Page 10 of Nothing Stays in Vegas

Cal flexed his free hand and chuckled. “You know what they say about guys with thick fingers?”

Lara rolled her eyes. “They wear big gloves.”

A wide grin split Cal’s face and Lara suddenly felt every muscle in her body loosen. She turned to face him, smiling in return. Maybe their relationship didn’t have to be over, maybe what had happened wasn’t as bad as she thought…

Cal held her gaze. His eyes were blue, intense, with tiny laugh lines etched into the corners.

They were eyes she could get lost in, eyes she was lost in. Butterflies danced in her belly and blood raced past her ears. She opened her mouth to speak—

“Reunions always make me cry. Don’t they get to you guys too?”

She hadn’t even noticed Adam and his posse of snickering groomsmen approaching the bar.

He rattled the ice in his empty glass before tossing a cube into his mouth and chewing it while he talked. “Maybe you two should get a room. I mean another room.”

Keith flanked Adam and cast a wink her way. “I don’t know, Lara, I’m seeing you in a whole new light here. It’s not half bad from where I’m sitting.” Then the others were joining in as well.

Lara closed her eyes, wanting to die of embarrassment. “Funny, guys.”

Suddenly Cal’s smooth voice cut through the barrage of jokes coming from the gaggle of men behind Adam. “Yeah, it’s crazy how you can meet someone in one city and then run into them states away within the same month. Small world.”

He was diffusing the situation, suggesting by the ease in which he faced the innuendo, there was nothing sordid involved. He was defending her. Or Dette. Or something. Her hero.

Whatever it was, Adam seemed to get the hint and, slapping Cal

on the shoulder, walked past to refill his drink.

Lara smiled at Cal, who was watching her intently. She mouthed the words to him, “Thank you.”

His brow furrowed as he looked at her, like he saw something that didn’t make sense.

Blinking quickly, Lara turned away, hoping to block whatever telling clue he was seeing. This was no good. She had to get away from him. “I’ve got to go. There are some…things that need my attention,” she finished lamely.

Without giving herself time to make the situation any worse, she backed away from the congestion of groomsman and started around the pool toward the house. She felt the heat of his eyes on her back and, swallowing hard, turned to look. Cal was watching her like he didn’t want to see her go. His lips quirked and—she tripped over the leg of a chair, swung around in what could only be considered a flail, rolled her heel, and caught herself just before going down. It was hideous.

Ow! She glanced back and Cal was already moving. Throwing a hand up behind her, she gave a short laugh and shook her head. “Just my pride. I’m okay.”

“You sure?” He asked from a few feet away, concern furrowing his brow.

She nodded. “My pride and maybe my toe. But mostly pride, just pretend you didn’t see it.”

“I didn’t see anything, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

That disarming smile of his had heat coursing through her body and a slow smile curving on her lips. He was cute. With a sideways jerk of his head back toward the party he held out his hand, inviting her to return. Her gaze slid over him and she wondered what the harm would be? Taking one step though, clarity slapped back into place. There was Dette, hands on her hips, a scalding stare burning across the terrace directly into her.

Lara’s smile crumbled. The harm was Dette’s future and potentially her own heart. She turned and walked stiffly back to the house. She needed to keep her distance. She needed to keep her head. She needed to go.

Cal watched as Lara cut through the grass, the sexy swing of her hips keeping his eyes riveted on her as she faded into the dark shadows before she reappeared in a rusty cone of tungsten light at a side entrance to the house and ducked inside. He thought he’d seen the girl he’d been dreaming about, the one he’d spent weeks getting to know, there in her sparkling shy eyes for a fleeting moment before she’d thrown up her shields and left. Damn Adam and his obnoxious lot of cronies. They couldn’t have had worse timing.

Staring at the empty space Lara had occupied a moment before, Cal was jolted to attention by a hard slap on his shoulder and Adam’s voice at his back.

“Hey, man, you ready for that tour now?”

Eyes still fixed on the house, Cal half turned to answer over his shoulder. “Yeah, you bet. Be great to see a little more of the house.” Be even better if he happened to run into Lara again.

***

“This is the chart room. It’s got to be my favorite spot in the house to enjoy a bourbon and read The Journal. It’s a man’s space. All this dark heavy wood, leather studs in the furniture, pocket doors to keep the female commotion from flooding in here. At least an hour in this room every day. That’s my prescription for a happy marriage.”

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