Cindy squealed in delight at seeing her future married name. “This is so much fun! I need to have a bachelorette party at least once a year from now on.”
Jessica shook her head as Cindy ran over to the man, bewildering him with her enthusiasm. Cindy was unlike anyone else Jessica had ever met, and she loved her for it.
The group of women followed in Cindy’s wake, and once again Jessica found herself trailing behind. The chauffer gathered their luggage—no easy feat, since all the bags were giant and seemed very heavy—and led the women outside to the largest and most garish limo Jessica had ever seen. It was basically a very long SUV with flashing LED lights all over it.
The women around her laughed and screeched with pleasure. “I love this city!” Cindy cried in delight.
Miss New York started singing “Viva Las Vegas” and a few others joined in as they hauled themselves up the steps into the back of the outrageous vehicle. Jessica had to laugh at how ridiculous it all was. Normally she would roll her eyes if she saw that monstrosity rolling down the street—and probably make some comment about consumerism or the environment—but for this moment, this weekend, she was just going to go with it.
She ducked into the dark, laughter-filled limo. She was in Las Vegas and was getting on board, both literally and metaphorically.
* * *
AARON WEATHERS HEADED toward the private car he’d arranged weeks in advance. Normally it would seem silly to get a private car for a five-minute drive, but he’d learned long ago that the expense was worth it if it meant he didn’t have to wait in the soul-crushing taxi line at the airport.
This time, however, he lingered an extra few seconds before getting in, taking one last look while his friend Jeremiah walked around and got in the other side. Maybe he could get another glimpse of the girl from the terminal before he left.
Unfortunately there was a gargantuan SUV limo in the way of the baggage claim area, so he couldn’t see much. As it took off, he ducked into the backseat of the town car.
It had been quick, a couple of minutes at the most, that they had stood together, and he wanted to see her again, even if just for a second to make sure she was real. It had been the strangest thing. He’d turned his head and there she was, staring at him with deep green eyes that hooked him somehow. He’d been close enough to see the flecks of gold in them. Her long flowing hair, dark red and curling lightly at the edges, made his fingers ache to slide through it.
Aaron had liked everything about her. The eyes, the hair, the small dusting of freckles, her height. She was taller than most of the men around her, even in her low-heeled boots. Which weren’t quite low enough, he thought with a smile.
The moment she had started to fall, he instinctively jumped forward. She had caught herself in time, but if she had actually fallen, he would have been there to save her. In a way, he regretted that it was unnecessary because then perhaps she would feel more reason to call the stranger who had given her his number.
She had left so quickly the story felt incomplete. He had no way of contacting her. He half wished he had run after her, tried to get her name and number, but that seemed like the move a crazy person would make, which wasn’t exactly the impression he wanted to leave on her. If there was any possibility she might call, chasing her down would most likely be a deal-breaker. Besides, he couldn’t ditch Jeremiah like that.
He wished he’d gotten her name, though.
She intrigued him, and he wanted to see her again. If she didn’t get in touch, what chance would he ever have of finding her again? Based on her clothes and the heavy jacket slung over her arm, it was apparent she came from some cold city and he highly doubted she was in town for the rodeo.
What if he never saw her again, and that was all there was to it?
2
AARON LEANED BACK against the supple leather of his seat and pictured the woman from the airport, imagining her walking toward him and giving him a sexy smile. She hadn’t given him one, but he knew it was there, hiding, waiting for the right moment. He only pulled out of his reverie when he noticed Jeremiah leaning against the car door and staring at him, his arms crossed.
“What are you thinking about? Did you hear anything I was saying?”
Aaron had been so absorbed in his fantasy he hadn’t even realized his friend was talking. After a pause, he admitted, “I—was thinking about this woman I just met in the airport.”
“You met a girl? Already? Where was I?”
“It was when we were leaving the gate, so I’m guessing you were still flirting with the flight attendant.”
Jeremiah nodded his agreement. “I love flight attendants.”
“You have never managed to get one to go out with you. Not once. You know that, right?”
Jeremiah shrugged. “Well, sure, but if I keep trying, one of them is bound to think I’m adorable one of these days.”
Jeremiah linked his fingers behind his head and leaned back, completely content in his failure. Even after being friends for pretty much their entire lives, Jeremiah’s tenacity and good humor never ceased to amaze Aaron.
After a few seconds of quiet reverie, Jeremiah turned his attention back to Aaron. “So, this girl you met. Hot?”
Aaron nodded. That didn’t even begin to describe her.
“Did you set something up with her? Get her name and number?”
If only.
“I managed to give her mine before she took off, but I didn’t get hers. I don’t think she’ll call, though.”
Jeremiah shrugged again. “If she calls, great. If she doesn’t, no big loss.”
He was always so accepting of any situation, Aaron never quite knew if it was admirable or annoying.
Jeremiah continued, “We’ve been in Vegas for ten minutes and you already found a girl, and she definitely won’t be the only beautiful lady you see this weekend. We’ll find some chicks that make her look like Mrs. Jessup in comparison, no matter how pretty she was.”
Aaron seriously doubted that, but he didn’t attempt to explain it. He vividly remembered Mrs. Jessup, their seventh grade teacher, and the woman in the airport would never look anything like that, no matter what supermodel she was standing next to.
He couldn’t describe how he felt to his friend, but it wasn’t just that the woman from the airport was attractive. She was, but that wasn’t all there was to this—this whatever it was. He’d seen plenty of beautiful women in his life, but none of them had struck him the way she did. None of them made his blood light on fire just by looking at him. There was something about the way she carried herself, something about the discerning look in her eyes.
There was no way to say any of that to Jeremiah, and it didn’t matter, anyway. She was gone, and there was nothing he could do to make her call him. She had run away so quickly after he gave her his number, and now the moment and the woman had disappeared. Normally he would’ve been more eloquent, more convincing, but she had made it hard to think straight.
He tried to shift his thinking to focus on the rodeo and the other women he’d meet. He even tried to picture Olivia, who he’d met up with every year and was expecting to see at the big team roping event on Saturday. She was an amazing blonde, voluptuous in all the right places and always willing to spend an evening at his side. But his thoughts kept straying back to the woman from the airport.
The car slid through the airport traffic, passing by the rodeo venue on its way to the hotel. The entire thing was covered in banners with pictures of horses and National Finals Rodeo written everywhere in huge letters. Jeremiah bounced in his seat. “Man, I love rodeo weekend!”
Aaron chuckled. “I know. You’ve said that about thirty times since we left this morning.”
“But it’s true! The NFR is awesome. Great events, Vegas, beautiful women everywhere and this year, my team is going to kill it. But mostly the women.”
They arrived at the hotel before the two men had even sunk fully into the plush leather seats. They were staying at the Hard Rock Hotel, a mile or so from the airport and within walking distance of the rodeo venue, making it the perfect location.
As taxis full of cowboys headed toward Las Vegas Boulevard, Jeremiah rolled his eyes. “Why does anyone stay on the Strip?”
When Aaron and Jeremiah went to the NFR years ago for the first time as single adults without supervision, they’d stayed in the Bellagio, a grandiose affair, thinking it would put them in the middle of the party. They’d realized quickly that it just put them in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard traffic. The surroundings didn’t make up for the inconvenient distance they had to travel each day, which had to be driven through at a crawl.
They grabbed their bags and walked into the darkened casino.
Hard Rock, though off-Strip, was still iconic and interesting enough for Aaron’s taste, and he’d found the suites to be perfectly satisfying, to put it mildly. Walking the short distance with his arm wrapped around a woman’s waist and leading her into his room never went wrong.
He couldn’t help wondering, though, if the woman he’d seen would be in one of the big hotels on the Strip, and that maybe he should’ve gotten a room there instead. If she didn’t call, at least there would still be a possibility he could spot her again walking through one of the casinos.