Page 6 of Gamble (Black Light #38)

REAGAN

“ I ’m so jealous,” one of Reagan’s fellow nurses said as they were finishing the post-op activities for their last surgery of the day. “My husband used to whisk me away for long weekends, but that was before the kids. Have fun now while you can.”

Reagan knew Sandy meant well, but she just wasn’t in the mood to be all excited for their Vegas trip. The reason was, in part, that she’d outgrown the party city, and, more importantly, she wasn’t thrilled about it being another group trip.

She glanced at her watch. Tristan was supposed to pick her up in ten minutes.

Despite wishing they were headed north to Napa instead of East to Vegas, she was excited to see Tristan.

He’d been gone for almost two weeks for work.

Hell, she’d seen him about this often when she had still lived in Seattle and he’d just come to town every few weeks on his sales visits.

Moving to L.A. was supposed to bring them closer together.

But that was what this weekend was for.

The thought was still lingering when her phone started ringing. She glanced down to see Tristan’s face filling her screen.

“I was just thinking about you. Are you almost to the hospital?” she asked, smiling.

Reagan knew without him speaking there was a problem. She couldn’t even hear Tristan’s words over the booming boarding announcement on his end of the line.

“You’ll have to repeat that,” she said. When he didn’t, she asked, “Why does it sound like you’re still at the airport?”

“My flight had a delay.” I’m still in Phoenix. It makes little sense for me to come to L.A. I’m switching flights and will meet you in Vegas, instead.”

Stay calm, Reagan. His delayed flight didn’t anger her. That kinda thing happened, especially when you travel as often as Tristan did. What annoyed her was that he had to have known this hours before. He was supposed to have landed in L.A. five hours ago.

“Why are you just calling me now?” she asked, unwilling to ignore her aggravation with the change in plans.

Loud scratching sounds filled the call. “I’m having trouble hearing you, baby. I’ll tell you all about it when I see you, okay?”

No, it wasn’t okay. Had this been the first time their plans had been changed at the last minute, she would understand, but hell, she was a nurse who often got called into work for emergency surgeries, yet she had never once been the one who’d changed their plans.

Right on schedule, her ex-husband’s voice mocked her in her head. ‘You’re so rigid—incapable of going with the flow.’

Dammit.

“Okay, I guess that will work. We’re both about the same distance from Vegas and since you’re already at the airport, you should get there before me. Will you wait for me at the airport so we can share a ride to the hotel?”

“Sure! Text me your flight info so I can find your gate.”

Before she could remind him it was the same flight he was supposed to be taking with her, he’d said goodbye and hung up.

Reagan pushed down her rising anxiety. She could admit it. Her ex hadn’t been wrong. Last minute change of plans, especially when travel and flights were involved, stressed her out. Looking at her watch, she knew she had to get a move on.

She ran to the employee locker room and grabbed the packed suitcase she’d brought to work that morning.

Knowing she’d have some time at the airport before she had to board, she rushed through changing into her street clothes and pulled up the Uber app in the elevator on the way down to the employee exit.

The Friday afternoon traffic was even worse than expected and by the time her hired car hit the 405, it was a parking lot.

As her Uber driver inched them forward through traffic, Reagan’s second thoughts about this trip had morphed to third and fourth thoughts.

Her gut was screaming at her to have the driver just take her home.

Before she could chicken out, she dialed Meena’s number and was lucky enough that her best friend answered.

“Are you at your gate yet?” she asked.

“God, I wish. I’m still on the 405.”

“Damn, you’re cutting it close. I’m guessing Tristan picked you up late?”

Reagan heard Meena’s censure. Meena wasn’t a huge Tristan fan. She liked to say the only good thing he’d done was get Reagan to move to L.A.

“You could say that. I’m in an Uber.”

“What!? He didn’t flake on you again.”

Reagan noticed it wasn’t posed as a question.

“His flight was delayed in Phoenix. He’s meeting me at the gate in Vegas.”

“He knows you hate flying.”

That wasn’t true. She hated the stress of getting to the airport on time, but Reagan loved getting on planes where she could spend a few hours in the air and then get off in a new city or even country where they could speak a whole different language or use different money.

She loved exploring unknown places. But… flying to Las Vegas sucked.

The driver chooses that moment to surge forward, weaving between two enormous trucks, and amping Reagan’s anxiety higher. She tried to distract herself with the question she wanted Meena’s advice on.

“I’m thinking of just coming home.”

Silence met her on the other end of the phone.

“Meena?”

“I’m here. I’m thinking.”

“Okay… about?”

“You know I love you, right?”

Reagan knew where this was headed.

“Yes, and that’s why I called you. I need a Meena hard truth.”

Her best friend always told people what they needed to hear, even if they didn’t want to hear it at that moment. It was just one thing Reagan admired about her.

“I hate how the men you’ve spent time with have you no longer trusting your own judgement.”

Whoa. Where had that come from?

“I thought you were just going to tell me to come home.”

“And I’m tempted to, but that will not solve the root of your problem, Reagan.”

“And what exactly is my problem?” She tried her best not to sound defensive, but didn’t do a very good job of it.

“You are a beautiful, funny, smart, successful woman. You deserve to be treated like a queen, but you keep choosing these loser guys who walk all over you, and I hate it.”

The anxiety she’d been trying to ignore exploded into near panic. “I can’t do this right now.”

“Yes, I know and I am sorry. I just wish you could see yourself as I see you. You want my advice? Then I’ll tell you that as soon as you see Tristan, you need to sit him down and talk through all of the bullshit he’s been doing that hurts you.

He already proven he will not read your mind and unless you tell him, you’ll never know if he’s capable of changing for you or not. ”

Reagan swallowed down the lump in her throat. The driver was already giving her weird looks in the rearview mirror. She didn’t want to cry and make it worse.

Meena continued to fill the silence. “I wish I could just jump in a cab and meet you there, but I’ve got to work this weekend since I’m using my time off for our honeymoon. Are you going to be okay?”

Was she?

Of course she was. No one had died. She was going on a weekend getaway. She needed to suck it up and start having fun instead of feeling sorry for herself.

“I’ll be fine,” she got out. “We’re only a few miles from the exit. I should make it in time.”

“Okay… and I’ll be on shift most of the weekend, but I’ll monitor my phone. Call me if you need to talk, okay?”

“Okay… and Meena… thanks.”

“Anytime. Love you.”

The tires of the commuter plane hitting the tarmac in Las Vegas jarred Reagan out of her nap.

Despite wishing she was landing in Sacramento instead, a feeling of excitement made her look forward to getting off the flight.

She powdered her nose and put on fresh lip gloss just as they docked at the gate.

Pulling her cellphone out of her purse, she turned it on, hoping to see Tristan’s texts he was just a few feet away and waiting for her to deplane.

Text after text started flashing on her screen, incoming too fast to even read at first. As she pulled up her message app, she read the last text first.

I promise. I’ll be there before you wake up tomorrow morning.

WTF?

The people around her were already standing, grabbing their bags from the overhead bin, and ready to rush off to the fun that awaited them.

Reagan felt thankful for the window seat that allowed her to sit and read the seven texts she got during the flight.

Every one of them made her angrier than the one before.

Not only was Tristan not waiting for her, but he’d delayed his flight and would be coming in the next day.

He may have thought he was doing her a favor by arranging for his friends Jeff and Jules to meet her at the airport for the drive to The Bellagio, but Reagan would rather have just taken a cab.

She wasn’t a fan of theirs on the best of days and today was not shaping up as one of the best.

Resisting the urge to beeline to the nearest ticket agent to change her flight back home to tonight, Reagan wound her way through the airport to the door Tristan had arranged for her to be picked up.

Just hearing the dings and dongs coming from the plethora of slot machines lining the airport hallways triggered her, reminding her of their first stressful trip to Las Vegas.

A wall of heat enveloped her the second she left the air-conditioned terminal.

She threw on her sunglasses to shield the bright sunshine, grateful they would also hide the tears she was fighting back as an internal war waged inside her.

Her brain was screaming at her to go back home tonight, but her heart hurt at the thought of giving up on yet another relationship.

As the minutes ticked by, the urge to leave increased. She was just about to go inside when a fancy sports car roared to a stop just in front of her. Jules rolled down the front passenger window and called out, “Get in!”

Not ‘hello.’ Not ‘good to see you again, Reagan.’

She stood there feeling like an idiot, trying to figure out where they intended her to get in as it was a two-door car. Realizing her dilemma, Jules huffed and got out, leaning down to release the seat to make room for Reagan to crawl into the non-existent backseat.

Feeling like a klutz, Reagan poured herself into the seat just as Jules crashed the seat back into place and slamming the door closed.

Jeff’s heavy foot had them jutting out into the busy weekend traffic before Reagan even got settled. She didn’t enjoy riding with aggressive drivers under normal circumstances, and today his jerky starts and stops were giving her a headache.

“Did Triston give you the good news?” Jules called out to her from the front seat, shouting loud enough to be heard over the blaring music.

“I don’t consider him delaying his arrival good news,” Reagan bit back.

“Not that, silly. We found out there is a televised poker tournament in town this weekend. Jeff got us invites to the pre-tourney cocktail party tonight in the casino. There should even be free booze during happy hour. Tristan is missing out by coming tomorrow.”

Fucking great. This was turning into the same disaster as her first trip to Vegas with his friends. They all knew damn well she hated being cooped up in the smoky casino when there were so many other amazing things to do in town.

“Yeah, well, I have a bit of a headache,” she warned, setting the stage for skipping going to the party with them tonight.

If Tristan was going to delay his arrival and make plans he knew she would hate, then the least she could do was spend tonight soaking in a hot bath and enjoying room service on his tab.

Jeff almost crashing into a bright red classic convertible pulled Reagan out of her thoughts. The blare as he laid on the horn took her growing headache to the next level.

“Get out of the way, you old man!” Jeff shouted as he flipped the driver off.

“They shouldn’t let people like that have a license,” Jules added.

Reagan bit back the words, not wanting to point out Jeff’s dangerous driving. As they pulled up alongside the car, Reagan glanced over to see the man behind the wheel smiling, not bothered at all by Jeff’s immature road rage.

From her vantage point, she could see Jeff motioning something to the guy in the front seat.

At first, she was scared they’d try to escalate things, but the attractive older man in the car ignored them.

Jeff floored the gas pedal and took off into the rush-hour traffic at a much too fast pace to suit Reagan.

By the time they got to the circular drive of the Bellagio’s grand entrance, the wisp of a headache had grown into a throbbing ache. She couldn’t wait to get to the privacy of her own room to decompress and reflect on just how she got to this point in her life.