KING: Las Vegas Bad Boys(56)

“That sounds fantastic,” I say, wanting to watch Geoffrey squirm.

“Is it?” He turns, asking me. “If it’s so bloody fantastic, we should have a double wedding. Next week, just like Fiona wants.”

“Oh, boys, stop this, it isn’t good for anyone,” Mum says. “Especially not Fiona and Claire. You can’t make jokes about weddings around brides-to-be.”

“Oh, I don’t think anyone is joking,” Geoffrey dryly tells Mum.

“I sure as hell am not,” I laugh, improvising. “Claire and I were going to elope. Now we won’t have to.”

Dad claps his hands, completely oblivious to the sarcastic tone Geoffrey and I have adopted. “This is just perfect,” he exclaims. “I thought the world was collapsing, but look, my family is being brought together. Better than I could have ever hoped for. The tough times won’t define us.”

Mum and Dad leave to get celebratory drinks, and the four of us look at one another uncomfortably. The entire situation got a bit out of hand.

“Perfect,” Geoffrey snorts, looking at me with a smug smile. “Unless you had something you wanted to tell Mum and Dad that would disappoint them after they’ve just been completely wrecked.”

“Oh, fuck off,” I mutter under my breath, and I hear Claire give a sharp hiss. “What?” I whisper to her as Mum and Dad leave the room for a bottle of brandy and cookies.

“A double wedding next week? Landon. That’s insane. We can’t. I won’t.” Her eyes are blazing hot, as if she wants to scream or run. Or both. “I need to go.”

“Listen, can we just ...” I look over at Geoffrey and Fiona who are arguing. I hear snippets of You really want this? Is this a joke? This is so typical. But I can’t tell who is seething at whom. A wedding in a week was Fiona’s idea, but I have a feeling she tossed it out in response to being heard for once in her life. “Claire, can we just try for a day or two to play along ... my parents were so scared to tell us ... and now we’ve made them happy.”

“Right, Fiona and Geoffrey seem so happy, Landon,” she says. We look over at the engaged couple, who have crossed arms and pointed fingers and sour faces. “I don’t want to keep lying; it will only hurt people more.”

“Well, fuck, Claire, what do you want to do? Tell them everything? Look,” I say pointing to my parents who are walking back into the den holding brandy and a plate of gingersnaps. “They’re happy. You want to take that from them? Tonight of all nights?”

“Treats,” Mum says, handing out napkins. “Now kids, listen, no one is forcing this. It would be crazy and unexpected and completely–”

“Amazing,” Dad finishes. “Look, this year has been hard. Imagining the transition away from the company breaks my heart ... but you kids finding love at the same time, after I spent a lifetime selling diamonds that are a part of people’s forever—well, frankly, it feels like destiny.”

“Destiny?” Claire runs her hands over her face. I see her contemplating the lie, the extent of it. What it would mean.

Basically nothing at this point. Because there is no longer a paycheck at the end. It dawns on me that when she said she needed to go ... she meant home, to Vegas. Not to bed, not for a walk.

She has no reason to stay.

With me.

Here.

But God, I don’t want her to go. I want her to play fake-engaged a little longer.

Because of my parents, sure, but mostly because I’m not ready to say good-bye to her. I need to figure out a way to get money to repay her for being with me. And I also need to figure how to get a job and enough cash to prove I can be the man she needs.

I thought The King’s Diamond was going to solve all my problems.

But now I see, the only thing this trip has given me is Claire.

And that’s more than enough. She’s all I fucking want.

Claire watches me as I process this, and I’m glad she’s letting me hold her hand again, because she steadies me in a way no one else ever has.

“What do you say, Fiona?” she asks, as if realizing I need her to go along with this more than she needs to go home.

“I say we’re having a double wedding,” Fiona says.





Chapter Twenty-Two





Claire



There are a few things I know for sure.

1) I can’t get married in some ceremony where the goal isn’t love but instead a bizarre game where the winner gets parental approval.

2) Landon is desperate. I see it in his eyes, the way he clasps my hand so freaking tight, the way he held onto every word about the bankruptcy. This has wrecked him.

3) And that wrecks me. Seeing him like this. So ... vulnerable.