Til Death Do Us Part (Vegas Vows)

by Harlow Layne

  The corners of her mouth turned down. “It’s only me and my mom, and she’s not going to be happy. I’m not in any rush to tell her that way I don’t have to listen to her yell at me.”

  I tapped my phone. “That’s what I’m afraid is going to happen when I talk to Luke. I already talked to his wife today and filled her in. I thought he’d wait until I was home to pounce on the opportunity to talk to me.”

  Everly frowned, her fingers finding mine before she laced them together. “Is your brother overbearing?”

  “Not at all, but he doesn’t want me making stupid mistakes either. Not that I’m saying we’re a mistake, but…” Fuck, had I stuck a foot in my mouth?

  “It’s okay, I get it. It’s not the most opportune way to start a relationship. While I really like you, Leo, I’m going to have the same problem with my mom. Do you have other family who will be calling?”

  “My parents, a sister, and two brothers. I’m the baby of the family, so they’re a little protective of me,” I answered as we stepped out of the elevator and started the short trek to my room.

  “That’s sweet. I always wanted a brother or a sister. It was sometimes lonely growing up with it only being me and my mom and her working much of the time.”

  “Well, my family, once they get to know you, will welcome you with open arms. They love my brother’s wife, Alex, and their son, Mason.”

  “Their son—” Her forehead wrinkled, but before she could finish her thought, my phone started ringing again. “I guess you took too long.”

  “I guess.” I let out a nervous chuckle. Using the keycard to open my hotel room door, I held it open to let Everly in first. “I have to be honest with you, with how many times he’s called, I’m a little nervous about what he’s going to say.”

  “You won’t know until you answer. Do you want me to leave while you talk to him?”

  She was probably thinking I’d lied about my family with how many times Luke had called in the last few minutes.

  “Please, stay. You order our lunch while I talk to him.” Leaning down, I brushed my lips to hers before I hit accept on my phone. Striding over to the window that looked out over the strip, I greeted my brother. “I said to give me a few minutes. I was in a crowd and couldn’t answer.”

  “Fuck, Leo, you let Alex tell me you got drunk and married in Vegas and you thought I’d wait to talk to you?”

  Leaning my head on the cool glass, I answered, “I thought you could wait until I got to my new place tomorrow.”

  “You thought wrong. Fuck, Leo, what if she only married you because of your last name? What if she thinks you have money?”

  “She has no idea who you are.”

  “Are you sure about that?” he asked, skeptically.

  “I mean, she might know who you are, but not that we’re related. Everly was the maid of honor for Jordan’s wedding. Plus, I’ve barely even talked about you for her to know who you are.” I was surprised Luke’s thoughts had gone there first. Not that he didn’t have the right to because he was a big movie star, but damn it made me feel like shit.

  “Are you saying a girl can’t like me for me?”

  He sighed my name out. “That’s not it at all, but I don’t want someone trying to take advantage of you or for you to get hurt.” He bit out a curse. “I can’t believe you got married last night.”

  “Do you remember when you called me the other day, and you had to yell into the phone to get my attention?”

  “Yes, of course, I do. It was only two days ago.”

  “It was because I saw her. The moment I spotted Everly, I was a goner. If you don’t believe me, wait until you meet her and then you’ll see.”

  “The same girl, huh?” he chuckled.

  “The same girl. Before I met her, I didn’t believe in fate, but I think I just might now. You’ll never believe where she lives?”

  “Fairlane?” he asked, hopeful. Luke and Alex had begged me to look for a job close to them, but my heart was set on California. Maybe someday I’d move to Fairlane to be closer to my brother.

  “Not even close,” I laughed. “She lives in Oasis. I know we did this backward, but we’re going to try to make this work.”

  “I only want you to be happy. You know that.”

  “I do, and I love you for always looking out for me. I hate to cut this short, but Everly just ordered us lunch and then we’re going to…”

  “Yeah, I get the idea.” He chuckled down the line. “Enjoy yourself, but please don’t get her pregnant. Wait until you love her before you bring a life into the mix.”

  Thoughts of last night and running out of condoms raced through my mind. While I loved kids, I was too young to be a father.

  “I’ll call you when I get to my place. Maybe we can FaceTime so I can see if Alex’s belly has grown any.”

  Luke barked out a laugh. “Don’t let your new wife get the impression you’ve got the hots for your sister-in-law.”

  “I won’t,” I laughed. “Talk soon.”

  “Love you, little brother. Talk soon,” he replied before he hung up.

  Before I could turn around, I felt a hand on the middle of my back. “I couldn’t help but overhear some of your conversation.”

  Turning to face her, I took her hand in mine and kissed the inside of her palm. “I wasn’t trying to hide anything.”

  “Okay.” She swallowed nervously. “Who is your brother? Is he like some Swedish mob king?”

  Falling back against the window, I laughed harder than I had in a long time. Luke, a mob king? I couldn't wait to tell him she thought he might be the head of the Swedish mob.

  Wiping away a tear once I stopped laughing, I straightened up to stand and pulled Everly over to the couch. Keeping her hand in mine, I tried not to laugh as I explained who Luke was.

  “I’m pretty sure there is no Swedish mob, and if there is, Luke has nothing to do with them.”

  “I literally know zero about Sweden except that it’s cold there for a good portion of the year.”

  It does get cold in Sweden, but that didn’t matter in this instance. “My brother lives in Fairlane, Missouri with his pregnant wife and stepson. Have you heard of Luke Sandström?”

  She bit on her bottom lip before she asked. “Like the movie star?”

  “Exactly like the movie star.”

  “I mean, yeah, I’ve heard of him, who hasn’t. I remember seeing a picture of him and his wife. She’s super pretty.”

  “She is…and she’s pregnant with my niece or nephew.”

  “Wait, a minute. Are you saying your brother is Luke Sandström?”

  “I am,” I answered hesitantly. Fuck, I didn’t want her to be some crazy fan I’d never be able to have around my brother or his family.

  She hummed to herself and held up her left hand. “So, you’re Leo Sandström, and that would make me Everly Sandström.”

  “If you change your last name it would be. Please don’t tell me you’ve got some crush on my brother or something along those lines.”

  She opened her mouth once, then twice before she clamped it shut. Biting on the inside of her cheek, she stared at me for a long minute. “While I think your brother is good looking, older men are not my thing, and married men are definitely not what I’m interested in. I like men my age with brownish-blond hair, a little scruff to their jaw, and piercing blue eyes.” She ran her hand across my stubble. “If you’re still questioning who’s my type, it’s you, Leo. I like you. Not your brother.”

  “Thank fuck,” I muttered as I crashed my mouth to hers. Devouring her until we had to come up for air. Only then did we break apart.

  Panting, she smiled up at me, her hands going to my zipper. “If you’d like, I can give you a demonstration of how much I like you until the food arrives.”

  “Show me,” I growled.

  8

  Everly

  “So…um…I’ll call you later in the week, and we’ll figure out when we can get together.” Leo ran his
thumb over my ring, a habit he seemed to have acquired during our short time together. I hooked my pinky with his. “This feels weird, right?”

  “My body is saying don’t leave her, but my mind is telling me it’s time to part until next time.”

  “And which one is winning?” I knew what was winning in my case. After spending all day yesterday in our hotel room, mostly in bed, the outside world felt strange and wrong at just the thought of being without him.

  “It shouldn’t be so hard, but I don’t want to leave you. Maybe as a reward for getting my bedroom unpacked or whichever room has the least number of boxes, I can call you tonight. It’s not the same, but I do have to unpack all my belongings. It’s not much since this is the first time, I’m living on my own in something bigger than a dorm or a studio apartment, but I’ve got a lot of work to do before I have to show up at my actual job in two days.”

  “Hey,” I took his hand in both of mine, and smiled up at him, “I get it. You don’t need to explain. I can’t imagine having all my shit moved to another country and being out of town while it happened only to come home from a wedding to end up being married myself. Then you’ve got to unpack and start a new job. It’s crazy and probably overwhelming as well. Please don’t let me be part of the madness.”

  “You’re not part of the madness. At least not yet.” He winked at me. “I don’t want you to think I’m ghosting you if you don’t hear from me for a couple of days.”

  Canting my head to the side, I smirked up at him. “I thought you were going to call me tonight as your reward for unpacking some.”

  “That’s the plan.” He looked over my shoulder and I watched as his shoulders sagged. “That’s my Uber. Are you sure you’ll be okay here until your car comes?”

  Leo pulled me into his arms and gave me probably one of the best hugs I’d ever received. My head fit snuggly between his pecs while one arm spanned from the bottom of my back all the way to the top. His other hand cradled my head as if I was something precious.

  “I’ll be fine. It’s sweet you’re worried about me, but you really don’t need to,” I muttered into his chest.

  He pulled away and my stomach fell in disappointment, thinking he was going to walk away.

  Dropping his bag to the ground, Leo swooped in and laid the mother of all kisses on me. The way his lips moved over mine as if he was taking little sips of me until the next time he saw me, had me swaying on my feet when he eventually pulled back and let me go.

  “I’ll talk to you soon. If you have any problems, give me a call, okay?”

  “I will. Bye, Leo,” I called as he threw his bags into the trunk and then got inside the waiting car.

  As the car drove away, he lifted his hand in goodbye. Tears welled up in my eyes, making it difficult to see his retreating form. Somehow, in the last seventy-two hours, Leo had burrowed himself into my heart.

  I only hoped he wouldn’t break it.

  Forty minutes later, my Uber driver was dropping me off at my apartment building. I was tired after not sleeping much of the weekend, but knew I needed to drop off my suitcase and head to the grocery store since I had no food in the refrigerator and had to work for the next six days straight.

  Pulling my suitcase behind me, I walked down the corridor and hit the elevator button only to see the damn thing was out of order.

  Even though I only lived on the second floor, I really didn’t want to have to carry my heavy ass suitcase up a flight of stairs and down the long hallway. If it wasn’t almost certain my suitcase would be stolen by the time I came down for it later, I would have left it downstairs. Instead, I slowly hauled my ass and my suitcase up the flight of stairs, panting and sweaty by the time I reached the top. Luckily, it was a weekday and the middle of the afternoon, so most people in my building were gone, and no one saw me looking like someone who just walked off a horror movie set.

  Pulling my keys out of my purse, I started to put my key in the lock when I noticed my door was ajar. How much more could go wrong with my building today? Letting out an annoyed sigh, I opened my door and peeked inside. I hoped I’d maybe forgotten to close and lock my door even though I’d never done that before and all would be fine, but as I stepped further into my apartment, I knew that wasn’t the case.

  Leaving my suitcase by the door, I silently inspected my tiny apartment in case someone was still inside. With each room, I found the place torn apart more than the last room. The cushions on my couch were ripped open, and the stuffing was thrown all over the living room, the lamp on my end table was smashed on the floor. All the food I did have in my fridge was thrown on the floor with the door left open. The only thing in the bathroom that was trashed was the mirror. I hoped whoever broke it got seven years of bad luck. Hell, I wanted them to have bad luck for the rest of their life for breaking into my place and trashing it.

  I’m not sure what I thought my bedroom would look like when I stepped inside, but it wasn’t for my mattress to be against the wall with giant slashes in it, nor did I think there’d be some symbol spray painted on the wall.

  Pulling out my phone, I dialed 911 and let them know someone had broken in while I’d been away the last few days. Slumping down on the floor since I had no place to sit, I sat wondering what I was going to do. I was informed the police had been out to my apartment yesterday when someone had noticed my door was left open. They’d informd the landlord who was to then have the maintenance man secure my door, but that obviously hadn’t happened. All I had to do was come down to the station to give a statement and to give a list of anything that was missing.

  My gaze swept over my bedroom and seeing all my belongings on the floor was too much for me. All I wanted to do was sleep and instead, I had this insurmountable hurdle in front of me.

  With bleary eyes, I pulled Leo’s name up and dialed his number even though I knew he was busy; he was the first person I wanted to talk to. My mom would freak out and tell me to move home with her, but that was never going to happen.

  “Everly?” He answered after the first ring.

  Instead of being able to speak, I broke down. Full on sobs wracked my body.

  Leo continued to call out my name and with each shout he became more and more worried. It wasn’t until he roared my name that I pulled myself together and answered him.

  “I’m here. Sorry,” I sniffed. “I didn’t mean to worry you. I’m fine.”

  “Are you really because you just called me and have been crying into the phone for the last two minutes? It felt like a damn eternity, Everly.”

  “I’m sorry for worrying you. My day has been shit since I left you. I wish we were still in Vegas,” I confessed with a hiccup. Leaning my forehead on my knees, I took some calming breaths until I was under control.

  “What happened?”

  “I’m sorry to bother you, but you were the first person I wanted to talk to.”

  “I’m glad you called. Now, why don’t you tell me what went wrong.”

  “Everything,” I let out a humorless laugh. Lifting my head, I caught sight of my room and nearly lost it again. Closing my eyes, I rested my head on the wall. “When I got to my apartment building, the elevator was out of order, but that’s nothing compared to what I found when I reached my apartment.” I sniffed and wiped my eyes with the heel of my hand.

  “What happened, Everly? Are you sure you’re okay? I’m worried about you.”

  “My place was broken into while I was gone, and everything is…” I swallowed the lump in my throat as flashes of the destruction flickered before my eyes. “It’s a mess. Someone tore my place to shreds and I don’t know why. Why would someone break in? I have nothing.” I thought back to the TV in the living room and didn’t remember seeing it. Was all of this for a lonely television?

  “Is it safe to stay there?” he asked, worry in his tone.

  “I think so. I didn’t even think to look to check the lock. I was too worried about someone still being inside. It doesn’t matter though. I don’
t want to be here,” I cried. “But I have nowhere else to go. My mother would tell me it wasn’t safe for me to live alone and that I should move in with her and then she’d never let me leave the house.”

  Standing up, I went to check to see if the door could be closed only to find my lock was broken. How had I missed that when I came inside?

  Leo chuckled down the line. “Sounds like she cares, but maybe a little overprotective.”

  “She does care. She’s never liked my apartment building, saying it’s unsafe, but it’s what I can afford. Rent in Oasis is just as bad as anywhere else in California.”

  “I know,” he agreed. “When I was first offered the job here, I looked at places and couldn’t believe how much they wanted for such small accommodations. I was lucky a house and a car came with the job otherwise I’d be lucky to have enough money to eat.”

  We were silent for a few moments. I listened to the way he breathed into the phone and let it calm me. After talking to Leo, the world didn’t seem like such a bad place to live in.

  “Why don’t you come stay with me? My place is plenty big, and I promise to let you leave the house,” he joked. “If you’re not…I have furniture for two bedrooms if you need your own room, or we could…”

  It was endearing that Leo was willing to give me my own room if I was uncomfortable sharing a bed with him. There was no way in hell I’d be able to sleep in another bed knowing he was in bed alone.

  “I wouldn’t need my own room, but it’s sweet of you to offer.”

  “So…” He drew the word out and left it hanging.

  “I don’t want to impose.”

  “You wouldn’t be an imposition. I’d put you straight to work unpacking my things,” he chuckled.

  “Are you sure?” When I called, it was only to hear his voice. Never in a million years did I think he’d offer to let me to stay with him.

  “One hundred percent. In the short amount of time we’ve been apart, I was already missing you.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was only saying that to make me feel better or if he really meant it. Either way, I didn’t care; I wanted to stay with him until I could get the mess cleaned up. I didn’t want to do it, but I’d call in to work tomorrow and explain to Trixie what had happened, and I knew she’d give me the day off if I could rearrange all of my appointments.