Page 2 of Vegas Heat

Baseball is in season, so my friends that still play the game are busy tonight. I know a few local football players, but they’re in preseason now and nobody’s available tonight—and a handful of them were at Troy’s club. I check in with a few other friends, but everyone’s busy.

I stare out the window at the flashing lights of Las Vegas Boulevard as we get closer to my hotel.

Could I really live here?

I was raised a Cubs fan in the suburbs of Chicago but chose to play for UCLA and eventually worked my way up from the minors to the Dodgers, where I played my entire seven-year career.

My mom is still back in the Chicago suburb where she raised me, but my life is in California now. I love San Diego even though it’s a little too close to my ex up in Los Angeles. I love what I’m doing now with StrongFitKids. I feel like I’m making animpact, and I’m working with kids—exactly what I wanted to do after I stopped playing the game.

But if I’m being honest, I’m also a little bored. I need something new and exciting to focus on.

There are certain things I wanted out of life by my age, and it feels like the decisions I’ve made along the way have prevented those things from happening.

I thought by nearly thirty-three I’d be married and have a few kids running around. Instead, I have zero prospects on the horizon. After a brutal end to a five-year relationship, I’m more than a little reticent to get back in the game. I just want to have a little fun.

I guess I’m reticent to get back into more than one game.

I wasn’t ready to be done playing ball, but when I dislocated my elbow and tore my UCL, I knew I had a long recovery ahead. The Tommy John surgery following my injury two years ago was a success, but it was only recently that I started to feel back to my old self again.

I’m nervous to pick up a ball, though.

My life is different now than it was then.

What if I reinjure it? What if I injure something else?

On the other hand, I could just ease myself back into both games. Maybe I need to look at it as a way to get a little fun and excitement back into what has become a rather monotonous existence.

It’s a risk, but everything in life is a risk. You either sit on the sidelines or play in the game.

And I think I want to play in the game again.

Talking with Troy tonight felt very much like I was in the right place at the right time.

Well, metaphorically. Coax isn’t really the right place for me, but Vegas very well could be.

I thank the driver and get out of the car. As I walk through the casino toward the bank of elevators, not sure what comes next now that I know I want to jump into not one but two games again, my eyes fall onto the blackjack tables. I glance ahead toward the high-limit area. I’m sure I could get a private table if I wanted one, but tonight…well, since I’m into playing games, I park my ass in the first chair I see and toss a few bills onto the table.

Game on.

CHAPTER 2: GABBY

“Happy Birthday!” my group of girls yells at me as we clink our glasses together. I chug down the champagne much faster than I should, but I’m fine.

It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve had champagne despite the fact that it’s my twenty-first birthday.

We just came from a club and took a quick detour at the casino bar for a glass of champagne before we head to the next club. “Let’s play blackjack,” I suggest, wanting to try everything I can now that it’s legal.

“I want to try the slots,” Cassie says, and a few of the other girls opt for the slots, too.

“I’ll come with you,” my best friend Mia says.

“Meet back here in a half hour?” I suggest, and everyone nods.

Mia and I head toward the first blackjack table with two open chairs we see, and there’s a super hot guy sitting there playing by himself.

“Mind if we join?” I ask the table in general since I don’t really know the etiquette. The man on the other side of the table doesn’t look up from his chips, and the dealer eyes Mia and me.

“IDs please,” the dealer says as we sit, and I reach into my wallet and proudly hand it over as Mia does the same.

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