CHAPTER 41 Ainsley Bradley
Two New Friends
Neither of us says a word the entire ride home, up the elevator, or in the hallway. I wait until he locks the door and turns around to face me before I unload.
“You didn’t want to talk at the lounge, but we’re home now.” I fold my arms over my chest.
He rubs the side of his face as if this conversation is already taxing to him. “What do you want me to say, Ains?” He sounds tired.
“Why’d you bring me with you if you were only going to ditch me?” I demand.
“You asked me to bring you. I had work to do. I’m sorry, but part of my job is entertaining clients, and not every aspect of my life involves you.”
“It doesn’t have to,” I practically yell. “But if you want to really give this a chance, we need to be honest with each other. And to be honest, I was pissed you left me at that table.”
“Then you shouldn’t have come,” he yells back at me.
“I didn’t know you’d just leave me to fend for myself and play a game I have no business playing!”
“What did you think was going to happen?” he demands.
The truth is…I don’t know. Not that. “I guess between the opulence and wastefulness and then being left alone, I just felt out of place.”
“Maybe you were out of place.”
“Are you kidding me?” I yell.
“The whole point of it is to be a VIP experience. It’s a place for the rich and famous to spend their money so I can line my pockets with it. Or so my father can, anyway.” He spits the last part as if the words taste sour leaving his mouth, but I can’t focus on that.
All I can seem to focus on is the fact that he just agreed that I was out of place.
I wanted him to deny it. To reject the very thought that I didn’t belong there. We’re partners now, and I should be by his side.
Instead, his words manage to spike my anger and leave a hole in my chest that makes me feel cheap and unworthy at the same time.
And that’s no way to feel as someone’s wife.
“Sorry I made you drag me along,” I hiss.
“Ains, don’t be like that,” he says, his tone switching to a bit of begging now.
“I’ll sleep in my old room tonight. We can talk tomorrow.” I stomp off toward the guest room that was mine when I first moved in, and those are the last words we speak for the night.
Don’t go to bed angry, right?
Well, I am.
I sleep like shit ahead of a rare day off, and I’m not really sure what to do with myself once I wake up.
Dex is already at practice, and Jack is still with Desi and Jake.
I take a long shower, make myself some breakfast, watch some trash television, and call Ivy to check in.
I text each of my parents since they’re teaching right now.
It’s not even eleven, and I’m actually sort of bored.
I wonder what sorts of things I could do out here in my spare time.
Maybe volunteer at a school or something.
I think about all the money being thrown around last night.
I wonder what sorts of local charities might benefit from that money.
Schools come to mind again. Funds to treat overworked teachers with care packages or gift cards or classroom supplies so they don’t have to spend their own money on it.
I decide to take a quick drive to the Strip. For as long as I’ve been here in Vegas, I haven’t really spent any time exploring. Maybe today’s my day.
I park at the MGM Grand near the south end of the Strip, and I start walking. I stop in shops, wander through casinos, and quietly enjoy my alone time.
I stop in a cute little bakery for a late lunch, where I order a chicken salad sandwich.
I study the cookies in the display, and some are little football cookies, while others have the Vegas Aces logo on them.
I grab a dozen to bring home to Dex even though I’m still mad at him after last night. Maybe I’ll throw them at him.
It’s not terribly crowded in here since it’s a little after two o’clock now, and a woman walks by and asks me if I’d like a free cookie for dessert.
I nod way too enthusiastically. “I’d love one.”
She grabs one with some tongs and sets it on my tray. “Are you local?” She nods to the Vegas Aces box of cookies I bought.
I lift a shoulder. “Sort of. I recently moved here and actually just got married.” I laugh a little at how ridiculous it sounds, but it’s my truth.
“Congratulations! That’s so exciting!”
“And my husband is actually a player on the Aces, so I had to get him these cook—”
“Oh. My. God! My husband used to play for the Aces, too!” She turns toward the counter. “Grayson!” she yells.
A minute later, Grayson Nash appears from the back room. He walks to the woman and leans down to press a kiss to her cheek, and I remember meeting him chatting with Dex at that first charity event we attended together.
“Yes, Cookie?”
Cookie, the woman who gave me the cookie—is that her real name?—grins up at Grayson. “She said she’s married to a player!”
“Who?” he asks.
“Dex Bradley.”
Grayson’s jaw drops. “Dex Bradley got married?”
I hold up my hand with my giant rock on it. “To me.”
“Congratulations!” the woman says again. “I’m Ava, by the way. This is my bakery, and this is probably too aggressive, but if you need a local friend who knows what it’s like to be a football wife, you can hit me up anytime.”
“I’d love a local friend,” I say. “I actually started as Dex’s nanny, and now we’re married, and I feel like I’m home taking care of the baby all day. I love it, but it would be nice to have some adult conversations once in a while that didn’t involve Bluey.”
“Wait. Dex has a kid?” Grayson asks.
I nod. “An eight-month-old named Jack. Oh my God, I just realized—he’s actually at your brother’s house right now!”
“Lincoln?” Grayson asks.
I shake my head. “Asher. Desi’s taking care of him today since Dex and I went out last night.”
“What a small world!” he says.
“That will grow by one in about five months,” Ava says, and she rubs her stomach. She’s wearing an apron, so I can’t see a baby bump, but she’s got that glow about her.
“Oh wow! Congratulations!”
Ava and I exchange numbers, and it feels good. It feels like I’m finding my way. Like eventually I may even fit in here.
It changes my entire mood.
I’m still angry at Dex, but I’m also working my way toward being forgiving. As long as he apologizes.
When Dex gets home, I don’t move from the couch. Instead, I wait for him to go first.
“I don’t want to fight with you,” he says.
“I don’t, either.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” It’s good enough for now. “I got you something.” I get up and grab the box of cookies, and I’m excited to tell him about my new friend.
He reaches for me and hauls me by the waist into him. “Thanks, Ains.” He drops a kiss to my lips.
It’s time to get Jack, and Dex drives, darting in and out of traffic as usual. I distract myself by talking about my day. “Speaking of the Nash family, I ran into Grayson today. His wife and I are basically best friends now.”
“Is that where the cookies came from?” he asks.
I nod.
“Best bakery in town,” he says.
We chat some more before we arrive at Asher’s, and I get to catch up again with Desi. She’s as sweet as Ava, and I let her know if she and Asher ever need a break for a night, Jake is welcome to stay with us.
That’s two local friends in one day. I’m riding a high as we get back into the car.
I just wish the high could last a little bit longer.
Jack is strapped in the back as we make our way to some steakhouse Dex likes, and he’s driving like a maniac.
“Can you slow down a little?” I ask.
He side-eyes me, and I shut my trap.
He glances in his rearview mirror, and he changes lanes again. And again. And again.
“Dex, what the hell are you doing?” I ask. “The baby is in the back.”
He looks in his mirror again just as the car in front of us slams on the brakes.
He swerves into the next lane, and I look out my window to see a car coming straight for us. I hear the screeching tires and brace for the impact of metal crushing metal, but the other car must stop in time because it never happens.
“Oh my God, Dex! Will you slow down? You could’ve gotten all three of us killed!” I’m yelling at him. Now the baby is crying, and this isn’t how I wanted this night to start.
“I thought I was being followed, okay?”
“Why would someone be following you?”
“Forget it, okay?” He swerves again, clearly learning nothing from what just happened.
“I want to get out of the car.”
“Stop it,” he says, rolling his eyes. Jack is still crying in the backseat.
“Slow the hell down! And who is following you?”
“The black car behind us. He’s changed lanes every time I have.”
“Why?” I demand again.
“Forget it. Just leave like everyone else does. You’re better off without me,” he mutters.
“Dex, what the hell is going on? Where is this coming from?”
“I’m helping my father run an underground casino, okay?” he yells at me.
My jaw slackens. Of all the things I thought he might say in that moment, that wasn’t one of them. “What?”
“The FBI might be following me because of it,” he says, his voice quieter now. “Or maybe someone’s trying to get to my dad through me. Someone with a grudge, someone who lost it all because of him.”
My gut reaction is absolute and total fury. He’s the one who brought up open communication and then withheld what he was actually doing on Tuesday nights. Is he fucking kidding me with this? He’s running an illegal underground casino, and someone with a grudge may be following him? Me? Us?
“You’re putting the baby and me in danger by doing this,” I say, my voice controlled and quiet. Almost eerily so. I don’t feel controlled or quiet. I feel rage building inside of me.
“It’s why I didn’t tell you,” he says. He reaches over and places a hand on my thigh, and I bat it away.
“Ains, come on,” he begs.
I shake my head and fold my arms over my chest. “Take me home.”
“We have reservations.”
“So call and cancel. I don’t want to go to dinner. I want to go home.”
He blows out a breath, but he starts heading in the direction of home anyway.
I think about this situation for the rest of the ride home. I think about what to do. How to protect Jack. How to protect myself.
I don’t see any other choice. There’s too much wrong between us for this to ever work. We’re from two different worlds. Two different decades. Two different timelines, and ours wasn’t one that was ever meant to merge together.
So once we’re back home, once flared tempers have calmed, and once Jack is in his highchair with some puffs, my eyes meet Dex’s across the kitchen. “I can’t do this with you. I can’t get invested in you and your baby knowing you’re not telling me the whole truth.”
“What are you saying?” he demands.
“I’m saying I’ll take care of the baby until you can find another nanny.”
“We have a contract,” he hisses.
I press my lips together. He’s not giving me much choice, but he probably also doesn’t have the time to find a new nanny now that his first game of the season is Sunday in New York.
“Fine. Then I’ll stay until the end of our term.
But that’s all it is now. A contract. This?
Us? We’re done.” I slide the ring off my finger and set it on the counter.
He stares at it for a long beat, and then he spins on his heel, heads toward the door, and slams it shut behind him, the sound echoing and reverberating in my chest as my heart smashes into a million pieces.
Maybe I made two friends today.
But it appears I might’ve lost one, too.