Page 282 of Vegas Heat

Me:Sure. See you at 6:30.

She responds with a party horn emoji expressing her excitement.

I make some dinner and settle into another movie with Ruby Sue, and I fall asleep on the couch.

I wake up at five in the morning and get a little work done before I head over to the gym. It's crowded as it always is at this time in the morning, but considering Kaylee is married to the owner, we tend to get preferential treatment here.

Kaylee is standing by the doorway when I walk in, and she squeezes me into a tight hug.

I can’t help it. I burst into tears.

“Oh, friend,” she consoles me softly. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Thanks,” I manage. I draw in a deep breath as I force the sobs away before this gets real ugly in here. “I keep waiting for it to get easier, to stop hurting so much…but it’s just not.”

She lets me out of the hug and keeps her arm around my shoulders. “I’ve been there, and maybe there’s still hope. I thought it was over with Ben, but we found our way back to each other. You know, once he got his head out of his ass.”

I can’t help a small laugh at that.

“But I have to tell you, I felt the same way you're feeling right now when it was over with him. It felt like there was a weight so heavy on my chest I couldn't breathe. You two will find your way back, too.”

“I just don't see a way.” I shake my head sadly. “He chose the game over me. He's had the game since he was five years old. He's only had me since August.”

“Love makes men do crazy things, babe.” She side squeezes me.

“Yeah,” I whisper. “I just wish it was his love for me that made him do the crazy thing and not his love for the game.”

“I have faith you two will figure this out,” she says as we walk through the gym toward the classrooms at the back. “I knowCooper pretty well, and I’ve gotten to know you well, too. You two belong together, so keep your chin up and keep the faith. Now let's go sweat our asses off and make ourselves feel better.”

I nod and follow her to the kickboxing room where a session is just about to get started.

“Oh,” I stammer. “Can we, uh, do something else this morning?”

Her brows knit together. “No kickboxing? But that’s, like, ourthing.”

I nod. “I know. I’m just feeling maybe treadmill or cycling today. I haven’t done kickboxing in months and I’m out of shape.” It’s a feeble excuse.

She studies me for a beat, and my heart races. I feel like she can see right through me, but she doesn’t say anything about my reasoning. Instead, she just nods. “Sure. Whatever you want, girlfriend.”

We head over to the treadmills, and I can’t help but think I just dodged a bullet.

But I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep the baby from Kaylee, and once she finds out, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep it from Cooper, either.

CHAPTER 13: COOPER

When I walk out of the locker room and to the bus lot, a flurry of reporters waits. It’s par for the course, but today, they’re all yelling my name.

And there’s more of them than usual.

And they’re snapping my photograph and getting up in my face.

We just lost a game thanks to a catch I missed. I struck out at battwice, and I never touched a base today. It was a shit game, and I’m sure they want to know why I played so poorly.

The last thing I feel like doing right now is answering questions about why I suck.

But nope. It has nothing to do with the game or the way I played. It has everything to do with my personal life.

“What can you tell us about Stacy Earnhardt?”

---