Once Upon a Marriage

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  ELLIOTT AVOIDED THE BRIDE. And her daughter. Dressed in the tuxedo he’d brought with him—one he owned for the occasions when he had to accompany clients to black-tie affairs—he trailed behind the bridal party as, all dressed in their finery, they made their way through the luxury resort to the small, discreet wedding chapel down a hallway on the second floor.

  Until that point, he hadn’t known there was anything small or discreet about Sin City. Nor had he known that the city famous for impromptu garish weddings officiated by Elvis impersonators also had on-the-spot facilities for more traditional unions.

  He stood in the back of the chapel while final arrangements, including music and video choices, were made. The nondenominational pastor, Reverend Billings, introduced himself, gave a rundown of the proceedings, asked the bride and groom to choose their vows from the various ceremonies he had available and then directed the bridesmaids into a vestibule where they were to enter on cue. For the ceremony video that the bride and groom would have as a keepsake of their special day.

  Barbara had chosen to walk up the aisle on her own. She’d be entering from the back of the chapel after her bridesmaids—Marie and Gabi—had taken their places from the side door. Bruce, Liam and Bruce’s brother, Michael, were mingling up front, where, when they were told, they’d take their places at the altar.

  Michael’s wife, Erin—the token audience member—was already seated.

  Elliott had it all down. He knew where every player was and where they would be when.

  There’d been no one in the hallway as they approached the chapel. The outer vestibule had been vacant, as well.

  Still, he was on the job. Prepared and focused.

  “So?”

  He turned when he heard the bride’s voice. She was in the vacant vestibule. Talking in a pseudo-whisper so only Elliott could hear her. Because it would look odd for the bride to suddenly have reason to converse with Liam Connelly’s bodyguard.

  But as soon as she spoke, he knew what she wanted. Knew, too, that it was up to him to make himself available to her without raising suspicion.

  She might be getting married. But her daughter’s happiness was still on her mind.

  Elliott texted Liam. Telling the other man to stay put. He was taking a very quick bathroom break.

  And then he slipped into the vestibule.

  “He played at a five-dollar table.”

  “And?”

  “At the end of the night he was up a thousand.”

  “So he got lucky.”

  “No, he played smart.” Elliott took some satisfaction in relaying this particular truth. Though he really had no reason to feel ownership of the outcome. Liam Connelly was just a job. “He took no big risks. And quit when he started to lose.”

  “Because Bruce was ready to come upstairs?” Most might have missed the hint of vulnerability in the woman’s eyes. If he hadn’t been trained to see such things, Elliott probably would have, too.

  “Bruce spent twenty on penny slots, won thirty and then seemed to take great delight in cheering on Liam.”

  He wasn’t being paid to spy on her intended. She’d never even hinted that he should.

  But Marie had told him Barbara’s history. She was Marie’s mother.

  And there he was, stepping out of bounds.

  “He drank two beers. Liam had two, as well.”

  Barbara nodded. Looking a bit like a little girl, unsure.

  “I had none,” he added. Because the woman did that to him. Made him feel that he wasn’t giving her enough.

  “And women? Liam’s a good-looking man. And there are women paid to please those with money to spend.”

  And Bruce had been at his bachelor party. A woman like Barbara, no matter how much she loved her soon-to-be husband and felt she was doing the right thing...had to have some doubts.

  Not that it was his job to tend to that.

  “Neither one of them did more than tip the waitress who brought them their beers.” He’d have told her if either man had behaved differently. Because she was paying him.

  And maybe...because he knew it would matter to Marie.

  The woman he’d been hired to protect.

  “One more thing.” Barbara’s eyes took on a steely glint.

  He nodded.

  “I need your word, here in this church, that you will never, not ever, tell my daughter that I hired you to watch over her.” There was no vulnerability about the woman now.

  She was pure businesswoman who knew her rights. With ethics on her side.

  He knew his job. The answer was a given. And...

  She held up her hand. “Do you think I’m stupid, young man? That I’m blind? Or that I don’t know my own daughter?”

  He blinked. Leaned back. Two minutes ago he’d been feeling sorry for the broad, and now...

  “Marie has...issues. I’m to blame for a lot of them. If not all of them. And I’m telling you right now, she can’t ever know that I hired you. You and I are the only two people who know. I haven’t even told Bruce. As long as we agree never to say anything, she’ll never have to know.”

  “I...”

  “Please.” She leaned forward, her tone no less adamant for being hushed. “We don’t have much time. I’ve created the monster within Marie. It’s up to me to do what I can to protect her from it. I know that I trusted you with my daughter’s life...”

  “Barbara?” Reverend Billings’s voice came from inside the chapel. She wasn’t standing in the opening as she’d been instructed to do. The music wouldn’t start until she was in place.

  So the video played smoothly afterward.

  “Just a minute,” she called.

  Bruce was probably sweating bullets. Afraid she was going to change her mind. Two beers had loosened the psychiatrist’s tongue the night before. He’d never met anyone like Barbara. Was having a hard time believing she really wanted to spend the rest of her life with a boring guy like him.

  “If Marie ever knew that you’re in her life because I’d hired you to be there...you think she’d ever speak to you again? And why else would you have called to ask me to let you tell her, unless you had some crazy idea that the two of you could hit it off?”

  He was not going to answer to that. Not even to himself.

  “She’s too distrustful. The fact that you’ve gotten her to be friendly with you is a miracle I’m sure you can’t fully comprehend. But I saw the difference in her the moment I saw her last night. And when you walked in behind her, when she looked at you, I knew you were the reason. And I’m warning you right now—it goes no further. Be her friend, if that’s what you have to do to do your job, but in every other sense, stay away from my daughter.”

  “Ma’am, I—”

  “She cried herself to sleep last night. She might like you, but she doesn’t trust in relationships. And there will be other men for her to like. Men who haven’t lied to her. Because, this I know, if she ever finds out that we’ve been duplicitous with her, not only would she shut herself off from you, but you’d probably be robbing her of ever finding someone else. If she’s not already at that point.”

  And Barbara would lose the trust of the daughter she adored.

  “Barbara?”

  “Coming! I...pulled a thread...”

  The woman was nothing if not clever. And determined.

  “I know my daughter, Tanner,” she said. “It would kill her to finally trust herself to a relationship and then find out that it was based on a lie. Leave her alone. And keep your mouth shut.”

  The woman didn’t blink. “If you don’t, I’ll sue you for everything you’ve got,” she added.

  Elliott was under pressure, unlike any he’d known before. A wedding party, a minister, was waiti
ng.

  He could only think of one thing to say. “I understand.”

  “I want your word on that. And you say nothing about our association.”

  He stood there, arms at his sides, feeling his gun beneath his forearm. Deflated. And hating this job more than ever before.

  “Mom? Do you need help?” Marie’s voice was coming closer.

  “No! I’m coming! Get in place,” she called. Waited to make certain her daughter wasn’t going to appear and then turned back to him. “I need to know that you aren’t going to sell me up the river to my daughter. Not for me, although that would definitely ruin my life, but for her. I’m the one person in this world, with the exception of Gabi, who she knows she can trust.”

  Maybe the woman should have thought of that before she’d hired a private investigator bodyguard to watch over her daughter.

  “Tanner?”

  The woman wasn’t stupid. She had every base covered.

  If he didn’t agree to leave Marie alone, other than friendship, and to keep her secret, she’d do everything she could to ruin his career.

  He couldn’t fault her her motivation, though. She loved her daughter and was trying to protect her.

  He just couldn’t take the chance that Marie would never have anything more to do with him.

  And really, she was only saying what he already knew himself. There was no future for him with Marie.

  “You have my word.”

  * * *

  PEOPLE WERE SUPPOSED to cry at weddings. People of the female persuasion, especially. Gabi didn’t cry. But she had a tissue on hand to pass to Marie as Barbara looked into her intended’s eyes and clearly and succinctly promised to love him until death did them part.

  She promised to put him first. To be loyal. He promised the same. They each vowed to always protect the other.

  And Marie could hardly endure all the emotions swarming inside. Happiness for her mother. Relief. Pure joy. Envy. Fear. And a loneliness that was threatening to smother the life out of her.

  She didn’t know what took her attention from the couple standing in front of the minister. Didn’t know why she turned and looked to the back of the room where Elliott stood, in full wedding garb minus a boutonniere, his hands crossed at his midsection.

  He overshadowed the room. Not because of his size. But because he was there. More than her mother or Gabi, more than Liam, she was glad Elliott was there.

  Which made no sense.

  And perfect sense.

  He was there to guard Liam, but he was staring at Marie. She could feel him. As though he were holding her hand. Telling her that she was going to be fine.

  That good things were in store for her, too.

  The ache in her heart eased. Excitement filled the gaps.

  He didn’t smile.

  Neither did she.

  They just...looked. Giving and taking.

  It wasn’t until she heard the music start that she realized the minister had just told the groom he could kiss his bride.

  The wedding was over.

  And she’d spent the majority of it with Elliott.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  HE’D BEEN TO Vegas before. But it had been a while. He’d forgotten the peculiar energy that buzzed up and down the Strip like a virus infecting everyone. Boundaries evaporated in Las Vegas. Partially because so did some laws. Many things that were illegal in other places were not only legal but openly accepted on the Las Vegas Strip.

  The old saying about what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas might not necessarily be true, but the perception that it was true clearly filled the veins of people who were probably straitlaced and responsible any other place on earth.

  Not only did anything happen, but it happened twenty-four hours a day. Loudly. Boldly.

  Las Vegas was one place where more people than he’d ever seen were capable of letting their hair down. It brought out the wildness in people—even those with only a tiny bit of wildness inside them. If it was there, Vegas would find it.

  He had a wild side. Or he had had. It had been a long time since he checked in with it. Maybe he’d grown out of it. The point was, it didn’t matter if it was there or not. It wasn’t his to set free that weekend.

  He had a job to do, and he was going to do it.

  He accompanied the wedding party to the private brunch in the bridal suite, intending to stand back, to be the observer he was being paid to be—not a participant.

  But when Liam insisted he come forward, and Barbara watched him without looking as though she was anything more than curious about him, he knew he was going to lose the battle.

  Truth was, he’d been about to lose it anyway. He’d seen the chairs set around the square glass table in front of a wall of windows looking out over the mountains behind the strip. Eight chairs. The bride and groom sat together. Bruce’s brother and his wife pulled out chairs that were side by side. Which left four chairs and Gabrielle, Liam and Marie.

  Elliott couldn’t let her sit alone. Even a guy who was just a friend wouldn’t do that to her. Not on this day.

  And the suite they were in was private. It wasn’t as if he had to be on guard duty.

  Seven people talked. About the wedding. The honeymoon. The food. Las Vegas. Their plans for the afternoon.

  Elliott sat next to Marie. He ate. And when she smiled at him, he smiled back.

  When she leaned over and asked him in a whisper if he liked his food, he nodded.

  And when the meal was complete and everyone was having coffee, he leaned back, stretched his long body and was careful not to touch her as his hands fell to his lap.

  Her rose scent had been filtering over to him the entire meal. And that dress...

  He remembered the kiss Marie had given him back in Denver the day before they left.

  Neither of them had so much as acknowledged it. But he was never going to forget the stupendous effect that chaste little peck had had on him.

  As he sat there with her family, knowing that he was never going to have a real relationship with Marie, he thought about kissing her again. Really kissing her. For a moment he allowed himself to imagine that he and Marie were every bit as much a couple as everyone else sitting at that small private party.

  And hoped to God that this time what happened in Vegas, even if only his mind, really stayed in Vegas.

  * * *

  MARIE HAD NEVER been to Las Vegas. By early afternoon on Saturday, she decided she loved the place. There was so much energy, so much to see and do. So much beauty.

  There was filth, too, but she chose not to look at it. Not that day.

  The luxurious resort in which they were staying was opulent. Beauty unimaginable and over-the-top, from life-size real floral art pieces that moved, mosaic art on ceilings and floors, live entertainment even that early in the day. Pretty clothes. Pretty shops. Pretty faces.

  Her mother was married. She was laughing out loud. Something Marie hadn’t even realized had been missing from their lives until she was pleasantly shocked by the sound.

  Gabi and Liam were holding hands. Her new step-uncle, Michael, had just whispered something to Aunt Erin. And Elliott had sat next to her at brunch.

  The party had broken up shortly after that as everyone went to change into jeans and sweaters for a day of adventure—except Elliott, of course, who stood out in his daily blacks. When she’d seen the length of the Strip, Marie was glad she and Gabi had packed tennis shoes.

  She’d been alone in her hotel room while everyone changed.

  But from the minute the party regrouped, Elliott had been by her side, staying by her side, as they made their way through the huge resort and out to the limo that was waiting to take them to the small airport that housed several helicopter pads. She was about to take
a helicopter ride above the Hoover Dam, compliments of her new stepfather.

  Elliott leaned in to ask her, “You scared?” He’d moved closer as the crowd grew thicker.

  “Not in the least.”

  She couldn’t wait.

  For whatever Las Vegas might bring her that day.

  * * *

  AS SOON AS Marie saw that the helicopter seats were in rows of two, the little dance going on inside her sped up. She and Elliott were going to be sitting together. As they had in the limo. She couldn’t think of anything she wanted more in that moment than to experience her first helicopter ride, her first look at mountains and canyons she’d never seen before, with him.

  “It looks like it’s you and me again,” he said as he buckled himself into the seat beside her in the back of the helicopter. Liam and Gabi were directly in front of them, with Michael and Erin directly behind the pilot. The bride and groom had their own helicopter.

  “I don’t mind if you don’t.” She was happy and didn’t bother to hide that fact. They were in Vegas.

  “Are you kidding?” He leaned over to speak so that only she could hear. “Of this whole group, you’re the easiest one to be with.”

  Not the least bit romantic, but her heart soared anyway. She was grinning from ear to ear. As though she’d just received an avowal of everlasting love from the man of her dreams.

  She was over-the-top. And didn’t care. She was in Vegas.

  And Elliott wasn’t just another guy. He’d been different since the day she met him. Almost like what her mother had described feeling the first day she’d seen Bruce as a man rather than a therapist.

  The pilot came on. Asked them all if they were comfortable. Checked their seat belts. Went over safety measures. Gave them a rundown of what they were in for. And told them it would be another couple of minutes before they were ready to take off.

  Gabi turned around to ask, “You ready for this?”

  “Yep!” Marie smiled at her. Gabi looked at Elliott and smiled back.

  “Anyone want to go skydiving next?” Liam asked.

  At which time Gabi elbowed him in the ribs. Whispered something to him. And he laughed. Marie had always loved Liam’s laugh. It was full-bodied. Boisterous. Free.