Once Upon a Marriage (16 page)

And Elliott was working again. Barbara was paying him to watch over the man. Walter Connelly had a gambling problem. Barbara wanted to know if Liam did, as well.

“I don't know how to play, but I'd love to watch,” Marie said.

“I don't know how, either, but since you're so good at it, I'd like to know what it's all about,” Gabrielle piped in. She and Marie were still in the jeans and sweaters they'd changed into after the wedding. Elliott followed them to the casino.

The dealer looked up as Liam slid onto a stool at a blackjack table with a ten-dollar minimum bid. He nodded. The other men and one woman at the table all nodded, as well. Making room.

They looked to Elliott. Who shook his head, taking a stance almost directly behind his number-two employer. If the dealer took him for what he was, Liam's bodyguard, so be it.

Anything and everything happened in Vegas.

* * *

H
ALF
 
AN
 
HOUR
 
after they'd left the club, Gabi was sitting with Liam at the card table with a pile of her own chips in front of her. She wasn't betting high. She was just winning.

“She used to get so ticked off at Liam when he gambled,” she said to Elliott. The two of them were in cushy armchairs in a lounge area just behind the card table, sipping diet sodas. A lounge with no live entertainment. Because it was still necessary to rest for a minute or two. Even in Vegas.

Marie had wanted a place to sit. Elliott had followed her. And was watching Liam as she spoke.

“Did he gamble a lot?” he asked. His tone of voice had changed. As though he was working again. Making note of things of which he had to be aware.

And Marie's heart softened even more. He wasn't just keeping Liam safe from bodily harm. He cared about his client.

And so she was quick to reassure him. “For a little bit, he did,” she said. “During our first year of college. But it was only to get back at his father. Because he knew the old man would disapprove. I told him that was the wrong reason to do anything. But I understood. Gabi was just so disappointed in him for risking so much money—no matter the reason.”

“He played high stakes?”

“Only after he won. Which he did a lot.”

“And since then?”

“I'm pretty sure this is the first time Liam's gambled since his freshman year. He grew up hearing about what gambling did to his father. Knew how hard Walter had to fight to beat his addiction. Saw him build an empire from nothing. And then, as you know, he finds out a couple of months ago that his father had made himself vulnerable to blackmail because he'd returned to gambling and had used company funds to cover his debts.”

Money that Walter had paid back before it was ever discovered missing. Money that was, technically, his to use as it had been a hardship fund that he'd financed with his own money and could terminate at any time.

But he'd left himself vulnerable. Making him ripe to cut a deal with his corporate attorney—who knew about the gambling—when Walter found out the other man had been running an illegal Ponzi scheme. In the end, Walter pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in exchange for his testimony against George Costas.

A small roar came from the high-top table in front of them, and Marie grinned as Gabi turned around and gave her a thumbs-up.

“I can't believe that's Gabi up there,” Marie said. Smiling. “You should have seen her even six months ago. Always so serious. Like her responsibilities didn't leave any time for fun.”

Which in some ways was exactly as it had been. With a low-income single mother and two younger brothers at home, Gabi had been sending money even from college. She'd worked full-time, and still kept up a class load that allowed her to finish her undergraduate degree in the four years that her scholarship had lasted.

Her family, mother and both brothers, had moved down South a few years ago, but Gabi still sent them money.

“I saw her three months ago and she was that way,” Elliott reminded her. “And I remember their wedding.”

Marie and Elliott had been their witnesses at the courthouse for a five-minute ceremony. Because Liam had been adamant that there would be no press, and no Walter, trying to interfere. He was taking no chances on making Gabi his legal wife as soon as humanly possible.

Then they'd all gone out to lunch and then back to work.

“And you were at the shop when they got back from their honeymoon, too,” Marie remembered. Liam had surprised Gabi with a three-day trip to Hawaii. As happy as Marie had been for her friends, she'd felt Gabi's sudden loss sharply.

“You saved me that weekend,” she said to Elliott.

“Me?” His glance was completely personal again as he watched her. “I didn't do anything.”

“You listened to me jabber.”

“I told you before. I like listening to you. And you don't jabber. The things you say are interesting. Worth listening to.”

He'd been hanging around the shop a lot back then. With the whole Connelly Investments thing going down. And anytime she'd been free, she'd sat with him. And after work, too, not wanting to go up to her apartment alone. She'd told him about meeting Gabi. And then Liam. About the years they'd all shared.

About the time she and Gabi had had car trouble in Denver and Liam had called his dad, who'd reluctantly rescued them. About the way Liam had always come to their rescue when guys were being jerks.

The table cheered again. This time it was Liam who turned around and grinned at her. Did it make her a bad person that she was envious of them? Her two best friends in the world?

“You should get married.”

Had he read her mind? Marie stared at Elliott. Wished she had something stronger than diet soda. “That's not something I can make happen on my own.”

Heart pounding, she watched people pass. A few were obviously drunk. Most were laughing. Having the times of their lives.

As she'd been doing all day long. With Elliott at her side. Pretending that he was really hers. That they were really a couple.

In some ways it had been the very best day of her life.

“There's a chapel right down the hall,” he said to her, looking drunk, though she knew him to be completely sober. “I happen to know exactly how to get there and know, too, that they're open twenty-four hours a day.”

She swallowed. Another roar of cheers came from somewhere. In the far-off distance. She'd been thrust into another vignette. Something that would never happen at home.

“I don't think they come with grooms,” she said. Playing along with him. Her mouth was dry. Her palms sweaty. She picked up her soda. Held it with both hands.

“So I'll be your groom.” He was joking. The grin on his face said so. Elliott wasn't a grinner.

“Okay.”

His face sobered instantly. Completely. He sat forward, his elbows on his knees, hands crossed. And she prepared herself to accept his graceful letdown. To let him off easy.

To grin and pretend she'd been joking, too.

But just for the second, just one tiny second, she allowed herself to believe that the moment was for real. The sudden ache inside her was intense.

Consuming her.

The longing.

Not just for a marriage of her own. But for him. This man who'd walked into her life and been different from all the rest...

“I'm serious, Marie.”

She dropped her glass.

 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Y
OU
 
HAVE
 
TO
know that I'm all for you and Marie hooking up, but this is a little crazy, man. Getting married at two o'clock in the morning?”

Back in their tuxes from the morning, albeit slightly wrinkled ones, the two men were standing in the chapel where they'd all begun their day—had it really been less than twenty-four hours ago?—waiting for the minister on call to show up.

Marie and Gabi were upstairs slipping back into their little black dresses.

It was crazy. He was crazy. But if he didn't do this now, he was going to lose her. Her mother had said Marie still didn't trust herself to a relationship. But all day long, Marie's actions had been telling him a different story.

She wanted him. As much as he wanted her. For the first time in his life, he had someone who wanted only him. Especially him.

Barbara be damned. She was wrong. And if he presented her with a done deal, if she saw how happy he'd made her daughter, surely she wouldn't cut his future out from beneath him. Because to do that would be akin to cutting her daughter's future, too.

“Our flight leaves in the morning,” he said, as though that was explanation enough for his rush.

The real reason—because he'd never wanted anything in his life as much as he wanted Marie Bustamante as his wife—didn't sound rational even to his own ears. Or the other part—that he somehow knew that if he didn't do this now, he wasn't going to get another chance.

Back in Denver, with Barbara's paychecks and warnings pecking at him, he'd be too sensible. To conscientious. Marie would think he'd lost interest in her. And be hurt.

She'd shut him out...

And his word to Barbara? Was that worth nothing?

For most of his life, the only thing he'd had to stand on, to count on being there for him, was his integrity.

At the moment, in Las Vegas where anything was possible and people did things they didn't normally do, where they were happier than they normally were, he didn't care. He'd spent his entire life standing on his word from the outside looking in. Marie welcomed him in. She had since day one.

Liam looked around them. The lighting that morning, when combined with the sun shining in the windows, had seemed romantic. But now on its own was a bit garish. “Tanner, you do know there are other places to get married.”

“I know.”

“It's not like Marie's going anywhere...”

“You saying you don't approve?” He wasn't sure even that would make much difference at the moment. It was as if he were drunk, on some insane collision course, and couldn't stop himself. Whatever was driving him was stronger than anything trying to stop him.

Liam shook his head. “I've been watching out for Marie for well over a decade. I wasn't sure I'd ever see the day when a man walked into her life and had the power to break through the walls around her heart.” He shrugged. “Marie needs you.”

Now he was confused. “But you don't want her to marry me tonight.” He wasn't the best catch. Marie could have children who grew up to tower over her.

Thoughts of children stopped him cold. And had his heart racing at Mach speed.

“I don't want you divorcing her,” Liam said. “This is pretty sudden. You sure you're in it for the long haul?”

“I knew a month after I met her that I wanted her to be my wife.”

“I'd feel better if I'd been aware of that.”

“You're my employer, Connelly. She's your friend.” He hated the subterfuge and gave what he could of the truth. “But this is not your call.”

“I'm still your employer.”

True. But... “You going to deny that you set me up with her a week ago Friday night? That that dinner out after the shooting episode at the elementary school wasn't your weak attempt at matchmaking?”

Liam's ready grin finally surfaced as he cocked his head and said, “Must not be that bad at it if a week and a day later you're taking her to the altar. Maybe I'm in the wrong business...”

Elliott might have been subjected to more of Liam's cockiness if the minister hadn't come in through a secret door behind the altar, his hair somewhat mussed, in full robed garb.

“Who's getting married?” he asked.

“He is.”

“I am.”

Elliott and Liam spoke simultaneously.

“Who has the ring?”

Elliott looked at Liam. Who was looking at him.

“Where's the closest jeweler that would be open all night?” Liam spoke first.

“Right here,” the minister said. “We have a decent selection of rings. If you'd like to follow me?”

Elliott was in over his head. He knew it. And he still didn't care. He was a man who'd learned long ago to live by his instincts. And they were telling him that marrying Marie was the right thing to do.

He turned to Liam.

“I'll wait here for the girls,” the financier said. “And, by the way, Marie likes white gold.”

Good to know.

Elliott nodded. And followed the minister out of the room.

* * *

“Y
OU
 
THINK
I'
M
 
CRAZY
, don't you?” Marie moved closer to Gabi as they exited the elevator they'd been riding on alone, making room for the group of people who'd been waiting on the main floor to go upstairs to their rooms.

In their black dresses, the two stepped onto the carpeted hallway that led to the casino floor and throughout the resort.

Gabi took her hand, squeezed it, while the two moved as quickly as they could in their high-heeled shoes. “Believe it or not, I think that you're doing absolutely the right thing.” She ran a finger through Marie's hair. It was curled a bit at the ends from the updo she'd worn that morning. Gabi had been ready to pin it back up, but for once in her life, Marie wanted it down. Loose and free.

She stopped in the middle of an aisle to stare at Gabi now, though, completely frozen with fear. Even at just past two in the morning, machines rang out bonuses as players sat pushing buttons again and again.

“Elliott might very well be the only guy who will ever slip past that iron gate you've got around your heart,” Gabi said, pulling Marie closer to her and out of the way as a couple—obviously a little worse for the alcohol they'd consumed—teetered past them. “And I know you, Marie. If you don't do this quickly, you'll talk yourself out of it. I think you know that, too, which is why you're doing what you have to do. You're pulling one over on yourself.”

“You make me sound crazy.”

“I think you're careful. And paranoid where men are concerned. Not that that's your fault. But you love Elliott, don't you?”

“I haven't told him so.” And she should, shouldn't she? Before she told someone else? Before she married him?

“And he loves you.”

“He hasn't said so, either.”

“Then I guess we have some business to take care of, don't we?” Always the practical one, Gabi led them around a corner, down another hall, up an escalator and to the second-floor chapel where their day had begun.

Marie stopped her just before she pulled open the door to head inside. Where Elliott would be waiting. She couldn't do it. She was in Vegas, but would be going home in the morning. And if she got married, what happened in Vegas definitely would not just stay in Vegas.

“Just...let it happen, okay?” Gabi whispered.

“What if I can't trust him, Gabi?” Marie asked, stilling Gabi's reach for the door handle.

“You don't trust Elliott? Has he done something to make you doubt him?”

“No.” She shook her head. Feeling the little curls around her temples bounce. “I feel like I trust him completely. But that's kind of weird for me to say, isn't it? I mean, I've never trusted men. What if, after we're married, I can't trust him? Not because he isn't trustworthy, but because of me? Because I can't? What if I ruin things?”

“You need to tell him about your issues with men. And why you have them.”

“He knows.”

Gabi's eyes widened. “You told him about...everything?”

“And everyone.” Marie was completely serious now. Needing her friend to show her the parts of herself that she couldn't find on her own.

“Wow.” Gabi smiled. “I was beginning to fear there'd never be an Elliott Tanner in your life...”

“Yeah, I think I was, too. But...”

Gabi's finger touched her lips. “No buts. He knows how hard it is for you to trust and still wants to marry you. He knows what he's getting into. Now trust him to be up to the challenge.”

Tears sprang to Marie's eyes. They were going to ruin her makeup. “Thank you.”

Nodding, Gabi squeezed her hand again. And said, “You're absolutely sure this is what you want to do?”

Pausing, Marie made herself slow down. It wasn't as if there was another wedding pressing down upon them. She could take all night if she wanted to.

Or not get married at all.

Thoughts of Elliott's arms around her at the salsa club sprang to mind. Swinging her around. Pulling her in. Throwing her out. Bringing her back against his warm body. Catching her. Always catching her. She hadn't been afraid, even for a second.

“I'll be your groom.”

“Okay.”

“I'm serious.”

“I am, too,”
she'd said. Or something like that. Maybe she'd just said
okay
again. The next thing she knew they'd been standing, holding hands and going to tell Liam and Gabi that they had to break up their card game for a wedding.

“Marie?” Gabi's voice was soft. Serious. And not the least bit threatening. She was there for her. Her support. No matter what she decided.

It had always been that way.

Always would be that way.

She wasn't alone. No matter how she'd been feeling over the past weeks, she wasn't ever going to be alone. Liam and Gabi and her...they'd been three misfits in college. Liam with his screwed-up dad. Gabi with her family who leaned on her but didn't understand the world she lived in, and her, with parents who didn't know how to love each other or to let each other go. Somehow three eighteen-year-old kids who'd needed family had found each other.

And formed a family of their own.

“I love you,” she said to Gabi now.

“I love you, too. You want me to go tell them the wedding's off?” Gabi didn't seem disappointed in her. Or happy, either.

“No,” Marie felt like the Mona Lisa when she smiled. As though she now knew the secrets. “Mom told me last night that when he's the right man, you'll need to marry him more than you fear being hurt. And...well... I need to marry him.”

Gabi's silent smile, her tight hug, said everything else Marie needed to hear.

The door to the chapel burst open—and would have hit them if they hadn't both jumped back. “Oh, there you are,” Liam said, sounding as though he'd just gotten out of bed and hadn't been up close to twenty-four hours. “I'm going to walk you down the aisle,” he said to Marie. “I believe it's fitting that I give you away.”

Marie laughed out loud. And nodded.

“But first, I must escort this lovely lady to the altar, so she is there, standing by you. Now and always,” he said softly, offering his arm to his wife.

And revealing the flowers he'd been holding behind his back in the process. “Oh,” he said. “Here are your flowers.” He handed a small bouquet of white roses to Gabi.

“And yours.” Marie got an identical, but much larger, bouquet.

“Are we ready?” he asked, looking at the two of them.

“Yes,” Marie said, but stepped forward when he offered Gabi his arm a second time. She was on his left. Marie hooked her arm through his right one. “We're ready,” she said.

Together, at three o'clock that Saturday morning, the members of Threefold walked up the chapel aisle.

And with Liam and Gabi holding hands beside her, Marie Bustamante agreed to be Elliott Tanner's wife.