by Vivian Arend
Only the instant they poured out of the car, it was clear he had no chance of being the one by her side as they headed onto the plane.
Tamara gave everyone final hugs and kisses, including Julia, who was looking a little wide-eyed.
At least until Tamara stuck a finger in her face. “These two are terrible at taking pictures,” she said, gesturing toward their sisters. “It’s your job to do better. And don’t forget, we want lots of selfies so you’re in the shot as well.”
Brilliant. The tension in Julia’s body vanished as she accepted her walking orders. “I can do that.”
Then she was off, Lisa and Karen sweeping her with them toward the freestanding stairs.
Finn met Zach at the back of the van, passing bags to the crew coming forward to handle them.
His best friend eyed him for a moment.
Josiah stood waiting to one side, arms folded over his chest. The veterinarian had only been a part of their group for the past six months or so, but it was clear he knew how to read a situation.
His lips twisted into a smile as he met Zach’s gaze. “So. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?”
“I doubt that’s what Karen had in mind, considering she plans to marry this jackass,” Zach drawled.
His best friend walked past him, shoulder-checking him and accidentally shoving him off balance.
Zach laughed as he scrambled to keep his feet.
Josiah placed a finger against his lips. “I will swear I see nothing until somebody tells me that I’m allowed to see something.”
He winked then marched after the women, leaving Zach and Finn alone.
Finn paused in the middle of the tarmac, a far enough distance between them and the rest of their party that they couldn’t be overheard.
“Had the strangest conversation with Julia this morning,” Finn said.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Something about you two being in a fake relationship.” He hesitated. “Doesn’t sound like something you’d be keen on. Especially considering…”
Zach waited in silence.
He wasn’t going to make it easy on Finn. They’d been best friends for enough years and gone through hell together. They’d also gone through some of the best times of their lives, and he considered it a privilege to be invited to witness this momentous next step in Finn’s life.
Still wasn’t going to spill the beans unless Finn outright called him on it.
“Considering I know you think marriage is a pretty important relationship.” Finn raised a brow. “Adding in how you already feel about the woman, this fake thing sounds like a bad idea.”
Damn the man for being able to read him too well. “Are we going to write poetry and braid each other’s hair now?”
Finn’s solemn expression flared into a wide smile. “Julia’s a good woman.”
“Damn right she is.” Zach lowered his voice. “Still to be seen if she’s the good woman who wants to be with me. Don’t worry about us—this trip is about you and Karen. No matter what, we’re going to have a hell of a good time.”
Finn pounded him on the back then headed to the plane. “Sounds like a plan to me. To Vegas, and to forever.”
His best friend’s plans for forever were slightly ahead of Zach’s, but he agreed with the sentiment. They marched forward, ready to chill and enjoy the weekend.
When they got back to Heart Falls, there would be time enough to have a good, long talk with Julia about their future and how to make both their dreams come true.
Julia wasn’t sure where to look, and she most definitely didn’t know where to put her hands.
The looking part—that was because she was enthralled. The private plane wasn’t some gigantic boat with luxurious overstuffed leather couches like she’d seen in movies.
It was a smaller, seemingly more practical plane. Although the fact that Zach and Finn owned the damn thing still knocked it off the practical shelf and onto the oh my God list.
Who owned a plane?
Well, obviously they did, but no matter how many times she tried to wrap her brain around it, the details refused to compute.
The chairs were cushy, and there was a lot of legroom. The plane was set up with seats that faced each other, front and back. After they’d gone through the necessary security, the guys settled on one side and Karen and Lisa pulled her into their conversation.
Takeoff was fascinating. Julia stared out the window the entire time, shocked to discover she’d grabbed hold of Lisa’s fingers at some point.
She thought back over the past months and the time she’d spent with her sisters. It had been good to slowly get to know them, and her father, although George Coleman was usually only around for short periods on the weekends.
That worked out fine as well because she wasn’t really looking to have a dad figure jump in too fast.
But they’d done so much normal stuff. There’d been a lot of hamburgers and homemade meals. Comfortable evenings around the fire.
There’d been no sign during the wiener roasts in Lisa’s backyard that any of them were casually jetting off on a regular basis to wherever people with private planes went.
A soft giggle broke through her mental ramblings. Julia glanced to the side to find Lisa shaking her head.
“You need to take a deep breath. Then, either pretend you’re in the middle of a make-believe story or find some way to balance your brain.” Lisa tilted her head. “You kind of look like Ollie when she’s desperately trying to decide whether she should spend the day under my feet or follow Josiah.”
“Great. I remind you of your dog,” Julia drawled.
Karen laughed. “Considering Lisa loves that dog like a human, it’s not a bad thing.”
“Where is Ollie for the weekend?” Julia asked before including Karen in the question. “And your fur baby. Unless you brought Dandelion Fluff with you.”
“We did discuss the possibility,” Lisa admitted. “But this is an adults-only trip. We didn’t want to have to worry about puppy potty breaks or the rest of it.”
“Tansy and Rose are taking care of our pets,” Karen said. “They’re having some work done at their place, so they’ll stay at the ranch for a few days.”
For a moment, Julia’s thoughts went sideways in a different direction. The Fields sisters had become good friends over the short period of time Julia had been in town. Partly because they had a monthly girls’ night out event with a number of women, including Julia’s mob of sisters.
Rose Fields was a beautiful Black woman with long dark hair that always seemed to fall to perfectly frame her face. Her effortless beauty made Julia feel ruffled.
Julia glanced across to where the guys were chatting together, elbows resting on knees, happy contentment pouring out.
“Do you think—?” Oops. She slammed her lips shut before the question could reveal the direction of her thoughts.
Dammit. Not fast enough. Two pairs of eyes stared at her intently.
Karen lifted a brow. “Sister rule number twenty-seven. Start any kind of sentence with do you think then stall out, and I can guarantee we will poke until we figure out what you were about to ask.”
Lisa nodded briskly. “Uh-huh. You may as well spill right now and save yourself some time.”
Damn her mouth for getting away from her. “Zach took Rose dancing. That’s all.”
Her sisters exchanged a glance before Karen took charge. “Considering that sentence didn’t start with do you think, now is when we start guessing.”
“Do you think…Rose would mind if I took Zach dancing?” Lisa asked sweetly, before qualifying. “The I in that statement being Julia, of course.”
Karen responded instantly. “Rose wouldn’t mind at all. She insisted she was done with him.”
Lisa snorted. “That just sounds so wrong. But you’re right, she did say that.”
As embarrassed as Julia was at the twist in the conversation, the teasing from her sisters was gentle-hearted. Julia’s cheeks heated, though.
“That’s not what I was going to ask.”
Lisa ignored her, speaking to Karen. “Do you think…Zach wants to take Julia dancing?”
“Is that what they’re calling it these days?” Karen quipped.
A snort escaped Julia, and her sisters turned happy faces toward her, leaning in to speak in conspiratorial tones.
“You like him, don’t you?” Lisa asked.
“Of course I like him.” Julia was shocked at the question. “He’s Finn’s best friend, which means he has to be awesome or else that wouldn’t have happened. Plus, he’s really nice to Karen.”
“Pshaw.” Karen waved a hand. “He’s nice to everybody. He’s just plain nice.”
A mischievous smile slid over Lisa’s face. “You know, the nice ones are usually the dirtiest in the bedroom.”
“Lisa.” Both Julia and Karen spoke in a scandalized tone at the same moment, and suddenly the guys glanced over as if very interested in their conversation.
Karen stuck out her tongue at Finn. “Never mind. Nothing interesting happening over here.”
Julia met Zach’s gaze and wondered what she’d gotten herself into. Between the pretend boyfriend business that could wait until after this weekend, and the way he’d taken charge and refused to let her stay in the apartment—
All things she would deal with come Monday.
Now she needed to focus on not getting distracted by a man with sparkling blue eyes. A man whose gaze seemed intent on stroking her skin and making bits of her tingle that hadn’t for a long time.
Would she like to do a little…dancing with the man? Dancing never seemed to turn out the way she wanted it to. Sadly, she was enough of an optimist that she still hoped at some point to be able to experience more than what she’d had in past relationships.
Cold drifted over her skin. A memory she hated, that refused to leave her be. Tied up and alone, not sure what was going to happen the next time her kidnapper returned.
A shiver escaped, rocking her briefly.
The next thing she knew, Zach was out of his seat and kneeling beside her. “You okay?”
He said it quietly, but he settled his hand on her knee, the warmth of his palm stealing over her skin. Her sisters had barely registered something had gone wrong, but he’d already known.
Equal parts wonderful and creepy, if she were honest.
She ignored the questioning gazes from Karen and Lisa and focused on Zach.
“It’s fine.” She leaned closer to whisper in his ear. “You’re complicating matters.”
His slow, lazy chuckle drifted over her. Then he squeezed her knee and stood, his smile back to a just-friends level of intimacy. “Julia says she wants a drink. I think that’s a great idea.”
Whether or not they believed him, they all accepted his excuse.
Finn got to his feet as well. “While I plan to be sober when we exchange our vows, I do have a few bottles of champagne with us. No reason why we can’t open one now.”
What followed was a great reshuffling, because of course Karen had to sit next to Finn, which meant Lisa had to sit next to Josiah.
Which left Zach and Julia snuggled up beside each other.
The comfortable seats had no armrest between them, which placed her thigh against his. Hip to hip, their elbows bumped briefly as she accepted a glass from Josiah, who had claimed maître d’ status.
Zach tapped a finger against the crystal, the clear sound ringing through the plane cabin. “Within my responsibilities as best man and the closest thing to a male relative of the bride—”
“Since when?” Karen demanded.
“Don’t interrupt the man when he’s pontificating,” Lisa whispered. “That’s when they give away all their secrets.”
Julia hadn’t even had a sip of her champagne, and she already felt slightly drunk. “Is that how it works? Now I know exactly how to execute my evil master plan.”
Beside her Zach winked before raising his glass a little higher. “As I was saying, the real best man toast will come once you’ve done the deed—”
“You might want to rephrase that one as well,” Josiah drawled.
A chorus of snickers rose from the entire group.
Zach waited even as his grin grew wider. “To two of my favourite people. We watched you fall, and fall hard, and now we look forward to celebrating the next chapter in your life.”
“Awwww, that was totally sweet,” Karen said.
“Nobody diabetic should hang around the man for long,” Finn muttered, but even he cracked a smile. “To good friends and a memorable weekend.”
Crystal clinked. Shining eyes reflected all around before Julia lifted the glass to her lips. The champagne slipped down her throat, bubbles rising to hit her nose. She sneezed. Zach held out a tissue, taking her glass from her even as conversation rose again and laughter surrounded them.
It was not at all what she had expected at this stage of her life. Being surrounded with people—family, dear God, some of them were family—had never been a part of her dream.
She stared over at Zach and considered the upheaval of the past couple of days. He was a good man, sweet and yet strong enough to be protective, and she did another round of debating whether it was worthwhile to take a chance.
Not at falling in love—she didn’t have nearly enough imagination to think about that impossibility.
But a short-term real boyfriend? The way Zach had suggested?
You’ll just disappoint him.
The thought dashed into the moment of happiness, and she grabbed it with both hands and flung it away like a disc. It might be true, but it didn’t have to come into this place and time.
The man was positivity and happiness. If she was smart, she’d simply enjoy having some of that in her world for a weekend. She didn’t need to think about the long-term.
It took a split second to make a decision. Pretty much the way it had in the bar the night she’d gone looking for a way to save Brad’s reputation.
No long internal debate, no weighing the positive and negative. There was just taking one little thing that felt good and letting it ride.
Julia eased against Zach’s side so she could enjoy the heat of his body as she nestled into him.
Nobody noticed.
Nobody, that is, except Zach.
He cautiously slid a hand around her back and let the strength of his arm cradle her. Gentle, but most definitely surrounding her and letting her know he was there.
To hell with it. They were headed to Vegas. What could possibly go wrong if she let down her guard just a little?
A hell of a lot.
Once again, she pushed away the negative thought. She would have to be completely unlucky for this to turn out badly. And really, at this point in her life, she deserved for something to be unexpectedly wonderful instead of an unmitigated disaster.
It was time to take a brief, but hopefully memorable, break from reality.
5
A freight train was running beside his bed. It was so damn loud, and so damn close, the entire bed vibrated, but still, Zach’s eyelids remained glued shut.
He really hoped nothing fell out of the train cars, because at that moment, he couldn’t have rolled over to save his life.
There also seemed to be a furry sock in his mouth.
Something warm and soft moved against his side, and if he had any muscles left in his body, the surprise would’ve made him flinch. As it was, he lay still enough that whatever was nuzzling against him began tickling his ribs.
A loud and very enthusiastic yawn broke the silence, which struck Zach as one of the funniest things he’d ever heard.
“Damn wild freight train,” he muttered.
“Where?”
Something other than insensibility slipped in. That had been a female voice. Zach peeled one eye open far enough to glance down.
Long red-highlighted hair lay tousled over his naked chest…
And that’s when he realized there was a whole
lot of naked going on.
He stilled, because he didn’t want to freak anybody out. Easing up on one elbow, he blinked against the bright light stealing in through the narrow slit in the curtains. That was enough to offer a vision that set his heart pounding along with his head.
He lay on a massive king-size bed. The quilt was who knows where, leaving nothing but a sinfully soft sheet draped over his and Julia’s bodies.
Naked bodies—had he already thought that? The naked part.
He kept staring, but it didn’t matter how often his gaze drifted over her, he couldn’t put together the bits and pieces that had led to this moment. Which—
Christ on a cracker, not good.
She moaned as she rolled, making full body contact with his entire torso. “Where’s the train?”
The fact that she still sounded three sheets to the wind wasn’t a good thing. Damn it all to hell.
Zach lay back, careful not to disturb her, because the last thing he needed at that moment was both of them in panic mode.
Thinking. Thinking.
They were in Vegas. That much he remembered. He ignored the warm skin pressed against his side and frantically attempted to replay the last twelve hours.
He made it as far as remembering the post-wedding dinner at the Paris Hotel. Memories were just sneaking to the next point, which involved waving off Karen and Finn, who, rightly enough, had other things planned for the rest of the evening.
Then the four of them, Josiah and Lisa, he and Julia, had slipped out…
Somewhere?
To do something?
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Julia said.
It took about twelve syllables to get the words out. Her intonation was classic pissed-off, hungover, regret-filled partier. Fifty percent what the hell have I done? and fifty percent I’m going to kill whoever did this to me.
Amusement began in his gut then rumbled its way up until his chest shook. The sound made his own head ache, but it was impossible to stop. The fact that he might end up in her crosshairs in the next thirty seconds didn’t do anything to reduce the amusement factor.
When she snickered as well, that was it.
Laughter filled the room, surrounding them and tickling hard until he gasped for air. He clutched his stomach as he rolled away.