Page 73 of Vegas Heat

Jesus. This guy can really lay it on thick.

“Oh, Dad, I—” Gabby begins, her eyes as wide with horror as mine certainly must be, and a knock at the door interrupts her sputtering.

We all swing our eyes toward the knocker, and sure enough, there stands Kaylee Olson…one of my best friends in the whole world. My chest warms despite the cold breeze that’s been blowing in there all morning.

I stand and stride across the room, taking her in my arms and squeezing her tight.

“Whoa, Coop,” she says when I swing her around, and then she laughs when I set her down. “Chill, dude.”

I chuckle along with her, and I spot Gabby at the table shooting eye daggers at Kaylee. It’s only then I realize Gabby must not know Kaylee is happily married and we’re nothing more than friends, but somehow my heart lifts a little knowing that she’s jealous.

It’s wrong to feel that way, but I can’t help how I feel.

“This is Kaylee,” I say by way of introduction to everyone gathered. I toss my arm around her shoulders, and it feels like a little piece of home having her here with me. “Kaylee, this is Troy Bodine, his daughter Gabriella, and Joanie, the head of marketing here at the stadium.” I nod toward Kaylee. “Kaylee is local and she’s been incorporating StrongFitKids into the Tight Fit fitness clubs,” I explain. “She’s overworked andoverwhelmed, so I thought we could add a little more to her plate.” That gets a rousing round of laughter out of everyone in the room barring Gabby, but I’m sure in my conversations with Gabby since we met, I’ve talked about what a good friend Kaylee is to me.

Another knock at the door interrupts us again, and a punk-ass twenty-something kid with his jeans sagging down too low stands there wearing a Spongebob t-shirt like he couldn’t be bothered to dress up for work today. What a dick.

“Justin,” Joanie says. “Great timing.”

This is the really smart intern? He looks like a douche. He doesn’t even have any facial hair. He’s probably too damn young to grow any. Hasn’t hit puberty yet.

Okay, fine. I’m a little cranky today.

But then his eyes fall over to Gabby. His brows arch a little in surprise that a sexy woman like Gabby is in the room with the rest of us, but he maintains his cool. Still, I saw it. I saw his interest piqued. And I want to fucking rage on the kid.

I stare at Gabby as I await her reaction, and her eyes are down on the table. They dart to mine before moving to Justin, and she offers him a warm smile.

The kind of warm smile she used to reserve for me.

Is she…is sheinterestedin this guy?

Or is she trying to make me jealous?

“Everyone, this is Justin,” Joanie says, and then she moves around the table introducing us as Kaylee takes a seat beside me.

She gives me wide eyes like she’s trying to communicate something with me, but I’m too distracted to pick up on her message. We’ll talk later.

“So where were we?” Joanie asks.

Troy jumps in on that one. “Cooper is interested in organizing a StrongFitKids sponsored kids’ section at the stadium. Coop, would you like to expand on that?”

“StrongFitKids is an organization whose focus is to provide health, fitness, and athletic information to assist kids in building active and healthy lifestyles,” I say, reciting the script I’ve committed to memory over the last year. “My idea in conjunction here with the Heat is to sponsor a kids’ play area. I’m envisioning some sort of play structure with slides and climbing walls, a circuit with different kid-friendly exercises, some batting cages, maybe some tees or a catching station, things like that.”

Kaylee’s eyes light up. “We have the program in place at Tight Fit, the fitness clubs run by Ben Olson of the Vegas Aces, and we would absolutely love to partner with the Vegas Heat to create a fun and engaging area for children who come to the games.”

“Don’t we want the attention on the game?” Justin asks.

God, this kid. What a fucking asshole. Yes, Justin, we want attention on the fucking game. I barely refrain from rolling my eyes.

“Well, what about those antsy kids who were dragged to the game by their parents?” Kaylee points out. “Kids can’t sit through a three-hour ballgame, and trust me, anyone old enough to have children would understand that.” God, I could kiss Kaylee for putting this kid in his place. She moves her gaze from Justin over to Joanie. “We could provide additional resources for parents who want to watch the game, and the focus would be there while they are assured their kids are safely having a good time in another section of the same ballpark.”

“I love it,” Troy says first, nodding at me before waiting for Joanie’s thoughts.

“I think it’s a great idea, too,” Joanie says, and I can’t help but wonder if she really does or if she’s doing what Troy tells her to do.

It doesn’t matter. Either way, punk-ass jackass has been put in his place, and I’m getting what I want out of this, too. Except for one thing…

“So here’s what we’ll do,” Joanie says. “I’ll draw up some paperwork and we’ll enter negotiations. I’ll arrange a meeting between Cooper and Kaylee with my team as well as ballpark operations to work on the physical design of the space, and we’ll have Justin and Gabriella as our main interns on the project. Sound good?” She raises her brows at Troy, which is interesting to me given that he’s the team manager.

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