This time his voice was firm but sharp as he broke into whatever ruminating Payton was still doing. “You need to calm down and think about this rationally.” She stopped and turned to him, suddenly hearing him for the first time. “This mistake…we can fix it. I’ll call my assistant and have her track down an attorney who specializes in foreign marriages and divorces. We can get this taken care of, quietly. No one but us will ever have to know.”
She blinked a few times and nodded. “A mistake. Right. That’s what this is, and I’m sure once we explain everything to whoever we need to, a judge, a city clerk, we can get this annulled or dissolved or whatever. My mother doesn’t have to find out.” At that last bit, she exhaled loudly and plopped herself down on the bed next to him. “Can I have that coffee now?”
He handed the other cup to her and dug into his pockets for the condiments that he tossed on the covers. “I didn’t know how you took it so I brought everything.”
She glanced down at the stuff and sorted through it, grabbing a sweetener. “Your own wife and you’re not sure how I take my coffee,” she muttered.
He smiled. Sounded like she’d started to regain her sense of humor. “Yeah, well there are a few other things I’ve learned that you like over the past few hours. Let’s just call it even.”
More silence followed and he hazarded a glance in her direction, finding her cheeks were pink as she likely was remembering a thing or two about what took place on this very bed. Something he fortunately was able to remember in detail. It would have been a shame for those memories to be hazy.
His back pocket began buzzing, and he pulled his cell phone out and stared at it for a minute. “It’s Kate.”
Payton’s stare fixated on the screen too. “I can’t talk. Not just yet.”
Well someone was going to need to speak with them. Assure everyone they were still safe and on their way. He took in a breath. “Hello, Kate? And how is the blushing bride-to-be?”
He looked up and met Payton’s gaze. His bride’s gaze, technically, as Payton was that.
His bride.
She seemed to pick up on it, too, as her eyes bulged even wider. Her hands went to her mouth and he barely heard her whisper, “What am I going to tell Kate?”
“I’m managing,” Kate was saying, unaware of her best friend’s new dilemma, “but your brother is getting a little anxious. I told him that there’s nothing on this earth that could keep either of you from being here and that you’re probably on the road now.”
“Yeah.” Shit. What time was it? The clock said eight-thirty. “We got kind of a late start but we’re checking out of the hotel soon and then we’ll get the car. Payton’s in the shower but I can have her call you later.”
There was a considerable pause as Kate took that in. “No. No, no rush,” she said finally but he could hear puzzlement in her voice. And here he’d thought he sounded completely relaxed but apparently she’d read something into what he’d said. “The ceremony isn’t until five. If you’re here in time for lunch, great, but it’s not the end of the world.”
“We’ll be there. Who else is going to hold my brother up when he sees the vision of you walking down that aisle toward him? We’re only three and half hours, four tops, away from you, and I already have assurances from the guy at the garage the car is ready to go.”
She sighed in relief. “Good to hear. Okay, I’ll talk to you both soon. Drive safely.”
Cruz hung up and looked over at his wife. My freaking wife. It was a surreal thought.
“I guess I’d better get dressed if we’re going to get out of here,” she said and stood, revealing the delectable creaminess of an inner thigh. A few more memories from the previous night hit him and he caught his breath.
The weight of this woman in his arms. The taste of her skin as his tongue trailed down her lovely body. The sigh she gave later, after they’d both spent all their energy and lay in each other’s arms.
He cleared his throat, relieved she wasn’t looking at him. “Good idea. I’ll call my assistant and get the ball rolling on our little…legal fiasco.”
Only, when she looked like that, with the memories of last night stirring in his mind, it didn’t sound like such a fiasco anymore. It sounded like a dream. A fantasy come true.
He really should get his head examined.
Their departure wasn’t as quick or as unremarkable as they’d hoped. Apparently notified by the front desk of their imminent departure, the whole busload of square dancers headed them off in the lobby and Bev just about tackled her to the ground in a hug.
“You didn’t think you two were going to take off without giving us a chance to say good-bye.” She reached over and gave Cruz a similar hug and then beamed at them both. “Come on. Follow me. I know you’re in a hurry but we have a little surprise for you two.”
They followed Bev outside and into the blinding morning sunlight. Payton shielded her eyes with her hand and tried to process what she was seeing. A garishly decorated car, covered in art and cans dangling from the… She blinked her eyes a few times, certain that the little car looked more than familiar.
She was almost certain it was theirs. This time she read the words smeared along most of the tiny car’s windows. Just Married, with swirly cues and hearts in pinks and purples adding unnecessary pizzazz.
A glance over at Cruz told her he was as surprised, his expression near shock before setting into something akin to a smile. She couldn’t help it; she laughed and leaned forward to grab her belly. Especially as it roiled the tiniest bit from the motion.
Collected again, she turned around to the well-meaning group surrounding them and threw her hands out, going around and hugging them and accepting their wishes for a long and happy future together. Even if their engagement had been fabricated from the beginning, the joke was on Payton. There wasn’t anything pretend about it now.
She was, in fact, married to the guy.
And in that moment, as they continued to speak all at once, pounding Cruz on the back and a few of the women sneaking kisses, she felt a bit of wistfulness.
What if this were real?
What if she and Cruz were departing here today with the prospect of their whole lives together before them? Of being able to return to those arms any time she wanted, arms she had vague recollections of as they held her close to him, of feeling she was with someone real and solid and who made her feel special.
Bev stepped forward again, this time with a small package in her hands and handed it to Payton. It was a book—a photo album, she realized as she flipped it open. Her stomach dropped as she saw the featured topic.
Staring out at her was a picture of her and Cruz, in front of the priest, sharing what had to be their first kiss as husband and wife. The next page had a picture of her and Cruz smiling for the photographer, holding hands as they smiled with such happiness, even if their faces and eyes were bright and unfocused from the butt-load of alcohol they’d consumed, that she felt a sense of warmth and longing.
“We managed to get the front desk to print those pictures for us as a little wedding present,” Bev was saying as Cruz came to stand next to her, looking down at the gift.
Tears formed as Payton turned page after page and saw photos with her and Cruz, clearly under some lovesick spell, and a few other photos with their new friends. She couldn’t remember most of what had happened in those photos but it was evident she and Cruz were having a good time. And the way they looked at each other…it sent goose bumps down her arms.
She looked up to Cruz, who was studying the photos quietly, no expression on his face. She ached to know what he was thinking. He lifted his gaze to hers and something passed in those dark eyes that she couldn’t comprehend before he finally broke into a smile. He winked at her, and she nearly fell back in surprise.
Bev still had the floor as she continued, “I put our addresses and phone numbers in there as well as the website for our little troupe. We’d love it if you would stay in contact with us.
”
“We will. Thanks everyone. This is such an incredible gift.”
“It was our pleasure.”
She and Cruz stood there almost awkwardly as all the beaming faces stared at them with such good will. Cruz’s hand slipped around her waist and brought her against his side in surprising ease, sending her heartbeat racing. It touched a memory of the same arm wrapping around her as they danced, as they embraced, as they kissed, many times the night before. It didn’t feel foreign to her, though. It felt right.
They finally said their good-byes and climbed in the car and buckled up, Payton almost trembling with the rush of emotions she was feeling. Cruz slowly inched the car down the street, the loud sound of tin cans in their ears. She turned around in the seat and waved to everyone who still stood in front of the hotel to watch them go.
The loud banging of the cans against the road made it impossible to hear her own thoughts, and she cringed as her headache that had abated thanks to the caffeine and aspirin Cruz had provided, threatened to return. “I hope we’re not planning to travel the rest of the way with those cans on the car. I don’t think my head can take it.”
“I figure we’d let them get their show. As soon as we turn at the next block, I’ll stop the car and clean up.”
Payton sat in the car a few minutes later, sipping some hot water with lemon she’d managed to snag from the hotel to help her belly, trying to figure out why she felt like crying. It was crazy, this sudden melancholy washing over her as she watched Cruz remove the last of the group’s well wishes from the car.
Kind of like he was wiping all proof that it had even happened. Just as he would when he reached an attorney who could handle their “mistake.”
He climbed back in the car. “All set?”
“Absolutely,” she said with an enthusiasm she didn’t feel. She looked out the window of the town, watching it disappear as they put the miles in between it and their destination. Just another memory to look back at with bittersweet tears.
She set the tea in the cup holder and picked up the photo album. Unable to help herself, she opened it and studied the pictures. She came to an image of Bev and Lenny attempting to teach them how to square dance. Lenny was swinging Payton around, and she had the faintest memory of him calling out the next step and looking over to see Cruz and Bev dancing together like they’d been doing it for years. Payton hadn’t been as sure-footed and had laughed anyway, a moment now captured on the page before her.
“I remember that one,” Cruz said and she looked up to see him glancing down at the page. He chuckled. “You danced like you had two left feet while I was busy keeping Bev’s hands…above the waist. She definitely wasn’t shy in offering her congratulations.”
“Bev? You’re kidding.” She laughed and studied the photo a little more carefully. Sure enough, in what looked like a moment when Cruz and Lenny were about to hand off the women to each other, Bev’s hand was planted directly on Cruz’s buttock.
Payton dissolved into giggles. Tears slipped from her eyes, happy tears, the tension of the past few days all but forgotten. Cruz looked at her uncertainly.
She grabbed his arm, trying to explain. “When my mother envisioned her only daughter’s big day, she planned for twelve-piece orchestras and Champagne. A professional photographer and a six layer tiered cake. Not mariachi bands and tequila or Kodak instant cameras and churros—which were delicious, now that I can remember them.” She paused and took in a breath. “Then again—neither did I.” Her stomach quivered with more giggles and she gave into another belly laugh.
This time, Cruz actually joined her. Her body seemed to be relaxing under the endorphins flooding her, a euphoric feeling of calm settling over her.
Cruz nodded to the album. “Let’s see some more.”
For the next few minutes, with Cruz keeping his attention on the road in between glimpses of their wedding album, they studied memories from a night that neither one of them seemed to be able to remember in full. Cruz shook his head at one where he was on his knees in front of Payton, his hand under her skirt. “What am I doing in that one?”
A rush of heat warmed her face as she remembered and explained, “I think Patty had tied a handkerchief in place of a garter around my leg and was insisting you…remove it. This was taken just before you, uh, used your teeth to pull it down my leg.”
“Now that should be a memory I have emblazoned in my mind,” he said in a decidedly wistful tone.
She smacked him and laughed again. “Well, you weren’t the one mortified by the gazes of all the lecherous old men trying to catch a glimpse of more than I wanted to give them.”
Reaching the end of the book, she closed it, her hand resting on the cover. That same melancholy feeling hit her.
For a night that Cruz had summarized as nothing but a mistake, memory holes and all, it was one of the best nights of her life.
An image of Cruz tickling her under her rib as they lay together, tired and spent, in the early morning came back to her.
Maybe even the best night of her life.
Chapter Eleven
It was just after noon when the taxi they’d taken from the airport—where they’d dropped off their rental car—pulled up to the front of the hotel. Cruz paid the driver and helped Payton climb out, a courtesy that came easily to him.
Not so easy was knowing he had to relinquish her arm, and let her go.
He had thought that when he reached this moment, as he handed off the duties of sole protector of Payton to her friend and his family, that he would be feeling overwhelming relief that she wasn’t his to worry about. Instead, there was a sense of sadness. Of loss. Of a chapter ending that had been—although unexpected—strangely fun and exciting.
He followed Payton inside and up to the check-in counter. Despite the hangover from hell that they both had been recovering from most of the morning—who knew those Bueno bars would be the prefect hangover cure?—he was unable to keep his eyes off her.
Her face makeup-free but bright and glowing, those green eyes that looked at him with a little bit of wonder and surprise the past few hours, she was beautiful. Just as beautiful now as when he danced with her under the moonlight in that dress, or later, when he’d held her in his arms naked and resplendent. When he’d thought she was and was going to remain…his wife.
At least, until morning came and the haze of alcohol was wiped away with sobriety. And needling doubt.
They passed a fountain and a bar where people were leaving with tall fruit-rimmed drinks. The hotel attendant was already checking in another couple, so they hung back and waited. The silence between them was now painful, and neither of them made eye contact with the other as they instead feigned interest in the hotel’s bright orange toned walls, the high-pitched ceilings, and the people passing through the lobby.
“We’re here at last,” Payton said brightly, but the words sounded forced. She was trying to fill the silence that had grown between them over the past couple hours as they arrived closer to their destination.
“Even made it in time for the lunch with half an hour to spare.” His own words sounded equally hollow.
The hotel clerk, a younger guy in his twenties with decent English skills, motioned them over. Cruz stood next to Payton, waiting patiently as she checked in first. News that their luggage had arrived the day before and was already up in their rooms brought a squeal of excitement from Payton, and she reached her hand out and squeezed his arm before stopping, almost uncertain, and then pulling away. “Sorry.”
Right. Payton and he were already falling back into their usual awkwardness.
The next words from the hotel agent froze them both to their spot. “It appears your mother also arrived a couple of hours ago, Ms. Vaughn. She wanted me to relay that you’re to call her immediately on arrival as she was hoping to, uh, stay in your room. Of course, under hotel policy, we couldn’t release the rooms to Mrs. Vaughn, regardless of your relationship.”
Cruz looked down to
see how Payton was handling the news. Her fingernails almost dug into the surface of the desk where she’d been resting them.
“My mother is here.” But it was a statement rather than a question. “Of course she is.” She looked up at Cruz, her eyes imploring him now. “Cruz, can I have a moment alone with you?”
He nodded to the hotel clerk and they stepped away from the desk.
Her voice was low and laced with panic. “Under no circumstances can my mother know that we shared the same room last night—let alone…well, everything else. Even taking away the whole marriage thing,” she gulped and took a breath before starting again, “I couldn’t bare to have her go into a lengthy lecture of the impropriety of my lewd and immoral behavior. Sleeping with a man who wasn’t—in my mother’s eyes—my fiancé.”
“Of course, Payton. I’m not usually in the habit of parading the details of my private life to anyone,” he added, his voice cool. It sounded an awful lot like Payton was ashamed of being with a guy like him. That he was someone to be ashamed of. And it cut to the quick. “It will remain our secret.”
A family of four arrived in the lobby and started toward the desk. “Look. Why don’t we both get settled into our rooms, take a moment to relax, and remember why we’re here today. To watch the two people we care about really do this marriage thing the right way. We can talk later.”
She nodded but her eyes were already unfocused, and her shoulders seemed so tight and tense that he was afraid she’d shatter to the touch. But they stepped forward and continued with the registration. They were just getting their key cards handed to them when a familiar voice cried out for them across the lobby.
And like that, their crazy, unexpected trip, a trip that had brought him more adventure and excitement, the feeling that he was fully alive, came to an official end.
“Payton! Cruz! I’m so happy to see you,” Kate said, the relief palpable in her voice.
Payton turned to find her friend rushing toward them, her vibrant red hair hard to miss, as was the dark handsome fiancé who followed close behind. Kate pulled Payton into a hug that threatened to bruise a few ribs if she didn’t let up. It was another reminder of how much Dominic and his big-hearted family had worked miracles on Kate, who before knowing him, would have been more likely to pat Payton awkwardly on the back than give her such an effusive hug. Payton liked the change.
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