“Yeah,” I say, and my tone has a sort of question, as if to prompt him to explain why he’s asking me that.
He’s quiet again, clearly waiting for me to make the leap. He sighs. “I’ve been calling Danny the dipshit all this time and didn’t see you right in front of me.”
“What?” I ask, a little defensive.
“When you love someone, and I don’t mean like she’s a good vacation lay so you have feelingslikelove, but I mean when youreallylove someone, you support them. You make them feel like whatever it is that they’re doing is of equal importance to whatever it is you’re doing. You honor their dreams like they’re your dreams, too. You feel me?”
I think through his words even though I want to toss them out with this shitty feeling that’s been festering for the last week.
I don’t want to admit that he might be right…but he might be. I never showed any support for her dreams. At all. Not even a little. In fact, when I found out what her dreams were, I bailed. I stayed in my room for nearly an entire week on vacation just to avoid her and her dreams.
But what would have been so awful about letting her use me in her content?
It goes back to the core of my trust issues. Letting heruseme in her content is letting her useme. I’ve been used my entire life. She’s just one more on the list.
At first, it was because I was supposed to be laying low. I didn’t need to be in a viral video showingwhereI was laying low. And yet, against my wishes, I was. Once not because of her, and then once definitely because of her.
But why?
Cooper brought up a good point. I never did ask her why. I never gave her the chance to explain. Instead, I went in with anger and walked out with a broken heart.
He clears his throat. “It’s something to think about, anyway. Yeah, what she did was wrong. But was itsowrong that you’re willing to give up what could amount to the most important relationship of your entire life?”
I twist my lips as I think it through. He didn’t exactly have a smooth path in his own relationship. As it turned out, the woman he’d been seeing and falling for was the daughter of Troy Bodine…the man who Cooper considered not just a close friend but also the man who happened to be the Vegas Heat’s team manager, who convinced Cooper to come out of retirement and be the face of a new expansion team.
“I get it. You know what it’s like to fight for love. But maybe this was only ever meant to be a fling,” I say.
He presses his lips together and nods as he gives me a sympathetic nod. “I tried to convince myself of the same. It didn’t work.”
“So what the fuck do you suggest I do, then?”
He shrugs. “Only you can figure that out. Either you sit here moping around and sulking, or you fight to get her back.”
“But I don’t trust her. How do I get past that?”
He gives me a look like I’m a dipshit. “Well…you could start by maybe asking her to explain why she did what she did.”
“We never exchanged numbers.”
“Sounds like an excuse,” he says.
“Who invited you here?” I mutter.
He chuckles. “Not you, that’s for damn sure.” He glances at his watch and reads it for a second. “My wife said dinner will be ready in ten minutes. I need to head home.” He rises to a stand. “But think about it. If you’re miserable, fucking do something about it. Don’t sit in it and let it get worse.”
“They say wisdom comes with age, so I guess if there’s anyone to listen to, it’s Old Man Noah.”
He points at me and glares. “Watch yourself, sonny boy. I can still kick your ass any day of the week.”
“Right.” I chuckle as I walk him to my door, and I open it so he can walk through.
He pauses a second before he moves. “Just think about what I said. You’ve got a few more games to go, and then you’ll be back. Time is short. The season is long.”
“So let’s say I do call her and we figure this out. Then what? I’m jumping right back into things, and I’ll never get to see her?”
“False. I go home and sleep in my bed every night when we’re at home. I’m home in the mornings when Sunny wakes. I get to make her pancakes for breakfast.”
“Yeah, but Gabby travels with us when we’re away since she works with the team. It wouldn’t be the same,” I protest.
