Just like that, Norah found herself on a plane to Las Vegas, a city she’d never been to, with Reed beside her, studying the floor plans of the Concordia Hotel and the streets of Vegas on his iPad.
As she stared out at the clouds below, she knew the answer she should have given was “No. Of course not. I’m not going.” But what had come out of her mouth, with barely any hesitation was “Yes.” This trip wasn’t a honeymoon. Or a vacation. But it wasn’t strictly business, either. Or Wedlock Creek police business. David Dirk had every right to disappear; once Reed knew for sure that the man had willingly left town, the case had been closed. But Reed wanted to find David and talk to him old friend to old friend. Bring him home. And Norah wanted some time away from real life with her...husband.
Why, she wasn’t quite sure. What would be different in a new environment? They were the same people with the same gulf between them.
Still, the trip was a chance. To experience Reed off duty, away from home, where neither of them had any of their usual responsibilities. To see who they were together in a completely different environment. Maybe there would be nothing between them and Norah could just start to accept that their relationship was exactly what she’d agreed to. A platonic marriage slash business partnership for mutual benefit.
The only problem with that was the fact that just sitting this close to Reed, their sides practically touching, she’d never been so aware of a man and her physical attraction to him in her entire life.
“Of course, I booked us separate rooms,” Reed said, turning to glance at her. “Right across the hall from each other.”
Too bad the Concordia wasn’t completely booked except for one small room with a king-size bed, she thought, mesmerized by the dark hair on his forearms and how the sunlight glinted on his gold wedding band, the one that symbolized their union.
Before she knew it, the plane had landed and they were checking in at the front desk, then being shown to their rooms. Reed had 401. Norah was in 402.
“Meet you in the hallway in twenty minutes?” he asked. “I don’t have much of a plan to find David other than to sit in the lobby for a while to see if he passes through. We might get lucky. I tried calling David’s friend Kyle Kirby, the one who seemed to be withholding, but he didn’t answer his phone or my knock at his door. We’re gonna have to do this the boring way.”
“It’s my chance to see you doing surveillance work,” she said. “Not boring at all. See you in twenty,” she added and hurried inside her room with her weekend bag.
The room was a bit fancier than she’d expected. King-size bed, wall of windows and a fuzzy white robe hanging on the bathroom door. She called her mom to check on the triplets, who were fine and having their snack, then she freshened up and changed into a casual skirt, silky tank top and strappy sandals.
Twenty minutes later, when she went into the hallway, Reed was standing there and she caught his gaze moving up and down the length of her. He liked strappy, clearly. Good.
He was amazingly handsome, as always. He wore dark pants and a dark buttoned shirt, no tie. He looked like a detective.
They sat in the well-appointed lobby for forty minutes, pretending to be poring over maps of the Strip and brochures and dinner menus. No sign of David. Many people came through the lobby, all shapes and sizes and nationalities. Norah noticed a coffee bar across the lobby and had a hankering for an iced mocha. She definitely needed caffeine.
“Want something?” she asked Reed, who was glancing over the lobby, his gaze shooting to the chrome revolving doors every time they spun.
“Iced coffee, cream and sugar. And thanks.”
“Coming right up,” she said and sauntered off, wondering if he took his eyes off his surveillance to watch her walk away. She turned back to actually check and almost gasped. He was watching her. But then he darted his eyes back to the revolving door. Busted!
This meant that no matter what he had to say about ignoring their attraction to each other, he ignored it only when he had to. There was hope to change things between her and the detective. And she was going for it. What happened in Vegas didn’t have to stay in Vegas all the time, right?
Her mood uplifted with her secret plan, Norah stood behind a group of women who had very high-maintenance drink orders—double no whip this and no moo that—and studied the board to see if she wanted to try something besides her usual iced mocha when someone said, “Norah?”
She whirled around.
And almost gasped again.
David Dirk himself was staring at her, his mouth agape. “Holy crap, it is you,” he said, walking over to her. Tall and lanky with light brown hair and round, black glasses, he held an iced coffee in one hand and a small white plate with a crumb cake in the other. “I never took you for a Vegas type.”
What did that mean? That she couldn’t let loose and have fun? Let down the ole hair and have a cocktail or three? Throw away a couple hundred bucks? Okay, maybe fifty at most.
I’m actually here with the detective who’s been searching for you for days, she wanted to say. But who knew what David’s frame of mind was? He might bolt.
“I’m here with my husband,” she said, holding up her left hand and giving it a little wave. She turned and looked toward where Reed was sitting, staring at him hard for a second until she caught his attention. When he looked up and clearly saw David, his eyes practically bugged out of his head.
She turned back to David, who was staring at her ring.
“Oh, wow, congrats!” David said, a genuine smile on his face. “I didn’t know you got married. Good for you. And good for your triplets.” He bit his lip, looked at the ring again and then promptly burst into tears. He put the drink and the crumb cake down on the counter beside them and slashed each hand under his eyes. “I’m supposed to be getting married tomorrow night. At the chapel,” he added, looking stricken.
He sniffled and Norah reached into her bag for her little packet of tissues. He took the whole packet and noisily blew his nose.
“But...?” she prompted, despite knowing exactly what the but was.
Tears slipped down his cheeks. Had he always been such a crier? They’d gone to two movies during the two weeks they’d dated, action flicks with very little pathos, so she hadn’t had a chance to see him show much emotion.
“I...” He dabbed at his eyes with a wadded-up tissue.
“Whoa, David? David Dirk?” Reed asked with great feigned surprise as he walked up to them.
David stared at Reed, clearly trying to place him. His mouth dropped open, then curved into a grin. “No way. No flipping way! Reed Barelli? Who I last saw when I was thirteen?”
“It’s me, man,” Reed said, extending his hand.
Instead of taking his hand, David pulled Reed into a hug and sobbed. “You’re probably wondering how my life is after all these years. I’ll tell you. It sucks. I’ve ruined everything. Destroyed the best thing that ever happened to me.” He pulled a few tissues from the packet and dabbed at his eyes again.
“Why don’t we go get a beer?” Reed said, his arm slung around David’s shoulders. “We’ll catch up.” He turned to Norah. “You’ll be all right on your own for a couple of hours, honey?”
Honey. It was for show, but it warmed her heart nonetheless.
“Sure,” she said. “I’ll hit the shops. Maybe get a massage.”
“Wait,” David said. “You two are married? How’d you even meet?” he asked, looking from Reed to Norah.
“Long story,” Reed said. “I’ll tell you all about it over a cold one. And you can fill me in on what’s going on with you.”
David nodded, his shoulders slumped. “I let the best thing that ever happened to me get away.”
“There’s always a second chance if you don’t screw it up,” Reed said as they headed toward the bar.
Here’s hoping so, Norah thought. For everyone.
The waiter placed two craft beers and a plate of nachos with the works on the square table in front of Reed and David. David took a chug of his beer, then said, “Okay, you first. How’d you meet Norah?”
He told David the entire story. The truth and nothing but the truth. He and Norah had talked about being generally tight-lipped about their story of origin, but he had a feeling David could use the information and apply it to himself.
Now it was David’s eyes that were bugging out of his head.
“Oh man,” David said, chugging more beer. “So you’ll get it. You got married at the chapel. And now you’re the father of triplets.”
There was that word again. Father.
“What I can’t believe is that you actually proposed staying married,” David said. “The woman handed you annulment papers, man! You were home free.”
“I couldn’t just walk away from Norah and the babies. How could I?” He knew he didn’t need to add, “You of all people should know that.” He was sure David had heard it loud and clear. And from his old friend’s expression, Reed was certain.
“I don’t want to walk away from Eden,” David said. “I love her. I know I screwed up by running away. But I had to think. I had to get my head on straight. Spending time with my cousin and those screaming colicky twins of his made me realize I’m not ready for that. I don’t want that.”
“You don’t want what, exactly?” Reed asked. “A colicky baby? Twins? Or kids at all?”
David pulled a nacho onto his plate but just stared at it. “I don’t know.”
How could such a smart guy know so little? “Why not just tell Eden the truth?”
David frowned. “I did when I called her yesterday. She was so angry at me she hung up.” Tears glistened in the guy’s eyes and he ate the loaded nacho chip in one gulp.
“I think you should call Eden. FaceTime her, actually. And tell her exactly how you feel. Which sounds to me like you love her very much and want to marry her, but you’re not ready for children and certainly not ready for multiples.”
“That’s it, exactly. I want kids someday. Just not now. And not all at once.”
“Tell her. You need to have faith in your relationship with her, David. And remember, that showing her you didn’t have faith in her, in your relationship, by running, is probably what is stinging her the most.”
David seemed to think about that. He nodded, then took a sip of his beer. “So is it as awful as I think?”
Reed took a swig of his beer. “Is what?”
“Living with three screaming babies.”
“Actually, I love those little buggers.” The minute he said it, he felt his smile fade. He’d do anything for them. Of course he loved them. He had since the day he’d first upsie-downsied Bea on the rickety porch of Norah’s old rental house.
“Really?” David asked, eyes wide behind the black-framed glasses.
“Yeah. Huh. I guess being a father can be more instinctive than I thought. There’s really nothing to it other than caring and showing up and doing what needs to be done.”
David nodded. “Right. I guess I don’t want to do any of that—yet.”
Reed laughed. “Then you shouldn’t. And don’t have to. Not everyone is ready for parenthood at the same time.” He thought about Norah, who’d had to be ready. And him, too, in a way. But something told Reed he’d been ready for a long time. Waiting to give his heart to little humans in the way his own father hadn’t been willing.
So. He was their father. Father. Daddy. He laughed, which made David look at him funny.
“Just thinking about something,” Reed said.
David got up and polished off his beer, putting a twenty on the table. “I’m gonna go FaceTime Eden. Wish me luck. I’m gonna need it.”
“Go get her,” Reed said.
But as he sat there, finishing his beer and helping himself to the pretty good nachos, he realized something that twisted his gut.
Maybe he’d been focusing on the father thing as an excuse not to focus on the marriage thing. Maybe it was only husband he had the issue with. Husband that he didn’t want to be.
Deep down he knew it was true. Of course it was true; it was the whole reason he’d proposed what he’d proposed. A sham of a marriage. So he’d get what he really wanted. His ranch. And a chance to still be the father he’d never had. A chance to do right.
But he also knew deep down that it wasn’t what Norah wanted. At all. And she was so independent-minded and used to being on her own that he was pretty sure she wouldn’t give up her dreams so soon. She’d tell him the plan wasn’t working, that she needed more and she’d hold out for a man who could be a father and a husband.
She deserved that.
Reed sat there long after his beer was gone, his appetite for the nachos ruined. What the hell was going to happen to him and Norah?
If Norah wasn’t mistaken, Reed was being...distant.
While Reed had been with David at the bar, she’d gone into the hotel’s clothing boutique and bought herself a little black dress she’d have no use for at home. It wasn’t cheap and she’d likely wear it every few years, since it was kind of a classic Audrey Hepburn sleeveless with just the right amount of low neckline to make Norah feel a bit more daring than her usual mom-of-three self.
She and Reed had agreed to meet at six thirty for dinner at an Italian restaurant in their hotel that was supposed to have incredible food. But when she came out of her room at six thirty on the nose, all dolled up, including a light dab of perfume in the cleavage, Reed seemed surprised. And kept his eyes on her face. Not even a peek at her in the hotsy-totsy dress.
Instead, he filled her in on what had happened with David, how he’d texted his old buddy an hour ago to ask if he’d spoken to Eden and how things had gone. David hadn’t gotten back to him.
Love, marriage, parenthood, life. Why was it so complicated? Why did wanting one thing mean you had to give up another thing? Compromise was everything in life and relationships.
Can I give up wanting what I used to dream about? she asked herself as they walked into Marcello’s, so romantic and dimly lit and full of candles and oil paintings of nudes and lovers that Norah figured Reed hadn’t known what they were in for. Can I stay married to a man I’m falling in love with when it’s platonic and he wants to keep it that way forever?
Maybe not forever. Maybe just till the triplets were grown and off starting their lives and he could finally take a breath from the sense of responsibility he felt. Oh, only eighteen years. No biggie.
Face-palm. Could she live this way for eighteen years?
Norah had just noticed a sign on an easel by the long zinc bar that said Closed For Private Event when a woman rushed up to them. The restaurant was closed? Or the bar?
“Oooh,” the woman said, ushering them inside the restaurant “You two had better hurry. There’s only one table left. Otherwise you’ll have to eat standing at the counter along the back.”
Huh? She glanced at Reed, who shrugged, and they followed the hostess to a small round table for two. A man and a woman sat a table on a platform in the center of the dining room, a candle between them, wineglasses and a plate of bruschetta.
Hmm, bruschetta, Norah thought. She definitely wanted some of that. “Maybe it’s their anniversary,” she told Reed. “And they’re high rollers or something, so they get a platform.”
“You never know in Vegas,” he said, his dark eyes flashing in the dimly lit room. He looked so damned hot, this time all in black, again tieless but wearing a jacket and black shoes.
They were seated and Norah couldn’t help but notice the fortyish couple at the table beside theirs. The woman sat with her arms crossed over her chest, looking spitting mad. The man was gobbling up Italian bread and slathering it with butter.
“How can you even eat when I’m this upset!” the woman hiss-whispered.
The man didn’t quite roll his eyes, but he didn’t stop buttering the bread or popping it in his mouth.
“Welcome!” said the woman at the platform table.
Norah turned her attention to her. She and the man beside her stood. They had microphones. Gulp. This was clearly the “special event.” Had she and Reed crashed a wedding or something?
Should they get up now and slink out? While all eyes were focused on the couple and it was dead quiet otherwise?
“We’ll slip out when she stops talking, when it’s less noticeable,” Reed whispered.
Norah nodded. Awkward.
“I know it’s not easy for you to be here,” the woman continued, turning slowly around the room to speak to all tables. “And because you are here, you’ve taken the first step in your relationship recovery.”
Okay, what? Relationship recovery?
Reed raised an eyebrow and looked at Norah; now it was her turn to shrug.
“My name is Allison Lerner,” the woman on the platform said. “My husband, Bill, here, and I have been married for thirty-six years. Yes, we got married at eighteen—badump! No, seriously, ladies and gents, we have been married for thirty-six years. Some of those years were so bumpy we threatened each other with divorce every other day. Some months were good. Some days were amazing. Do you want to know why we didn’t divorce despite the arguments, problems, issues, this, that and the other?”
“Yes!” a woman called out.
Allison smiled. “We didn’t divorce because—and this is the big secret—we didn’t want to. Not really. Even when we hated each other. We didn’t want to not be married to each other. Not really.”
“What the hell kind of special event is this?” Reed whispered. “They’re the entertainment?”
“God, I hope not,” Norah whispered back.
“All of you taking tonight’s Relationship Recovery seminar are here because you don’t want to divorce or separate or go your separate ways, either. So enjoy a glass of wine, folks, order your appetizers and entrées, and once the waiters are off in the kitchen, we’ll start the hard work of saving our relationships. Because we want to!”
Norah glanced around. The woman with the arms crossed over her chest had tears in her eyes. Her husband was rubbing her arm—half-heartedly, but hey, at least he was doing something. The entire restaurant must be booked for the seminar.
“I sure got this one restaurant choice wrong,” Reed said. “Shall we?” he asked, throwing down his napkin.
“Sir, you can do this,” Allison Lerner said from behind them as she put a hand on Reed’s arm. She and her husband must have been on the lookout for runners. “You deserve this. You both do. Give yourselves—and your marriage,” she added, glancing at their wedding rings, “a chance.”
“No, I—” Reed started to say.
“Allison is right,” Norah said to Reed. “We need to learn how to fight for our marriage instead of against it.”
As Reed gaped at her, she realized how true that was. Reed was fighting against it without even knowing it because he didn’t want a real marriage. Norah was fighting against it because she wanted more when she’d agreed to less. Did that even make sense? No wonder she was so confused about her feelings.
“We need to figure out how to make this work, right?” Norah said. “Let’s stay.”
Reed stared at her, then glanced at Allison’s patiently kind face. He sat back down.
“I’m thinking of pasta,” Norah said, opening her menu.
He raised his eyebrow at her. Scowled a bit. Then she saw the acquiescence in his eyes and the set of his shoulders. “Okay, okay. I’m in.” He opened his menu.
They ordered a delicious-sounding seafood risotto as an appetizer. Norah chose the four-cheese-and-mushroom ravioli for an entrée; Reed went with the stuffed filetto mignon. Norah sure hoped he’d offer her a bite.
“Everyone, take a sip of your beverage—wine, soda, water, what have you,” Bill Lerner said from the platform.
Norah and Reed picked up their glasses, clinked and took a sip. The woman next to them frowned. There was no clinking at their table.
“Okay, now put down your drinks,” Bill said. “Turn to your partner. Look at your partner and say the first nice thing that comes to you in reference to your partner. Ladies, you begin.”
Norah turned to Reed. This was an easy one. “I love how you are with the triplets. I love how you read to them and blow raspberries on Brody’s and Bea’s arms but not Bella’s because you know she doesn’t like it. I love that you know which of them likes sweet potatoes and which hates carrots. I feel like I can relax as a parent in my own home...well, your home, for the first time since they were born because you’re there. Really, really there. It’s a good feeling. Better than I even hoped it would be.”
Norah felt tears spring to her eyes. She hadn’t meant to say all that. But every word was true. Oh hell. That was the entire reason she’d agreed not to rip up the annulment papers—so that exactly what had happened would happen. And she wanted things to change? She wanted more? She was being selfish. Demanding more of Reed than he wanted to give. Putting the triplets’ good new fortune in jeopardy. Mommy’s love life had to come second. Period.
Reed took her hand and held it. “Thank you. That means a lot to me. Those babies mean a lot to me.”
She almost burst into tears but held back the swell of emotion by taking a sip of wine.
“Okay, gentlemen,” Allison said from the platform. “Your turn. Say the first true and nice thing you feel about your partner.”
Reed took a sip of his wine and then looked at Norah. “I admire you. You’ve got your act together. You’re lovely. You’re kind. You’re funny. I like seeing you around the house.”
Norah laughed. She liked what he’d said. Maybe it wasn’t quite as personal as what she’d said, but it came down to him liking her, really liking her, as a person. And liking having her around.
“Okay, gentlemen,” Bill said into the mic. “Now look at your partner and tell her how you felt about what she said.”
Reed put down his glass of wine, which from his expression, he clearly wanted to gulp. “Maybe I am the triplets’ father, after all.”
Norah did feel tears sting her eyes this time and she didn’t wipe them away. She was also speechless.
“I realized it before you said what you said. I realized it from talking to David Dirk. I love those babies, Norah. They have my heart. I am their father. If they’ll have me.”
Norah bit her lip. “They’ll have you.” I’ll have you.
“Okay, ladies, now tell your partner how the nice thing he said about you made you feel.”
Norah took Reed’s hand and squeezed it. “You’ll never say anything that I’ll treasure more than what you just did. The triplets come first. That’s just how it is with me.”
He tilted his head as if considering something. But he didn’t say anything. He just nodded.
“Whew!” Allison said from the platform. “That is quite a bit of work we did all before the entrées were served! Feel free to talk about what we just did or change the subject and enjoy dinner. Once you’ve had a chance to eat, we’ll resume with the next exercise. Of course, after dinner, we’ll get into the heavy lifting.”
“Luckily we’ve got plans,” Reed whispered. “So we’ll have to skip the heavy lifting.”
Norah smiled. “Oh?”
“There’s something I want to show you. Something more fun than heavy lifting.”
“I feel like my head was put back on straight,” she said. “So I’d say this Relationship Recovery seminar was a huge success. In just one exercise.”
He squeezed her hand but again didn’t say anything and cut into his delicious-looking filetto mignon. He cut a bite and instead of lifting the fork to his mouth, reached it out to hers. “Ladies first.”
She smiled, feeling her moment-ago resolve to focus on the partnership and not her heart start to waver. How was she supposed to avoid her feelings for Reed Barelli when he was so wonderful?
She took the bite and closed her eyes at how tender and delicious the steak was. “Amazing,” she said. “Thank you.”
She scooped a ravioli onto his plate. “For you.”
And then they ate, drank and didn’t talk more about the exercise, which the poor woman at the next table was trying to get her husband to do.
“So you really like my hair this way?” she’d said three times.
The husband shoveled his pasta into his mouth and barely looked up. “Honestly, Kayla, with your hair blonder like that, you look just like you did the day I got the nerve to talk to you after earth science class junior year of high school. Took me a month to get the courage.”
The woman gasped and looked like she might faint. Pure joy crossed her face and she reached out her hand and squeezed her husband’s. “Oh, Skip.”
Sometimes people knew how to say the right things at the right time.
Reed glanced over at the Lerners on the platform. They had their arms linked and were feeding each other fettuccine. Norah’s and Reed’s plates were practically empty, both of them having just declared they couldn’t eat another bite. “I say we slip out now.”
Norah smiled. “Let’s go.”
Reed put a hundred-dollar bill and a fifty on the table, then took her hand and made a point of asking a waiter where the restrooms were, pointing and gesturing for show. They dashed over to the entrance and then quickly ran up the hall. They were free.
“That was unexpected,” Norah said on a giggle as they stopped around the corner of the lobby. Her first giggle since her wedding night.
“But worthy,” Reed said. “Our marriage feels stronger. We actually did some good work in there.”
Norah smiled. “We did. So what did you want to show me?”
“Follow me.” He pressed the elevator button. Once they were inside, he pressed the button marked Roof. They rode up forty-two floors and exited into a hallway without any doors except one with a sign that said Roof. Reed pushed open the door and she followed.
It was a roof deck, with couches and chairs and flowers and a bar staffed with a waiter in a tuxedo. Reed took her hand and led her over to the other side of the deck, away from the small groups gathered. She gasped at the view of the Strip, sparkling lights everywhere, all underneath a canopy of stars.
“Something else, huh?” he asked, looking up and then around at the lights.
“Yeah,” she said. “Something else. You sure don’t see a view like this in Wedlock Creek.”
Would she appreciate it even more if Reed were standing a drop closer? With his arm around her? Or behind her, pressed against her, both of his strong arms wrapped around her? Yes, she would. But hadn’t she said she wasn’t going to be greedy and selfish? She knew what was important. She had to remember that and not want more.
Reed’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the screen. “It’s David Dirk,” he whispered. He turned toward the view. “Hey, David.” He listened, then smiled. “Great news. And yes, we’d love to. See you in two hours.”
Norah’s eyebrows shot up. “We’d love to what?”
“Seems we’re invited to be David and Eden’s witnesses at their wedding at the Luv U Wedding Chapel.”
Norah was surprised. “Wait. Eden flew here? She’s giving up the Wedlock Creek chapel and her dream of triplets?”
“I guess she did some soul-searching and decided what she wanted most.”
Norah nodded. “That’s the key. What you want most. You have to follow that even if it involves some compromise.”
And what she wanted most was a good life for her children, the security and safety Reed would provide, the love and kindness, the role model he’d be. She wanted that for her triplets more than she wanted anything. Even if her own heart had to break to get it.
He’d be there, right? Even if he was a million miles away at the same time.
“Wow,” Norah said. “She must really love him.”
“Well, she’s still getting some assurance. Turns out there’s a legend associated with the Luv U Wedding Chapel.”
“And what would that be?”
“Eden’s parents eloped there the summer after high school, scandalizing both sets of parents. Twenty-five years later the Pearlmans are happy as can be. According to Pearlman family legend, if you marry at the Luv U Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, you’re pretty much guaranteed happily-ever-after.”
Norah laughed. “That’s a really good legend.”
Reed nodded. “This has turned out to be a pretty busy day for us. First a marriage counseling seminar over dinner and now we’re witnesses at a legend-inspired wedding that almost didn’t happen.”
“Like ours,” she said. “It’s pretty crazy that it happened at all.”
He looked into her eyes and squeezed her hand. “I’m glad it did happen, Norah. Our insane wedding changed my life. For the much, much better.”
She squeezed his hand back. “Mine, too.”
Because I’m in love with my husband. A good thing and exactly what wasn’t supposed to happen.
I love you, Reed Barelli, she shouted in her head. I love you!
She wondered what he was shouting in his head.