I didn’t even make it ten steps into the casino before I saw him. At first, I thought my champagne-soaked brain was hallucinating, because Trent didn’t lounge. He didn’t slouch. He didn’t sit at a bar with his tie undone, his sleeves rolled to his elbows, and his hair a full disaster like he’d been running his hands through it for hours, but there he was.
With his elbows on the polished bar, he was staring broodingly into a mostly empty glass. Equally as drunk. Equally as wrecked. Equally avoiding me just as I’d wanted to do with him.
He turned his head as I slowed to a stop and his face lit up with the warmest, stupidest grin I’d ever seen on him. My heart went ballistic.Yep. That’s the champagne giving me tingles.
“Well, hey,” he drawled, leaning back on the bar stool like he was posing. “You come here often?”
I snorted loudly enough that a man walking by actually glanced at me, but right now, this was exactly what I hadn’tknown I needed. Playing along without skipping a beat, I sidled up to him and batted my eyelashes.
“Actually, I just got into town,” I said, tossing my hair dramatically and hoping it hid the faint wobble in my stance. “Took a bus here. I’m running away from some guy who won’t take no for an answer. He’s forcing me to marry him.”
“That sounds terrible.” Trent nodded gravely, motioning to the bartender for another drink. “What kind of monster would do that?”
“Oh, the worst.” I waved a hand. “Now some cowboy is trying to get hitched with me.”
“Sounds like a sexy man,” he said with a nod. “You should marry him.”
“No, he’s this old, bitter cowpoke. Very dusty. Very grumpy. Zero fun.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “That’s a real shame because you seem like someone who deserves a fun night out on the town. You know, before he gets his lasso around you.”
I pressed a hand to my chest. “You’d do that for me?”
“Well, ma’am.” He slid off the bar stool, almost misjudging the floor but catching himself with a hand on the counter. “I’d consider it an honor.”
I started laughing. I couldn’t help it. Maybe it was the champagne, the absurdity of our situation, or maybe it was just him. But suddenly everything felt lighter, like the entire world had loosened up around us. He offered me his arm like a gentleman and I took it like a girl who was absolutely ready to cut loose just one last time before everything changed.
The next few hours were a complete blur.
Not a sloppy, falling-over-myself blur, but a warm, fuzzy haze where everything was funny, and music pulsed under my skin, and Trent looked more carefree than I’d seen him in years. Wetried dancing at one of the bars, but calling it actualdancingmight’ve been generous.
It was more like swaying while holding each other up, occasionally spinning when a song we vaguely recognized came on. I remembered my head tipped back as I laughed at something he said about how I was stepping on his boots on purpose.
After that, we drifted to a craps table, but neither of us knew the rules. Neither of us liked gambling. Trent bought chips anyway, the reckless idiot, then held out the dice to me. “Blow on these.”
I giggled. “Am I your lucky charm?”
Those blue eyes widened like I’d offended him. “You absolutely are.”
I rolled my eyes and blew on the dice. Maybe I liked the way his gaze centered on my lips. So what? There was no law against it. We cheered when he won twenty bucks and groaned dramatically when he lost ten. We high-fived the strangers around the table like we knew what was going on.
At some point, he leaned in close and murmured, “Hey, look at that. You’re having fun.”
I bumped my shoulder into his. “Hey, look at that. So are you.”
His responding grin was lazy and lopsided, and it was my turn to stare at his lips, looking more kissable than ever. “I told you I’d give you one last night fun night out,” he said.
We kept laughing, and leaning closer, and forgetting that tomorrow morning even existed. It felt dangerous, exactly like being seventeen again, hopelessly aware of him whenever he blew into town for a couple days to see Alex.
But I didn’t question it or go to bed like I probably should’ve. Just for tonight, we weren’t trapped, or arranged, or running. We were just two tipsy idiots in Vegas, pretending we didn’t havea wedding to be at in a few hours and it was the most fun I’d had in years.
At some point, the night dissolved into sparkles and noise. Trent’s laughter echoed in my ears. And then suddenly, I blinked hard because the sun was trying to murder me.
A violent, nuclear blast of daylight was scorching straight through my eyelids and drilling directly into my skull. My head throbbed so viciously I actually whimpered and buried my face in whatever soft thing was under me.
A pillow. Thank God. Except the pillowcase feels weird. Scratchy. Like mesh?I shifted and something crinkled.
That was my first red flag.
