Page 65

In the last week, we’ve managed to find time alone together every day. It helps tremendously that Troy has been spending the night away from the house, but he doesn’t exactly fill us in on his plans, so while we find places to kiss and touch and be together, I’ve been heading back to my own bedroom just in case he happens to come home looking for his daughter.

It all feels so…immature.

This is an adult relationship, but I’m in it with someone who isn’t ready to tell her father.

Hell, I’m not ready to tell him, either. Mostly because I know he isn’t going to like it, and I want to live in this bliss just a little while longer.

It’s Sunday night, and I don’t want to leave her, but tomorrow morning we fly to Boston to try to talk AJ Winters into playing ball with us.

We’re laying in her bed in that post-sex afterglow, her head on my chest and my arms around her, when I say, “You should hang with Kaylee while I’m gone.”

“I would love to, but is she looking for new friends?” she asks.

“She loved spending time with you at the game. You two are close to the same age and I think she likes having someone to bond with in a similar situation.”

“Being the young filly taming the party boy athlete?”

I grunt out a chuckle. “Something like that. Is that really how you see yourself? How you see me ?”

“I mean…you were with Stacy a long time and admitted you never thought about the future with her the way you thought about it with me.” We’re both quiet as we let that simmer between us, and then she says, “Can I ask you a question about her?”

I nod, my chin bumping the top of her head with the movement.

She shifts so her head is on my shoulder and her eyes meet mine. “Why’d you stay with her as long as you did?”

I twist my lips in contemplation. It’s a good question, and I think after all this time I’ve finally arrived at the right answer. “You know how sometimes it’s easier to just leave things the way they are?”

She nods.

“It was that. When you’re with someone for as long as we were together, your lives are so entwined that you forget where you stop and the other person starts. She made sure of that, anyway, while I was gone for eight months, as your father likes to remind you.” My words are laden with regret, but the feeling has nothing to do with Stacy and everything to do with Troy’s words over dinner.

They’ve been weighing me down ever since.

“You seemed kind of down when he mentioned it.” She runs a fingertip along my jawline.

“I was. I am . It’s a constant reminder that I’m not good enough for you, and he will never think I’m good enough for you. He’ll never think anyone is good enough for you, least of all a thirty-three-year-old third baseman.” My eyes cloud over as I gaze up at the ceiling, and I tighten my arm around her.

She leans up, her face in my line of sight.

“Good enough?” she murmurs softly. She presses a soft kiss to my mouth. “ Good enough implies that you’re just adequate, but nothing could be further than the truth. You aren’t good enough .” She shakes her head. “Saying that is a total insult to what an incredible man you actually are. You’re a catch, and I don’t deserve you, yet you’re somehow perfect for me. Somehow we landed in each other’s arms, and I’m not letting you go.”

My chest warms at her words. “I hope I can live up to the expectations you have of me,” I say. “Things are going to change once the season starts.”

She presses her lips together. “I know they will. And I also know we have several months before we need to worry about it. So from now until then, we build. We strengthen. Just like those workouts you’re doing in the weight room to prep for the season, we nurture our relationship. We’ll be prepared, and we’ll cherish what moments we do get to spend together, and when you’re gone, we’ll do whatever it takes.”

One of the things I love so much about her is her ability to quell my fears, and somehow she just did it without even realizing it.

When Troy was talking at dinner, I felt his words settle over me like a dark cloud. But she comes in with her sunshine and manages to obliterate the clouds so all I see is bright, blue sky again with her at the center of it.

It’s incredible, really, how she does that, and it’s another signal to me that she was put on this planet to find me.

“Thank you,” I murmur, and I pull her face down to mine for a kiss. This is one of the slow, languid ones that I could live in for days, but I know I need to get up and pack a bag so I’m ready to go for my eight AM flight. I pull back and run the back of my knuckles against her cheek, staring at her as emotion flows through me. “Thank you for being everything I need.”

She offers a soft smile, and then she falls beside me.

“I need to go pack a bag.”

“Can I watch?” she asks.

I chuckle. “Whatever floats your boat, my love.” We both get up and head over to my room. She sits on my bed while I grab everything I need for up to three days away on a business trip, and then I climb into bed beside her, set an alarm to make sure we’re up before Troy might come bang on my door to wake me, and I wrap her in my arms.

My eyes fly open what feels like a few hours later as I hear banging on my door.

“Cooper?” Bang, bang, bang.

Is that Troy?

“Cooper!” Bang, bang, bang.

That is Troy, and his gorgeous daughter is asleep in my bed beside me.

“Fuck,” I hiss as I glance at my phone.

I set my alarm for PM instead of AM. Rookie fucking mistake, Noah.

God dammit.

I gently shake Gabby awake, and she startles as she hears the banging.

“We need to go!” Troy yells from the other side of the door.

“Quick, hide in my bathroom,” I whisper to Gabby. We both leap out of bed, and if this was some scene I was watching rather than living, I’d be laughing hysterically at the two clowns half-asleep as they stumble around.

“Fuck!” I yell as I bang my leg on the nightstand.

I make sure Gabby is out of sight, but I’m pretty sure she tripped her way into my bathroom and she may have fallen and I hope she’s okay.

I open the door, trying to remain calm.

“Oh, hey there, Troy,” I say, leaning casually on the doorframe, and I’m certain I fail at that whole remaining calm thing.

“Our plane leaves in ninety minutes and we need to get to the airport. What the fuck have you been doing?” he demands.

“Uh…sleeping?”

“Have you seen Gabby? Her car’s here but she’s not in her room. I was hoping to say goodbye to her before we left.”

“Oh, nope, haven’t seen her anywhere, sorry. Just been sleeping here in my bed. Alone.” I’m lying, and I’m a bad liar, and he must see right through me because he narrows his eyes at me.

“Why are you acting so strange?” he asks.

“Who, me?” I ask, a little too overly dramatically.

He squints a little, and come on, Noah, fucking THINK!

“I need to jump in the shower before we head out. Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready to go,” I promise, and then he finally nods and turns.

I practically slam the door behind him and run to the bathroom. “I’m so sorry!” I whisper-yell.

She giggles. Fucking Sunshine giggles, and those giggles turn into cackles. Quiet cackles, but cackles nonetheless. “Oh my God, Cooper, you are the absolute worst liar I have ever seen in my life!” She’s laying on the floor of my bathroom laughing so hard at me right now that literal tears are falling from her eyes, and I can’t help my wry smile.

She isn’t wrong, and this is our first close call with her father…and I have no idea how I’m going to continue this charade. She sucks in a few deep breaths as she tries to calm the laughter, and I reach out a hand to help her up.

“I need to get ready to go,” I say.

She nods, and the laughter subsides as we both know what this means. Two to three days away from each other. I’m traveling with her father and the general manager of the Heat, and I really don’t know whether I’ll even get a chance to call her and talk to her since this is a business trip.

I pull her into me, and we stand in my small en suite bathroom simply clinging to one another for a few beats. I lean down and touch my lips to her forehead, and she squeezes her arms around my torso.

“Travel safe and keep in touch,” she says.

“I’ll try to call but I have no idea what this trip will look like. I don’t even know if I have my own room,” I admit.

She nods, and she tips her chin up so I can lean down to press a kiss to her lips.

“I love you,” I murmur. An intimate beat passes between us, and then I swat her ass. “Now scram. I gotta get in the shower before your dad comes back up here.”

She giggles and kisses me once more, and then she heads out while I cross my fingers that Troy isn’t waiting in the hallway to catch her coming out of my room.

True to my word, I leap down the stairs ten minutes later so we can head out. Gabby’s sitting rather calmly at the kitchen table with a bowl of Cheerios, and her father is leaning against the counter sipping a cup of coffee. He sees me and dumps the rest of the liquid in his cup into the sink, and then he sets the mug in the dishwasher.

“Ready?” he asks.

“Let’s go. I can grab coffee and breakfast at the airport.”

He nods once, and he passes by Gabby, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. I wish I could kiss her goodbye once more, but I settle instead for waiting for him to pass by, and then I offer her a wink and blow her a silent kiss while his back is turned. She smiles at me—a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes as we both face the reality that this is our first time apart, that we’re doing this in secret, that I might not even get to talk to her for the next few days while I bond with her father.

What a mess.

It’s only three days.

It’s going to be worse during the season.

I remind myself of these things, but it doesn’t make it feel any better in the moment.

And then I get in the car with Troy and we head toward the airport as I try to push the image of his daughter’s naked body out of my head.