Page 96 of Vegas Heat: The Expansion Team Complete Series

I’m embarrassed more than anything. I’m smart enough to know I need to eat, but I got so caught up in my work and staying away from my mother that I spent too many hours in one place.

And wouldn’t you know it? My emergency contact is my mother.

She called my dad, and I’m not sure how Cooper showed up here, but something shifted inside me the moment he showed up.

He showed up, for one thing.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had someone’s unconditional support the way he showed up. He didn’t have to. He’s busy with the draft. But he got here quick. He made sacrifices to be here.

My mother didn’t always show up for me. She couldn’t. She blamed having to work hard to afford things for me, for us , and the timing didn’t work out for her to be there for things like my National Honors Society induction or my volleyball games. On top of that, I grew up believing I wasn’t good enough to have my father’s unconditional support. I’ve only slowly grown accustomed to it over the last three years.

But as Cooper gazed at me when he walked in and I felt all the love he has for me even with my dad standing in front of him, that thing that shifted for me was the strange feeling of knowing my relationships will always fail if I don’t resolve that fear inside me like I won’t always have that unconditional support.

In some strange way, Cooper showing up today seems to have started healing that wound. I want to talk to him. I want to be alone with him.

But I’m not sure how to get my dad out of the room. I don’t want to hide it, but lying in a hospital bed hardly feels like the right time to break the news to my father that I’ve fallen for his best friend.

A man who doesn’t look much older than me wheels in a cart with a computer screen on it. “How would you like to pay for today’s services?” he asks.

“Are you kidding me?” my father yells at the poor tech who probably doesn’t get paid nearly enough to deal with this. “Out in the hall. Now. She doesn’t need to be worrying about payment at a time like this!”

My dad follows the young man out to the hall, and he pulls the curtain around my stall closed as he exits. I can still hear him in the hallway. The curtain isn’t soundproof, and Cooper offers a small chuckle as he steps toward me.

He quickly presses his lips to my forehead. “I love you.” He whispers the words, and I gaze up at him with total adoration as love seems to explode within me.

“I love you, too.”

“I was so worried, Gabby.”

I shake my head. “I’m sorry. Nothing to be worried about.”

He nods and presses his lips together as he straightens. He takes my hand gently in his—the one with the IV still plugged into the vein on the back. He presses a gentle kiss near the needle. “It’s already bruising.”

“It’ll be okay. Now about that cheeseburger…”

He chuckles and pulls his phone out. “Where do you want to go? There’s an In-N-Out not far from here. Want to grab something on the way home?”

“How much longer do you think I’ll be stuck here?”

He shrugs. “With your dad out there yelling at everybody, I’d imagine they’ll get you out of here quick.”

I nod. “Can you just go get me something from the cafeteria maybe?”

“Of course. Cheeseburger, anything on it?”

“Everything. And fries.”

“You got it.” He leans down and kisses my lips this time, softly and quickly, but he doesn’t straighten as he talks to me. He’s hovering over me, and we both still hear my dad in the hallway, but I’m not sure he’d move even if my dad walked back in. “Thank God you’re okay. I can’t explain to you what happened to me when your dad said you were in the hospital. It was…” he trails off and shakes his head. “It told me a lot.”

I grab the back of his head and kiss him again, not sure I’d want him to move if my dad walked in. “Thank you for being here.”

“There is literally nowhere else in the world I would be right now,” he says softly. He straightens, and then he chuckles. “Except the cafeteria to get that cheeseburger as requested. Be right back.”

I grin as he heads out, and I hear him tell my dad where he’s going in the hall.

“You’re the best, Noah,” my dad says to him, and my chest swells.

He really is the best.

My dad returns a minute later, and he sits with me. A nurse comes in to remove the IV from my hand, and I wince at the pinch. She gives me my discharge instructions, reminds me to eat regular meals, and tells me I’m free to leave. My dad helps me up, and while I feel a little weak, overall I feel fine.

I just want to see Cooper again.

He walks into the waiting room with a bag of food just as I walk into it from another door, and I grab the bag from his hands. I can’t even wait to get to the car to open it. I plop down in the closest chair and scarf down the entire burger in about ten seconds flat. I glance up at Cooper, who shifts on his feet like watching me eat that burger was an actual turn on.

“Whoa. Slow down,” Troy says, and I can’t help a small giggle as Joanie sidles in beside him.

Did she introduce herself to my mother? Or is this Mom’s first clue that the woman in the waiting room is, in fact, her baby daddy’s fiancé?

“Fries in the car,” I announce before this family reunion gets any more awkward. “Get me out of here.”

“Come on, honey, let’s go,” my mother says at the same time Cooper says, “My truck’s just out front.”

I look back and forth between everyone.

I hate this shit.

I want to go with Cooper, of course. But I’ll feel like I’m letting my mom down if I don’t go with her.

Given the fact that I was just discharged from the hospital, I decide to go with what I want. I force away those voices in my head telling me I’ll only disappoint her.

I’ll disappoint her either way, so I may as well do what I want.

“I’ll head home with Cooper,” I say.

She looks hurt, but for once in her life she keeps her mouth shut.

“Why don’t I take you back,” Joanie says to my dad, and I silently thank her for the suggestion. “That way Gabby can spread out in the front seat.”

“Great idea,” my dad says, and that’s that.

I climb into Cooper’s truck, and I immediately open the bag of fries. “Want one?”

He shakes his head. “All yours. I ate an hour or so ago. By the way, you attacked that cheeseburger with the same enthusiasm I’ve seen from you when my cock is in your mouth, so that was hot.”

I gasp at his words as a rocket of need plows into me. I’m feeling more like myself after that cheeseburger combined with the heavy emotions surrounding us. “Speaking of your cock…” I say, and I pop another French fry into my mouth.

“Yes?” he says, and his voice is all gravelly and deep.

“I’ll be needing some dessert, you know.”

He laughs. “Shall we stop for some ice cream?”

I purse my lips.

“Babe, you just got out of the hospital. I know it wasn’t serious, but you still need to rest at least for tonight before I plow you with the captain.”

I sigh. “Yeah, yeah. I just wish I could go home with you to your house instead of back to my dad’s.”

“Then come home with me. I’ll tell them I wanted to keep an eye on you.”

“They’ll want to keep an eye on me, too,” I say softly. I reach over and grab his hand. “We should tell them. My mom guessed it earlier anyway. I managed to throw her off, but me going home with you over her isn’t going to send the message that she was wrong, you know?”

He threads his fingers through mine and squeezes my hand. “I don’t care what she thinks. But your father’s got a lot of stress right now between the draft and your mother being here. Let’s just wait until after the draft, okay?”

I press my lips together and nod.

“Can I tell you something?” he asks.

I turn and look at him. “Anything.”

“This whole thing…it’s told me a lot about my feelings for you.”

My heart races at his words, and my first thought is that it made him realize he doesn’t love me as much as he thought he did.

It’s my damn issues talking to me again, and I force a deep breath to calm those thoughts down.

“What did it tell you?” I ask quietly. I stare out the windshield as I brace myself for his answer, the deep breath doing nothing to calm my racing fears.

“I want to be your emergency call,” he says simply. He raises our joined hands to his lips. “I want to be your everything .”

Tears fill my eyes as relief fills my chest.

“You are.”

He shakes his head a little. “I can’t be until we tell your father.”

“The draft is Saturday, right?”

He nods.

“Then we plan a celebratory brunch for Sunday and tell him then,” I suggest. “And it gives you the rest of the off-season to help him come to terms with it since we already know he’s not going to react well.”

He nods resolutely. “Okay. We have one week to brace ourselves.”

“One week,” I echo. One week to brace ourselves…and one week to worry and fret over what his reaction is actually going to be.