Page 22 of Crossing the Red Line
“Why are you two looking at me like that?”I questioned, shoving the rest of my muffin into my mouth.
“Uh, Ella, you know those places aren’t fake, right?”Lorelai questioned.
“Yes, they are.”
They both glanced at one another, a worried look on their face and then turned back to me.
“What do you mean?”I said, panic filling me.
“They are real.”
“No, they aren’t,” I said, swallowing hard.“Please stop trying to make me panic.”I laughed nervously.
“Sorry to break it to you but they are…thousands of people run off to Vegas every year to get married.How do you not know this?”
“Yeah, I know that, but not at the one we went to.I mean, there were so many pictures of celebrity weddings that I recognized from movies.Plus, it was so commercialized there was no way it could have been real.”
“What was the name of the place?”Aurora asked.
“Um, gosh, Moments at Midnight, or something like that,” I said, playing with the muffin wrapper.
“Midnight Moments?”Aurora corrected.“Is that the one?”
“Yeah, that is it!”
“It’s real.Dylan and I looked at sneaking off to Vegas one night just to take all the pressure off.With him trying to repair his relationship with his father and, well, the relationship between my mother and Dylan’s dad, things haven’t been easy.”
“We wouldn’t blame you, you know.Not with lil baby dominator on the way,” Lorelai said, reaching over and rubbing Aurora’s belly.
“No, there is no way.It’s not real,” I said, panic filling me.
It was then I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard his voice.“It’s real, Ella.”
I whipped around as both the girls looked up and saw Lucas standing behind me.
“Hey, Lucas,” Aurora and Lorelai said in unison.
“Hey, ladies, do you mind if I have a chat with Ella?”
“No, not at all.We were just leaving,” they both said, scooting out of the bench seat on the other side of the booth.
I looked over at both of them, practically begging them with my eyes not to leave, but it did little good.They already had their purses flung over their shoulders and were almost at the door.
“We’ll call you later,” they called, looking over their shoulder at us.
Lucas waited until they’d left the Sip and Stir and then slipped into the bench seat across from me.
“It was real?”I said, swallowing hard.
Lucas nodded.“It was.”
“You mean we are really married?”I said, swallowing hard.
“Yes, but that isn’t why I’m here.”
“It’s not?”
Lucas shook his head and pulled his phone from his pocket, placing it down on the table to where I saw a message from both Knox and Dylan.
