Page 153 of Vegas Heat

He’s quiet a beat while he thinks over the best way to answer. “I’ve never made it a secret that I want a wife I can build a family with in the near future. I guess this whole thing with Connor is making me feel the pressure to get started on that. What are we doing, Gab?”

He’s never called me Gab, and part of me wonders if it’s the emotion in his voice causing him to cut my name short. A fresh pain slices across my chest as I fumble for words to answer that question after I literally told him yesterday I’m not sure I want kids anytime soon. “I, uh…we—we’re trying to figure that out. Together.”

“Yeah,” he murmurs. “I guess I just don’t want to waste your time.”

I fear his hidden message in those words is that he doesn’t want to waste his own time, either. What if we’re a dead end?

“You’re not,” I say, fighting back tears. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“And I feel the same way about you. But what if it isn’t enough?” His voice trembles, and I give up on the fight to stop my own emotions.

Tears start to trickle from my eyes. I don’t have the answer to that.

What if he’s right?

I need to see him. I need to be with him, consequences be damned.

I need to hold his hand through this, whatever it takes.

I need to kiss him and to love him and to be there by his side as he deals with this.

“What if itisenough? Isn’t it worth fighting for to find out?”

“Yeah,” he murmurs, and I’m not sure I buy it from his tone. He’s still questioning things, and this can’t be it. This can’t be the end of the line for us.

Not when I already see our entire future mapped out in front of us.

“I’m getting a call on the other line from your father,” he mutters. “I better take it.”

“I love you,” I say, not sure what else to say or do.

“Love you.” He cuts the call, and my first instinct is to look up flights to Chicago. Fuck tomorrow’s classes. Cooper needs me, and not just to prove to him that we belong together, but he needs me holding his hand through whatever this is.

My phone rings a few minutes later, and it’s my dad.

“Hey Dad,” I answer, realizing too late my voice is still chock full of emotion.

“Hey. You okay?”

“I’m fine. Just watching one of those rom coms on Netflix and I’m all choked up,” I lie.

He laughs. “Women and their rom coms, I swear. Listen, can you do me a huge favor?”

“Of course.”

“This is really huge,” he warns.

“Okay, then I retract my of course and raise a question. What’s the favor?”

“I’m tied up all day tomorrow in meetings with upper management here at the Red Sox. It’s going to be a fight to get Winters to Vegas, but I’m confident Mike and I can do it even without Cooper, who had to duck out. His brother had a heart attack in Chicago, and I know this is a big ask, but do you think you could check on him?”

“Check on him?” I ask, my heart racing at what he’s asking.

“I just talked to him, and I’m worried about him. He’s not handling this well. He’s with his family, but you know how thatgoes—he’s trying to be strong for them, but sometimes you can’t talk to family about family the way you can a friend. I’ve seen you and him becoming friendly, making jokes, that kind of thing since you’ve been shadowing him. Like you’re the younger sister he never had, and I’m the older brother he never had…if our family was really fucked up, I guess. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I can’t be there with him right now because of these damn meetings, but maybe you could?”

“Like you want me to call him and check on him?” I ask, confusion clear in my voice.

“No. Like I want to book a flight for you and get you out to Chicago so you can talk to him for me and make sure he’s doing all right.”

---