“Yes, you did,” Carlotta said with a little smile.
“Why don’t you get married here?” Priscilla suggested, then pointed to the bride and groom a few yards away. “They did.”
Liz’s smile was getting tighter and tighter, and Jack looked as if he might take a flying leap from the tower.
“That’s enough,” Carlotta said, shushing her.
But Priscilla ignored her, taking a step toward Jack. “I’ll marry you.”
Carlotta pursed her mouth. Liz gave a nervous little laugh. Jack reached over and touched the tip of Priscilla’s nose. “Then I’ll save myself for you.”
“The fountain show is starting,” Carlotta said to Priscilla, gesturing to the viewing portholes. At last the spell was broken, and she ran over to watch.
Liz pointed to her phone. “Sorry, I need to make a quick call.” She stepped a few feet away and left Carlotta and Jack standing alone.
“Cute kid,” he said, nodding toward Priscilla.
“She’s a little precocious. Sorry if she embarrassed you.”
“Sometimes I think we’d all be better off if we were as honest as kids are. But I think the older we get, the better we are at…hiding things.”
She realized he was waiting for a response, so she shrugged. “If you say so, Jack.”
She saw Liz coming back, so she gave a wave, then went to stand behind Priscilla. When she looked back a few minutes later, the couple was gone. Carlotta exhaled in relief. Things could’ve really gone sideways.
“Where did your friends go?” Priscilla asked after the show.
“They had to leave.”
“I liked Jack.”
“Most women do,” she murmured. “Are you ready to ride back down?”
Priscilla nodded, and they waited for the next empty elevator. The ride down was just as thrilling as the ride up, maybe even more of a rush. When they got to the ground, Carlotta walked off a little unsteadily, making her little sister laugh.
“Can we get our picture taken?” Priscilla asked, pointing to a photo booth in the lobby.
“That sounds fun,” Carlotta agreed. They went into the booth and crowded together on the bench. She fed money into the machine, then they mugged for the camera, making funny faces between flashes.
“I like your bracelet,” Priscilla said, touching the pink beads.
Carlotta smiled. “Then it’s yours.” She slid the bracelet off her wrist and put it on Priscilla’s.
“Are you sure?” Priscilla asked.
“Yes. Actually, I don’t need it anymore.”
“Thank you,” Priscilla said, then threw her arms around Carlotta’s neck in an unexpected hug. “I’m glad you came.”
Carlotta swallowed a lump in her throat. “So am I.”
They came out of the booth and when the machine spit out the strip of photos, they laughed. Carlotta tore the strip to divide the pictures. “Two for me, and two for you. Are you hungry?”
“Starved,” Priscilla said dramatically.
They walked down the Strip and bought messy hotdogs to eat. Carlotta was happy to see her little sister having fun. She got the feeling it didn’t happen often, but she vowed to change that.
When she was tossing the trash, she spotted two more familiar faces—the would-be thieves from the restaurant and the coffee shop. One of them spotted her at the same time and elbowed his friend. She wasn’t wearing the enormous diamond ring, but they couldn’t tell at this distance. They headed in her direction.
“Come on, Priscilla, let’s go this way.” She turned abruptly and almost mowed down a man walking behind her.
“Sorry,” she said, then squinted.
She recognized him, too, but she couldn’t remember where she’d met him. A skullcap covered his hair, but the eyebrows and sideburns were dark, and his features were distinctive. She could tell from the look on his face that he also knew her. But he untangled himself and kept going. As she watched, he looked back, then began to jog away.
She looked down to see he’d dropped a set of keys for a rental car. She scooped them up just as she remembered where she’d met him—he was the fiancé of Eldora Jones, Wes’s probation officer. She’d met him once at the Fox Theater, and she’d talked to Eldora just recently at a wedding expo.
“Leonard,” she called, waving. “You dropped your keys. Leonard!” Then she gasped. “Look out!”
He was looking back at her, still jogging. She watched in slow-motion horror as he stepped into the path of a bus. She turned to shield Priscilla’s face and ears from the sight and the sickening thud of the body landing. Gasps sounded, then screams.