Page 158

Time flies when you’re having fun, right?

And somehow, time has flown by at a breakneck pace.

It slowed significantly once I arrived in California to spend time at the vineyard where the Aces hold our first two weeks of training camp. The two weeks were grueling both physically and mentally. It’s hard fighting my best friends for my place on the field. If I’m starting, that means Travis probably isn’t. Josh Nolan and I were the predetermined starters, but the first two weeks of camp have allowed us to keep those jobs intact.

But I’m a little worse for the wear because of it.

I’m thankful for the intensity I put into my pre-camp workouts. Some guys are in a lot worse shape than me, but I’m still sore. I’m still exhausted. I still know we have more weeks of camp and exhibition games before the season officially kicks off and the real fun begins.

We have one day off to heal before the intensity starts up again, and I plan to spend every second I can with my new wife. We didn’t have nearly enough time celebrating our union before I had to leave, and now that I’m back, I have big plans to make up for it.

As the plane touches down back in Vegas, I feel that sense of home again.

Our physical home might not be ready quite yet, but wherever Tessa is…that’s home. And it always will be.

She’s adapted well to Vegas, and she fits right in with the group who has welcomed us into not just their home, but their lives. And when I burst through the front door, she stands there waiting with our baby in her arms and a smile on her face.

“Welcome home, husband,” she says softly, and I press a soft kiss to her lips, to the baby’s forehead, and then a longer one to Tessa’s mouth.

I lean my forehead down to hers. “God, I missed you, wife,” I murmur.

“I missed you, too,” she says. She hands me Fallon, who’s awake. She looks different already. She’s a little over two months old, and in the last two weeks, she’s grown. Her little cheeks are fuller, she seems longer, and I already feel like I’ve missed so much.

But I’m back now. I still have the long hours of training camp here at home in front of me, but at least I get to come home to my girls at the end of the day.

“How’s the hamstring?” she asks.

“So far, so good,” I say. “But I will always take a massage from my favorite nurse.”

“I’ll give you more than a hamstring massage,” she says, and she winks.

I laugh. That’s my girl, and that gives me an idea. “Hey, I have tomorrow off…you want to go out tonight?”

She narrows her eyes at me. “Where?”

“I could take you to a nightclub, or we could go dancing, or…” I lower my voice and whisper close to her ear since we’re in the Daltons’ foyer. “I could have you sign an NDA and take you as a guest to Coax.”

Her brows draw together, and then a look of total curiosity flashes in her eyes. “The NDA,” she demands.

I laugh. I guess I’m taking my girl to Coax. “Get ready for a very interesting evening.”

She squirms a little. “After two weeks away from you, I think we might need to get one of the private rooms for ourselves.”

I raise a brow. “Deal.” And then I text Heidi and ask her to put me on the list for a private room for tonight…for at least a two-hour block.

I’m nervous to take her there. I haven’t been back there myself in months—not since Tessa and I got together, and I feel like this will be a completely different experience than the other times I’ve gone.

I don’t bother asking Travis, Jaxon, or Cory if they’ll be there. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t, but tonight is about reconnecting with my wife after way too long apart.

“Tristan is taking me out tonight. Any chance you can watch Fallon?” I hear Tessa ask Ellie as I walk up the stairs with my duffel bag.

“Of course. You two kids have fun,” Ellie says.

I chuckle. If only she knew where we were going.

Maybe we should tell her. She and Luke seem like the type who would enjoy a night of fun there, but some secrets are better kept…well, secret. Especially from my publicist, who would surely try to talk me out of going there, let alone being an actual paid member.

I drive, and when I pull up out front and put the car in park, I glance over at her.

Her brows are knit together in confusion. “This…isn’t what I was expecting.”

“What were you expecting?”

She lifts a shoulder. “I don’t know. But this just looks like a house. A mansion, really, but still. Not a… sex club .”

I chuckle. “It’s more than a sex club. Yes, that takes place here, but it’s a safe place for people with means to hang out. No paparazzi. No cell phones. Fewer worries than your average nightclub, you know?”

She nods, and I walk around to help her out of the car. She chose a tight black dress that shows off her delicious curves in the most mouthwatering way, and I can’t wait to peel it off her, toss it on the floor, and satisfy the need that has been coursing through me for two long weeks.

We greet Rodney at the doorway, and he sends us in with a friendly greeting. Heidi’s at the reception desk as usual, and she takes our phones along with Tessa’s signed NDA. She informs us that Troy is our host tonight.

Tessa glances at me as if to ask Troy who? She probably has about a million other questions just like I did the first time I came here, and I’m ready to show her what this place is all about.

With that in mind, I open the door and lead my wife into the club.