Page 74

I don’t sleep.

My flight is early in the morning anyway, and the plane ride is three hours and twenty-five minutes from Vegas to Chicago.

The entire way, I stare out the window and think about that ring.

The ring hidden away in a sock drawer.

The ring I’m not supposed to know about.

The ring I’m obsessing over.

I’m young, sure. But I’ve also had to grow up quickly in my life. Once my grandmother died, I was basically on my own at the age of eleven. My mom showed up when it was an absolute necessity, but never without detailing to me why she was making a sacrifice to be there for me. Given my situation with my mom and given the fact that I didn’t have a real father figure in my life until I turned eighteen, I found myself growing up quickly.

Part of me wonders if that’s what attracts me to Cooper. Is going for an older man part of the fallout of growing up fatherless?

It’s a strange question to ponder, but there it is, taking up space in my brain.

It can’t be true. The way I feel about Cooper is powerful—more powerful than anything I’ve felt before in my twenty-one years.

But marriage? Am I ready for that step?

I haven’t even graduated college.

And kids? I know having a family is important to Cooper, and I figured it would happen down the line someday in the future. I haven’t given it much thought at this stage of my life. Could I be ready for that?

Kaylee looked miserable, but she said over and over how this life she lives is everything she ever dreamed of. Would I feel the same?

Would I even make a good mother?

I don’t exactly have a shining example to look up to. My mom got pregnant with me when she was eighteen, and maybe she did the best she could, though I’d argue including the father in my childhood might’ve made more sense. But my parents were young when they had me, younger than I am now.

If I got pregnant today, nine months from now would put us in mid-June. I’d be out of school, potentially working a new job. Or maybe I’d want to stay home with the baby and not work at all, but I’d be largely alone while Cooper would be in season.

I ponder that for a beat.

And on the other side of the coin, Cooper does have that good maternal example—or so he says. And it’s with that thought I realize I’m going to meet her today.

I could be meeting my future mother-in-law today.

Oh, God. The thought sends a whole new host of nervous energy racing through me.

I didn’t think this through. I shouldn’t be here.

And yet, as the wheels touch down and the plane careens down the runway as the pilot slams on the brakes…I am. I am here. I’m about to see Cooper after the way our conversation ended last night.

Somehow the thought fills me with hope.

It’s too soon, and I didn’t think about actually marrying him until I saw that ring.

But after three and a half hours to contemplate my future, I arrive at a conclusion as the fasten seatbelt sign turns off and everyone on the plane immediately jumps up even though we still have a good ten minute wait until we can actually get off.

I don’t want a future without Cooper in it.

Maybe it’s too soon, but maybe I don’t care.

I know what I want, and it’s him. It’s us . And maybe I don’t have a stellar maternal example to look up to, but maybe I don’t need one because I’ll have Cooper by my side, and with him, anything is possible. Anything.

He’s made me see at twenty-one that I want the fairy tale. I want the sexy baseball player to put a baby in me. I want a future where we work together and play together and laugh and love. I want the banter we had the weekend we met.

I want to hold his hand as he unleashes his emotions on me. I want to be his first phone call with good news or bad.

I want to cry with him and celebrate with him and eat Slim Jims with him and love him for the rest of my life. I want a future where we create new life to carry on a legacy of love that began at a blackjack table.

Maybe not today or tomorrow, or next week or next month, maybe not even next year. But once I graduate and get a job, once he plays a season—or three—with the Heat, once we’re both settled into our lives in Vegas together…then maybe that will be our time.

It’s not so far off, and now that the truth has come rushing at me, I’m ready for it to begin.

I order a car to the address my dad sent me, which is Cooper’s sister’s house in Oak Brook, and I arrive on the doorstep of a beautiful white and gray stone mansion a little after nine in the morning. My hands tremble and my heart thunders nervously as I press the doorbell.

I hear it chime inside, and a moment later, an older woman who has Cooper’s bright blue eyes stares back at me with a little confusion and a little curiosity as she glances down at my suitcase. “Can I help you?”

“Mrs. Noah?” I ask.

She nods, and she narrows her eyes and tilts her head like she’s trying to place me.

“My name is Gabby. Gabby Grant.” My voice trembles. “I’m, uh…I’m here to see Cooper.”

“Gabby?” she repeats. “As in Gabby -Gabby?”

“Well, not Gabby-Gabby like in Toy Story Four , but Gabby-Gabby as in hopefully the Gabby who Cooper has mentioned at least once,” I say.

“Oh my goodness!” she squeals, and she grabs me into a hug. “Yes, yes, Cooper has mentioned Gabby-Gabby more than once.” She’s still squeezing me and it’s the kind of hug that feels maternal even to me and I feel tears pinching behind my eyes. “Oh, he’s just going to be so tickled that you’re here!”

“Mom?” I hear his voice calling from another room. “Who was at the door?”

I hear footsteps on the hardwood floors, and then he appears and it’s like something out of a movie when he steps into a ray of light the sun is casting into the room and he’s illuminated like a freaking angel.

Like the sunshine.

Like the center of my damn universe.

“Gabby?” he says, shock evident in his tone. His mom lets me go, and Cooper and I stare at each other across the room for a beat—a beat filled with nerves and fears and anxiety that he doesn’t want me here. But then he rushes across the room and grabs me up into his arms, and everything tilts back to the way it was always supposed to be.

Because I’m here in his arms.

I’m where I belong. I don’t know what that means for our future, but I’m ready to figure it out.