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“Noah!” AJ yells again, and I quickly cut the call as I turn around to face him despite the thing she just said.

The thing that feels like a heavy weight pressing on my chest.

The thing I fear has the power to spell the eventual end for us.

Fuck.

But this is why I’m here, after all, and if AJ showed up at the hotel to talk some more, well, it’s part of my job to listen. It’s part of being the leader Troy tapped me to be.

“What’s going on, man?” I ask. We parted ways an hour ago, and I thought he was heading home. Apparently I thought wrong.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your call. Was that your girl?”

I laugh. “I thought I pled the fifth on that.”

“You did, but the way your face lit up when I brought it up told a different story. Who is she?”

“It’s new and I’m not ready to talk about it yet.” I leave it at that and opt for a swift subject change. “So what brought you back here?”

“I got home and realized it’s not every day a guy gets the chance to really pick Cooper Noah’s brain.” He looks so genuine, so earnest…so confused. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I told Doug to make it happen, but is it a jackass move to leave what I’ve got going on here?”

“Well, what’ve you got going on here?” I ask. We head toward the lobby bar and slide into an empty booth.

A waitress approaches our table before he can even answer that question. “What can I get y’all?” She glances up from her notepad at the man across the table from me, and her jaw drops clean down to the floor. “Oh my God, you’re AJ Winters.” Her head twists toward me, and her eyes widen. “And you’re Cooper Noah!”

“Ball fan, I take it?” I ask. AJ looks a little too preoccupied to answer her with charm, so I take over.

“Only the daughter of like the hugest Red Sox fan alive,” she confirms. She looks like she’s around Gabby’s age, maybe a couple years older. “And I’m also secretly a Dodgers fan,” she whispers in my direction with a huge smile.

I chuckle. “But not them damn Yankees, right?”

“Right.” She nods resolutely.

“Can I borrow your pen and a sheet of paper?” I ask her.

Her brows dip, but she rips a sheet off her notepad and hands me her pen. I glance at her nametag and write on the paper.

Hannah – thanks for all the drinks. Cooper Noah

I pass the paper over to AJ, and he signs it, too.

Hannah squeals.

“Two Miller Lites,” I order, and she grins.

“Coming right up.”

She spins and scampers away to get our drinks, and I turn back to AJ.

“What’ve you got going on here?” I repeat.

He sighs as he settles back into the booth, and he lifts a shoulder. “I’ve been here a long time, you know? It’s like leaving family, and it’s not usually in the player’s court like it is with this situation. If Jim knew I was even considering it…” He trails off as he mentions his general manager.

“I know. It was different with me since an injury took me out,” I admit, my eyes down on the table. I tug on the bill of my black Under Armour hat.

“But did it?”

I glance up and see him studying me, and I blow out a breath. “I mean, yeah. I could’ve gone back to finish out my contract, but things felt too fucked up for me by that point. My girl cheated on me with another player, and I guess it all just came together in the perfect storm. I’d started working a job I liked, and I just didn’t want to go back to the life I had before. I didn’t want to go back to LA.”

He glances up at me. “Baseball has been my entire life since I was six.” He shakes his head a little. “I don’t know how to be any other way. Was that what brought you back?”

“Honestly? It was Troy that brought me back. He gave me this offer at a time when I was starting to feel a little restless, a little ready for change. Right place, right time.” I remember making that choice in the car on the way back to Caesars Palace just moments before I met Gabby, and somehow that weekend with her sealed the deal. Turning what might have been a one-night stand into what could be the most important relationship of my life just confirmed the fact that I made the right decision.

I don’t tell AJ any of that, obviously. He’s not here to listen to my love life woes, anyway.

He’s here so I can convince him that Vegas is the place where he needs to be.

“I signed on for three years,” I say. “You can do just about anything for three years, right?”

Hannah swings by with our drinks, and thankfully she drops them and runs so we can continue our private conversation.

“What’ll it be like playing somewhere else? I’ve spent eight years here.” He’s clearly torn, the buzz from drinking earlier worn off as reality sets in.

I take a long drag from my glass. “I can’t answer that yet since I spent my entire career in Los Angeles, but what I can tell you is that Vegas is ready for this, and the members of the first Vegas Heat team will be creating a legacy that will live on forever. That’s the vibe I get every time I walk into The House.”

“The House?” he repeats.

“The nickname for the stadium. You know—Vegas, gambling. The House always wins, right?”

He chuckles. “So if I don’t join ‘em, I’m gonna get beat by ‘em?”

“You’re gonna get your ass handed to you by ‘em, man. You’ve seen what Troy is capable of.”

“I have.” He nods and chugs down half his beer. “And he got you to agree not only to make a comeback, but to lead this team. How the fuck can I say no to that?”

I grin as I reach a hand out across the table, and he shakes it.

“Teammates, brother,” he says, and I nod.

“To the Vegas Heat.” I hold up my glass, and he laughs as he holds his up, too.

“To the Vegas Heat.”

We both finish our beers and order another while conversation moves to the fact that we’ll be standing as close as two bros can on the field since he’s in the position beside third.

It’s a little after two in the morning here in Boston when my phone starts to ring. I figure it’s Gabby calling on the off chance I’m able to pick up and say goodnight, but when I glance at my screen, I find it’s not Sunshine at all.

It’s my mother.

And calls after midnight never mean good news.