“And no humping Eli,” she continued.
“Listen to your mom, kid,” Eli said from behind her.
She closed the door. “Can I get you coffee? Tea?”Deep breaths, Marlee.“Vodka?”
“Tell you what, you grab a cup of whatever you’d like, and I’ll start looking for a hotel.”
Everything was going to be fine.
No wedding. No fiancé. But things would be fine.
Just. Fine.
Chapter Two
There was not a single vacant hotel room in Denver. Eli hung up the phone after talking to the front desk clerk of yet another downtown hotel. The online booking companies had nothing, but he’d hoped if he called around, something would maybe pop up.
No, a huge outdoors show had booked everything east of Breckenridge. The block of rooms Marlee had reserved for wedding guests was totally filled.
He glanced to the former bride-to-be perched on the other side of the sofa with her notepad. She was, apparently, a quick crier. On it and then over it. Sadie was packing. He made calls and Marlee made lists.
“We’re here,” Becca called from the front door.
Kellie followed her into the living room with an armful of collapsed cardboard boxes and packing tape. She gasped. “Eli’s here.”
“If it’s Eli serious, it’s worse than I thought.” Becca helped Kellie get more boxes through the doorway.
Yes, Eli was there. He’d spent a good part of his senior year of high school playing referee as these girls navigated their freshman year. They officially made up the rest of Sadie’s girl posse, and they’d all moved away from Denver. Marlee was the only one who had stuck around. They were back for the now-not-happening wedding.
He might grump about them suffocating him, but deep down, he actually did enjoy having them around. Most of the time. Especially now that he wasn’t personally responsible for their well-being.
“Hey.” Marlee padded over to them and did the thing where they hugged and commiserated on what assholes men could be. Frankly, he could relate. Men really could be assholes. Scotty was a perfect example. What kind of a dick called off a wedding with two days to go? Not that Eli had his sights on marriage—hell no—he was perfectly content looking out for number one and number one alone. That was a lesson he’d learned long before he even graduated high school. But once Scotty had slid that ring on Marlee’s finger, he should’ve been prepared to follow through. Not be a dick and call it off with the day in sight and the dinner all but plated.
“Is the rest of the bridal party coming?” Becca asked.
“You mean Scotty’s sisters?” Marlee wrinkled her nose. “That’s a negative.” She pursed her lips into a thin line but then quickly covered it with a smile. “Eli’s helping me find a hotel.”
“With no luck,” he added. “But you can stay at my place until the convention is over.” Sadie was already sleeping in his bedroom, but he’d use a sleeping bag so Marlee could take the sofa bed.
“There’s a convention?” Kellie asked.
“Some outdoor thing.” He shrugged.
“Okay, you’ll think I’m crazy, but you should go on your honeymoon,” Sadie suggested, marching down the stairs to join the party. “Leave Scotty behind to deal with the fallout and take one of us along instead.”
“By one of us, she means all of us.” Kellie ran a length of tape along the side of a box.
Nope. Not Eli. All of us meant all of them.
“Going on your honeymoon after calling off the wedding is so cliché.” Becca went to work folding another length of corrugated cardboard for Kellie to tape. “Let’s go someplace else.”
“You know where they have hotel rooms?” Kellie asked. “Vegas.”
Shit.
“I’m not going to Vegas.” Marlee fidgeted with one of the boxes.
“I’m with Mar on this one,” Eli said.
