Page 254 of Vegas Heat

Captain:I can’t wait. You’ll be gorgeous in your dress and even more gorgeous when I take it off you later. [water droplets emoji] [eggplant emoji]

My cheeks heat at his words and his dirty emojis.

Me:Looking forward to it, Captain. [firecracker emoji]

Time seems to slow down, and a strange sense of nervousness sets in as the clock slowly ticks closer and closer to five.

I eat my bagel along with the cream cheese when I realize I’m being silly, and I eat some finger sandwiches Joanie catered in, and I eat a huge salad. And some cookies. And another bagel. And some yogurt. I can’t seem to get full, and now I understand why.

A make-up artist comes in and works a miracle on me, and then it’s finally time to go. The nerves kick into high gear, or maybe it’s butterflies. I’m holding onto a brand-new secret that only two people in the entire world know about—the doctor at the urgent care and myself.

Secrets have a way of revealing themselves, though, and I wish I would’ve had the foresight to believe that long before the moment when it became too late.

CHAPTER 29: COOPER

I take a quick shower after golf and head toward the Bellagio. Troy reserved a suite, and all the tuxedos are over there for us to get dressed. But before that, he wanted to hit the blackjack tables for a bit, so I head straight for the high-limit room.

He’s already sitting there with Victor, and a pile of chips sits in front of both men. I slide into the seat on Troy’s left, and I wait until they both lose a hand at the same time before I set some money on the table and join in.

As I sit, I can’t help but remember sitting at a blackjack table last August and my entire life changing when a beautiful woman sat down at the same table as me.

It’s funny how life works in mysterious ways, and I know now that she sat there because she was meant to be in my life. If it wasn’t that night at that table, then it would have been when I showed up at Troy’s house. It was inevitable that we’d find each other, but the way it played out is one of the things I love most about our story—that we fell in love long before we knew so many things about each other, and that we stayed in love even after we found them out.

Troy’s drinking whiskey and Victor’s starting on a glass of gin, so when the waitress comes by, I order a Miller Lite. Troy gives me a look like beer is for animals, but I like what I like and I’m not about to be judged by my friend.

“Have you ever been married?” Victor asks me, and I shake my head.

“I was with someone for five years who pushed hard for it, but I knew it wasn’t right.” But the woman I’m with now…she’s right. “You?”

He nods. “Twice, and I’m probably stupid enough to do it again.”

Troy laughs. “Way to sell the concept of marriage on a man’s wedding day.”

Victor shrugs. “I believe in the institution. I don’t regret either of my marriages, and if the right woman comes along and we agree we both want to make that commitment, then we will.”

“Not Jade?” Troy presses.

Victor laughs. “No, not Jade. She’s a little…”

“Young?” Troy supplies.

Victor shoots him a look. “You’re one to talk. Isn’t Jazz half your age?”

“She is half my age, but she’s not the woman I’m marrying. She’s one of the ones Sapphire and I played with to spice things up.” Troy shrugs as if it’s totally normal to say that—to invite other women into his bed with his future wife. “That’s what you do with the young ones, right? You play, but you marry the ones who are more in line with where you are in life.”

“And that’s Joanie for you?” Victor asks. “She’s still quite a bit younger than you, right?”

“Seven years. But we’re both established in our careers. We both had our own thing before we met each other,” he says.

I think about those words and what, exactly, he means by them. Would he dismiss what Gabby and I have because we’re not both established? Because we didn’t really have our own things before we met?

Somehow our paths have started to align. I’m not sure if she wants the social media manager position with the Heat so she can work closely with me, or with her father—or even with Joanie, or if it’s because it’s a marketing position that she really wants. Does she have herown thingas Troy just said, or are our paths aligning becauseweare aligning?

It doesn’t matter to me. I love her either way. But I’m also trying to answer the questions that are sure to come up before they get asked. I want to be fully prepared when we deliver our news.

I’m still not quite sure how we’ve let so much time pass without telling him. Some mix of fear and bad timing, I guess. Every time we’re ready to take the leap, another obstacle jumps in our path, or Gabby isn’t ready because of the fear of rejection she lives with every single day.

Whatever the case, time is running short now.

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