was different with me since an injury took me out,” I admit, my eyes down on the table. I tug on the bill of my black Under Armour hat.

“But did it?”

I glance up and see him studying me, and I blow out a breath. “I mean, yeah. I could’ve gone back to finish out my contract, but things felt too fucked up for me by that point. My girl cheated on me with another player, and I guess it all just came together in the perfect storm. I’d started working a job I liked, and I just didn’t want to go back to the life I had before. I didn’t want to go back to LA.”

He glances up at me. “Baseball has been my entire life since I was six.” He shakes his head a little. “I don’t know how to be any other way. Was that what brought you back?”

“Honestly? It was Troy that brought me back. He gave me this offer at a time when I was starting to feel a little restless, a little ready for change. Right place, right time.” I remember making that choice in the car on the way back to Caesars Palace just moments before I met Gabby, and somehow that weekend with her sealed the deal. Turning what might have been a one-night stand into what could be the most important relationship of my life just confirmed the fact that I made the right decision.

I don’t tell AJ any of that, obviously. He’s not here to listen to my love life woes, anyway.

He’s here so I can convince him that Vegas is the place where he needs to be.

“I signed on for three years,” I say. “You can do just about anything for three years, right?”

Hannah swings by with our drinks, and thankfully she drops them and runs so we can continue our private conversation.

“What’ll it be like playing somewhere else? I’ve spent eight years here.” He’s clearly torn, the buzz from drinking earlier worn off as reality sets in.

I take a long drag from my glass. “I can’t answer that yet since I spent my entire career in Los Angeles, but what I can tell you is that Vegas is ready for this, and the members of the first VegasHeat team will be creating a legacy that will live on forever. That’s the vibe I get every time I walk into The House.”

“The House?” he repeats.

“The nickname for the stadium. You know—Vegas, gambling. The House always wins, right?”

He chuckles. “So if I don’t join ‘em, I’m gonna get beat by ‘em?”

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