Page 260 of Vegas Heat

I’m terrified for what’s coming next.

A gorgeous woman sits behind the counter, clearly pretending like she’s not listening to every word exchanged between Cooper and my father, and she glances up toward Joanie and me when we walk in.

My eyes are glued to Cooper, and the tension in here is thick. He doesn’t look at me—not right away.

The fear kicks up a few notches as my heart turns from pounding to thundering. It’s so loud I’m certain everyone in the room can hear it.

Cooper breaks the face-off with my father first as he blows out a long breath and runs a hand along his jaw. He stares down at the ground, still not looking over at me.

“Is there somewhere private I can speak with Gabby?” he asks my father.

“There’s an empty office upstairs.” He grunts the words then opens the door behind him. He leads the way up the stairs, and all four of us trudge up them toward the second floor. He opens another door, and we walk down a hallway. He nods toward a dark room, and Cooper goes in first, flipping a light switch.

I follow him in, and it feels very much like I’m in trouble.

“You can leave,” my father says to Joanie just before the door clicks shut behind us.

The office has furniture in it—a desk with a chair, a small leather couch, and a recliner, but otherwise it’s a vacant office.

I look at the couch since my legs feel like they’re about to give out, but I don’t sit—mostly because I’m waiting for Cooper to make a move first. I want him to pull me into his arms. I want him to pin me against the wall with his hips and kiss me the way he did back in the chapel, but instead he blows out another breath and runs his hand along his jaw again. He’s keeping his distance.

That’s not a good sign. My chest starts to ache as my body prepares for what’s coming.

He perches on the edge of the desk, and he won’t look at me.

“What’s going on? Did you talk to him?” I finally ask, breaking the silence because I can’t take it for another freaking second.

“I talked to him,” he says quietly, staring down at a spot on the carpet. “I told him how we met before I even knew he had a daughter. I told him how we fell in love before you knew I played ball. I told him how we tried to stay away but couldn’t. I told him how you are it for me, how you are the love of my life.”

His eyes finally lift to mine, and the pain in them tells me the rest of this conversation isn’t going to go the way I’ve been hoping.

“He told me I made a commitment to the team and I need to choose between that commitment and you. I…I don’t have a choice.” His voice breaks, and it kills a piece of me since it tells me what decision he’s already come to.

“There’s always a choice,” I interject softly.

He shakes his head, and I wish I knew what the hell my father said to him to cause him to act this way, but I don’t press. He’s made a decision.

Maybe he’d take a different route if he had all the facts, but blurting outI’m pregnantright now seems like it would just be a desperate attempt to hold onto something that he has alreadydetermined to be over, and I don’t even have a confirmation from my doctor yet anyway. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

It’s easy to say that to myself. It’s easy to pretend the reason I’m not telling him is because it’s not confirmed, or it’s because I don’t want to seem desperate.

It’s a little harder to admit that maybe I’m more like my mother than I ever thought I could be.

TO BE CONCLUDED IN BOOK 5, HARDBALL

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