Page 285 of Vegas Heat

Normally I wouldn’t care. People can say shit about me all they want and I just brush it off. But I never cared so much about somebody else before, and this is something that would hurt her to see.

It’s me with my arm around another woman as we laugh together.

“Nothing happened,” Danny assures me.

We’re not kissing. We don’t even look that close, but it’s clear it was taken by an insider and sold to this gossip site.

And I can bet who the fuck took the photo.

“That fucking intern,” I mutter.

Troy’s eyebrows dip as he looks up at me. “The intern?”

I hiss out a breath. I didn’t want to get into this with Troy, but here we are. “He’s dating Gabby’s friend Mia, and he doesn’t like that Gabby’s a shoe-in for the social media position. He thinks it’s not because she’s the best person for the job, but because she’s related to you, and he and some of the other interns don’t like it.”

“Is that why I haven’t seen Mia around lately?” he asks.

I shrug. “Could be. Or could be that you’ve been too busy to notice.”

He glares at me a little, but I don’t care.

“I don’t want Gabby to see these,” I mutter.

“They’re everywhere, Cooper. I don’t think she’ll be able to avoid them,” Troy counters. “But I’ll take care of the intern, that little shit.”

I think about asking what he’s going to do, but that’s when I realize…I don’t care.

And as much as I wish I could get ahead of this, I can’t. It’s already out there for the world to draw their own conclusions, and my only option is to keep my head down and forge on ahead. “So am I getting ready to play or am I sitting out?”

“Get your uniform on,” Troy says gruffly, and then he walks out without another word.

CHAPTER 14: GABBY

Me:I’ll finish out the month but once the team is back, I won’t be able to continue working at the stadium. I’m also withdrawing my name from the interviews for the social media position. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.

I click send, and my message goes through the airwaves to land somewhere on Joanie’s phone. I don’t know where she is, and she wasn’t in again today.

But those pictures were sure all over the damn place.

Cooper smiling. Cooper laughing. Cooper tossing his arm around some woman who’s still pretty young but not quite so young as me.

It’s too painful to be here even when he’snothere moving on in front of my face. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to witness it all in person.

Screw that. I’m out.

I text Kaylee next.

Me:I just gave Joanie my notice and I took my hat out of the ring for the SM position.

She told me to keep her updated, and here we are.

I head toward the bar next since that’s where the other interns have gathered after a long day of work. We’re prepping for the season now, which means we’re open to the public and giving tours on a daily basis. Justin has led the majority of them, and for someone who claims to dislike baseball the way he does, he sure enjoys giving the stadium tours.

I collapse into the booth beside Justin, who’s now squished in the middle between Brian and me. Brian may no longer be an intern, but he and Justin are still going strong. At least I thinkthey are. I’ve been sort of wrapped up in my own drama to have really taken notice.

Chloe is across the table with Mackenzie beside her, and Mackenzie glares at me a little.

I glare back, and then I announce, “I withdrew my name from the social media manager interviews just now.”

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