Las Vegas Sidewinders: Dominic (14 page)

“Oh! Hey!” He gave a small
smile before glancing between the two of them. This couldn’t be good. He knew
that some of the guys were already teasing him about Molly’s close relationship
with Toli, so he was sure Tatiana was pissed about it.

“It’s been a long time,”
Tatiana said. She was startled to see Dom and Molly together. Dom was one of
the best-looking men she’d ever known, much hotter than Cody in her opinion,
all dark tousled hair and eyelashes that made women swoon. He reminded her of a
pirate; she couldn’t believe he was with this older woman who would be rather
plain if not for her incredible green eyes.

“Toli didn’t tell us you
were coming,” Dom finally said after another moment of uncomfortable silence.

“He didn’t know,” Molly said
with a sigh and turned back to the other woman. “Look, I’m sorry you think I’m
sleeping with your
ex
-boyfriend and getting him in trouble, but I’m not.
I’m doing everything I can to get my ex to leave him alone, but like a lot of
people, he seems to have trouble understanding that a man and a woman can be
friends
.”
She looked up at Dom for good measure.

He raised his eyebrows
questioningly, but wisely said nothing, wondering if she thought that he didn’t
trust her and Toli, because he did. He often wished they weren’t so close, but
he knew Toli would never, under any circumstances, try to steal a woman from
him. He might even have feelings for her, but he would never get into a
relationship with her without having a conversation with Dom, and he couldn’t
even entertain the idea that Molly would lie or cheat after what they’d been
through.

“Hey, guys!” Tiff came into
the room like a whirlwind, her strawberry blond hair flowing down her back in
tight sexy curls, tan legs long and lean under a short denim skirt, white tank
top and tan leather sandals that laced up her calves. With a dozen gold
bracelets up one arm and gold chandelier earrings hanging from her ears, she
was a force of nature as she swooped in, kissing Dom on the cheek and hugging
Molly tightly.

“Hi, Tiff.” Dom smiled at
her affectionately. She was truly stunning and it still amazed him that quiet,
unassuming Coach Dave had won her heart. Of course, they were both ridiculously
smart too, so that probably had something to do with it.

Tiff turned and glanced at
Tatiana, easily dismissing her as the girlfriend of one of the players she
didn’t know. No wedding ring often meant no long-term status, and Tiff didn’t
bother to get to know the ones who would probably be gone by the next event.

“Tiff, do you know Tatiana
Stepanova? She’s Toli’s friend, from Russia.” Molly glanced over at Tiffany,
making a slight motion with her eyes. Tiffany understood immediately that this
was the woman who broke Toli’s heart and turned to the woman with a fake smile
pasted on her face.

“Oh, yes, we’ve heard
so
much about you.” She purposely held out her left hand, showing off the diamond
ring on her hand. Though Tiffany didn’t usually behave this way, they all knew
how much Tatiana had hurt Toli, so she wasn’t cutting the woman any slack
either. If she wanted to be one of them, she would have to make it up to Toli
first.

“Nice to meet you.” Tatiana
nodded curtly, taking the woman’s limp handshake grudgingly, suddenly
understanding that these people were loyal to Toli only and she would not be
accepted into the fold unless she made things right.  “If you’ll excuse
me, I need to speak with Toli.” She hurried away, and Molly and Tiffany held
back giggles.

“I’m sorry,” Tiffany
murmured near Molly’s ear. “I usually try not to be so…” Her voice trailed off.

“Bitchy?” Dom supplied, laughing
out loud.

“Well, yeah, I guess you
could call it that.” Tiffany snorted and looked over at her husband. “Honey,
get me some wine, would you?”

“Sure, babe.” Dave grinned
at her before disappearing around the corner.

“You guys are mean.” Dom
said with a shake of his head.

“She hurt Toli,” Molly
frowned at him. “He loves her and she’s been stringing him along for years.
We’re on his side.”

“I am too,” Dom said,
holding up his hands in mock surrender. “But you could have been a little
nicer. I mean, she doesn’t know anyone here and she’s already on the outs with
him.”

“Then she shouldn’t have
shown up unexpectedly at an event like this,” Tiff said firmly. “She showed up
here thinking he would fall into place at her side, like he’s always done, and
she’d make a claim on him. The people here are the core group of people he’ll
be playing with this season and she wanted to make sure everyone knew he was
taken.”

“How on earth do you know
that?” Dom demanded.

“It’s a woman thing,” said
Molly.

Dom rolled his eyes. “On
that note, can I go get a drink?”

“Absolutely.” She offered
him her cheek and after kissing her, he ambled off towards the bar.

“Let’s go eavesdrop.”
Tiffany grabbed Molly’s arm and pulled her towards the pool where Tatiana and
Toli were talking. Molly followed with a happy grin; she’d never felt like she
belonged anywhere before, but now she did.

Molly moved from group to
group in a bit of a daze. Though she hadn’t done a lot of socializing over the
years, she’d never been shy or unsure of herself in a crowd and she was pretty
confident with her group of friends here. These women, however, were cut from a
different cloth. Some of them seemed nice enough, but there was no doubt in her
mind that others were going to look down their nose at her once they figured
out she was with one of the younger players, and not married to one of the
coaches or trainers. It was going to be a long night if these women started
making snarky remarks, and Tim’s abuse over the years left her feeling
inadequate. She’d tried hard to listen to everyone telling her she was
beautiful, but she was still forty years old, with the beginning of crow’s feet
around her eyes and hints of gray at her temples. She’d lost weight and was
working out, but she couldn’t compete with these women.

She knew she looked pretty
good, but not like Suze or Tiff. Sometimes she got so caught up in her new life
that she forgot that she wasn’t one of the beautiful people. These last three
months had been better than the entire rest of her life all together, so she’d
been focused on enjoying what she had instead of worrying about keeping up with
women almost half her age. Now that she could see them in front of her, she
realized it might be harder than she’d thought.

“Sorry!” A petite brunette
with a pixie haircut and big brown eyes smiled up at Molly as she stumbled out
of her high heeled sandals and stepped on Molly’s foot.

“Ouch!” Molly reached down,
rubbing her foot, but smiled back. “No problem. Be careful—the floor is
slippery in here.”

“I can’t walk in these
stupid things,” the young woman looked down at her feet in despair. “I’m
Cassidy Rousch, Marco’s wife.”

“I’m Molly.” Molly shook her
hand. “Dom Gianni’s girlfriend.”

Cassidy glanced up. “Oh,
wow, you’re really pretty! I thought you would be older—” Suddenly her eyes
widened and she clapped her hand over her mouth. “Shit, Marco’s always telling
me I have no filter!” Her cheeks turned red. “I’m really, really sorry—I
shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s fine.” The young woman
looked genuinely contrite, and technically, she’d given Molly a compliment. But
now Molly was more aware than ever that people were already talking about her
age. Damn, she’d thought she’d at least get through training camp before the
gossip started, but apparently not. “Excuse me.” She started to walk away, but
Cassidy touched her arm.

“I really am sorry. I’m
always sticking my foot in my mouth.”

“It’s okay.” Molly gave her
a small smile. “I guess I’d better get used to it if tongues are already
wagging.”

Cassidy shrugged. “Oh, I wouldn’t
worry about it. Most of us were just curious—Dom’s never had a serious
girlfriend before. The girls who aren’t nice about it, well, they’re just
jealous.”

“Thanks. I’ll remember
that.” Molly quickly escaped and slipped up the stairs to her room. Closing her
door, she sat on the edge of the bed and leaned back on her hands. She was
already terrified that Tim was going to find her and hurt her or one of her new
friends; she didn’t want to think about other people hurting her too. The age
difference between herself and Dom didn’t bother him, and she knew it shouldn’t
bother her, but it did.

Standing up, she went to the
window and looked down at the pool. A lot of people were here now, swarming the
pool and bar areas, and she saw Tiff holding court by the Jacuzzi. She was
surrounded by four or five young players who were gazing at her in adoration.
Sergei was near the bar with Dom, Cody and someone she didn’t recognize. Toli
and Tatiana were nowhere she could see. Andra was talking to more people Molly didn’t
know, laughing and at ease. Cassidy was hanging onto the arm of a lanky man
with red hair, looking uncomfortable and quiet.

Molly couldn’t help but
wonder if she’d told him about their conversation or if she’d let it go. Were
they gossiping about her now? Shaking her head, she moved into the bathroom,
staring in the mirror self-consciously. She reapplied her lipstick and added
another layer of mascara. Fluffing her hair, she reminded herself that Dom
loved her, regardless of any signs of aging. She might not be perfect on the
outside, but they had a special bond and she couldn’t let herself think about
every little thing that could go wrong. If their relationship was going to end,
it was much more likely to be because she left him, not the crow’s feet around
her eyes when she smiled.

Starting to get depressed,
she took a deep breath and forced herself to put the negativity out of her
mind. She was going to go downstairs and make sure Dom was making friends with
all the guys that had been invited to camp; he’d told her he had no idea what
some of the younger guys had heard about him and it worried him. He didn’t want
them to think he was a jerk who hurt people. Andra had asked her to keep an eye
on Dom to make sure he was doing okay too. Although Brad and Andra trusted him,
they also knew Dom had never gotten close to any of his teammates since college
and they wanted that to change here.

Opening the door to her
room, Molly yelped in surprise as she came face to face with Toli. “You scared
the crap out of me!” she gasped.

“Sorry!” He gave her his
typical goofy smile. “Toli saw you come up and you are gone long time.”

She shrugged. “Just taking a
few minutes to compose myself. I’ve already been told that I’m prettier than
they heard I was.”

Toli’s eyes narrowed. “Who
said that? Toli will smack him.”

“It was one of the wives,”
she said wryly. “I think people would frown on you smacking her.”

Toli reached out to lift her
chin with his fingers. “Molly is not okay. Toli knows this face. What is it?”

“It’s nothing.” She shook
her head. “She hurt my feelings, so I came up here to get myself together.”

Fighting off tears of
melancholy, she started to move out the door, but Toli gently grabbed her arm.
He looked into her face and squinted. “Tell Toli what is making Molly have the
tears in eyes?”

“I can’t,” she whispered.

“You will leave us, yes?” He
looked at her knowingly. “This is what pains you.”

“I have to.” She turned her
back, burying her face in her hands as she struggled to keep herself from
bursting into tears.

“Toli can take you to
Russia,” he said softly. “We can go. He will never find you.”

“You have to be
here
.
You can’t worry about me.”

He scowled at her. “All the
months of friendship and
now
Toli should not worry about you? I was
arrested to protect you—of course there is worry! You do not understand
friendship if this is what you think!” He crossed his arms in annoyance.

“I just mean I have to solve
this myself. You guys have all been wonderful, but it’s time for me to fix this
without anyone else getting hurt. I have to find a way be free on my own.”

“So you will run.” He spoke
flatly. “And go where? Miami? Memphis? Mexico? Molly, how will you live?”

“I don’t know,” she
admitted. Her heart was overflowing with fear and hurt and a million other
emotions she couldn’t express to anyone, not even Toli. “But Toli, you’re all I
have right now. I can’t let Dom know how scared I am—he’ll get into trouble by
trying to kill Tim or doing some other crazy thing. No one really understands
how dangerous this is except you.” Her tearful eyes pleaded with him to
understand, even if he didn’t.

“What is Toli to do?”

A soft knock on the door
startled them and she sighed. “Come in.”

Dom stuck his head in,
frowning slightly. “What’s wrong?” He asked, looking from one to the other.

“Someone said something
stupid,” Toli made a face. “Molly has hurt feelings.”

Dom glanced at him.
“Tatiana’s at the bar surrounded by a bunch of young, single guys—you might
want to go rescue her.”