‘Our parents are going to kill us,’ Paige said as she and Sol stood in the entrance hall of a chapel waiting their turn to go inside. She was wearing her mother’s dress and Solomon looked sexy as all hell in a dashing charcoal suit, which they’d hired earlier that day. Vegas wasn’t called The Wedding Capital of the World for nothing. Not only had they been able to get their wedding licence from the Clark County Marriage License Bureau in a matter of minutes at eight o’clock the day they arrived but they’d easily hired a suit and had fallen in love with this cute little chapel a few hours later. Luckily, they’d had a vacancy that very afternoon.
‘They’ll get over it eventually.’ Sol didn’t sound the least bit remorseful as he grinned down at her and the truth was, neither was she. The last forty-eight hours since they’d decided to do this had been the most exciting of her life.
She’d gone home Thursday night, told Sol that he was right—she had overreacted, it wasn’t her place to make decisions regarding his kidney—and begged his forgiveness.
He’d pulled her into his arms, kissed her senseless, told her that the twenty-four hours in which she hadn’t been talking to him was the worst day of his life. It had given him time to think and he’d come to two conclusions.
One, he couldn’t live without her and two, if his mum had sprung something like this on him he’d probably have been furious as well. It was easy to be pious when you weren’t actually the one in a situation and he’d apologised for not being as supportive as he should have been. He’d agreed that he didn’t want any secrets between himself and Paige and they’d had the best make-up sex in the history of make-up sex.
But afterwards when she’d told him that she’d asked Josie to be her chief bridesmaid, Sol had hit her with a curly question. ‘I thought you’d already asked Karis? How’s she going to feel about being demoted?’
And before Paige could consider this question, he’d thrown her with another. And another. ‘And what about your grandparents? Are they still invited to the wedding? And if they are, how will Josie feel about that? Does she want to meet them? Is your dad okay with Josie being in the wedding party? Is Rebecca? She and Josie haven’t even met properly yet, have they?’
‘Stop!’ She’d held up a hand and placed the other against her forehead to try and dull the roar his questions ignited. Why hadn’t she thought any of this through? Even without the kind of revelations that had occurred in her family the last couple of days, weddings were fraught with drama and there was nothing Paige hated more than drama. Right now the thought of her grandparents, her mum, her dad and Josie in the same room … Way too much drama.
‘Sorry,’ Sol had said sheepishly.
‘What do you think I should do then? I can’t un-ask Josie but I don’t want to hurt Karis either. And I know Jeanie and Grandad did a terrible thing but they’ve always been so supportive to me. It’ll break their hearts if we don’t invite them to the wedding.’
She could tell from the expression on his face that he thought that’s exactly what they deserved, but it didn’t feel that straightforward.
‘Do you think we should postpone the wedding until after all this has blown over?’
‘No way. Absolutely not.’ He’d paused a moment as if deep in thought, then, ‘I think we should elope!’
‘What?’
He’d grinned that beautiful smile that turned her knees weak and her head to mush every single time. ‘The actual wedding was never what mattered to me—it was marrying you and I don’t want all this Josie-stuff to overshadow that but I still want to marry you. Let’s go to Vegas.’
‘What? When?’ She’d laughed, unsure if he was joking but the idea was growing on her by the second.
‘Tomorrow,’ he said. ‘If we can get plane tickets and time off work at such short notice.’
‘Are you serious?’
He’d nodded. ‘I’ve never been more serious in my life. What do you say, Paige MacRitchie, will you come to Vegas with me and get hitched?’
Thank goodness for the head on Sol’s shoulders—at that question Paige had been ready to grab their passports and jump on the next plane, but he did a little online research while she packed their bags. By the time their plane was taxi-ing out of Sydney airport the next morning, he’d booked a hotel, found out where to go to get their marriage licence, what documentation they required to do so and provided her with a shortlist of possible wedding venues. All she’d had to do was sneak into her parents’ house and steal the wedding dress. Thankfully her mother had gone to bed early and her father was so happy that she was going back to Sol that he hadn’t noticed her leaving with extra baggage.
The plan was to be Mr and Mrs before anyone in Australia even noticed they were missing.
So far, everything was going according to plan.
A round of applause sounded from inside the actual chapel. Moments later the doors flew open and another bride and groom emerged, their faces jubilant.
‘Congratulations,’ Paige and Sol said in unison as the bride flashed her ring at them and the groom held up their wedding certificate proudly.
‘Best thing I’ve done in my life,’ he said, before pulling his new wife into a kiss.
Paige and Solomon stepped aside to let the newlyweds and their entourage exit the chapel. When the small crowd had spilled out onto the streets, an employee held up his hand to them. ‘Five minutes and we’ll be ready for you guys.’
‘Okay, thanks,’ Sol said, before turning back to Paige. ‘Last chance to back out. Are you sure you want to do this?’
‘What kind of stupid question is that? I love you and I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.’
He grinned proudly. ‘That goes without saying. But what I meant was, are you sure you want to go ahead doing this here without our family and friends to celebrate?’
‘Yes. A hundred and ten per cent. I didn’t drag this big stupid meringue dress halfway across the world and pay for all that excess baggage for the hell of it.’
He laughed, then leant forward, captured her face between his lovely, big hands and kissed her hard.
‘I think you’re supposed to wait for after the ceremony to do that,’ she said, a little breathless, when they finally broke apart.
‘Sorry. Just practising,’ Sol said playfully. ‘And I thought you were crazy wanting to bring that dress with us, but I have to admit, now you’re standing in front of me wearing it, looking like the prettiest bride that ever there was, I’m quite glad you did.’
‘Me too,’ Paige said with a grin she wasn’t sure would ever be wiped away. After all the trouble she’d gone to finding this particular gown, it would have seemed wrong not to get married wearing it.
And, this way, at least she would have a piece of her parents and her newly found sister with her when she said ‘I do’.