Vegas Aces: The Wide Receiver Complete Series

CHAPTER 28 TRISTAN

She storms out, presumably to join her lover, and I don’t trust her not to fuck this place up while I’m gone.

To that end, I find a moving company who can come pack up the place and keep my shit in one of those pod things until I’m ready to move somewhere else. It’s short notice, and I’ll pay out the ass for it plus the storage, but they can be here tomorrow.

I make a copy of the video and edit the copy down to the part where Savannah admits to blackmail. I text it over to Richard.

Me: Proof enough for you? I also have evidence she’s cheating on me if it helps the case at all, and I found some papers stashed away in her bedroom. I don’t know what they are but I took photos I will send along.

His reply comes quick.

Richard: Yes, this is good. Send everything you have in an email so I have high quality images to work with. I’ll review it and add it as evidence to the paperwork. I can serve them tomorrow if you’d like.

Me: The sooner the better.

Richard sends a thumbs up, usually the most passive-aggressive response in the world of emojis, but for some reason that little thumb from him lights a new fire in me.

This is really happening. This thing is finally going to go through.

I’ll finally have my freedom back.

I’ll finally have Tessa back.

I book a ticket back to Chicago in two days so I can be here tomorrow to oversee the movers. I pack what I can and plan to leave the rest to them.

I send a text to my buddies in the group chat.

Me: I’m in town. Anyone around to tip back a few?

Travis’s reply comes first.

Travis: Graham, Bryant, and I are doing an appearance at West End Lounge tonight.

I don’t really want to do a club appearance, but it’s one of my few nights in town and I want to go out. I want to blow off some steam.

I want to get the fuck out of my house so Savannah can move out and I don’t have to interact with her.

Me: I’m in.

I know these things are typically planned out weeks or months in advance, but surely the West End Lounge won’t care if I tag along. And I’d do it for free—I just want to go out with my friends while I’m in town for the night.

Travis: Bryant arranged it.

Jaxon: I’ll text my guy. I’m sure he’d be happy to add you but I can’t guarantee payment this late in the game.

Me: Don’t need payment. Just need alcohol.

As it turns out, West End Lounge is thrilled to add a fourth professional football player to the marquee even on short notice. We meet at Jaxon’s place ahead of our appearance to pre-party, and he’s got a nice selection already laid out for us when I arrive first.

I opt for the Casamigos tequila tonight, a favorite among my peers, and I sip it over ice. It’s not like the good old college days when we’d take tequila shots and lose our lunch behind some bushes. Instead, it’s a slow and steady journey toward forgetting my problems.

Travis shows up next, then Austin, and all four of us opt for the tequila.

I fill them in on the Fallon Ridge Festival as well as the reason for it, and I get verbal agreements for attendance from both Travis and Jaxon as well as physical donations for the raffles and auction while I’m here. I’ll take them back with me to surprise Tessa, and I’m thankful for my friends and their generosity.

“What have I missed in Vegas?” I ask once I get the business out of the way.

“Cory, Deon, and Patrick all left for the off-season, but the three of us have been living it up,” Austin says.

“Living it up?” I ask.

“We’ve been frequenting Coax,” Jaxon clarifies, and my eyes dart over to Austin, who we were keeping it a secret from still the last time I was in town. “Meet the newest member.” He angles his head toward Austin, who’s grinning.

“As Cory would say, we’ve been finding plenty of P to keep us… entertained ,” Travis adds.

The thought makes me a little sick, to be honest. Is that what we’re doing tonight? Hunting for P?

I think of Ben Olson and his twin baby girls. He’s not out hunting for P. He’s at home with the woman he loves and his children.

That’s all I want, too.

I want to play the game I love, and I want to have a wife and kids. I want to find the sort of support and balance Ben’s found in his life.

What I don’t want is to be trolling strip clubs and bars for women I can be with for one night, women who only want to be with me because of what I do for a living.

I want something meaningful. Real. Lasting.

I want something like I used to have with Tessa, but I want to have it in our adult world instead of how it was back when we were kids. We have each other’s number now. We can get in touch. We can communicate. We’re in a new place now where we can do the things that were taken from us when we were kids.

I’m lost in all these thoughts as my friends go on about the women they’ve been hooking up with.

“Do any of you ever think about settling down? Finding just one woman?” I ask quietly.

All three of them turn to look at me like I’ve lost my mind.

Maybe I have.

“Fuck no,” Jaxon says, and all three of them burst into laughter. “Next comes fuck trophies, and…yeah, no thanks.”

“Fuck trophies?” I repeat. “Do you mean kids ?”

I get that everyone is different, and I get that not everyone wants kids. But to refer to them in such a derogatory way has me feeling a certain way. I guess I’ve just never seen kids that way. I’ve seen them as a source of joy. Pride. The future.

“Dude, we look at you as the example. You’ve been trying to get out of your marriage since the day it happened. It’s not for everybody, you know?” Travis says.

I shrug. “I know. I chose wrong. But the right girl is out there.”

“Is Iowa fucking you up or something? You seem…different,” Travis says.

I shake my head. “Nah. I’m the same. I’ve just been spending time around the girl I thought I’d marry someday, and she doesn’t want anything to do with me while I’m married to somebody else. And so I’m here in town to cut ties with Savannah.”

“Haven’t you been trying that for two years?” Austin asks.

I nod. “Yeah. But I’m done being a doormat. I’m done being scared of the shit she’s holding over me. I’m ready to face whatever consequences I might have to face if it means I can get my girl back.”

Travis’s brows dip. “You think you can get her back? Just that easy?”

“With any luck…yes, I think I can,” I admit.

“And that’s what you want?” Austin asks.

I nod. “I’ve always wanted a wife and kids.” I lift a shoulder as I sit forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “Can’t you picture yourself tossing around a ball in the backyard with a boy that looks like a younger version of yourself?”

The three of them stare at me.

Clearly they don’t get it. They don’t want that right now. They don’t picture it. They don’t see it. Maybe down the road, but not now.

But it doesn’t matter.

I’ve never been that way. I’ve always wanted it.

I get it, and it’s my life. It’s my decision.

We all sip our tequila, silence falling over us as they ponder that.

“I guess I can see that somewhere down the line,” Travis admits quietly, and something about his tone makes me wonder whether he’s leaving something out of the conversation. “But it doesn’t mean I want it now.”

“You don’t have to have it now,” I say. “Everyone is in different places in their life, and that’s fine. You do you, man. But the woman I’m married to right now is exactly the same as all the others we find to hook up with, and she’s been hanging on two years now. I can’t make her go away. So take that for what it’s worth, too.”

They all drink a little nervously to that, and I note that neither Jaxon nor Austin says a word.

By the time the car West End sends shows up to take us to the appearance, we’re all a little toasted. Travis and I discussed getting a place together when I get back from Vegas when I admitted a moving company is coming tomorrow to pack up everything I own. I’m not sure whether it’ll really happen or not, but it would be a hell of a lot of fun.

The conversation we had at Jaxon’s place is long forgotten as my boys get back into the hunt they’ve been planning since this appearance was booked.

But there’s one big thing I forgot about appearances .

It’s not about showing up to party. It’s about, well… appearances.

It’s a job. We’re here to attract people—ladies, specifically—into this place. And the trouble with that?

People study our every move. Everyone is watching to see who we talk to, who we take a picture with, who we spend too much time with or not enough time with. Who we hug or kiss or fist bump. Who we laugh with, or who we ignore. How we treat the ladies, how we treat the men, how we treat the staff. It’s all studied under a microscope so it can be taken back for judgment. It’s photographed so it can be preserved for all of time on social media and people can sit back as keyboard warriors and share their opinions there.

All it takes is one photo from one person in the crowd to go viral, and suddenly the world has me dating the woman I was simply leaning in to thank for being an Aces fan.

I forgot how much I hate these things.

I was blinded by the thought of spending a night out with my buddies, but instead, I find myself locked in a hell where I need to do the right things and say the right things and my buddies are on the hunt for the right woman to take to bed tonight.

And all I want is to be back in Iowa, sitting on my windowsill talking to the girl across the yard.