CHAPTER 24 Miller Banks
I’m not sure how to pretend like it doesn’t hurt to have her say it’s not real after what we shared last night.
But the truth is…she’s right.
She mentioned once many, many years ago that she wanted a destination wedding. She had mentioned a cruise or a beach, and like the design of her dream ring, I remembered.
But this isn’t real. It’s not meant to be special and meaningful the way her dream wedding should be.
Still, I want to make all her dreams come true…even if it isn’t me as the groom she dreamed about walking down the aisle toward.
It felt like something shifted last night, like maybe I could finally admit the truth about my feelings to her—that I’ve loved her since the day I met her.
I got close to admitting it last night, even blurted out some truths that probably should’ve stayed quiet, and the sex definitely only made those dreams closer to reality.
But this is a cold wake-up call back to reality .
I'm getting confused by the mixed signals flying between us in this kitchen this morning. And maybe it's stupid of me to even consider what I'm thinking, but I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
I will do anything for this woman.
“It’s not exactly what I want, but I think we could make it easy on ourselves and just do something in Vegas.”
“Then let's go to Vegas today,” I suggest.
She looks up at me. “Are you serious?”
“As my half-brother Spencer would say, serious as a W2.”
“Does he really say that?” she asks.
“He does,” I confirm.
She laughs. “Well, then I guess my question to you is whether you really want to go through with this. I keep thinking I can't do it to you, can’t actually get you involved in this sham, but then you keep saying it's fine.”
“If I can do this to help you out and find my own benefits from it, then why not? I’m the last of the Nash and Banks boys to find someone, and…” I trail off.
I stop myself before I say the words that are on the tip of my tongue.
I actually found my other half long before any of my brothers found theirs, but I was too stupid and scared to act on it.
And maybe this is my way in. Maybe that's why I'm so set on agreeing to help her out because it isn't just about helping her. It’s me finally getting the one thing I've always wanted, even if I'm coming by it in a nontraditional way.
It's probably better to just admit the truth to her, especially after last night. The truth is always the right road to take, but I haven't done it in the sixteen years I've known her, so why start now?
“I know what I get out of it. I get my parents off my back. I get to make Tyler seethe with jealousy. I get to prove what I said was true. I even get to try something I’ve written in my books.
But what do you get out of it?” she asks softly.
“I know you said it opens doors to sponsorships, but I just…I don’t know.
I need you to convince me that this is a good idea. ”
“Because I love you, Soph,” I say simply. She assumes I mean as a friend. “I’ll do anything for you, even if it’s some crazy experiment to help you come out on top after what that dick did to you.”
“I love you, too, Miller.” She presses her lips together, and she lets out a breath as she pauses to think things over for a few seconds. “Okay. Let’s go to Vegas.”
I sit back, surprised. “Yeah?”
She nods. “Let’s find a place and a date to do this thing.”
“What place?” I ask.
She lifts a shoulder. “The Bellagio is nice, isn’t it?”
I nod. “Very. But it’s also sort of Tanner’s place with Cassie.”
She taps on her phone and flashes me a picture of a room set up for a wedding. It’s sophisticated and elegant with a high ceiling and large windows on either side of double doors opened to a garden.
“Where’s that?” I ask.
“Venetian.”
I pick up my phone, and I find the next flight to Vegas leaves in less than two hours. I book us each a seat. We pack a few essentials in case we decide to stay the night, and we take off for the airport.
I text my half-brothers who live in Vegas on my way to the airport. I always try to see them when I’m in town. Lincoln is out of town with his wife and their kids, and Grayson is at the bakery he owns with his wife, Ava, all day, but Asher is in town and free to meet up with us for a late lunch .
We spend the most time with Spencer since we’re on the same pro football team, but both Tanner and I are developing relationships with all four of our brothers.
It may be a strange dynamic, but it’s working for us.
And since our biological father died, I feel like that’s brought me even closer to my brothers.
It made me realize that while I didn’t get the time with our father, maybe we never really needed it.
He wrote us off, but the second our brothers learned about us, they welcomed us in.
And that means something to me.
It’s a brotherhood nobody else could understand, and I enjoy bonding with them as we get to know one another and make new memories.
We board the plane, and as we settle into our seats, I’m sort of expecting her to just slip in her earbuds and watch a show for the short flight.
Instead, she turns to me and asks, “So are we going to talk about last night?”
My eyes widen as I freeze for a beat, and I glance over at her.
She looks nervous, as if she were bracing herself to ask the question, and it becomes my only priority to make sure she feels comfortable.
“It was one of the best nights of my life,” I admit.
My voice is low, and she shivers a little at my words.
“Mine too,” she whispers. “And I want to do it again.”
Holy shit. It was?
All it makes me want to do is take her into the bathroom and make her a member of the mile-high club, but these thick-ass thighs of mine won’t fit in one of those bathrooms with another human being.
Instead, I study her, our eyes meeting in the middle with a heat I’m used to feeling but not used to seeing back from her.
“Then we should do it again,” I suggest, my voice low and raspy. “Tonight. ”
She snags her bottom lip between her teeth as she nods her agreement.
I book a hotel room at the Venetian before the plane even takes off, and now I sit with a giant erection until I can get her to our room so we can take care of it together.