in three months. And it had knocked her flat. She could picture the cowboy’s eyes looking back at her, his strong arms wrapping around her waist...
She shook her head slightly, trying to get back under control. She would never see him again, so there was no point fantasizing about him. There was absolutely no way she would be meeting a stranger for dinner, even if he was incredibly handsome and had a voice that sent shivers snaking down her spine.
If her crazy attraction toward this stranger was any indication of how she would be feeling over the weekend, it was going to be worse than she thought. Drooling over strippers and then going back to a lonely hotel room didn’t exactly sound appealing.
She finally managed to make it to the rest of the group. Cindy caught her eye and dropped back until she was walking beside Jessica.
“What happened? I was about to send out search parties. Did you get trapped in a sea of cowboys?” she asked, gesturing toward a nearby bunch of men, all of whom fit the description.
She wasn’t that far off.
Jessica said, “I stepped wrong and twisted my ankle. I’m all right,” she added quickly, seeing that Cindy was about to take on a mother-hen role, “but I did kind of have a little encounter with a hot guy.”
Cindy’s expression turned from worried caregiver to giggly teenager in two seconds flat. “Seriously? That’s awesome! Did he catch you as you fell, and then you shared a kiss before you rushed off into the crowd, leaving him brokenhearted?”
That sounded way better than what had actually happened. “You watch way too many movies. He just asked if I was okay.”
Cindy’s face fell a little. Jessica couldn’t let her friend look so disappointed. “And then he gave me his phone number.”
Cindy stopped dead in her tracks. “Are you kidding? That’s amazing!”
Jessica could hear the emphasis of the last word. Cindy would probably have written it with five exclamation points. And all of the exclamation points would have little hearts instead of dots. Jessica laughed.
Cindy put a hand on her hip. “I’ve been telling you to go out on a date for weeks now. Here’s your chance! And by date, I absolutely mean crazy sex with a random stranger. We’re in Vegas, after all.”
Jessica tugged at her friend’s sleeve, trying to catch up with Cindy’s friends. The other women had just turned a corner, and getting lost in the airport would be a less-than-perfect start to this weekend. “I’m not going to call him, Cindy.”
Cindy started walking but kept her eyes firmly fixed on Jessica. “Why not? You have to follow up on this.”
“With the stranger who I met for two seconds in an airport in Vegas? That doesn’t sound like the start of a lasting relationship.”
Cindy was unperturbed. “Who said anything about a lasting relationship? I just want you to hook up with this guy. You are totally allowed to bail on my bachelorette party if you’re hooking up with a guy.”
Jessica held up a finger. “One—you’re just all excited about this because you’re happy and in love and therefore like to set people up.” She put up a second finger. “And two—this is exactly the kind of situation where the girl ends up going out on a date with a murderer and her friends all say, ‘It was so unlike her to go out with total strangers, but we convinced her it would be a good idea and now she’s dead.’ No, thank you.”
Cindy raised one eyebrow, giving her friend her patented “I’m not convinced” look before rolling her eyes. “Fine, come up with all the excuses you want about why you won’t call him. You liked what you saw and that terrified you. I get it.”
Cindy stopped and crossed her arms, as if waiting for Jessica to take the bait. Jessica knew her friend wanted her to argue with her, but she also had been around Cindy long enough that she didn’t need to rise to the occasion and defend her actions. Especially because what she said was probably true.
Jessica shrugged and kept walking, and Cindy had no choice but to keep up.
Together they found the baggage claim area. Everyone but Jessica had brought giant suitcases that needed to be picked up. As they stepped off the last escalator, Jessica spotted a man in a suit with a driver’s hat holding a sign that read Mrs. Cynthia Frederickson. She elbowed Cindy. “Looks like you have a chauffeur, Mrs. Frederickson.”
Cindy squealed in delight at seeing her future married name. “This is so much fun! I need to have a bachelorette party at least once a year from now on.”
Jessica shook her head as Cindy ran over to the man, bewildering him with her enthusiasm. Cindy was unlike anyone else Jessica had ever met, and she loved her for it.
The group of women followed in Cindy’s wake, and once again Jessica found herself trailing behind. The chauffer gathered their luggage—no easy feat, since all the bags were giant and seemed very heavy—and led the women outside to the largest and most garish limo Jessica had ever seen. It was basically a very long SUV with flashing LED lights all over it.
The women around her laughed and screeched with pleasure. “I love this city!” Cindy cried in delight.
Miss New York started singing “Viva Las Vegas” and a few others joined in as they hauled themselves up the steps into the back of the outrageous vehicle. Jessica had to laugh at how ridiculous it all was. Normally she would roll her eyes if she saw that monstrosity rolling down the street—and probably make some comment about consumerism or the environment—but for this moment, this weekend, she was just going to go with it.
She ducked into the dark, laughter-filled limo. She was in Las Vegas and was getting on board, both literally and metaphorically.
* * *
AARON WEATHERS HEADED toward the private car he’d arranged weeks in advance. Normally it would seem silly to get a private car for a five-minute drive, but he’d learned long ago that the expense was worth it if it meant he didn’t have to wait in the soul-crushing taxi line at the airport.
This time, however, he lingered an extra few seconds before getting in, taking one last look while his friend Jeremiah walked around and got in the other side. Maybe he could get another glimpse of the girl from the terminal before he left.
Unfortunately there was a gargantuan SUV limo in the way of the baggage claim area, so he couldn’t see much. As it took off, he ducked into the backseat of the town car.
It had been quick, a couple of minutes at the most, that they had stood together, and he wanted to see her again, even if just for a second to make sure she was real. It had been the strangest thing. He’d turned his head and there she was, staring at him with deep green eyes that hooked him somehow. He’d been close enough to see the flecks of gold in them. Her long flowing hair, dark red and curling lightly at the edges, made his fingers ache to slide through it.
Aaron had liked everything about her. The eyes, the hair, the small dusting of freckles, her height. She was taller than most of the men around her, even in her low-heeled boots. Which weren’t quite low enough, he thought with a smile.
The moment she had started to fall, he instinctively jumped forward. She had caught herself in time, but if she had actually fallen, he would have been there to save her. In a way, he regretted that it was unnecessary because
