“You could always hold it here,” Amy sang from behind the counter. It was midmorning, and the breakfast rush had died down a long time ago, leaving the three friends with the coffee shop to themselves.
“Thanks, Amy,” Hailey called, “but I think people are going to be looking for alcohol and not caffeine as their poison of choice.”
“Well, the offer’s always open. Just give me enough warning so I can make sure I have enough bear claws.” Amy chuckled to herself and disappeared into the kitchen.
Joy’s delicate brows scrunched together. “Is she … serious?”
Hailey shook her head, and her honey-blond hair brushed her shoulders. “No, although she’d definitely do it in a pinch. She’s an awesome friend that way.”
Joy spooned foam from her cappuccino into her mouth. “Which is why you still work here?”
“I help out when I can.” Hailey had worked in Amy’s coffee shop regularly until she opened her bookstore. Now that the tourists had cleared out, Hailey had cut back her hours like most of the other businesses intown. But the locals were always on the hunt for caffeine, so Amy’s business clipped along at a steady pace. “You guys know how hard it is to find reliable staff around here.”
Which was precisely why Neve kept Lauren on. Lauren did her job adequately, but the girl had hit her ceiling long ago and wasn’t going to climb any higher. Case in point, the missing meds Neve suspected Lauren had misplaced but couldn’t prove.
Hailey took a sip of her plain coffee. “Everything else around here is booked up, unless we want to hold our wedding at the Silver Lode in Doro.”
Joy visibly shuddered. “Trust me, you donotwant to step into that place, let alone get married there.”
A laugh bubbled up inside Neve, breaking her surface tension. “I heard about your first date there with Charlie.”
Joy’s smirk transformed into a wicked grin. “Good thing the man is so damn sexy. I kept my eyes focused on him and locked out the grunge surrounding us and the way the soles of my boots stuck to the floor.”
Hailey rushed right past Joy’s narrative. “Besides, we’ll hold the reception at Silver Summit—also for free—when the resort opens again,andwe’re holding a second ceremony in the summer at the Hunnicutts’ ranch. Marilyn insisted, and I wasn’t about to argue. This way Noah and I get three parties.” She took a sip of her black coffee. “I’m just sorry Leo isn’t able to join us in Vegas.”
“At least Reece doesn’t have a date either, so you’re not a fifth wheel,” Joy pointed out.
Yeah, that. Oh well. Neve had been thrown together with Reece her entire life, so this would be no different. Buddies, as usual. Or Reece’s big brother to her little sister. Sheesh.
“It’s okay. It’ll be fun with just the six of us.” Neve pulled Hailey in for a side hug. “If this is what you want, girlfriend, then I’m all for it. We’ll have a ball and make this the best wedding ever.”
Neve quietly sucked in a breath of hope that she was right.
Las Vegas was asgarish as Neve remembered from her one and only trip to Sin City. Instead of some ratty hole-in-the-wall motel shared with college friends, though, the wedding party was steeped in sophisticated opulence. They breathed the same rarefied air as Saudi princes and international superstars in the plush penthouse. The top floor was as advertised, with its luxurious marble columns, swank furnishings, and bathrooms the size of Neve’s house with room for all six of them to bathe together, if the desire struck. She couldn’t imagine it ever would.
Hailey and Noah had the largest and most secluded of the suites up a wide spiral staircase, while the remaining four of them had their choice between a half-dozen bedrooms with ensuites. Joy and Charlie disappeared somewhere on the far side of a common area consisting of two living rooms, three fireplaces, a dining room with a table for twenty, and a gourmet kitchen with double everything. Meanwhile, she and Reece selected rooms on the opposite side.
Insisting Reece pick first, Neve then chose the bedroom adjoining his, connecting door and all. Normally, her selection wouldn’t have even registered because it would have seemed natural. But an unseen, impossible-to-explain energy crackled around them, like an electric whip winding itself tighter and tighter. The very air she breathed was charged with the stuff, and it brought out nuances she couldn’t pin down. Everything about this trip felt off, and her nerve endings were in a constant state of tingling.
She rushed to explain, “I need to be close enough to another human being to hear him snoring in this palace. I might get lost and freak out otherwise.” And he was Reece. Being close to him simply felt … safe. The proximity to his solid steadiness was her lifeline in a tempest of emotions.
He gave her a knowing half-smile. “Yep, I get that. I don’t snore, by the way.”
“How would you know?”
He shrugged in that Reece sort of way he had. “It’s what I’ve been told.”
The blaze of beet-red embarrassment oozed across her skin, and she stabbed a finger toward their secured adjoining doors. “Just so you know, I’m not unlocking that door.”
Why the hell did I say that?
His half-smile hitched a little higher. “Thanks for the tip. If I plan on busting into your bedroom, I’ll use the main door.” With that, he retreated into his own suite, leaving his door wide open, and flopped belly-first on the oversized king bed. He promptly fell asleep. And he did not snore.
An hour later, Hailey and Noah appeared, along with the makeup artist, the hairdresser, and a mixologist who had a talent for making the perfect chocolate martini, and most every other yummy cocktail concoction one could dream up. Appetizers materialized from thin air, and Neve gobbled a few to soak up the alcohol and knock down the static electricity thrumming in her bloodstream.
The girls and their “team” sequestered themselves in Noah and Hailey’s suite, where they cranked on beats and shook their booties during the moments when they weren’t sitting still for makeup or hair. Meanwhile, the boys encamped in one of the living rooms. What they were doing—besides drinking—Neve hadn’t a clue. Nor did she care. The mixologist did an outstanding job visiting both groups equally—and liberally. By the time the photographer arrived, Neve was floating on a cushion of cocktails. Lord, she hadn’t felt so free since … since she had no idea when. It was possible this was the first time since childhood.
“Let’s join the boys and get this show on the road.” Hailey twirled to face Neve and Joy. Worry pulled her plucked brows together. “Do I look okay?”
