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“We decided to get married before we leave for spring training. The wedding is tomorrow,” my dad announces as if I don’t already know.

I force my jaw to drop open. “What?” I gasp dramatically.

“Life’s too short to wait,” my dad says, looking lovingly at his future bride.

Life’s too short to wait . You’d think maybe by this point I might’ve picked up on that lesson myself considering everyone around me is getting pounded with it, but here we are.

Another opportunity to tell him poof ! Gone.

“Congratulations!” I say, hugging both of them. “This is so exciting! What do you need me to do?”

“Do you have a black dress?” Joanie asks.

I nod. “It’s a staple in any woman’s wardrobe, am I right?”

She laughs. “You’re absolutely right. Wear it with black heels tomorrow. That’s all I need you to do.”

“But I’m your maid of honor! Surely you have other duties for me!”

“I do. I’ve decided to have a low-key bachelorette evening with a few of my closest friends, so we’re just going to do dinner at Desmonds. I’d love for you to be there,” she says.

“I would love to,” I lie. In truth, I’d rather be curled up under a blanket watching Netflix with Cooper in front of his fireplace with my cozy socks on, or, you know, walking through hot lava rather than listening to Joanie and her girlfriends discuss whatever it is people discuss the night before they get married, but I guess that’s not in the cards tonight.

“I have my own party to attend,” my dad says, standing and planting a kiss on Joanie’s lips. “You ladies have a lovely time at dinner.”

“I’ll see you after,” Joanie says.

My dad nods once, and he raises a brow. “Room three-oh-eight, say…eleven?”

She offers a sly smile. “Three-oh-nine at eleven.”

Oh God. I don’t even want to know what they’re talking about, but my stomach turns over at the thought of the three being the third floor at my dad’s club. And the eight or nine…is that, like, in front of other people versus behind closed doors?

My stomach twists back at that new thought, and I push it away.

“Well, I’m going to go freshen up before we head out to dinner,” I announce, my voice a little louder than I intend for it to be, but something’s got to break up the weird sexual energy in here. I bolt out of the room, change my clothes, fix my face, and chug some water because whatever twists they just made my stomach do have not straightened out yet.

I drive separately from Joanie since she’s heading to dear ol’ Dad’s club afterward, and we pull into the parking lot at the same time.

Is this weird?

Absolutely.

But I’m doing it for my dad. I’m happy he’s happy, and I’ve grown close to Joanie over the last couple months.

A small group of women waits in a private room for us, and I’d peg them all to be in their early-to-mid-thirties like Joanie. And like Joanie, they’re all gorgeous, blonde, and probably members of the same club she belongs to. She introduces them as Jade, Raven, and Amber, and I can’t help but wonder if she met them at the club or if she knew them before.

“This is Gabby…Troy’s daughter,” Joanie says pointedly as she sets a hand on my shoulder, introducing me in a way that tells them not to talk about the club in my presence.

Maybe it’s just my imagination.

We sit, we look at the menu, and the ladies all order wine…except for me. My stomach is still in knots, and I’m not really in the mood to drink. Besides, I drove here and need to drive home afterward, so I decide to pass on the booze.

We chat a bit after we order, and I learn Jade and Raven are both dancers in shows on the Strip while Amber is a back-up singer for a well-known band who has a residency here in Vegas.

So all three of them might be considered local celebrities, which makes me lean even harder into the idea that she knows them from the club.

“Did you hear about Brandi?” Jade says as she leans in toward Joanie. I’m half-listening to Amber and Raven as they talk about how the crowds have dwindled since Christmas at their shows, but Vegas is pretty much always packed and full of action. I pretend like I’m still listening as Amber talks about the lead singer’s antics in the band she sings with, but my attention is really on Jade and the way she’s angling her body so her conversation with Joanie is more private.

Who’s Brandi?

“No,” Joanie says, lowering her voice but not so low that I can’t hear her. I feel her eyes on me, but she must be satisfied that I’m paying attention to Amber because she turns back to Jade. “Ever since Victor booted her, we lost touch. What’s going on?”

“She’s pissed that she got kicked out, and she’s threatening to expose everything.”

I glance up to see Joanie’s eyes grow wide. “Like… everything everything?”

Jade nods. “Ev-er-y-thing.”

“Whoa. We need to stop her.” Joanie sounds nervous, but I don’t look over at her to see if she actually is.

“Victor’s on it. He didn’t want to burden Troy with it, but I also thought maybe you could reach out and talk some sense into her.”

“I mean, legally if she breaks the NDA, Victor will definitely press charges,” Joanie points out.

“Yeah, but what’s really the consequence for a broken NDA? A lawsuit for breach of contract? The courts have plenty of other cases they’re dealing with. They won’t give a fuck about a silly girl outing an exclusive club,” Jade says.

“But Troy will. Victor and James will. I will,” Joanie says.

“We all will have to deal with it if she says something to the media. That’s why I thought maybe you could stop her,” Jade says.

“I haven’t spoken to her in months.” Joanie picks up her glass of wine. “God, it’s probably been close to a year since she was kicked out.”

I wonder what this Brandi girl did to get kicked out, but not enough to admit I’ve been eavesdropping.

I glance up at Amber and see that she and Raven are both looking at me as if they’re waiting for me to say something. “I’m sorry,” I say, shaking my head. “What?”

“I asked if you’ve been to the show,” Amber says.

“Oh, no, I haven’t. Not yet.” I offer a smile. The band she sings with isn’t really my jam, but I’m not going to admit that to her.

And that’s that. They ask me more questions about the shows I have seen, and I admit I haven’t seen any, and they spend the rest of the meal trying to convince me to come to their shows when I actually didn’t move to Vegas for the world class entertainment.

Our meals come, and we all enjoy them, but I feel a little out of place here. I realize I’m Joanie’s maid of honor, but surely she wants to talk about things with these other women that she can’t talk about in the presence of her future stepdaughter, so I excuse myself after the meal to head home.

Joanie gives me a big hug and thanks me for coming, and I tell everyone I’ll see them tomorrow night.

I head home, my stomach still a little twisted up as I try to get some rest ahead of tomorrow.

Still, I can’t help feeling an ominous sense of gloom as I toss and turn. This Brandi woman sounds like she could cause a lot of trouble for my father, and we’re still trying to keep things relatively stress-free for him as he continues to recover and heads into a very stressful season at his job.

It’s a huge part of the reason why we haven’t confessed our love story to him just yet…and I just wish I could protect him forever. But as it turns out, I can’t.