Page 279 of Vegas Heat

I stare across the space at her. She’s as gorgeous as ever, but she’s wearing significantly less make-up than usual, and she’s in joggers and a Heat tee rather than her usual business professional attire.

She presses her lips together as her eyes flick down to my stomach. “Hey,” she says. She doesn’t ask the question I’m sure she’s thinking, but it’s not like I’m going to tell her. I won’t confess anything to her that I’m not ready to tell my father. I won’t make her keep more of my secrets.

“How are you?” I ask.

“I’ve been better.” She shrugs. “You?”

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been worse,” I admit, and I reach over to hug her.

“Cooper ended things?” she guesses.

I nod. “He wouldn’t tell me what my dad said to him, but I think my dad made him choose and he chose the game. Speaking of which, have you spoken to my father?”

She shakes her head. “I’ve tried. He won’t answer. He wouldn’t allow me to travel with the team. Mike’s heading up for a few days and promised he’d check in on him for me, but I hate not being there. I hate worrying. I hate not knowing where any of this stands.”

I reach over and grab her hand in mine. “I hate it, too.”

“Have you spoken to him?” she asks carefully.

“My dad?” I ask, and she nods. I shake my head. “No. He tried calling, but I can’t find it in me to want to hear what he has to say.”

“Oh, Gabby,” she says softly. She hugs me again. “You need to talk to him.”

“You’re only saying that because you want me to check on him.”

She shakes her head. “I’m only saying that because you center him, honey. You’re his entire world, and while it’s true we’re all worried about his heart and his stress levels, you both went far too long without each other to let this come between you.”

“If your father gave Troy an ultimatum that resulted in him dumping you, would you feel the same way?” I counter as I pull out of her embrace. I perch on the edge of her desk instead.

“It’s hard to say since that isn’t how things went down, but I know what I saw in you the night of his heart attack, and I know you shouldn’t waste time being mad when we all know we’re not guaranteed tomorrow.” She lifts her chin a little, and I wish Icould set the clock back to a few minutes before their wedding. I wish I could fix everything.

But I can’t, so my only option is to make it through each day until things start looking up again.

“Where are you staying?” I ask.

She presses her lips together. “At a friend’s house.”

“Come back home,” I say, practically begging. “I miss you. It’s so lonely there.”

“I miss you too, honey, but I can’t. It’s too hard.” She glances around the office as her eyes start to get misty. “I don’t even know if I can keep working here. He told me in no uncertain terms it’s over, and I’m not sure how I move forward when every part of my life was so assimilated with his.” She shakes her head. “I have family back in Wisconsin. I’m thinking about going there a while to figure things out.”

My own eyes get a little misty at her words. “I get it. Believe me, if anyone understands not wanting to be here, it’s me.”

She nods. “I know you do. And I wish things could be different, Gabby. Really. I enjoyed getting to know you, and I really felt like we were becoming a family.”

“So did I. And maybe there’s still hope.” I offer a shrug. My dad is upset at the lies, but maybe he can find a way to trust her again.

“For you, too,” she says. She gives me another hug, and then she walks out as I try to rationalize why it’s so easy to tell her there might be hope when I don’t believe it for myself for even a second.

CHAPTER 11: COOPER

I don’t think. I just react.

I leap to my left after I see the batter connect with the ball. It’s coming at probably a hundred miles an hour, and the last time I attempted to catch one of these, I sat out for the next three years.

Today, though, I catch that fucking line drive. It slaps into my glove, and I grab it and hurl it across the field to Danny on first base to get the double play to end the fourth inning.

The starters sit after that, but we gave a good enough effort in the first four innings that the relievers just have to keep the Padres from scoring.

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