Page 191 of Vegas Heat

“She basically claims you’re a violent man who tried to beat her into submission.” I lay out the facts of what she just said so he knows what he’s dealing with before she even steps foot into his house.

“That same fucking story?” he practically roars, and he storms over toward the front door.

“Uh, Troy?” I say quietly, and he freezes. “Might want to tone down the anger given her accusations even if they are twenty years old.”

“Shit,” he mutters, and he draws in a deep breath because he knows I’m right. He moves toward the door and opens it, and both women whirl around to see him standing there. “Christine, hello,” he says with the fakest hospitability I’ve ever heard. “Heard you’re still spouting the same old lies but this time to our daughter. Come on in.”

Well, this should be…interesting.

CHAPTER 38: GABBY

My instincts are usually spot on, and right now, my gut is telling me that my mother is lying.

I could be wrong, but I’ve lived with Troy Bodine for the last three years, and not once has he ever shown even an ounce of violence. I’ve worked with him at the stadium for the last month, too, and even there he’s calm and rational.

I have to believe in my own experiences with these people, and my mother has proven to me more than once that she’s a liar while Troy has proven to me over and over that he’s a good man and a good father.

It’s a little gross as his daughter to hear that he’s a…dominantin the bedroom, but that’s between him and his partner.

Oh, God. Joanie just told me to tell him she finished his task. Was it something sexual? She specifically said she wasall tied upand that was the reason she couldn’t do dinner with me tonight.

I feel a little sick at the thought.

“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” my mother hisses at my father.

“There’s another lie.” He shakes his head. “Do you even knowhowto tell the truth?”

“What a lovely family reunion,” I mutter dryly.

“Come on, Christine. You told me the baby was someone else’s, and eighteen years later, that baby shows up looking for me…looking for the truth.” He slings an arm around my shoulders and draws me in close. “The truth that was kept from her for her entire life.”

“I was protecting her from the monster you are,” she says.

“You were protecting yourself from your own embarrassment. If you truly thought you were protecting her from me, you would’ve sent the checks I sent to help you with your child back rather than cashing them the moment they arrived.”

Cooper watches them like he’s watching a tennis match, his head bobbing back and forth between them, and I feel awkwardly sandwiched in the middle.

“Why are you here?” Troy asks. He drops his arm from around me.

“To make sure she knows the truth.”

“But whynow?” he presses, a question I’d love to hear the answer to as well. “Is it, oh, because I have an expansion draft next week and you want to try to ruin my life again? Or is it because you somehow found out I recently got engaged and I’m actually happy for once in my adult life?”

My mother sniffs as she juts her chin up high into the air. “It’s none of those things. Coincidences, if that. I want her to know the real man you are, and I want her to decide whether she wants to stay here or come home with me.”

It might be that moment when I realize just exactly how delusional my mother actually is.

Does she really think I’m going to give up everything I have going here in Vegas and head back to Colorado to be with her one semester shy of graduating from UNLV?

My dad turns to me. “I just want you to be happy, Gabriella.”

And that’s the crux of it, isn’t it? My mom wants to play games and put me in the middle, and my dad wants me to live my life and be happy.

I just want you to be happy.

How would he feel if I told him it’s his best friend that makes me happy?

I glance at Cooper, and his eyes are on me, but I can’t quite read what’s in them. Is he having the same thoughts I am about my dad’s words?

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