Getting Lucky (A Lucky Novella) (7 page)

“I thought it might be fun to do more than just drive non-stop. This trip should be more, it should be epic!” he said, excitement flashing in his eyes. It was contagious and I could feel the butterflies taking flight in my stomach.

“But don’t you have to get back to work? I mean, at least one of us ought to have a job to go back to.”

“It’s totally fine. I already talked to D,” Noah assured me. He paused. “I guess now is as good a time to tell you this as any.”

I froze. What the hell had he been hiding from me now?

Noah saw the look on my face and laughed. “Would you relax? This is a good thing, I promise.”

I slowly let out the air I’d been holding in. “If you say so.”

He nodded. “I do. I would have told you sooner, but with everything that’s happened, I guess I kinda forgot. While you were gone, I bought into the bar.”

“What do you mean, you bought into the bar?” I had heard the words twice now, once from Noah and once from myself and yet they still weren’t registering.

“I mean, D. sold half of the business to me. Which means I’m part owner…which is important because that means we can turn this road trip into a three month hiatus if we want and I can’t get fired,” Noah grinned.

Meanwhile, I was so beside myself, I nearly fell off the ledge I was sitting on.

“What? How? Where did you get the money to do that?” I had a million more questions just like those.

“Um, okay…so you might get
kinda mad about this part.”

Never the words a girl wants to hear.

“Go on.”

“Remember
waaaayyyyy back in the day when that chick kicked me out and I had to come and live with you?”

I raised my brows and rolled my eyes.

“Obviously.”

“Well, that’s the thing…that
kinda never happened.” Noah squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself just in case I felt the sudden urge to shove him off the balcony.

“What do you mean that never happened?”

“I mean, I was never shacked up with some girl. And even if I had been, she couldn’t have kicked me out because it was my place. See, I bought this townhouse a while before I even met you. I kept it all these years as a rental so the place basically paid for itself. Then, after you moved, I was all messed up and trying to figure my crap out. I knew it was time to make some changes so when D. came to me with the offer is was a no brainer. I sold the townhouse and used the money to buy into the business. Well, some of the money. I have a pretty hefty chunk of it left in my bank account. Hence, the moving budget.”

By the time Noah was done, I didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. On the one hand I was ridiculously excited and proud, hearing about his newest accomplishments and ambitions. On the other, I was pissed that he had tricked me, even if it had been six years ago. The pissed feeling was quickly fading to
flattered though as I began to think about the lengths he had gone to in order to be close to me.

“I’m going to go ahead and let all that settle for a bit. For the moment, I’m just going to say congratulations on becoming a business owner. But I would like to reserve the right to get pissed again at a later date, should I deem it necessary after further examining the situation.”

Noah chuckled. “That’s fine by me.”

“Alright then, let’s have ourselves an adventure! So, what were you thinking?”

Noah reached for the map and opened it up to Idaho, our starting point. With his finger, he began to trace the highlighted route.

“I was thinking we should go south. I want to stop here and see the falls and then move on through Jackpot. Depending on what time it is, we could stay there for the night and do a little gambling if we wanted, or we could just keep going until we reach Vegas, where we could gamble with our lives…it would be the biggest gamble ever. High risk, but with a possibility of even higher rewards…What do you think?” Noah was looking at me hopefully, but I wasn’t any less freaked out this time around than I had been the first time when he sprang the prospect of marriage on me.

“Noah,” I started, but he stopped me before I could say anything else.

“It’s fine if you’re not ready. And I don’t care if you keep saying no, but it’s not going to keep me from asking you.”

Then he lifted the map from his lap again and continued on with his plans for the trip. He had put a great deal of thought into it, taking little detours here and there whenever he knew it would take us to somewhere or something I had mentioned wanting to see at one point or another. I was stunned at how much he remembered, how much he had been listening all these years, especially when I thought he wasn’t. When his finger landed back in our hometown, he smiled and folded the map back up.

“Better get this back inside and into my bag. Wouldn’t want to end up on the road without it.”

He jumped down from where we were sitting and hurried inside. The night air had gotten chilly, something I was now all too aware of since Noah had left and taken the warmth of his body heat along with him. Carefully, I twisted my body back around until my feet were hovering over solid ground again. Then I slid down as well, following Noah inside.

I could see the light on up in the loft and made my way up the stairs. He was just zipping up the side pocket of his bag. When he saw me, he smiled and wandered over toward the outlet in the corner where he had plugged in his phone earlier. I stood there for a moment staring at the nearly empty space. I hadn’t made it upstairs since coming home with the groceries. Aside from our bags, the only other thing left in the room was my bedding, which was neatly folded and stacked up along the back wall. Automatically my eyes traveled to the ledge on which I kept the urn. There was something stuck on the front of it. I was beyond annoyed and ready to lash out as I stormed over to where it stood, prepared to wage war with whoever had defiled my grandmother’s remains. When I finally stood in front of it, I found myself entirely speechless. It was a note reading ‘EXTREMELY FRAGILE - PLEASE DON’T TOUCH – OWNER WILL PACK’. Slowly my hand moved to retrieve the small piece of paper that had been placed there so carefully to shield my grandmother from the dangers that really only lurked within my own mind. Tears shot to my eyes faster than I could force them back and when I finally spoke, my voice was breaking.

“You still want to go gamble with me? Because I think I just went all in.”

Still holding his phone in his hands, Noah stood there starting at me as though I had just spoken in a foreign language he not only didn’t understand but didn’t even seem to recognize as being human. Suddenly terrified that he hadn’t meant for me to take the marriage proposals seriously, I frantically began to search my mind for some funny way to back out of the cheesy acceptance speech I had just made. Before I could come up with anything even remotely believable or redeemable, I heard a thud as Noah’s phone hit the ground where he had dropped it. By the time my eyes traveled back from where they had found the phone to Noah he had already reached me. His whole face was beaming. The only thing more shocking to me than seeing such pure joy on the guy’s face after having just learned that he would only be sleeping with one woman for the rest of his life, was the fact that his eyes while overflowing with excitement were actually glistening. No tears escaped the vortex, but the emotions had definitely stung him in a physical way, one I hadn’t ever seen in him before.

“You’re sure? You want to do this with me?” he asked, and an unwanted quiver of nerves shook his voice. Recognizing the same fear I had felt seconds earlier, I nodded, finally breaking into a smile and throwing my arms around his neck.

“I’m so freaking sure, you don’t even know!” I squealed. Then as he pulled me as tight as he could I whispered, “I’ve never been
more sure of anything.”

Chapter 9

Viva Las Vegas Baby

Both o
f
us had been far too excited to even consider sleeping the night before. We decided there was no time like the present to take the biggest gamble of our lives. So, we packed up the rest of our stuff, along with the two cart loads of groceries I had bought the day before and loaded everything into my car. Well, we did all of this
after
we spent at least half an hour doing the most ridiculous happy dance I’d ever done with another human being around my bedroom. By the time we hit the road is was almost one a.m.. With only the bright rays of my headlights guiding us through the dark of night, we took off on our grandest adventure yet. Given the cramped interior of my SUV, we decided it would be best to let Noah do the driving, since the floor space on the passenger side had already been filled with a cooler and several food bags, completely eliminating any and all leg room in the process. Not much of a problem for me since I liked to sit curled up with my legs up to my chin anyway, but not so great for Noah who had limbs the length of tree trunks.

Depending on how he drove, we expected to reach our destination somewhere within the next nine to twelve hours. It wasn’t my first time riding with him, so I wasn’t surprised when it was closer to nine and we arrived in Las Vegas just after ten in the morning.

Our first mission was to locate a hotel. Eloping or not, we were going to have at least some sort of a honeymoon, even if it was as hasty and unplanned as the wedding itself. After cruising along the strip for a bit, we decided on the MGM Grand, for no other reason than that we both pointed at it at the same time saying ‘ooh’ as we drove by. Seemed as good a sign as any that we were supposed to start there.

After check in, we went straight to our room. We had decided on the drive there that there really was only one way to do this and that was with the people we cared about most.

So, while Noah got on the line with D. I was hitting the speed dial for Tara.

She had barely answered when I blurted, “How quickly can you get to Vegas?”

“Excuse me? Why Vegas? Are you in Vegas?”

“Yes. I’m here with Noah and I desperately need a bridesmaid.”

After I dropped that bombshell, the line went silent for so long, I thought we had been disconnected. That was, until I heard Tara screaming in the background. Apparently, she had abandoned the phone as she went running to Jason. Even so, I could hear everything she was saying without a problem, which made me suddenly grateful that she had put some distance between herself and the receiver.

“I freaking knew it! Who told you Lucky and Noah would end up together? That’s right! I did! And now they’re getting freaking married! Yes, she said married! Hurry up and get on the computer – we need to book some flights ASAP!” There was a brief response from Jason which translated into a deep muffle by the time it reached me. Then, the sound of Tara’s heels came clicking across their tile floors as she ran back to retrieve her phone.

“I’ll call you from the airport. Don’t do anything until we get there!” There was a click and the line was dead. I could picture Tara making a beeline for her closet where she was likely strategically pulling down a suitable Vegas wardrobe and transferring it into her suitcase at that very moment.

Next up was Gabe. Since we had decided to make him best man, Noah did the honors. The call lasted all of three minutes and when it was done Noah simply said, “Think he’ll still want cash after this?”

I slugged him in the shoulder and turned before he could see me grinning. Since we had some time to kill until everyone arrived, we headed back downstairs and wandered around the casino until we found a place to eat. When we were done, we ventured back over to the check in counter in search of the hotel’s concierge. Neither of us ever having been married, we hadn’t the faintest clue how one went about doing it. We figured it couldn’t be too hard considering how many people seemed to do it by accident and while intoxicated. If Noah had ever been to Vegas before, I would have been half worried that he was already married and just didn’t remember it.

The concierge was more than happy to help us, even offering to set up a small ceremony in the hotel’s chapel, but after taking a quick tour of the space, we both declined. Not that it wasn’t beautiful, it was. Too beautiful in fact. Somehow, eloping in Vegas needed to maintain some sort of a trash factor. If it started to appear too pretty or too planned out, it would suddenly go from being spontaneous to half-assed and that wasn’t what we were going for. So, we thanked the lady profusely and then asked her to direct us to the nearest Elvis chapel instead. Strange enough, she seemed to understand completely.

I knew there was no point in dress shopping without Tara, so I put the dress temporarily on hold and we headed straight for the county offices to apply for our marriage license, both of us still wearing the same clothes we had worn the day before and neither of us caring. As surreal as I thought the whole thing would be, it felt natural more than anything as I filled out the forms that would essentially make it legal for me to bind my life to Noah’s for all eternity. I had filled out job applications with more apprehension than I felt as I wrote my information into the blank spaces of the form and I wondered if Noah was having the same experience.

With our marriage license in hand, we hit the road again in search of the most tacky and most memorable chapel we could find. If we were doing this, we were doing it all the way. After passing several suitable places, including a drive in chapel that nearly came in as top choice, we saw a big sign with the words “Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel” written on it in bright pink lettering. It was perfect and delightfully tacky in every way, right down to the Elvis impersonator who would perform our ceremony. We booked our wedding for the following evening and headed back to our hotel and our room. Now that everything had been settled, the adrenaline was starting to wear thin and the lack of sleep was beginning to take its toll on the both of us. So, after a piping hot shower, we slid under our fancy hotel sheets and passed out.

When I finally woke up again, it was to the sound of my phone blasting Tara’s ringtone. I hadn’t ever realized just how annoying of a song it was until that very moment and made a mental note to change it as soon as I got done talking to her.

“Hello,” I mumbled, still half asleep.

“We’re here! What room are you staying in?”

I blinked several times and searched the room for any clues as to what the correct answer might be. Finally I remembered.

“Room 704,” I said.

“Perfect,” Tara replied sounding far too chipper for my liking.

I hung up and slid my phone back onto the nightstand. Noah was still asleep, so I curled up against him and buried my face in the warmth of his chest. We had a few minutes left before Tara would be pounding on our door.

Less than half an hour later, Noah and I were standing in the lobby of the casino with all of our friends while Tara was handing out itineraries. Apparently, she had planned out the next twenty four hours leading up to our wedding in great detail, including everything from dress shopping to bachelor and bachelorette parties. The only thing I noticed was absent from her list was sleep. Oh well, it was Vegas.

First thing on the agenda was the rehearsal dinner. It was being held at Botero, a super fancy steakhouse with an edgy, artsy flair. To make sure we all arrived in style, Tara had also arranged for a limo to chauffeur us around for the night.

“How on earth did you manage to set all of this up so fast?” I gasped as we walked into the restaurant and were led straight to our private table in the back.

“Bridesmaid magic,” Tara said, winking as she rushed ahead to make sure the table was set up just the way she had wanted it.

Jason leaned in and whispered, “We had a three hour layover in Texas.”

“Get out of here! You, too? What, are those mandatory anytime you leave the state of Florida and head out west?”

He laughed. “Must be, ‘
cause there’s no way Tara would have booked it that way if she didn’t have to. She was so anxious to get here, she was even looking at renting a private plane at one point. I had to translate the cost into pairs of new shoes before she was willing to divert from that plan.”

Gabe had just caught the tail end of the conversation when he chimed in, “You had to get new shoes for this shindig too? I got mine at the airport. There wasn’t time to hit the mall and all I had in my closet were sneakers, and that just didn’t seem right.”

Jason and I looked at each other and then at Gabe.

“Totally not what we were talking about, man.”

“No, but I think we ought to now. How do you not own a single pair of loafers? You used to. I remember seeing you wear them.”

Gabe sighed. “I did have a pair. Had three actually. Jeanette tossed them when I agreed to move to New York. Said they looked like old man shoes. Thanks for bringing that up, by the way.”

“Huh…” I was searching for an out just when we arrived at our table. It was gorgeous. There were live flowers and candles running down the whole length of the table. At the very end were two chairs draped in a rich red satin covers and beaded accents along with little ‘bride and groom to be’ name cards on the table. I was so giddy, I could barely stand it as I went to take my seat beside Noah. In an almost eerie way, he seemed to be just as pleased with his groom to be card as I was with my bride one.

Our amazing dinner lasted for over three hours. It involved plenty of eating and drinking – mostly in the name of toasting – and laughing until our sides hurt and our eyes were red from crying. It was the best kind of laughter, the uncontrollable kind that takes over from the inside out until everything else ceases to exist, including sound. Silent laughter…that’s the best.

By the time we were done, the whole restaurant knew we had been there and why. Half of the patron’s had send over a mixture of shots and desserts to congratulate us and we in turn had invited each of them to join us, many of which had. To top things off, Gabe had even scored himself a date for the wedding when he asked out our server; a cute girl named Danica. I had liked her the second she had shown up to take our drink order. She had taken one look at Gabe and said, “What’s with the sneakers? You planning on making a run for it when you’re done eating?”

Everyone at the table had erupted in laughter, but none more than Jason and I.

After dinner, the next things on our list were the bachelor and bachelorette parties. For these, Tara had decided that the boys should head next door to the Resort’s nightclub, XS, while the girls took the limo to go see the Cirque du Soleil show LOVE at the Mirage. I wasn’t going to argue with that. I had seen one Cirque du Soleil show in my life and had been desperate to see more ever since. So, Tara, Lisa and I piled into the car and took off.

Two hours later we were strolling through the
grand canal shoppes of the Venetian. Tara had sent the limo back to the Wynn to pick up the boys while we wandered the stores in search of something fabulous to wear for my big day. We didn’t have much time since the stores would be closing soon, but naturally, Tara had done a little research and made prior arrangements with one of the smaller boutiques. When we walked in, the manager of the store greeted us just as the doors were being locked behind us.

“What’s going on?” I hissed into Tara’s ear.

She just smiled and said, “You’ll see.”

We followed the manager to the dressing rooms where she directed each of us to a cubicle. When I went inside, I found three spectacular dresses waiting for me. The first was a strapless cocktail dress with a sweetheart neckline. It was a beautiful blush color with a corset top and full skirt layered in lace. The second was a one sleeve dress in a sleek champagne color with a fitted bodice and a skirt that flowed gracefully to the floor. The third and final choice was a white feather cocktail dress. The top was a sexy, strapless satin, covered in silver sequins. It was accentuated with a white satin band at the waist and a beautiful broach, matching the sequins, at the center. It was stunning and all I could do was to hope that it looked even half as spectacular on me as it did on the hanger.

“So, what do you think?” I heard Tara’s voice from outside the small room.

“They’re amazing!” I gushed, holding the white dress up in front of the mirror.

“Yeah, I know. I have a fantastic taste,” Tara said in her usual humble way.

“Now get your little butt out here so we can see you in them,” Lisa chimed in from out in the store.

“Okay, okay. Hang on, I still gotta put it on,” I muttered as I began to take off my pants.

“Wait, which dress are you going with first?” Tara asked.

“The white one,” I replied. My voice was completely muffled by my shirt as I pulled it over my head.

Tara didn’t reply, but a minute later she was handing me shoes and accessories over the top of the door. “Here, you’ll need these if we want to get the full effect.”

The platform heels were peep toes in a sparkling white with a shiny metallic heel. Never in a million years would I have dared pull them off the shelf, but there they were on my feet as I looked down.

Slowly, I opened the door and stepped outside. My eyes were immediately drawn to Lisa and Tara who were both wearing beautiful fuchsia colored dresses. Each dress was slightly different from the other, but the deep pink color matched perfectly. Meanwhile, as I was staring at the two of them, they were busy staring back at me.