The second was that I was very much trapped inside something white and puffy that rustled every time I breathed. I tried to move my arm and got tangled in tulle.
Tulle. No. No, no, no, no, no.
I sat up too fast and the hangover rose like a tidal wave, threatening to roll me off the edge of the planet. Slowly, very slowly, I turned, blinking too many times as I figured out that we had, in fact, made it back to our hotel room. That was the first good news of the morning.
Trent was sprawled horizontally across the bed, his face buried in the mattress and one boot still on, but the other was missing. His shirt was unbuttoned halfway and his arm dangled off the side like he’d melted in place.
For some reason, I had a white suit on my legs, a ridiculous, campy, rhinestoned white suit with flared legs and gold accents.Like Elvis. Like Vegas Elvis, marrying people at two a.m., Elvis.
My mouth fell open.No. Absolutely not.
I lifted my gaze to the massive mirror mounted above the bed. I didn’t even want to think why it was there, but unfortunately, it allowed me to see my reflection staring back at me. My hair a disaster, my mascara smudged under my eyes, mycheeks flushed, and I was wearing what looked like a cut-rate showgirl bridal costume someone had definitely bought from a novelty shop.
When I processed it all, I screamed. A full-throated, hangover-enhanced, soul-leaving-my-body scream.Oh, my God. What the hell did we do last night?
CHAPTER 26
TRENT
Ihanded Charlotte two painkillers and a blue Gatorade. It was the closest thing to a magic potion I could conjure up. Then I flipped through the stack of Polaroids I’d found in my jacket pocket.
Ourweddingphotos. On the one hand, zero wait time for the photos. Now that’s quality service. On the other hand, we had actually gotten married.
Some of the photos showed us grinning like idiots under the chapel’s neon lights. One was of Charlotte crying from laughter and one had me dipping her like I was auditioning for a ballroom dancing competition I absolutely wasn’t qualified for. In another, some stranger dressed as Liberace was clapping enthusiastically in the background.
I was in an atrocious white tux, my chest puffed with pride like it’d been the deal of the century instead of something awful I must’ve spent an obscene amount of money on. At least we’d woken up fully clothed.
Mostly. In deeply humiliating clothing, but still, we’d been clothed.
Charlotte groaned from beside me on the sunken couch, rubbing her temples with the desperation of a person trying tomassage her soul back into her body. I wasn’t much better. My head felt like a herd of cattle had stampeded through it. I hadn’t been this hungover since college, and back then, my body could bounce back from anything.
As I kept flipping through the pictures, my phone buzzed and I glanced at it, seeing Alex’s name on the screen. I groaned, staring at the device for a long, resigned moment before swiping to answer. “Talk softly please,” I said instead of hello.
“Put me on speaker,” Alex said. I could hear Nate laughing in the background.
I did as I’d been told, feeling too much like ass to even think about arguing. The moment the line clicked to speaker, Alex didn’t even bother with a greeting.
“I got the fax you had the front desk at the hotel send through,” he said. “The marriage certificate. It’s legit.”
Nate whistled. “Damn, guys. You didn’t waste any time, did you? How was the ceremony? Did I see an angel at the chapel?”
Charlotte let out a tiny, horrified squeak.
“That was Liberace,” I said.
Alex laughed outright. “Congratulations, you two. I?—”
I hung up on them and handed Charlotte the stack of Polaroids. Scratching the side of my neck, I settled in beside her. “Do you have any idea where these came from?”
Charlotte pushed herself upright, moving like every motion cost her three years of her life, and took them from me. “Nope. We must’ve bought a camera somewhere. God, I hope we didn’t steal it.”
She looked up at me, her hair was a mess, her mascara smudged down her cheeks, and she wasstillthe most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I had the urge to slide my arm around her shoulders, so I just went ahead and did it, pulling her into my side. Today, I was blaming everything on the hangover. The pounding in my skull had broken my impulse control.
I looked into her eyes and shook my tender head, needing to reassure her even if I could hardly remember a damn thing myself. “I don’t think we stole anything, but I sure as hell don’t remember where we got it. Maybe we paid Liberace to take the pictures?”
She settled beside me, leaning into me ever so slightly as her gaze lowered back to the pictures. She flipped through them slowly, her breath catching every few seconds. “We look happy.”
I peered at the picture she was looking at and damn it, she was right. There I was, grinning like a wild man with my eyes bright, my arms around her like she was the most important thing in my life.
