Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“Grace!” Julia came over the phone and I heard the laughter in her voice, but then I heard a little sob in the background.
“Am I on speaker?” I whispered.
Julia and Audrey started laughing and crying and talking over each other.
“People! I can’t even hear what you’re saying. Audrey, I didn’t even know you were there.” I shot a look over my shoulder. Thankfully, no one was close enough to hear my teary rambling.
Audrey’s voice came over the line. “Go get him, Gracie!” she laughed. “Alex wasn’t for you. We knew that when we met him in Vegas.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I cried.
“Because we didn’t know you’d get engaged to him! And then we felt bad. We were going to try to bring it up this week. But it would have been hard because he would have been here.… We, oh, it all worked out! Go get your guy, Grace. We’ll talk Dad down from the ledge.”
I laughed but then groaned. “Oh God, Dad. Will you tell him how sorry I am and that I’ll explain? Tell him I’ll call him as soon as I can, okay?”
“Don’t call him too soon. We got this. Give him some time. It’ll be fine. But you know Dad. He blows up first and asks questions later.”
“Yeah, I know. Thank you so much. I love you both so much.”
“We love you too,” they said together.
I hung up and went to the restroom to clean myself up. An hour later, I was boarding my flight back to Las Vegas. Back to Carson.
__________
I touched down in Vegas at seven o’clock that evening. I had been traveling all day and I was right back where I had started, and yet the course of my life had just changed dramatically. Alex had driven us to the airport, and so I took a cab back to my house to get my own car.
I wished I knew exactly where Carson lived. I would go there first to see if he was home. But if he wasn’t at Trilogy today, hopefully they would call his home number for me and I could get in touch with him that way.
As I drove out of my neighborhood and toward Trilogy, a case of nerves attacked me. What if he had changed his mind and decided that he didn’t want me anymore? No, that couldn’t be the case, could it? Surely that wouldn’t have changed in less than a week?
He hadn’t been with anyone else in all this time. A lump formed in my throat and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I considered the fact that neither one of us had had sex with anyone else since each other. I had half a mind—and plenty of hormones—to make that the first priority, right after I told him I wanted him.
But my head was clear and the confusion and guilt that had been clouding things ever since I laid eyes on him again vanished. He was mine. And I wanted to be his. That was all I needed to focus on right now.
The only challenge left between us—I hoped—was what was going on with him and this case I was working. I couldn’t figure it out, and I knew that if things were going to go anywhere with us, we’d need to talk. Somehow though, that didn’t feel like the immediate priority. Suddenly, I knew with every fiber of my being that whatever he’d have to tell me, wasn’t anything that was going to make me run. I trusted him. I trusted the man that he was. Despite the time and the distance, I knew he was good and decent. I knew it.
I pulled into the garage at Trilogy and rode the elevator up to the lobby and then made my way through the casino to Carson’s office. With each step, my heart rate quickened and my excitement grew.
His office hallway was deserted and his door was closed. I stopped in front of it, and pulled in a deep breath before I knocked lightly and waited. No answer. I knocked one more time, but when it became clear that he wasn’t in, I turned around haltingly, feeling disappointed. I guess I could go to the front desk and find out if he was in at all—maybe somewhere else in the hotel or casino.
As I started walking away from Carson’s office door, a tall, young, blond man wearing glasses turned the corner toward me. His eyes traveled over me and he smiled a warm smile. I smiled back and when I noticed that he was going toward Carson’s door, I said, “Oh, do you work with Carson?”
He stopped. “Yeah, can I help you?” he asked.
“Um, well, I don’t know. I’m looking for Carson, but he’s not in his office—”
“No, he’s gone for a couple days. He’ll be back next week. Do you want me to leave a message on his desk? I was just going to leave some other paperwork in there for him.”