What Happens in Vegas... (14 page)

That he didn’t doubt at all. “Evie can afford it. The checks will cash, don’t worry about that.”

“I’m not. I’m just wondering why she’d still bother. I mean, now that she’s gone back to Texas.”

“She likes giving money to projects that make a difference in people’s lives. And she told you she’d help with the fundraising. Since she’s not here anymore, I assume this is how she’s fulfilling that promise.”
Salving her conscience, maybe?
“Cash the checks and move on.”

“If I cash these checks, we’re going to have to name a wing of the building after her.”

Now he knew why Lottie was so cautious about this. “That many zeros, huh?”

“
That
many zeros.”

Good Lord.
“Cash them.” Something good could come of this debacle. He picked up the file he’d been looking at earlier, and Lottie took the hint to leave.

But Nick couldn’t regain his earlier focus. Evie couldn’t do
anything
halfway, could she? She got pregnant, so she had to get married. And she couldn’t just get married; she had to move to Las Vegas. Into his house. Into his life. Into his heart.

He shook that thought off. The divorce papers delivered to him were an unwelcome reminder of how badly out of
hand this whole situation had gotten because Evie couldn’t go just halfway.

Well, she’d gone halfway on
one
thing. She hadn’t fallen in love with him. Which sucked for him, since it was the one thing where he
had
gone all the way.

So he’d stalled on signing the divorce papers, when he should have just done it immediately and moved on. Prenups certainly made the divorce proceedings much quicker—if not easier.

Of course, when had anything with Evie been easy? From that first night, when his car had been broken into, up to now,
nothing
had been easy when it came to Evie. His whole life had been turned upside down.

And to prove how sick the whole situation really was, he actually
missed
it. Life seemed a little boring now without Evie and never knowing what she would throw at him next. He had learned a lot about himself recently, including a tendency toward masochism he didn’t know he had in him. Why else would he want a woman so desperately when she did nothing but drive him crazy?

He even missed fighting with her—the snap and fire in her eyes, the way her skin turned pinker as her temper flared, how she could channel that heat in a completely different direction in a heartbeat. They fought, sure, but they fought fair and Evie never held a grudge. She had a short fuse and a big temper in that sinful body, and she was a yeller.

In more ways than one, he thought as a familiar heat spread over his skin like a painful memory.

Good thing he wasn’t, or else every fight would have been a recreation of Evie and Will going toe-to-toe on the balcony, only with him playing her brother’s role. Common sense should tell him this divorce was the right thing to do, because no relationship could handle
that
level…

He stopped that line of thought, confused. For all that yelling he witnessed, Evie and her brother were very close.
Tight, even. Even when Evie complained about him—which was frequently—there was no doubt she loved her brother. And Will, for all his glowering, seemed to adore her—even when she yelled at him.

He could relate to
that.
Adoring Evie, at least.

Evie
had
said that he reminded her of Will. Even called him the same epithet…

A thousand details hit him at once, and it led to clarity. Evie being so polite and gracious to everyone even though he knew it grated across her nerves at times. Evie guarding her tongue so she didn’t end up in the papers. How she talked about “Evangeline Harrison” sometimes as if it was a different person.

That constant pressure had to build until it blew, and Evie was safe exploding at her brother. Because she loved her brother. Trusted him. Felt safe just being Evie.

Amateur armchair psychology was new for him—he didn’t consider himself one for plumbing the depths of anyone’s psyche—but this just might make sense. Did Evie only shout at the ones she loved?

Did that mean she might have feelings for
him?
Or was that just wishful thinking?

If she did, why did she leave without a fight?
Because I was very clear why I married her.
And he hadn’t given her much reason to question that as circumstances changed.

Oh, he was an idiot, and he’d screwed up big time. He was a day late and a dollar short in this hellish mess. His wife had planned their divorce the day she married him, but now that she had moved to a different state and served him with divorce papers, all bets were off and he wanted to change the game.

He looked at the divorce papers and smiled. He happened to be quite good at games of chance. He’d anted up, and it was time to call her bluff and play the cards.

This was going to be interesting.

After surprising society—and her family, too, if reports are to be believed—with news of her nuptials and then disappearing for several weeks, Evangeline Harrison, now Rocco, is back in town,
sans
her new husband. While Dallas is glad to have her back, Evangeline is keeping a low profile these days, and hasn’t been seen in society much, nor has she returned to her former position at HarCorp. This, of course, has led to much speculation about the situation. Is the honeymoon over? Is Evangeline back for good or only a visit? And where is her husband, Las Vegas nightclub owner Nick Rocco?

“I
N LAS VEGAS, YOU NOSY
witch,” Evie answered with a scowl as she tossed today’s issue of
Dallas Lifestyles
into the recycling bin. “Not that it’s any of your damn business,” she added as she closed the lid with a satisfying bang.

After much consulting with Gwen over shoe shopping and lattes, Evie knew there was no way she was going to be able to spin her divorce to make it less interesting for the gossip-hounds. Not if her intentionally low-key return to town was already newsworthy of speculation.

She breathed the steam of her coffee deep into her lungs
as she leaned against the kitchen counter.
Hello, my life. How I
haven’t
missed you at all.

Of course, she would have to announce soon enough that she was getting divorced—those records would be public information once they were officially filed with the judge—and she knew the importance of preempting news like that. Not that she really cared anymore what people said about her. She was going through the motions out of habit more than anything else.

If she could manage to keep this under the radar, great. But she wasn’t stressing over it, either.

The stress came from simply waiting. So far, there’d been no word from Nick or his attorney all week, so there was nothing to preempt for the gossips.

She still jumped every time the phone rang, both anticipating and dreading the call from Jackson that would end the suspense, but the limbo was killing her a little more each day. If Nick didn’t make a move soon, she’d have to do
something
to break this stalemate. She couldn’t go on like this. Nick haunted her dreams, even though she spent her days trying not to think about him or what life might have offered if things had worked out differently.

But she wasn’t planning a return to her old life, either. Hell, she wasn’t even sure how much longer she’d stay in Dallas. There wasn’t
that
much keeping her here beyond her family, and she’d already reconciled herself to being away from them when she moved to Las Vegas. The offer of an interview from Circus Circus based on the resumé she’d sent had been a wake-up call, spurring her realization that she didn’t have to stay in Dallas and be what everyone expected her to be. There was a whole world out there waiting to be conquered.

She’d turned down Circus Circus because Las Vegas—while tempting—wasn’t on her short list of possible places.

California. New York. Chicago. Maybe even London. The choices were endless. But she couldn’t explore
any
of those
possibilities until she heard from Nick. Nick’s
attorney,
she corrected herself.

And she had no idea when that would be.

She needed to finish getting ready. She and Gwen were going shopping this afternoon for the boys’ birthday, and the symphony fundraiser was tonight. Without a good excuse, Evie needed to be there or else give everyone more fodder for
Lifestyles.

Leaving her mug in the sink, she pushed through the swinging door, heading for her bedroom. As she passed through the living room, she heard the door
snick
as the knob turned and the lock tongue moved out of the frame. Stepping back toward the kitchen, where she’d left her phone, she mentally ran down the list of possibilities…Will was at work; Bennie was at the beach; Gwen was meeting her at the mall. Anyway, the front desk would have called if she had a guest…No one should be entering her apartment right now, and adrenaline rushed through her veins as the door started to open.

She was taking a deep breath to scream as a man stepped through the open door.

The scream died in her throat.
Nick.

Her knees wobbled, and she couldn’t say if it was from the adrenaline rush or the fact he looked so good she wanted to cry. Her heart still beat frantically in her chest, but that could be caused by either situation, as well.

“Evie? You look pale.”

“Because you scared the living daylights out of me barging in like that. Don’t you knock?”

“I did. No one answered.”

“I was in the kitchen.”
Driving myself insane thinking about you.

Nick shook his head at her like a scold. “I told you not to leave your door unlocked. Anyone could just walk right in.”

“I live in a manned building on a secured floor for a
reason.
No one can just walk in here unless they live here.” She stopped. “How’d you get in, anyway? No one at the desk called up.”

“Howard and the gang don’t seem aware that you filed for divorce. They just waved at me as I passed.” He looked at her hands and frowned. “You’re not wearing your ring, though.”

She tugged the chain out of her shirt, letting the band dangle in front of her. “I wear it when I go out.” It had been too painful to wear it on her finger, but it hurt to take it off altogether. “It seemed premature to quit wearing a ring when you hadn’t signed the papers. It could lead to questions I don’t want to answer.”
And it would make it all real. Final.

Nick cocked his head and looked as if she was an oddity in a sideshow. “So you haven’t told people yet?”

This was embarrassing—to be caught like this. And she was completely unprepared to
talk
to Nick. Her stomach was turning over itself, and she didn’t feel steady on her feet. “Just my family. And they know everything now, by the way. Well, Gwen and Will do, at least. I didn’t see the sense in upsetting Uncle Marcus more than he already is by mentioning the baby.”

“How are you feeling?”

Miserable.
“I’m fine.”
Pull your act together. You can get through this.
The muscles in her cheeks protested as she stretched them into a smile and tried to channel Gwen’s calm coolness. “Perfectly healthy and back to normal. Thank you for asking. Would you like a seat? Something to drink? Coffee?” She was proud of herself; her voice didn’t shake or crack, and this was very civilized.

She thought she saw Nick’s mouth twitch briefly, but it must have been a trick of the light or her own scattered brain messing with her. “I’ll sit, but nothing to drink, thank you.”

Nick took one of the chairs, so she chose the opposite one to maximize the distance between them. She knew better than to get too close to him. Her dreams had been too vivid
recently to risk proximity.
Be friendly and polite.
“So what brings you to Dallas?”

“You.”

Her heart stuttered. “Me?” she squeaked.
So much for that earlier pride.
She cleared her throat.

“There’s a problem with the papers you sent. I can’t sign them.”

Her heart soared. “Really? Why?”

“Nevada is a community-property state.”

And now it crashed and burned. “Oh.” She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice. “But that shouldn’t be a problem. We weren’t married long enough to acquire anything.”

“Technically, I bought The Zoo
after
we got married. That’s community property now, and there’s residency issues, plus the waiting period…”

Her head was spinning. “Jackson said…”

“Maybe Jackson isn’t as up-to-date on Nevada law as he should be.”

Surely Jackson looked into all of that…“The Zoo isn’t a problem. I don’t want it. I mean, I don’t expect you to divide it. I’ll sign off my share or sell it to you…”

Nick’s eyes widened. “You want me to
buy
my own club from you?”

“I
said,
I’ll just give it to you, but if that’s not possible I’ll sell it to you for a dollar or something…” Her disappointment over this “reunion” was quickly turning to frustration and confusion.

“And your prenup? That’s a problem, too.”

That jerked her back to the conversation. “What? The prenup? What are you…?” Nick wanted money from her? She stopped and took a deep breath. “Look. If there’s a problem with anything, your lawyer can contact Jackson. I’m sure they can work around whatever the problems—”

“You can’t just work around the law.”

Evie felt her temper rising and fought to keep a lid on it.
“That’s
not
what I’m saying. I’m just trying to get us out of this disaster with minimal damages to either of us. I don’t want
anything
from you. Not money. Not your club. Nothing. An uncontested divorce shouldn’t be this much trouble.”

Nick nodded. “But my attorney has informed me that I have grounds for divorce, and that changes everything.”

“What grounds?”

“Desertion.”

What the…?
“I didn’t desert you.”

Nick raised an eyebrow and indicated the room. “Looks like it to me. It’ll probably look that way to the judge, too. That cracks that ‘iron-clad’ prenup of yours.”

Now she was mad.
“Son of a—”

“Language, Evie,” Nick scolded. “Name-calling is not appropriate behavior for a lady.”

That sent her to her feet, her blood boiling. “Don’t try that with me. If you’re spoiling for fight, bring it on.”

Evie was mad.
Good.
It certainly beat that uncertain look from earlier that had led her to hide behind all that false politeness. He’d risked a lot, pushing her like that, but Nick was gambling here, and when the stakes were high, he knew he had to take the risks.

Of course, now Evie looked as if she’d like to remove his head from his body. “Big ugly battles end up in the papers. You sure you want that?”

Her chin went up a notch. “I don’t care what people think anymore. I’m tired of living my life like that.”

Good for her.
“And your family?”

“Love me unconditionally. That knowledge…that’s the one good thing to come out of this nightmare.”

“At least
you
got something for your trouble, right?”

Eyes snapping, she turned on him. “Is
that
what this is about? You want something for
your
trouble?”

“You were the only trouble I had.”

Instead of firing back, Evie seemed to deflate. She sighed and her shoulders dropped. “Yeah. I know. I’ve brought nothing but trouble to myself and everyone I love with this whole situation.”

Did she include him in that group?

“I owe you an apology, Nick. For everything.”

He hadn’t been expecting that. “Such as?”

“I panicked, and I shouldn’t have. I put you in a bad position and then did nothing but exacerbate it. I have a bad temper, and I tend to jump into things with both feet without thinking it all the way through. So I’m sorry about everything I put you through. Including the mess I seem to have made of our divorce.” She shook her head sadly and a bitter laugh escaped. “After the mess I made of our marriage, I don’t know why I’m surprised I messed this up. I certainly don’t want part of The Zoo or any of that. If you’d like a cash settlement for your trouble, I’ll talk to Jackson and have him work that out with you and your lawyer. You deserve at least that much.”

What he deserved and what he wanted were two completely different things. He didn’t deserve much of anything, but he
wanted
a hell of a lot. “That was quite a speech. When you decide to humble yourself, you certainly go all the way.”

“It’s not false humility. I can admit to my mistakes.”

He wasn’t sure he liked her tone. “And marrying me was a mistake?”

She smiled weakly. “I think we’ve proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt. I know money won’t fix anything, but that’s really all I have to offer.”

She had a lot to offer him, but she didn’t know that. “I didn’t realize being married to me was such a burden that you’d be willing to
pay
to get out of it.” Maybe he’d read this whole situation wrong. She certainly seemed resigned to her
choice and determined to get it done as quickly as possible. He’d come to call her bluff; he’d never considered she might not be bluffing after all.

Evie ran her hands over her face and through her hair. “Being with you is many things.
Burden
isn’t the word I’d choose.” Then she turned to him and sighed. “It’s definitely been an adventure. An eye-opening adventure for me, and though I know it has sucked for you, I’m actually very appreciative for that.”

“Did I ever say it sucked for me?”

“You didn’t have to.” Her mouth twisted as she said it and he felt like that first-class bastard. “I’m sorry it turned out this way, but I would like to at least part as friends.”

It had taken everything she had to get that speech out of her mouth, but she’d been careening from one emotion to the next and she just didn’t have anything left in her.

Nick’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think we can be friends.”

Considering what she really wanted, hearing Nick say that was about the last blow her heart could take. “I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll take you off my Christmas-card list.”

“That’s it? You just roll over? What’s happened to you? Where’s the Evie that charges in and goes for what she wants? The Evie who was willing to take me on over anything and everything?”

“She’s tired of fighting. Look, I’m smart enough to know when I can’t have what I want, and it’s time to give up this fight.”

There was that sideshow oddity look again. “Tell me the truth, Evie. What do you want?”

You.
But she couldn’t say that. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does.”

“Do you know what
you
want, Nick?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“What’s that?” When he hesitated, she tried to sweeten the
offer. “I just need this to be over with, so whatever it is, tell me, and if it’s within my power, I’ll happily give it to you.”

Nick broke eye contact as he thought, and she knew she should be worried what he was going to ask for if it required that much thought. She’d put herself in a place of weakness for this negotiation, but she just needed this over with. Her heart couldn’t break into any more pieces without killing her for real.