Page 95 of Vegas Heat: The Expansion Team Complete Series

“I can’t fucking believe her.” Troy tosses his phone angrily on the table. The rest of the crew are in the kitchen grabbing another drink, so it’s just the two of us.

I’ve spent the whole day with the scouting director, the team manager, the general manager, and the three team owners, and there’s still more work to be done as the draft is only a few days away now. We started with brunch at Mike’s place, and then we ordered in a late lunch. We just finished the dinner Joanie sent over.

I haven’t spoken with Gabby since she left my place this morning, and my day feels incomplete without her. A strange sensation passed over me as I texted her, and I have a weird feeling in my chest.

She was really distraught last night, and I hate that her mother has this sort of power over her. From what I understand, she has the ability to make Gabby question everything—like why I’m with her.

My chest ripped wide open when she asked me that last night.

She doesn’t feel deserving of my love, and that only makes me want to try harder to prove how much she does deserve it. Maybe just experiencing unconditional love and support from someone like me—and even her father—will help heal the wounds her mother inflicted.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“I’m checking in on the video monitor on my back porch at home and Christine is helping herself to my Port. My fucking Port! Do you know how expensive that shit is?”

I can’t help a chuckle at his reaction. He’s got plenty of money, so I know that’s not the real root of the issue. “What can you do to get rid of her?”

He shakes his head with disgust. “She’s a fucking leech, man, but she’s Gabby’s mother. I can’t just kick her out.”

“How does Gabby feel about it? Does she want her here?” I press, knowing full well that she most certainly does not.

“It’s her mother,” he says. “Of course she does.”

“Have you asked her?”

He shakes his head. “I’m trying very hard to be the adult here.”

“Maybe start by finding out what your daughter really wants,” I say.

He nods. “She’s been so busy lately, and so have I. It’s going to get harder before it gets easier, and I’m not ready for the wedge the season will inevitably drive between us.” He’s quiet as he speaks, and I can’t help but feel the exact same way.

He’s right. It’s inevitable. A wedge will form because it’s time away from each other. Time focused on things other than our relationship. And time is the one thing we can’t get back once we spend it.

We turn quietly back to the film we were just watching, but I’m no longer concentrating on the plays as I think about Gabby.

As far as the team is concerned, I’m not too worried. We’re in good shape. We’ve already built one hell of a team, and the draft will only help fill in the gaps. Pete has worked hard to earn his position as our scouting director, and he knows virtually everybody in baseball. The Heat will be a force to be reckoned with, especially once the team is complete after the draft.

Then the real fun begins…but then the late nights begin, too, and I’m not entirely sure I’m ready for all that entails, especially if I can’t be with Gabby, and especially if we’re still hiding this from her father. He’s already concerned about the wedge the season will drive between them. I can’t imagine how he’d feel about the wedge of lies on this side of the bridge.

As much as I want to tell him, the universe seems to keep delivering signs to the contrary. Besides, I don’t want the media attacking us for our age gap. Maybe this is best kept hidden a while. We can allow the attention to be on baseball, on the new team, on the season…rather than on my personal life. I’ll deflect questions, and when the time is right, when we’re both ready to take the next step, then we can tell Troy before we go public. After the draft—just like we promised each other.

Mike, Pete, Dave, and Victor walk back into the room just as Troy’s phone starts to ring. His brows dip as he glances up. “I need to take this.”

He ducks out of the room for a beat, and when he returns, he says, “I need to go. My daughter was just rushed to the hospital.”

All the breath is squeezed out of my chest as fear sets in. “Is everything okay?” I ask.

He blinks a few times as he focuses in on me. “I—I think so, but…I don’t know.”

“I’ll drive. Let’s go,” I say, and I realize it might not be my place to do that, but it fucking is my place and fuck this nonsense about keeping it from her father.

I need to know whether she’s okay.

He nods, as if I’m just being a good friend to him by offering him a ride when the truth is that there is absolutely no place more important than beside her right now.

I rush to the hospital, and I walk a few paces behind Troy to allow him to take the lead.

Jesus, this is all so fucked. I should be rushing to the desk instead of pretending like I don’t have a stake in this. I want to be by her side. I want to be holding her hand. I want to be the one who’s informed of her condition when I walk up beside her father.

I want to be her emergency contact.

It’s a strange realization as I stand in an emergency room waiting area, but it’s the truth. I want to be her everything .

“Patients are only allowed one visitor,” the woman at the front desk of the emergency room says. “It looks like someone is already back there with her.”

“Well tell whoever the fuck it is to get out of there because I need to see my daughter,” Troy demands. “And get her in a private room!” He throws a couple hundreds on the counter as if money will solve the problem.

I grab his shoulder, feeling as angry as him at the stupid policy but knowing it’s not this poor woman’s fault. “Hey,” I murmur. “It’s their policy.” I turn toward the woman and offer up the charm even though I’m scared out of my mind right now. “Can he get in to see her, or can he at least get an update on how she’s doing?”

She purses her lips. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Joanie comes rushing through the doors as the woman leaves her post to go check on the visitor situation, and she flies right into Troy’s arms. “How’s she doing?”

“They won’t fucking let me back to see her, so I don’t know!” he roars, and some woman sitting beside a small child picks up the child and moves to the other side of the room.

Joanie looks worried, too, and she looks up at Troy, grabbing his cheeks between her palms. “I know you’re worried, but you have to take a deep breath. Okay, boss?”

He draws in a deep breath, and he seems to calm a little at her touch. “Yes, kitten.”

Boss and kitten . Wow. If I wasn’t in a hospital worried about the woman I love, I might be able to come up with some sort of snarky comment or two on those nicknames.

The woman at the desk reappears. “A third now?” she asks, folding her arms across her chest. Joanie offers a small wave. “I can take two of you back as soon as the woman in there exits. For the record, your daughter is awake and doing fine. We’re just completing some paperwork now.”

The woman in there . The last person Gabby needs to see when she’s in distress is her mother.

Still, a pulse of relief darts through me.

“You two go,” Joanie offers, giving me a meaningful glance Troy doesn’t catch. “I know how close you both are with her.”

Thank you , I mouth to her, and she offers a slight nod.

Christine walks out a moment later. Her eyes are red as if she’s been crying, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s crying because she had to leave her daughter’s side or if it’s because something’s wrong with Gabby.

Troy doesn’t say a word to her as he walks through the door Christine just walked out of, and I follow close behind him as the front desk woman walks us back to Gabby’s stall.

“This is unacceptable,” Troy mutters to the poor woman. “Get my daughter into a private room.”

“Sir, she’s being discharged as we speak. You’re lucky I was able to pull enough strings to get you back here.”

I just keep my mouth shut and my eyes focused down on the floor so I don’t accidentally see anything I’m not supposed to see.

“Daddy,” Gabby says when he peeks his head around the curtain. “Don’t worry, I’m totally fine.”

I walk in behind Troy, and Gabby’s eyes seem to soften a little as they land on me. She gazes at me for a long beat, and I can see plainly for myself that her words are true. She really is totally fine. It’s like we have some silent conversation in that split second—one where she tells me everyone is making way too big a deal out of this, but she’s still grateful we all showed up for her.

I love you . I say the words in my mind, and I hope she can read them the way I can read what she’s saying to me.

One side of her mouth tips up in a smile for a moment before her father points to her arm and booms out his next words.

“You’ve got a needle in your arm! You’re not fine.”

“I stood up too fast and hadn’t eaten all day, and the librarian found me passed out on the floor of a little private room. She freaked out and called an ambulance, but I swear, I’m fine. I don’t even need to be here. I just want a cheeseburger and a big cup of water,” she says.

“Why didn’t you eat all day?” Troy demands, and I just hang back quietly as I look at her on the bed. She looks a little pale, a little tired, and as beautiful as ever—no worse for the wear considering where she is. Still, Troy’s right. She’s got an IV in the back of her hand, and seeing her here like this does something to me.

Something strong and powerful. Something fierce and emotional.

It’s love, plain and simple. It’s the type of love I’ve never felt before, and I already knew that about the two of us, I already knew that these feelings were different and intense and forever. But this seals it. Whatever’s happening in my chest right now, between the relief I feel at seeing for myself she’s okay and the way her eyes found mine the second I walked in, I’m filled with love in a way I never even knew existed. It’s like a wave that washes over me, like a bubble that surrounds me, like a new fire that swims in my veins.

The question now remains.

What the fuck am I going to do about it?