A Life Less Ordinary (19 page)

His
grin turned wolfish as he instead said, “If I have to explain it to you, then
you really shouldn’t be let out of the house.”

Manny
raised a questioning eyebrow.  “Really?  For four whole days?”

Zeke
preened slightly, making a show of straightening the sleeves of his green
button-down shirt.  “Impressed?”

“Skeptical,
actually.  But unless...whatshername decides to share, I guess I’ll have to
take your word for it.”

Zeke
mock-glared at her, his hands on his jean-clad hips. 

“Thanks,”
he said drily.  “Anyway, I’ll bet what you’ve been doing can’t come anywhere
near that!”

Manny
tsk’d and lightly patted his arm.  He stared down at her hand, startled and
suddenly noticing just how much shorter she was than him.  This was, he
realized, the first time she’d touched him since their trip started.

She
said lightly, seemingly oblivious to his startled reaction to her touch, “Well,
if I’d known we were in a competition, I might have – oh, hi, Angeline,
Reuben!”

Zeke
looked to his right and saw two people in their mid-to-late sixties striding
briskly towards them.  He hesitated between polite curiosity and frowning
confusion as the older woman and Manny shared a hug.

“There
you are!” Angeline said, leaning back and smiling cozily at Manny.  “I was
getting worried about you!  Are you ready to go to the chapel?”

Zeke
whipped his head towards Manny.

“Chapel?”
and to his horror, his voice actually squeaked.

“Absolutely,”
Manny said to Angeline, then met Zeke’s wide eyes with an amused grin.  “Zeke,
meet Angeline Steinberg and her fiancé, Reuben Kingsley.  They’re getting married
today, and I’m going to be a bridesmaid.” 

She
bit back a laugh at the look on Zeke’s face as she turned back to the happy
couple. 

“Have
you seen Lionel?” she asked.

Lionel?
Zeke thought blankly.

“He’s
going to meet us at the chapel,” Angeline replied.  She turned to Zeke with a
broad grin.  “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Zeke.  I’ve heard a lot
about you.  If you have the time, you’re more than welcome to join us.”

Zeke
blinked at her, feeling a confusion that was disorienting while at the same
time, surprisingly familiar.  It reminded him of walking into Leila’s bed and
breakfast to find Manny in the midst of a no-holds-barred card game.  The world
currently seemed to be tilting on its axis in much the same way.

He
shook himself out of his fog and said, “Thank you – I’d like that.  Are you an
old friend of Manny’s?”

Angeline
laughed, a surprisingly young and musical sound.  “Oh, no!  We met here at the
slot machines the other night.  She brought us luck, and we’ve sort of adopted
each other.”

“Oh?”
Zeke replied faintly, as they began to walk to where Zeke assumed the chapel
was located.

Angeline
chattered on, “And she’s been so kind, humoring us by making all the
arrangements and accompanying us wherever we wanted to go.  She did the Fremont
Street zipline with us.”

“Screaming
the entire way,” Manny confided drily.

Angeline
shook her head and continued, “We rode donkeys down into the Grand Canyon, and
yesterday we toured Death Valley.  Then, of course, there was Area 51 and the
UFO watching tour – which was very exciting for everyone!”

“In
more ways than one,” Manny nodded.

Zeke
didn’t have a chance to ask her what she meant before Reuben said, “Tomorrow is
the ghost tour, and the day after that we’re going to hit all the museums we
can find.”

“Tonight’s
the wedding, of course,” Manny said, “but then we’re all going to the high
stakes poker room afterwards – mostly for drinks and the ambience because I
don’t think many of us can afford to actually play at a table.  Maybe you can
bring, um, whatshername to that.  It’s formal, though, so you’ll need a tux and
she’ll need a formal outfit.”

Angeline
slipped a hand in the crook of Manny’s arm and said, “It’s very hard to
organize so many people for all those activities, but Manny just seems to pull
it all together so easily.”

“Well,”
Zeke said weakly. “there are only the four of you -”

Manny
laughed.  “Four?  Oh, Lord no!  You’ll see everyone at the wedding.  Lionel,
Jack, Simon-Simone and I have to be there because we’re in the wedding party,
but nobody from the group would miss this!”

Zeke
stared at her in utter confusion before his dark brows lowered thunderously
over his eyes. 

“What
the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.

Before
Manny could respond, Reuben said, “We’re here,” and pulled open the door.

Zeke’s
jaw dropped as he gaped at what at first appeared to be a kaleidoscope of
people of all ages, shapes and colours.  The tiny chapel was packed, but as he
began to make sense of the scene, he realized there were actually only about
thirty people in the room.

There
was a rather dapper man in his sixties talking to a trio of twenty-somethings
of various nationalities but with their hair in matching shades of purple, and
each sporting several tattoos and piercings.  As Zeke watched, they all began
laughing uproariously at what Zeke could only assume was the punch line to a
joke.  His gaze moved to a group of women standing around a very tall, striking
blonde woman.  The shorter women were obviously giving commentary on the tall
woman’s dress, shoes, hair and makeup.  Zeke blinked and frowned as he peered
closer and realized the tall woman was male.  He stared for a moment before
admitting that he – or rather, she – was really quite attractive.

Everywhere
he looked, he saw a mixed bag of people, mingling together in high spirits and
good humour.  Well, he thought dazedly, they were at a wedding after all.

He
turned as a big, bluff, classically handsome man in his fifties strode up to
them, his arms spread wide in welcome.

“Here
you are!” he boomed.  “I was beginning to wonder if you’d gotten cold feet! 
I’ve put your wedding dress in the bride’s alcove, Angeline, and Manny, your
maid of honor dress is there as well.  There’s also a woman waiting to do your
hair and make-up.”

“Shoes?”
Manny asked, stopping his words with one raised finger.

Lionel
– because Zeke could only assume this larger than life man was Lionel – put a
hand to his broad, elegantly clad chest and his eyes widened in mock pain. 

“I’m
hurt – of course I remembered the shoes!  The three of you are going to look
absolutely stunning.”  He turned to Reuben.  “We’ll do them justice as well. 
Our tuxes are in the groom’s alcove.”

He
finally seemed to notice Zeke and quickly gave him the once-over.

“Another
addition to the menagerie, I see,” he said to Zeke with a smile.  “Introduce
yourself, find a seat – and enjoy the show.  You’ll need to get a tux before we
go to the high-stakes poker room, but don’t worry – everyone has to go change. 
Will you be bringing a date?”

Zeke
simply stood, feeling shell-shocked.  “Uh, maybe,” he finally managed, and
Lionel beamed at him.

“Good
man.  Make yourself comfortable.  The wedding will begin soon.”

Manny
and Angeline hurried off the bride’s alcove, taking the tall woman with them as
they left.  Zeke took the opportunity to slip back to the front desk and ask
Alicia if she’d be interested in buying him that drink at a wedding reception. 
She stared blankly at him before she slowly agreed.

Zeke
slipped back into the chapel just as the wedding began.  He hastily sat and
watched as Reuben, Lionel and another impeccably dressed fifty-something man
took their places at the altar and turned expectantly towards the back of the
chapel.

The
first bridesmaid was the tall woman Zeke had noticed earlier.  She was now dressed
in a dark blue sheath dress that ended just below her knees and she was no
longer blonde.  Instead she wore a chestnut wig with the hair pulled away from
her face and then allowed to tumble loosely down her back in thick waves.  She
was wearing delicately pretty shoes with one-inch heels that exactly matched
the colour of the dress.  She walked slowly and a little unsteadily on the
shoes, biting her lip and frowning in concentration as she walked down the
aisle.

Manny
was next to step out of the bride’s alcove.  Zeke thought she was pleasantly
plump and decently pretty in the same sheath dress but in a brilliant jewel
blue, and with a similar hairstyle as the first bridesmaid.  He hadn’t realized
just how long Manny’s hair truly was, well past her mid-back, and he guessed he
could now almost understand why she always wore it in a bun.

He
looked curiously at her feet and raised an eyebrow.  The shoes were the same
delicately pretty shoes as the first bridesmaid’s, perfectly matched in colour
to her dress, but the thin stiletto heels were at least three inches high. He
had to admit, they were gorgeous shoes, but they looked far too dangerous for
someone like Manny to wear.  He idly wondered if any of the people in the
chapel were also doctors or at least knew how to deal with a broken ankle.  She
walked steadily down the aisle and never missed a step.

Once
Manny took her place at the altar, the music paused before the wedding march
began.  Angeline appeared wearing a simple pale yellow lace dress, her own shoes
just as delicately gorgeous as her bridesmaids’ but with a much lower heel. 
She smiled rather shyly at everyone in the room and began to sedately walk down
the aisle.

She’d
only taken three steps when the music abruptly changed to a fast-paced country-rock
song, and everyone in the chapel, including the groom and the minister, began
to clap and sing along.

Angeline
stopped short, her jaw dropping before she burst out laughing.  She laughed
even harder when Reuben did a shuffling dance down the aisle to meet her then
scooped her into his arms and whirled her down the aisle before finally
depositing her, flushed, breathless and starry-eyed, at the altar.

Even
as he clapped along with the others, Zeke’s eyebrows rose even higher as he
wondered just what, exactly, he’d missed over the last five days.

~~~~~

Two
hours later, the odd group of people Manny had found were milling noisily
around the high stakes poker room.  They were the only people there and Zeke
wondered how Angeline and Reuben had managed to convince the casino to rent
them this room for the evening especially since very few in the crowd looked
like they could afford to breathe the air in here, let alone lose any money at
the tables.

He
glanced at Alicia, standing in an out-of-the-way corner of the room, waiting
for him to return with their drinks.  She was staring around with the same
expression he knew he wore on his own face, a mixture of confusion, dismay and
amusement.  He shook his head in bemusement.

Manny
stood beside him, watching everyone with a fond smile.

Zeke
leaned closer and murmured, “Why do I have that Dr. Hook song in my head?”

Manny
tsk’d mildly then gave him her most fearsome prudish-maiden-aunt look as she
firmly said, “They’re not freaks.”

Zeke
found that the prudish-maiden-aunt look didn’t have quite the same effect while
she was wearing those sexy high-heeled shoes and her hair wasn’t in its usual
bun.

“Island
of misfit toys, then?” Zeke teased.

She
tsk’d again, more forcefully this time.  “How about just people?”

Zeke
shook his head.  “How the hell did you fall into this group?”

Manny
shrugged.  “We all just...met.”

“Well,
are they friends of Angeline and Reuben?  Did they come to Vegas for the
wedding?”

Manny
shook her head.  “No.  I told you – we all just...sorta...
met
.  Here in
Vegas.”

“Don’t
you listen to her,” Lionel boomed, and Zeke jumped a little before he turned
around.  He hadn’t realized the older man had walked up behind them. 

Lionel
continued, “Although it’s true we met here in Vegas, I think it was her ability
to strike up a conversation with anybody that really drew us all together.”

Zeke
blinked at him in silence for a moment.

“
Manny’s
ability to strike up a conversation?” he asked carefully.

Lionel
slung a friendly arm across Manny’s shoulders.  “And her willingness to get a
conversation started between people, and then step out of the way.”

Zeke
frowned and opened his mouth to ask more questions, but Manny forestalled him.

“Let’s
get our drinks and rejoin Alicia – she’s looking lonely and uncomfortable.  I promise
I’ll tell you all about the last few days once we have drinks in our hands.” 
She glanced with some amusement at Zeke’s befuddled expression.  “I think
you’re going to be grateful for a drink or two by the time I’m done.”

Zeke
was almost bursting with impatience and curiosity by the time they rejoined
Alicia with a small entourage in tow.  They stood in a circle, Zeke standing
between Alicia and Manny, with Lionel and Jack, who’d been the other groomsman;
Simon-Simone, who was the other bridesmaid, and Angeline and Reuben.