Quitting the Quarterback (The Nash Brothers #4)

CHAPTER 3 Cassie Fields

A Fun Weekend with My Gal Pals

Excitement courses through my veins as the plane touches down. I look out the tiny airplane window as the famed hotels of the Strip rush by, and the plane starts to slow as we taxi toward our gate.

I glance over at Jess, who’s in the middle seat beside me, and she’s grinning at me. I can sense that she feels that same excitement, as do Katie and Natasha.

We’re really here. We actually did this. My three best friends took time away from their kids and their families to celebrate me .

We each had a drink on the plane. We’re on vacation, after all, and Natasha treated us to margaritas. After we grab our suitcases from baggage claim, we head to the Aria, where Natasha booked two connecting rooms for the four of us. I’ll stay with Jess, and Natasha and Katie will share a room, and we’re ready to get this party started.

We have reservations at one of the restaurants in our hotel tonight, and we’ll head to some trendy nightclub afterward. I realized how very much my identity has become exclusively mom when I couldn’t name a single nightclub in Vegas .

What happened to fun, party girl Cassie? She seemed to have died when I said I do , but I’m resurrecting her tonight. Or maybe she died before that. Maybe she never got the chance to live and thrive because she got tied up with Alex far too early in her college days.

I’m no longer tied to someone who gives me dirty looks when I laugh too loud or whose entire existence rides on the line of making everything appear a certain way.

I can laugh as loud as I want for the rest of my life, and the thought actually makes me feel sort of giddy.

In fact, I let out one of those giddy little giggles, and my friends all look at me like I’ve lost my mind. But the truth is, for maybe the first time since I was eighteen—half my life ago—I feel like I have my entire mind back again.

And it’s a wonderful feeling.

We check into our hotel, and Jess and I are standing in the bathroom doing our makeup side by side when she says, “So what do you want out of this weekend? Like, just some girl time, or a hot hookup that stays in Vegas, or—”

“A hot hookup?” I wrinkle my nose. “Is that really me?”

She lifts a shoulder. “Doesn’t everyone do it after a divorce? This is your time, Cassie. You can explore and have fun since you never really got to.”

She’s not wrong, and it marks the first time I’ve really thought about it.

“I figured I’d just have a fun weekend with my gal pals.”

“Gal pals?” It’s her turn to wrinkle her nose at me. “Let’s start by not saying that again.”

I laugh. “Fine. My besties.”

“We need to work on your slang.”

I roll my eyes. “Okay. Let’s yeet our way into some fun.”

“I don’t think that’s how you use that term. ”

I think over the words Luca came home from camp with this summer. “Let’s have a bussin’ weekend.”

Her eyes meet mine in the mirror, and she looks downright horrified.

“Fine, maybe I’m not using those words correctly, but it’s not like I’m going to start using Luca’s new favorite word that he picked up at summer camp this year from the older boys.”

“Which is…” She trails off and waits for me to fill in the blank.

“Nuts. As in deez nuts .” I pick up my mascara as Jess bursts out laughing. “You think that’s funny? Now Lily is walking around talking about her nuts since she wants to be like her brother.” I purse my lips, and Jess can’t stop laughing.

“I’d say second grade is around the age Dylan started with the balls talk. Just so you know, it gets worse.”

“Great,” I mutter. “Love that for me.”

“Okay, anyway, hot hookup it is. Let’s get you some hot hookup perfume.” She rummages through her bag, and she hands me a bottle. “This is guaranteed sex perfume. Every time I wear it, I get lucky.” She spritzes some on her wrists and down the front of her dress, and the soft, heady scent of vanilla and sandalwood fills the air.

I narrow my eyes at her but spritz some on anyway—for good luck, I guess.

We finish our makeup and check on our friends, and it’s time to head down to eat. We’ve just ordered a round of margaritas when Jess announces, “We need to find a hot hookup for Ms. Fields.”

My eyes widen as I give her one of those shut your mouth looks that best friends share, but she’s not to be shushed.

“Listen, you haven’t been with anybody except Alex. Tonight’s your night, bitch.”

“Oh my God,” I mutter, and I set my hand over my eyes in total embarrassment—not that Katie and Natasha are witness to her words, but that she’s not exactly being quiet, and anyone in the restaurant might hear her.

I glance over at the table next to us, and two older men are staring at me.

When I say older , I don’t mean in their forties or fifties. We’re talking closer to seventies or eighties.

And they’re looking at me like they want to shoot their shots.

Great. Just lovely and wonderful.

Is that what I can bag these days? I think I can do better than that…especially in the black sparkly dress I borrowed from Jess that is nothing like my own personal style but perhaps should be.

I’m not demure Cassie Sinclair anymore.

I’m Cassie Fucking Fields, and I’m in Vegas. I’m here to have some fun, and maybe score a hot hookup.

That’s all I want. One night with a stranger to knock boring old Alex Sinclair out of my muscle memory. Except I don’t know how any of this works. I haven’t had a one-night stand in my entire life.

Alex and I got together when I was a freshman in college. He was a junior, and he was my first. My only. I wasn’t his first…nor was I his only, even after he vowed I would be.

I don’t think this classy restaurant is where I’m going to find my hot hookup.

No…I think the club we’re going to after the restaurant might be my spot.

Now if I can just find someone who isn’t twice my age, I’ll be all set.