Page 36 of Vegas Heat

“She’s gorgeous,” she says. “Those eyes…wow. So pretty.” She looks over at me. “And your smile, Coop. It’s genuine. It’s the first genuine smile I’ve seen out of you with a girl…maybe ever.” She studies the picture again, and then she looks back at me. “I like her with you. You complement each other really well.” She hands the phone back and clears her throat. “How old did you say she was?”

I let out a long, deep sigh. “Twenty-one.”

“Twenty-one?” she shrieks.

“Twenty-one,” I confirm.

“Cooper Michael Noah! You’re robbing the cradle!”

“Oh my God, Mother. Stop it. I am not.” Keeping true to character, my tone is even rather than defensive. “She’s legal.”

“Barely,” she mutters. “What does she want with an old man like you? Money? She wants a sugar daddy?”

“Mom!” Okay, maybe I’m getting alittledefensive. “It’s not like that. I taught her how to play blackjack, and it was herbirthday, so she invited me to the club. We danced, and then we talked, and then we spent the night together. We ate breakfast, we went up the Eiffel Tower, we got to know one another. It was a perfect weekend, and I won’t let you sit here slandering it and vilifying me.”

“Is she still in school?” she asks quietly.

I nod. “She’s studying marketing.”

“And you’re getting back in the game?”

I know where she’s going with this. “Yes.”

“You don’t think the press is going to have a field day with you dating someone half your age?”

“Half my age would be sixteen,” I say dryly.

“Almost sixteen and a half,” she points out. “Meanwhile, she’s only five years beyond that.”

“Half plus seven is the old saying, isn’t it?”

Her brow crinkles. “Yes, exactly. Half plusseven. Not half plusfive.”

I blow out a breath. “I don’t care about her age. You shouldn’t, either.”

“She’s almost twelve years younger than you, darling. When Dad died, she wasn’t even born yet. When you went into high school, she wastwo. When you went into college, she was starting first grade. When you hit the minors, she was in fifth grade. It’s a wide gap, baby boy.” Her tone is gentle even though her words are harsh.

“You don’t think I’ve thought of that? And I keep coming back to the same thing. It. Doesn’t. Matter. All that matters is how she makes me feel, and I’ve never felt like this with anybody else.” The passion in my voice surprises even myself.

“Okay, then, honey. I’ll give this a chance.” She takes a quick sip of her merlot. “But only because you really do seem a little different to me. You really do seem like you made someconnection, and I just want you to be happy. But I want you to be happy while you’ve ensured you’ve fully thought this through.”

“Thanks, Mom. I will make sure to do that.” I say the words to brush her off, but the truth is clear. I’ve already thought it through, and I can’t wait until the moment Gabby is back in my arms.

CHAPTER 16: GABBY

“Have you thought about an internship for your senior year?” Dr. Foley, my academic advisor at UNLV, asks.

I shake my head. “Not yet. When do I need to have that lined up?”

She glances at the calendar in front of her. “By February first, so you have lots of time, but some students have already started finding them and they’ve started working.” She lifts a shoulder. “Something to think about. You’ll just have the internship and your Marketing Policies course remaining.”

“I’ll find something.” Now that I think about it, I bet I could work with my dad. I’ll have to ask him, but he’s been gone a lot the last few weeks.

My meeting lasts all of five minutes, but it’s the kickoff to school starting in just two short weeks. My advisor reviewed my schedule for this semester, which is intense but not horrible as I finally get to focus on the courses I’ve always been interested in taking: Marketing Planning and Analysis, Global Consumer Behavior, Leadership and Management Skills, and Business Marketing. It should be both a challenging and interesting semester of classes, and I overloaded my previous semesters so I could take a slightly lighter schedule my senior year.

That way I can enjoy it, too.

And I’m hoping I get to enjoy it with Cooper around.

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