A slit formed between the elevator doors, and then they slowly slid away from each other, allowing the passengers to bleed out into the hallway. Abby and I stepped on together with our small roller duffle bag. One woman had a large purse, a large carry-on that was the size of two of ours, and a four-wheeled, vertical suitcase that could fit at least two small children.
“Moving here?” I asked. “That’s cool.” Abby jammed her elbow into my ribs.
She took a long look at me, and then Abby, and then spoke in a French accent. “No.” She looked away, clearly unhappy I’d spoken to her.
Abby and I traded glances, and then she widened her eyes, silently saying Wow, what a bitch. I tried not to laugh. Damn, I loved that woman, and I loved that I knew what she was thinking without her saying a word.
The French woman nodded. “Press floor thirty-five, please.” Almost the Penthouse. Of course.
When the doors opened on the twenty-fourth floor, Abby and I stepped out onto the ornate carpet, a bit lost, doing the search-walk that people always do when looking for their hotel room. Finally, at the end of the hall, Abby inserted her keycard and pulled it out quickly.
The door clicked. The light turned green. We were in.
Abby flipped on the light and pulled her purse over her head, tossing it on to the king-size bed. She smiled at me. “This is nice.”
I let go of the bag handle, letting it topple over, and then took Abby into my arms. “That’s it. We’re here. When we sleep in that bed later, we’re going to be husband and wife.”
Abby looked into my eyes, deep and thoughtful, and then cupped one side of my face. A corner of her mouth turned up. “We sure will.”
I couldn’t begin to imagine what thoughts were swirling behind her beautiful gray eyes, because almost immediately that thoughtful look disappeared.
She rose up on the balls of her feet and pecked me on the mouth. “What time is the wedding?”
Abby
“Three hours?” I kept my muscles relaxed even though my entire body wanted to tense up. We were wasting too much time, and I had no way to explain to Travis why I needed to get it over with.
Get it over with? Is that how I really felt about it? Maybe it wasn’t just that Travis needed a plausible alibi. Maybe I was afraid I would chicken out if there was too much time to think about what we were doing.
“Yeah,” Travis said. “I figured you’d need time to get a dress and your hair done and all that girly shit. Was that . . . was I wrong?”
“No. No, it’s fine. I guess I was just thinking we’d get here and just go. But, you’re right.”
“We’re not going to the Red, Pidge. We’re gettin’ married. I know it’s not in a church, but I figured we’d . . .”
“Yeah.” I shook my head and closed my eyes for a second, and then looked at him. “Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. I’ll go downstairs, find something white, and then I’ll come back here and get ready. If I can’t find something here, I’ll go to Crystals. There are more shops there.”
Travis walked toward me, stopping just a few inches away. He watched me for several moments, long enough to make me squirm.
“Tell me,” he said softly. No matter how I tried to explain it away, he knew me well enough to know—poker face or not—that I was hiding something from him.
“I think what you’re reading is exhaustion. I haven’t slept in almost twenty-four hours.”
He sighed, kissed my forehead, and then went to the mini fridge. He bent over, and then turned, holding up two small cans of Red Bull. “Problem solved.”
“My fiancé is a genius.”
He handed me a can, and then took me into his arms. “I like that.”
“That I think you’re a genius?”
“Being your fiancé.”
“Yeah? Don’t get used to it. I’ll be calling you something different in three hours.”
“I’ll like the new name even better.”
I smiled, watching Travis open the bathroom door.
“While you find a dress, I’m going to take another shower, shave, and then try to find something to wear.”
“So you won’t be here when I get back?”
“Do you want me to be? It’s at the Graceland Chapel, right? I thought we’d just meet there.”
“It’ll be kind of cool to see each other at the chapel, just before, dressed and ready to walk down the aisle.”
“You’re going to walk around Vegas by yourself for three hours?”
“I grew up here, remember?”
Travis thought for a moment. “Isn’t Jesse still working as a pit boss?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him. But even if he was, the only casino I’ll be anywhere near is the Bellagio’s, and that’s just long enough for me to walk through to our room.”
Travis seemed satisfied with that, and then nodded. “Meet you there.” He winked at me, and then shut the bathroom door.
I grabbed my purse off the bed and the room keycard, and, after glancing at the bathroom door, picked up Travis’s cell phone off the nightstand.
Opening his contacts, I pressed on the name I needed, sent the contact information to my phone via text, and then deleted the text message the second it went through. When I set his phone down, the bathroom door opened, and Travis appeared in just a towel.