Page 64 of Vegas Heat

I’ve never been at a loss for words around Cooper, but right now…I’ve got nothing but a wish and a prayer.

He doesn’t say anything, either.

“Talk to me,” I finally say softly.

He blows out a breath, and when his eyes meet mine, that same torture is there, only it seems worse than before.

“This changes everything,” he says.

He’s right. He’s a megastar baseball player, and I’m his coach’s daughter.

But I don’t want it to change a thing.

“It doesn’t have to,” I protest. We can do this—we can hide it from my dad if we have to, but this can’t be the end.

It can’t be.

“It does. It’s straight up disrespecting one of my best friends—myboss. The man who pulled a lot of fucking strings to get me here. We can’t be together, Gabby. I’m so sorry.” His voice breaks as he says the words. “I need to get out of here.”

He gets up and strides out of the restaurant, and I’m left with the two glasses of orange juice and two cups of coffee the waitress delivers along with a whole host of questions…and worst of all, a broken heart.

CHAPTER 2: COOPER

I shouldn’t have walked out, but what the fuck else was there to do?

All I could think about were the ways we could try to make this work, but my stupid, logical brain kept showing me all the different reasons why it canneverwork.

I can’t play for a manager I’m lying to, and he’d never be okay with me dating his daughter.

It’s hisdaughter.

He’s a good friend of mine. One of the very few friends I feel like I can count on right now, at least in this town since he offered me a place to live along with the incredible opportunity to get back in the game.

I owe him a lot, and that has to start with my respect.

The man knows how I used to live my life before I got serious with Stacy, and for fuck’s sake, I know how he lives his, too.

It’s too messy, too complicated. Too ugly.

But the love I feel for her is the opposite of all that. It’s beautiful and simple and easy.

It’s the greatest thing I have in my life, maybe the greatest thing I’veeverhad in my life, and I’m making the decision to let it go.

I knew if I stayed in that restaurant one second longer, I’d break down in front of her, in front of the waitress, in front of every other patron in that place, and then you can bet your ass I’d end up as a fucking headline in the media with her sitting across from me. And you can bet your ass my boss would see it, and then we’d be in an even bigger mess than we are now.

We’re lucky that shit hasn’t happened already. We’re lucky we’re in Vegas where the people sitting beside us are too drunk or high or wrapped up in their vacations to realize Cooper Fucking Noah is in the house.

I want to be angry she never told me who her dad was, but it’s hard to be angry when I left a pretty big puzzle piece out of the conversation myself.

I guess I just want someone to blame, but other than myself…I keep coming up empty.

And so I allow myself to break down once I’m in the privacy of my truck. It feels like a death as the loss of what could have been starts to wash over me. I think I’m still in that state of shock.

When I took the hit that took me out of the game, I didn’t cry. The pain was too intense and I went into shock.

This pain feels worse.

At least with the injury, I knew what I was dealing with. I could take painkillers if I needed to, and they would help ease the pain.

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