Nothing Stays In Vegas (7 page)

"With a drive-thru window."

"And don't forget, the slushy drink bar," I said pointing to the tall cups the couple held. "They're going to have the first chapel with free slushy drinks when you say 'I do'."

Leo burst into laughter and I joined him. When the couple glanced in our direction, I did my best to stop, but I couldn't contain myself. Leo wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back against his chest in an effort to still me. 

It worked.

The heat from his arms penetrated me and I melted into his embrace. 

When the couple moved on, Leo whispered in my ear, "Can I ask you another question, Lexi?"

I nodded.

He released me just enough to free one hand and lift a strand of my hair letting it slide through his fingers. "How could your husband give you up? I mean, you're beautiful, smart, and the more I find out about you, the more I think you're fantastic."

I liked his flattery, but I couldn't seem to get used to it and the easy way he had of flirting with me. 

"Was it an unhappy marriage?" he asked. I thought I detected a hint of hopefulness in his voice. 

"No," I said. "It wasn't unhappy at all. Andrew is a great guy, he treated me like a queen. He was a good husband."

"Then-"

"It was me," I said. "I ended it."

"You didn't love him?"

"I did. I do. It's complicated," I sighed and looked down at my feet. 

"Lexi, you can tell me," he said. "I want you to."

 And I wanted to tell him. 

For whatever reason, I felt he needed to know. I shifted around so I could look at his face. "The whole thing was my fault. When I met Andrew, all I wanted was a career. Which was perfect, because that's all he wanted too."

"And then?" Leo prodded when I didn't continue. 

"And then I changed my mind."

"About him?"

"No, about what I wanted," I said. "I'm a school teacher. Second grade."

Leo smiled like he was picturing it. "That makes sense," he said. "So, you didn't want to be a teacher anymore?"

"No. Before we got married, we decided we didn't want children. I think it was one of the things that attracted Andrew to me."

"I doubt that was it," Leo said and let my hair slide through his fingers again giving me chills down my neck.

"Regardless, he made it clear he didn't want children. And when that changed for me, I hoped it had changed for him too."

"It didn't."

"No, and I'm not willing to give that up," I added. 

There was a moment of silence.

"And you're okay?" he asked after a minute.

I nodded. "I am. It's not always easy, but I'll be fine."

Putting two fingers under my chin, Leo tilted my face so that our eyes locked. "I believe you will be," he whispered. 

When he leaned forward all the words I'd been about to say vanished. I'd been waiting all night for this. The warm breath on my cheek, the musky scent of him. I could feel my own breathing become shallow. I closed my eyes, afraid that if I looked at him I would say something to ruin the moment. I tipped my chin; his lips brushed mine.

My cell phone rang.

I ignored it. 

It rang again. When I opened my eyes, he was so close that with a fraction of a movement I would be kissing him. I could ignore the phone. With only a- 

It rang again. 

I swallowed my disappointment and reached for my cell phone in the depths of my purse.

I didn't bother to look at the call display. "Hi, Nicole." 

"Lex? Where are you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said and looked at Leo who had sat back and was watching me with a small smile on his face. "We went out for a burger."

"We? Who are you...are you with... no way."

I turned so Leo wouldn't see me trying not to laugh. "Yup, and I'm fine. Honestly, I'm surprised you went back to the room so early. Are you done celebrating already?" I knew if I shifted the focus of this conversation, she would follow, at least for awhile. 

"Are you kidding? I came back to the room to check on you and tell you not to wait up. Josh and I are going to, well..." 

He must be standing right there.

I laughed. "Go, Nic. Have fun but be safe."

"I could say the same for you," she said. "And Lex?"

"Yes."

"Go for it. You need this. I won't be coming back to the room so-"

"Thanks, Nicole." I was glad I wasn't looking at Leo because I'm pretty sure my face had turned an unattractive shade of tomato red and I did not need him to see that. "I'll see you in the morning."

After I hung up I took my time putting the phone back in my purse and fiddled with some papers. I fished a lip gloss out of a side pocket and after I applied a thin layer,  I couldn't procrastinate any longer. I put it away and turned back to Leo who wore an amused expression on his face. 

"I'm assuming she gave you her blessing," he said with a grin.

"I don't need her blessing."

"But she did give it?"

How could I be sitting in the centre of the Las Vegas strip with a complete stranger in the middle of the night contemplating, well, whatever I was contemplating. I didn't do this type of thing.

Maybe that was the point. 

"Leo," I said facing him again. "What's your last name?"

"Mendez."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. 

"My mother's Spanish and my father's Italian I believe."

That would explain his dark features and exotic olive skin. "You're not sure?"

His face took on an unreadable expression. "I never knew my father and my mother took off when I was very young. My grandmother raised me."

"Leo, I'm so sorry." I reached for his arm and there were the sparks again. I didn't pull away, but stroked the smooth fabric of his shirt. "I didn't mean to bring up bad feelings." And I didn't. I was enjoying our evening together; I didn't want to give him an excuse to leave.

"No," he said and his hand covered mine, stilling it. "You didn't know." He looked at me as if we were long time lovers instead of two people who had just met. "Besides, I had a great childhood. My grandmother was an amazing lady."

"Was?"

"She died about two years ago.It was a heart attack, she was seventy-six. After her funeral, I moved here."

"To Vegas?" I couldn't imagine anyone moving here, to this glitz, and over the top glamour. "From where?"

"I grew up in a small town in Arizona, about two hours from Phoenix. I wanted to go someplace where no one knew me, where there were no preconceived ideas about who my parents were. I wanted to go somewhere I could get ahead."

"And there's  a lot of opportunities here?"

Leo took his hand away from mine and started tracing pictures on my back. I had to fight from releasing a sigh of pleasure. His touch felt good, natural. 

"There are always opportunities for people who want to work hard. And I've always been interested in the hospitality industry, so Vegas seemed like the natural choice."

I couldn't disagree with that. I'd never seen so many hotels or tourism operations in such a compressed area. I relaxed into his touch and soon his finger tracing turned into light rubs, as he worked some of the tension out of my shoulders. We could have been the only two people in the world; I was so lost in what he was doing. I let my thoughts drift until they touched on something he'd said a moment ago. "What do you mean, you wanted to go where no one knew you?" I asked.

He stopped moving his hands and for a moment and I regretted asking the question. I held my breath and soon his hands began their slow progression again, his fingers probing into the muscles. 

It felt good. Everything about Leo felt good. 

I didn't think he was going to answer me, but after a few moments he said, "My whole life I was known as 'little Leo'." 

I couldn't imagine anyone thinking of this tall, dark man as 'little' but I let him continue.

 "People treated me like trash because of my parents. I never knew my father, I doubt my mother even knew him. She's a drug addict. Always was. Grandma tried everything to get her clean, but she just didn't want to be helped. She spent her days turning tricks in alleys and occasionally showed up to steal money from my grandma. She was a good woman, my grandmother. She didn't deserve the way people talked about her. It wasn't her fault that my mother turned out the way she did. 

"Up until the day she died, she had two jobs. During the day she worked at a restaurant. When I was little she was a waitress and that's where I'd spend my evenings. But when she got older, the arthritis in her elbows got to be too much. She stayed in the back, doing dishes mostly. Her boss, he was a good guy. He could've fired her, but he didn't."

"What was her other job?"

Leo smiled a little. "The second job she took when I was a teenager. She wanted me to go to the good high school, the one where kids actually graduated. But we didn't live in the right district so Grandma made a deal with the principal. If she cleaned the school at night, he'd let me attend classes there. I'd help her sometimes, but she wouldn't let me lift a finger until all my homework was done. And then when I graduated, she stayed on because the principal started paying her and she wanted me to go to college. The kids at school made fun of me, and her, but I'd never met anyone who worked as hard as she did and as soon as I was old enough, I got a job and tried to help out. She saved for years, putting everything she could spare into a jam jar because she didn't trust banks. So I went to school, and got a degree in management hospitality."

I thought I should congratulate him, but somehow it didn't seem right, so I kept quiet and let him continue.  

"I thought it would change, the way people looked at me in the streets, the way people treated my grandma, like we weren't any good. But it didn't. I couldn't get a job in my town so I moved to Phoenix, and worked night shifts at hotels, learning everything I could. I sent every spare penny I could home to her, but she kept working. She never spent a cent of it. After she died, I found it. It was folded up with the notes I'd sent her, in the jam jar." 

His hands stilled again. This time, I reached back, putting my hand over his on my shoulder and turned so we were facing each other. Around us, tourists were snapping pictures of the statues and the magnificent hotel in the background. "Leo," I said, "that's so sad."

He shrugged and leaned back against the marble statue."It is what it is. You can't change people. After the funeral, I packed up the few things of hers I wanted to keep and never looked back. I guess my mother's still there somewhere. But I doubt she even remembers that she has a son." 

He looked over my head at something I don't think was there. After a second his eyes cleared and he said, "So that's how I ended up here. That's my story." He looked down at me, the smile had returned to his face and his eyes glittered with the lights off the strip.  

"That's quite the story."

"It's true," he said. "I can't believe I told you all that." 

"I'm glad you did."

"It's easy to talk to you," he said and sat up so we were once again facing each other. "Now that you know my history. Tell me yours."

"It's boring. Trust me."

"I can't imagine that anything about you is boring." He laced his fingers into mine. "I know you're a teacher. Your parents must be very proud of you."

I winced. Even after such a long time, it still stung.

"What did I say?" Leo grabbed my hand and squeezed. "Don't you have a good relationship with your parents?"

"My parents are dead." Once the words were out, I felt like I could breathe again. It was always like that when I told someone. The pain didn't seem to lessen. "They died in a car accident when I was twelve."

"Lexi, I'm so sorry." 

"It's okay," I said and I meant it. "My Uncle Ray, he's my dad's younger brother, he raised me and he was great. I couldn't have asked for better. I guess we have that in common, don't we? We're both sort of orphans."

"Sadly, I guess we are," he said. He released my hand and his fingers started stroking my arm. The action was so gentle that I had to glance down just to be sure he was touching me and it wasn't a breeze. "Tell me about your Uncle Ray. Do you have cousins?"

"No." I shook my head. "It was just the two of us. Uncle Ray's a bit of a mountain man. Big, burly and, well, he's definitely more comfortable outdoors than inside. But when my parents died, he dropped everything, left the mountains and moved into the city to raise me. I always wanted him to date, but he said nobody would have him. When I got older I realized he just wasn't looking. He took his role as my guardian very seriously. I don't think he knew how to date and be a dad."

"Well, he did a great job."

I smiled, more to myself than to Leo. "He did. He's great."

"So, now that you're all grown up, did Uncle Ray go back to the mountains?"

"Sort of," I said. "He kept his place, and he spends a lot of time at the lake fishing, but he still likes the city."

"Because you're there?"

I laughed. "Actually, her name is Sara Beth. He's been seeing her for a few years. It turns out someone will have him." I looked down at Leo's hand that was still moving and took it in mine. "And, that's my story."

"There's still so much I want to know. Like what's your-"

I reached for him, pulled him close and before I could stop to tell myself that I never did things like that, I kissed him. 

His lips were firm, yet they yielded to mine. It took him a moment to react, but after a few seconds his arms wrapped around me and pulled me even closer so I could feel his heart beating in his chest. The kiss deepened, and I couldn't help but let out a small groan of pleasure as his tongue worked its way inside my mouth. 

One of his hands released its grip on my back and moved down to my thigh. I jumped a little at the feel of his hot hand on my bare skin. I forgot I was still wearing such a short dress. As we kissed, the hand on my leg crept higher while the other one worked its way up my back until it was at the base of my neck. Leo's fingers twined through my hair and pulled my head away, breaking our kiss.