Page 192 of Vegas Heat

Regardless, I draw strength from his gaze before I turn to my mother. “What’s there to decide?” I ask softly. “My life is here now. Dad and I have grown close. I’ve made friends.” I nod toward Cooper. “I’m working an internship that might open big doors on my career. I’m happy here, Mom.”And I was never happy with you, but I’m thriving despite that.

I leave that last part out.

Silence falls over the room as we all await whatever she has to say to that.

When her words come, they’re the epitome of why I left Denver in the first place. “Of course you’re happy here. You have no responsibilities, and your father hands everything to you on a silver platter. You know, when I was your age, I had a two-year-old I had to care for as a single parent. I gave up everything to give you a good life, and you don’t even care.”

I set my hand on my hip, ready to defend myself, ready to tell her that I do, in fact, work hard and I do, in fact, have plenty of responsibilities, when I realize…I don’t have to.

It doesn’t matter what she thinks. I know the truth, and I’m happy with it. I drop my hand so I’m in a less defensive stance, and I keep it simple. “I’m sorry I ruined your life.”

She juts her chin up again. “I never said that.”

“You sure as hell implied it,” Cooper says, and I hear the venom in his tone. I glance over at him, and our eyes lock again. He seems to calm when he sees that I’m not upset.

I would have to respect her in order to be upset, and after all this time…I just don’t.

“Stay out of this,” she hisses at him.

“He’s been a great friend to me since he moved here, Mother. Don’t talk to him like that,” I say, and this time I can’t keep thedefensiveness out of my tone. It’s not her place to come here into my father’s house and disrespect his friend.

“What are your plans while you’re in town, Christine?” my dad asks her, clearly trying to save this whole fiasco.

“I figured I’d just stay with Gabby,” she says.

I blink at her a few times, completely dumbfounded. “You know I live with him,” I say, jutting my thumb toward my father. “I don’t think you’re exactly welcome to stay here.”

“She can stay here,” Troy says. “I’ve got work to do, and then I’ll be heading over to my fiancée’s house.”

“Hm,” my mother hums. “Abandoning your child to run off to another woman. Shocker.”

My dad just stares at her a long beat before he says, “I have work to do. If you’ll excuse me,” and he walks out of the room. Cooper shrugs and follows him, and I stand staring at my mother.

“Care to tell me what really went down between you two all those years ago?” I ask. “But, like, the truth this time?”

She lets out a long sigh. “You’ve heard the story before.”

“Tell me one more time.” I walk over to the couch and flop down, and I can’t believe she really thinks she’ll be staying here with us.

I don’t want her here.

I don’t even want her in Nevada.

“I’d just found out I was pregnant, and I’d planned to tell Troy after the game. He’d gotten me a seat just above the dugout, and there was another woman in my row who kept trying to get his attention. She told her friend how she’d been intimate with him, and after the game, she ran down to the dugout and hugged him. He was talking to his manager, and then he left without so much as a goodbye. He ghosted me, sweetheart. Is that what they call it? He didn’t call me, didn’t get in touch. As far as I knew, he ranoff with that other woman, and I was embarrassed and alone and filled with shame for what I allowed him to do to me.”

I know she’s leaving out parts of the story, and I assume they are parts my father will fill in later for me.

But one question remains: why is she herenow?

I suspect my father may be right. She wants to mess things up for him ahead of the draft, ahead of his wedding…and I pray that’s the answer, because if she’s not here to mess uphislife, she might be here to mess up mine.

And her next question confirms that hunch.

“So what’s really going on between you and that Cooper jerk?”

I blow out a breath.

Is it wrong to kick your mother out of your father’s house?

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