Page 67

I glance at my phone for the hundredth time today, and I’m disappointed there’s nothing new from Gabby…or rather, from Sunshine .

I shouldn’t be. We talked about this and we both were on the same page. We knew it would be difficult to communicate given the fact that I’m traveling with Troy.

I mentally calculate the time difference, and it should be around dinnertime in Vegas. As for me, I find myself at a bar with my two bosses and a potential new addition to our team. We’re just a few blocks away from the local strip joints, and given what I know about Troy’s club, I’m one hundred percent positive that a gentleman’s club will be on the agenda at some point while we’re here in Boston.

I wonder how Joanie feels about that.

The Red Sox are in town for the next week, and there was no game tonight, so we met AJ and his agent a few hours ago. Mike is putting the hard sell on the agent, and on the plane ride over, I was informed that my job is to sell AJ on Vegas.

The problem?

I don’t really feel like I’ve gotten to know Vegas all that well. I’ve been…preoccupied, as my girlfriend would say.

“I hear Troy owns a club,” AJ says to me, and I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about that.

Troy’s busy chatting up the agent, so I just nod.

“You been there?” He tips his bottle of beer to his lips, and I nod again.

“I only toured the first floor, so I can’t really speak to much more than that,” I say.

He leans in close so the conversation is just for the two of us. “Give it to me straight, man. You think Vegas is the place for me?”

I glance across the table at Troy, Mike, and Doug before I turn back to AJ. I study him for a beat, and then I nod. “What Troy is putting together here is going to be fucking legendary, man. He’s got Rush Ross, Danny Brewer, and Duke Owens already committed, already starting workouts at the stadium.”

“And you,” AJ points out.

“And me,” I repeat. “I don’t know. Every time I step into the stadium, I get this strange feeling that I’m in the right place at the right time. You know? That feeling you can’t quite explain but that just feels right. There are very few people who could’ve talked me into unretiring, and you know Troy. This is as good as it fucking gets, man.” I shake my head. “It’s a once in a lifetime sort of thing, and my honest opinion is that anyone who gets the offer to come play for him would be stupid to pass it by.”

The strangest thought bounces into my brain at that moment.

Could Troy be my father-in-law someday?

I never thought about marrying Stacy despite how many hints she dropped that she wanted to. But Gabby?

I think about it all the time.

I think about a future with her all the time, and I want our future to start now. I want her to work for the team so she can travel with us. I want her by my side through every victory, through every loss, through every thing that happens in season and out of it.

I want our future to start now…but I also know I can’t rush her. She’s still in college, for fuck’s sake.

He ponders my words a while as he chugs down the rest of his beer. “Hey Doug,” AJ yells over the bar noise to his agent across the table, interrupting the conversation between the three men. Doug turns toward AJ, who says, “Make it happen.”

Doug nods once and resumes his conversation with the Heat brass, and I chuckle as I shake my head. “Just that simple?”

He nods. “He knows what to do. We’ve been together a number of years, and he knows if I ain’t happy, he ain’t gonna be happy, either.”

There’s a lot of truth in that statement, I suppose.

“You seeing anybody?” he asks, and he flags our waitress down to order another beer. I hold up my bottle, too, to indicate I’d also like another.

“Can I plead the fifth on that one?” I laugh, but it comes out hollow. For as much as I was just thinking about a future with her, I know I can’t exactly blurt out the fact that we’re together. I like AJ, but I don’t know him all that well. I’m not ready to trust him with something as huge as the fact that I’m currently banging the manager’s daughter.

He laughs. “Is this one of those complicated situations?”

“Something like that,” I mutter. Complicated doesn’t really even begin to describe it. “You?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, man. Tried it and failed, and I made the decision a long time ago that I will only fail at something one time in my life.”

“So the next one will be a success?” I guess.

He lets out a laugh. “Nope. There won’t be a next one to fail. I live out of a suitcase, anyway. It’s just easier this way.”

I’ll be living out of a suitcase again shortly, too, and I can’t help but feel a little melancholy over the whole idea. I like having a place to call my own…especially if Gabby is there. There’s no better place to sleep than home. But I’ll be out of town for at least eighty-one away games a season, and the thought of that much time away from her causes my chest to ache.

I don’t even like tonight.

The thought that AJ just told his agent to make it happen gives me hope that we can head back to Vegas as early as tomorrow, but the logical side of my brain knows it won’t happen that way.

Which is why I chug down another beer.

And another, and another.

Troy suggests a strip club, likely as a bargaining tool to get the very single AJ even more amped about the idea of moving to Vegas, where the strippers are of an elite class, and even though I have no interest in looking at tits that belong to anyone other than Gabby, I’m simply along for the ride. It’s not like I can stay back in the car while the rest of the guys in my group are getting lap dances and tucking twenties into G-strings.

So I go along.

I should tell Gabby. I should be honest with her. I know this, but I’m also stuck in beside her father. My only chance is to escape to the bathroom and send a text on the down low…but as I make my way toward the restroom, guess who accompanies me?

Troy.

Guess who sits beside me at our table?

Troy.

Guess who orders me another beer?

Troy.

And guess who is pictured beside me as we stumble out of the club and head back to our car, drunk women from inside following us and hanging on us despite our continued gentle rejections?

You got it…Troy.