Page 194 of Vegas Heat

She lifts a shoulder. “No idea. Until I agree to go back with her?”

My brows draw together.

“Don’t worry,” she says. “That will never happen. My life is here. It’s with you, even though we’re hiding it. I don’t want to hide it anymore.”

“I don’t, either. Let’s just tell your dad.”

She sighs heavily. “The expansion draft is a week away, and I know he’s stressing about that. Let’s tell him after the draft.”

I nod, and then I lean across the armrest and press a soft kiss to her lips to seal the promise. She grabs the back of my head and holds on for a beat. We don’t deepen the kiss, don’t intensify it. It’s not urgent and needy like they usually become, but it’s a sweet expression of the love that’s grown between the two of us.

“Are you sure you can’t come in for a little while?” I ask softly, leaning my forehead against hers. I want to deepen it. I want to intensify it. I want to give her everything I’m feeling as we let our bodies speak in the language they’ve perfected over the last two months.

“I wish I could.” She pulls back and brushes a tear away, and my heart breaks for her.

“You can, Gabby. You’re an adult, and she can no longer control what you do.”

She lets out a little snort. “I wish that were true. But if we’re keeping this thing under wraps from my dad, then we need to play her game until she leaves.”

I nod, forcing myself to hold my thoughts about that in. I will support her in whatever way she needs me to. “I love you.”

“I love you.” She leans over for one more kiss, and then I jump out of her truck. She speeds away, and I can’t help but wonder what sort of hell she’s heading back into.

CHAPTER 40: GABBY

When I get back home, my mother is waiting in my room. On my bed. Like we’re going to have some sort of sleepover or something.

I sigh as I walk into the room that should be a sanctuary and instead has turned into some strange nightmare.

When I left Denver, I didn’t look back.

It’s not like my childhood wasallbad, but once I learned the truth about my mother, I knew that not only had my entire life been a lie, but my relationship with my mother had been incredibly toxic.

I knew she did the best she could, but I also can’t say I’ve missed my life with her since I moved to Vegas.

It was hard at first as my dad and I got to know one another and I was starting school away from pretty much everything I’d ever known, but I found a good group of friends pretty quickly. My relationship with my father grew while I found myself busier and busier—oftentimes too busy to make the call back home to my mother. We grew apart while the people here became my family, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been—in particular since I first met Cooper.

But seeing my mother lounging on my bed like she belongs here seems to negate everything I’ve worked so hard for.

She’ll tell me I’m wrong for wanting to be here. She’ll make me feel like I’ve made all the worst possible decisions. She’ll spout more lies about my father.

And I don’t want to hear any of it. I don’t want to deal with any of it. Whatever issues she has with my father are between the two of them.

“So tell me about this woman your father proposed to,” she says flippantly as I walk in.

I blow out a breath, and I collapse onto my desk chair since I don’t want to share the bed with her. “I don’t really think it’s any of your business.”

“Of course it is!” She sits up and stares at me in horror. “You’re my daughter! She’s going to be your stepmother! I deserve to know these things.”

She doesn’t deserve anything, but I tell her anyway. “She’s a lovely woman who I’ve grown very close to over the last couple months. She’s the head of marketing for the Vegas Heat, and she—”

“She’s the head ofmarketing?” she practically screeches. She shakes her head, and she mutters something under her breath that sounds like, “That should’ve been me.”

“From what I know, she achieved the job on her own without Troy’s assistance.”

She purses her lips and rolls her eyes. “Right. Just like how you got the internship on your own merit. You know, when I was your age, I was taking classes toward a marketing degree myself. I had to give it all up when I got pregnant.”

I clench my jaw as tightly as I can before an inappropriate retort comes flying out of my mouth, and then my mouth opens anyway. “I’m so sorry I ruined your life.” I spit the words out as I stand. “Why are you here? Did you just come to make everyone miserable? Go back to Denver. Go home, and leave us the hell alone.” I grab my purse and storm out of the room.

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