Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 97836 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97836 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
A cheesy white altar with fake plastic flowers and limp swaths of tulle hanging over it.
“Oh, fucking fuck.”
I rinsed and wiped my mouth before looking over my shoulder to where the wedding certificate still sat on the bedside table. To my hungover brain, the thing seemed to be pulsing like a telltale heart.
My fingers shook as I typed a message to my friends.
Me
Code red. Get in here.
Hopefully, they remembered my room number because I certainly didn’t.
Only when I set my phone down did I belatedly notice the shiny gold band on my left ring finger. I glanced back at the bed and noticed an indentation on the other pillow. The duvet was in a messy twist in the center of the bed, and it looked like I hadn’t been the only one sleeping in it. If the cowboy had come back to the room with me, where was he? Surely I would have heard him leave?
Then again, there seemed to be a lot of gaps in my memory.
By the time I finished a quick shower and threw on a pair of sweats, someone was pounding on my door. I opened it to find Landry and Zane looking way less hungover than I was. I glared at them. “Was I the only one drinking last night? Why do you two look like you just unhooked from an IV at a med spa while I feel like I’ve just been dragged up a sewage drain?”
Zane grinned. “I built up a tolerance on tour.”
Landry huffed out a laugh and pushed past me into the room. “That and we got the IV infusion before we went out last night. You know, when you were busy meddling in that asshole’s business?”
It took my sluggish brain a minute to realize which asshole he was talking about. “Well, it didn’t work, did it? Justin’s married.”
Landry threw himself down on the sofa and kicked off his shoes. “Yeah, but at least now you know the chick is just as bad as he is. They’re perfect for each other.”
This was true. My evil ex had married a woman in order to control her fortune, like something out of a made-for-TV miniseries. And when I’d ridden in like a white knight and tried to warn the woman with a well-intentioned conversation before the wedding, somehow, it had turned into a kind of…
“Catfights are very Vegas,” Landry said, scrolling through his phone. “Trying to see if anyone posted a video on socials so I can download it for my own personal collection.”
I closed my eyes and tried to will my pounding headache away. “Zane, I will pay you a million dollars to order us some food.”
“Don’t need the money, bro, but you can give me that killer hat instead.” Zane grabbed the room phone to put in a room service call.
I glanced at the cowboy hat before carefully plucking it off the lamp and tossing it into the closet with my suitcase. Surely the man who owned it would want it back, and I didn’t need these two putting their dirty paws all over it before I had a chance to return the thing.
After turning back around, I caught Landry staring at me. “Oh shit,” he breathed with a familiar look on his face. “Oh shit. Silas Concannon, what did you do? Did you do the dirty with a rhinestone cowboy? Did you Magic Mike yourself some hot ass last night?”
For some reason, I felt like the answer to that was no. I didn’t have sex with the hot cowboy. But we’d done… something? Danced, definitely. And kissed. And… apparently gotten married?
I ran my fingers through my hair and squinted in case that would actually help sharpen my memory.
Zane snickered as he hung up. “Landry, remember who you’re talking to. I hardly think Silas is the one of us who… wait. Why are you wearing a wedding ring?”
Silence landed heavy and awkward in the room while all three of us stared at my finger. After a beat, I tried yanking the ring off, only to have it jam. The more I yanked, the more stuck it seemed to get.
Landry grabbed my hand to stop me. “Dude. You’re making it worse. Use some lube or…” He paused, examining the ring, then glanced up at me in shock. “Silas, this doesn’t feel like a cheap souvenir.”
“No. I think I…” I couldn’t even say the words. Instead, I glanced over at the certificate, which I still hadn’t had the balls to look closely at.
Landry saw the direction of my glance and walked over to retrieve the damning evidence. “Holy… holy fuck, Silas.” He thrust the paper at Zane. “Is this… is this real?”
Zane’s eyes widened comically. The guy had the ability to look like a manga character when he was taken by surprise.
I threw up my hands and tossed myself down on the sofa. This was clearly a disaster. “I don’t know, okay? I don’t know!” I hoped to hell I’d gotten it and the ring in a souvenir shop… but I doubted it. “After the two of you fucked off to wherever the hell you went last night, I left the hotel and went and got another drink, and I met a guy…”