Page 251 of Vegas Heat

So I zip my lip and head up to tee off, tuning them out. My ball goes right into the fucking bunker because now I’m thinking about Gabby and Jade’s brother and how none of this is okay.

“Look, Jade is lovely, but I just don’t want Gabby involved in any way with the club,” Troy says to Victor when I return to the cart and slide my club into my bag.

“She wouldn’t be unless Jade invites her brother for a preview night, which I highly doubt,” Victor points out.

Troy presses his lips together. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t know this kid. Do you?”

“You’ve got to let her go at some point, Troy,” Victor says softly.

I’m so torn on whether or not to insert my own opinion here. Yes, he should let her go. But he should let her go tome. No one else.

“Maybe that’s true. Or maybe I can spend a little more time protecting her since I missed out on the first eighteen years of her life.” He shrugs, and then he grabs his driver. Before he walks up to the course, he turns back to us. “Nobody’s ever going to be good enough for her, of course. But she’s only twenty-one. I’ve got a few more years before I need to worry about any of this shit.”

I fail to remind him thathewas her age when she was born. It’s irrelevant.

The point is…he’s never going to be okay withanybodydating his daughter, but least of all a thirty-three-year-old baseball player he callsfriend.

CHAPTER 27: GABBY

I tried calling Cooper, but to nobody’s surprise, he didn’t answer. He’s on the golf course with my father. Of course he didn’t answer. He couldn’t, and I didn’t expect him to.

It’s not like I was going to tell him over the phone. I just wanted to let him know I passed out again but I’m okay…or something along those lines. Maybe I just wanted to hear his voice to know that everything’s going to be okay.

I’m still sitting in my car staring at the steering wheel even though I got his text back that he couldn’t talk nearly fifteen minutes ago.

I think I’m numb. I’m not crying, but I’m also not smiling. I’m not exactly surewhatI’m feeling right now other than just a strange sense of numbness. Maybe my legs are falling asleep from sitting in the same position for so long.

I’m pregnant.

I guess it explains some of my moodiness lately. I got into that fight with Mia yesterday…was this why?

I don’t even know what this means.

It means sleepless nights staring down at rosy cheeks. It means changing diapers and caring for another human. I just helped with Ruby Sue when she was a puppy, but I have a feeling that having a baby isnothinglike having a puppy.

It means tough conversations when they get old enough to understand. It means deciding between sleeping in on a Saturday morning or taking the kid to soccer practice. It means learning how to live my life for someone else instead of for myself because I refuse to beanythinglike my mother was. It means loving somebody with your entire heart and soul, and itmeans sharing that love with the baby’s father. It means making decisions as a unit and making sacrifices for the ultimate gift in return.

I guess it also means I need to make an appointment with my gynecologist to confirm everything and make sure all’s going okay down there.

I set my hand on my stomach.

How can there be a baby in there that I didn’t know a damn thing about?

I just kept taking my pills, attributing any nausea or change in mood or soreness in my boobs and even a little bit of weight gain to the pill.

I skipped the placebo weeks so I wouldn’t get a period.

I had no idea there was a baby growing inside me.

I’m scared.

What sort of mother doesn’t know she’s pregnant? How could I not know? Am I going to be a terrible mother?

Scared doesn’t really even begin to define what I’m going through. Terrified, actually…yet knowing this is part me and part Cooper sends a single pulse of relief down my spine.

And then I remember that he’ll be gone for pretty much the next three years and I’ll be doing this by myself, so that pulse of relief is kicked out in favor of terror once again.

The reality hasn’t really hit me yet.

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