But she didn’t love it nearly as much as Gabi did. Liam and Gabi together...it made sense. Gabi had always been the one whom Liam had listened to most. When the girls had disagreed on ways he should handle things, he’d followed Gabi’s advice most often.
Her friends were happy. Which only added to Marie’s buoyancy.
The pilot was back. Rumbles filled the air. Marie felt ready to take off without an engine. Her hands clenched into fists on her thighs. She was ready for anything life had to offer.
And scared, too.
Nothing was as it had been.
Elliott moved. His shoulder touched hers, and she wanted to lean into him. And not just for the moment.
She, Marie Bustamante, who hadn’t allowed herself to lean on a man since the first time her father walked out on them, wanted to lay her head on that shoulder.
She stared down. Bracing for takeoff. Knowing that helicopters weren’t the safest vehicles.
Elliott’s hand came into view. So much larger than hers. Strong and capable. It covered her fist, his fingers unfolding hers. And then intertwining with them. He was holding her hand. Elliott Tanner and she were holding hands.
Like a couple.
She was flying.
And they hadn’t even left the ground.
* * *
THE FLIGHT WAS MAGNIFICENT. They had to yell to be heard, so no one said much. Marie saw such indescribable natural beauty that after a while she couldn’t take it all in. Even the pristine blue of the sky became too much.
So she concentrated on Elliott instead. On the way he leaned over to see out. The expressions that crossed his face. Thoughtful. Assessing at every turn. And a weird kind of peaceful, too. His face softened in a way she’d never seen before.
Natural wonder? Because he wasn’t working? Or because of her?
He didn’t let go of her hand.
She didn’t let go of his, either.
And she knew that holding hands with him wasn’t going to be enough.
Not by a long shot.
* * *
THE TWO OLDER couples went their own ways after the helicopter ride. Michael and Erin had a flight that evening back to California. And Bruce and Barbara were spending the night in their suite before leaving in the morning for Florida where they were going to board their cruise. The flight back to Denver left a couple of hours before theirs so they said their goodbyes as soon as they all arrived back at the hotel.
Liam suggested that the four of them, he and Gabrielle, Marie and Elliott, hit the Strip. Elliott had the thought that he should call off on an evening of partying with Marie. But knew by the look on Liam’s face that he’d be playing a losing hand if he tried to get the other man to stay in. Or to agree to go out without his bodyguard present.
Employer number one had just warned him off, and yet the second he’d seen the fear on Marie’s face when they were ready to take off in the helicopter, he’d reached for her hand. Because he’d known she’d enjoy the ride if he did.
He’d be lying if he tried to convince himself he hadn’t enjoyed it, too. It was becoming more and more obvious that Marie thought of him as more than a friend. He could no longer deny that he was falling for her.
But he’d given his word. Would lose everything, including her, if he pursued the relationship they both seemed to want and the truth ever came out.
Which it would. Somehow. Eventually. It almost always did.
As he was trying to come up with a good reason to leave the threesome to enjoy the rest of their day, Liam, employer number two, insisted that he wanted his bodyguard along with him as he perused the wonders that Las Vegas had to offer. Just as Elliott had known he would.
They were all three looking at him, and he knew it would draw more attention if he suddenly decided Liam was in no possible danger at all.
In spite of what his instincts were telling him in terms of staying away from Marie, he had to do as he was told.
* * *
THEY GAMBLED A little bit. Penny slots only. They ate. They had one beer apiece because in the casinos they were free, and they were in Vegas. What happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas.
Or so they kept telling each other as they walked from resort to resort with thousands of other people. On every corner men and women flicked cards at passersby. From what Marie could see, the cards depicted women posing with little or no clothing. Neither Liam nor Elliott seemed to notice. Gabi shook her head. Marie grinned and hooked her arm with Elliott’s.
They were in Vegas.
* * *
BY TEN O’CLOCK that night, Marie didn’t feel like anyone she’d ever known. Her skin was alive. Buzzing. She wasn’t the least bit tired. And couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next. The city never slept. That meant the day never had to end.
Tomorrow would come. She would enter it when it did.
Gabi, of all people, suggested they go to the salsa nightclub they’d seen advertised in their resort. It had live entertainment. A dance floor. The three of them had learned some salsa in college. They weren’t dressed for a nightclub.
And Liam had them on their way before either Marie or Elliott had had a chance to disagree.
He also had Elliott on the dance floor soon after they got there, though it was obvious that Elliott had had no intention of dancing. Period. But when Liam wanted to dance with Gabi, and Gabi said no because Marie was the one who loved to dance and she couldn’t do salsa the way she liked to without a partner, Elliott had given in to the demands Liam had made of him.
Marie wanted to feel badly for him, but she wasn’t sorry. Most particularly not when she was on the dance floor with Elliott. As big as he was, she hadn’t expected the natural rhythm with which he’d moved.
“You’ve done this before,” she said as they stood, face-to-face, for a brief moment. He swung her out. Pulled her back into him.
“When I started getting so tall...”
With his hand holding hers, she twirled. And rested against him for a beat. “My aunt suggested that I take a dance class to offset the awkwardness.”
Marie missed a step.
And fell head over heels in love.
* * *
AT MIDNIGHT, WHEN the band took a break, Liam suggested that the four of them head back to the casino to see how the tables were doing.
And Elliott was working again. Barbara was paying him to watch over the man. Walter Connelly had a gambling problem. Barbara wanted to know if Liam did, as well.
“I don’t know how to play, but I’d love to watch,” Marie said.
“I don’t know how, either, but since you’re so good at it, I’d like to know what it’s all about,” Gabrielle piped in. She and Marie were still in the jeans and sweaters they’d changed into after the wedding. Elliott followed them to the casino.
The dealer looked up as Liam slid onto a stool at a blackjack table with a ten-dollar minimum bid. He nodded. The other men and one woman at the table all nodded, as well. Making room.
They looked to Elliott. Who shook his head, taking a stance almost directly behind his number-two employer. If the dealer took him for what he was, Liam’s bodyguard, so be it.
Anything and everything happened in Vegas.
* * *
HALF AN HOUR after they’d left the club, Gabi was sitting with Liam at the card table with a pile of her own chips in front of her. She wasn’t betting high. She was just winning.
“She used to get so ticked off at Liam when he gambled,” she said to Elliott. The two of them were in cushy armchairs in a lounge area just behind the card table, sipping diet sodas. A lounge with no live entertainment. Because it was still necessary to rest for a minute or two. Even in Vegas.
Marie had wanted a place to sit. Elliott had followed her. And was watc
hing Liam as she spoke.
“Did he gamble a lot?” he asked. His tone of voice had changed. As though he was working again. Making note of things of which he had to be aware.
And Marie’s heart softened even more. He wasn’t just keeping Liam safe from bodily harm. He cared about his client.
And so she was quick to reassure him. “For a little bit, he did,” she said. “During our first year of college. But it was only to get back at his father. Because he knew the old man would disapprove. I told him that was the wrong reason to do anything. But I understood. Gabi was just so disappointed in him for risking so much money—no matter the reason.”
“He played high stakes?”
“Only after he won. Which he did a lot.”
“And since then?”
“I’m pretty sure this is the first time Liam’s gambled since his freshman year. He grew up hearing about what gambling did to his father. Knew how hard Walter had to fight to beat his addiction. Saw him build an empire from nothing. And then, as you know, he finds out a couple of months ago that his father had made himself vulnerable to blackmail because he’d returned to gambling and had used company funds to cover his debts.”
Money that Walter had paid back before it was ever discovered missing. Money that was, technically, his to use as it had been a hardship fund that he’d financed with his own money and could terminate at any time.
But he’d left himself vulnerable. Making him ripe to cut a deal with his corporate attorney—who knew about the gambling—when Walter found out the other man had been running an illegal Ponzi scheme. In the end, Walter pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in exchange for his testimony against George Costas.
A small roar came from the high-top table in front of them, and Marie grinned as Gabi turned around and gave her a thumbs-up.
“I can’t believe that’s Gabi up there,” Marie said. Smiling. “You should have seen her even six months ago. Always so serious. Like her responsibilities didn’t leave any time for fun.”
Which in some ways was exactly as it had been. With a low-income single mother and two younger brothers at home, Gabi had been sending money even from college. She’d worked full-time, and still kept up a class load that allowed her to finish her undergraduate degree in the four years that her scholarship had lasted.
Her family, mother and both brothers, had moved down South a few years ago, but Gabi still sent them money.
“I saw her three months ago and she was that way,” Elliott reminded her. “And I remember their wedding.”
Marie and Elliott had been their witnesses at the courthouse for a five-minute ceremony. Because Liam had been adamant that there would be no press, and no Walter, trying to interfere. He was taking no chances on making Gabi his legal wife as soon as humanly possible.
Then they’d all gone out to lunch and then back to work.
“And you were at the shop when they got back from their honeymoon, too,” Marie remembered. Liam had surprised Gabi with a three-day trip to Hawaii. As happy as Marie had been for her friends, she’d felt Gabi’s sudden loss sharply.
“You saved me that weekend,” she said to Elliott.
“Me?” His glance was completely personal again as he watched her. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You listened to me jabber.”
“I told you before. I like listening to you. And you don’t jabber. The things you say are interesting. Worth listening to.”
He’d been hanging around the shop a lot back then. With the whole Connelly Investments thing going down. And anytime she’d been free, she’d sat with him. And after work, too, not wanting to go up to her apartment alone. She’d told him about meeting Gabi. And then Liam. About the years they’d all shared.
About the time she and Gabi had had car trouble in Denver and Liam had called his dad, who’d reluctantly rescued them. About the way Liam had always come to their rescue when guys were being jerks.
The table cheered again. This time it was Liam who turned around and grinned at her. Did it make her a bad person that she was envious of them? Her two best friends in the world?
“You should get married.”
Had he read her mind? Marie stared at Elliott. Wished she had something stronger than diet soda. “That’s not something I can make happen on my own.”
Heart pounding, she watched people pass. A few were obviously drunk. Most were laughing. Having the times of their lives.
As she’d been doing all day long. With Elliott at her side. Pretending that he was really hers. That they were really a couple.
In some ways it had been the very best day of her life.
“There’s a chapel right down the hall,” he said to her, looking drunk, though she knew him to be completely sober. “I happen to know exactly how to get there and know, too, that they’re open twenty-four hours a day.”
She swallowed. Another roar of cheers came from somewhere. In the far-off distance. She’d been thrust into another vignette. Something that would never happen at home.
“I don’t think they come with grooms,” she said. Playing along with him. Her mouth was dry. Her palms sweaty. She picked up her soda. Held it with both hands.
“So I’ll be your groom.” He was joking. The grin on his face said so. Elliott wasn’t a grinner.
“Okay.”
His face sobered instantly. Completely. He sat forward, his elbows on his knees, hands crossed. And she prepared herself to accept his graceful letdown. To let him off easy.
To grin and pretend she’d been joking, too.
But just for the second, just one tiny second, she allowed herself to believe that the moment was for real. The sudden ache inside her was intense.
Consuming her.
The longing.
Not just for a marriage of her own. But for him. This man who’d walked into her life and been different from all the rest...
“I’m serious, Marie.”
She dropped her glass.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“YOU HAVE TO know that I’m all for you and Marie hooking up, but this is a little crazy, man. Getting married at two o’clock in the morning?”
Back in their tuxes from the morning, albeit slightly wrinkled ones, the two men were standing in the chapel where they’d all begun their day—had it really been less than twenty-four hours ago?—waiting for the minister on call to show up.
Marie and Gabi were upstairs slipping back into their little black dresses.
It was crazy. He was crazy. But if he didn’t do this now, he was going to lose her. Her mother had said Marie still didn’t trust herself to a relationship. But all day long, Marie’s actions had been telling him a different story.
She wanted him. As much as he wanted her. For the first time in his life, he had someone who wanted only him. Especially him.
Barbara be damned. She was wrong. And if he presented her with a done deal, if she saw how happy he’d made her daughter, surely she wouldn’t cut his future out from beneath him. Because to do that would be akin to cutting her daughter’s future, too.
“Our flight leaves in the morning,” he said, as though that was explanation enough for his rush.
The real reason—because he’d never wanted anything in his life as much as he wanted Marie Bustamante as his wife—didn’t sound rational even to his own ears. Or the other part—that he somehow knew that if he didn’t do this now, he wasn’t going to get another chance.
Back in Denver, with Barbara’s paychecks and warnings pecking at him, he’d be too sensible. To conscientious. Marie would think he’d lost interest in her. And be hurt.
She’d shut him out...
And his word to Barbara? Was that worth nothing?
For most of his life, the only thing he’d had to stand on, to count on
being there for him, was his integrity.
At the moment, in Las Vegas where anything was possible and people did things they didn’t normally do, where they were happier than they normally were, he didn’t care. He’d spent his entire life standing on his word from the outside looking in. Marie welcomed him in. She had since day one.
Liam looked around them. The lighting that morning, when combined with the sun shining in the windows, had seemed romantic. But now on its own was a bit garish. “Tanner, you do know there are other places to get married.”
“I know.”
“It’s not like Marie’s going anywhere...”
“You saying you don’t approve?” He wasn’t sure even that would make much difference at the moment. It was as if he were drunk, on some insane collision course, and couldn’t stop himself. Whatever was driving him was stronger than anything trying to stop him.
Liam shook his head. “I’ve been watching out for Marie for well over a decade. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see the day when a man walked into her life and had the power to break through the walls around her heart.” He shrugged. “Marie needs you.”
Now he was confused. “But you don’t want her to marry me tonight.” He wasn’t the best catch. Marie could have children who grew up to tower over her.
Thoughts of children stopped him cold. And had his heart racing at Mach speed.
“I don’t want you divorcing her,” Liam said. “This is pretty sudden. You sure you’re in it for the long haul?”
“I knew a month after I met her that I wanted her to be my wife.”
“I’d feel better if I’d been aware of that.”
“You’re my employer, Connelly. She’s your friend.” He hated the subterfuge and gave what he could of the truth. “But this is not your call.”
“I’m still your employer.”
True. But... “You going to deny that you set me up with her a week ago Friday night? That that dinner out after the shooting episode at the elementary school wasn’t your weak attempt at matchmaking?”
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