Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
The Wedding March was playing again.
Delaney stood at the end of the aisle, her hands clenched in front of her.
This was it. In rapid-fire time, she’d found herself ditching one groom and, now, she was in Vegas.
Preparing to walk toward another groom. Preparing to head down the aisle and marry Nash Quinn.
Correction, fake marry him. Because the marriage wasn’t supposed to be real.
So why did it feel so real?
No long, satin dress this time. No veil. No train. No roses that would drop their petals and look like blood as she headed down the aisle. In fact, she had no bouquet at all. She wore jeans and a blue sweater. Sneakers.
As for Nash, he waited at the end of the aisle. Jeans. Battered jacket. Tousled hair. Looking big and bold and sexy. His eyes were on her. Locked hard. Glittering. Waiting.
The music kept playing.
She kept not moving. Way too frozen.
“Ahem.”
Her gaze darted to the right.
Ryan widened his eyes. “Is there a reason we haven’t taken a single step yet? Just, you know, curious.”
We. A reason we…Because he was walking her down the aisle. He was also acting as their witness. Signing the paperwork.
And he was currently shoving daisies into her hands.
Blinking, frowning, Delaney peered down at the daisies. “Where did you get these?” He hadn’t held the daisies moments ago. She was quite sure of that fact.
“Nash arranged for the delivery. They just arrived. Kid came rushing in with them while you were locked in place and relentlessly rethinking all of your life choices.”
The white petals on the daisies looked so soft, while the yellow centers of the flowers were like a burst of happy sunlight.
“Nash ordered them while you were on the plane coming to Vegas. Said you liked them or some shit, so, yeah, you get daisies for the wedding bouquet.” He squinted at her.
“You are still not moving. What is it?” His eyes widened.
“Dammit, are we missing the list? Do you think it’s some bad mojo? Is that what’s holding you back?”
Ryan had lost her. “What list?” She brought the daisies up to her face. The petals were incredibly soft against her skin. Nash had remembered how much she liked daisies? After all this time? The thought had a pang sliding through her. Her gaze darted back to him.
He waited at the end of the aisle, next to a man in a black suit. The man in the suit had to be the officiant at the Love Heart Chapel. A cute white chapel on the outskirts of Vegas that promised “the wedding of your dreams.”
Since her last wedding had been a straight up nightmare, she was hoping more for the dream version this time.
Nash’s intense stare was on her. She could feel the impact of his penetrating gaze throughout her entire body.
“There’s always a list that goes with a wedding,” Ryan informed her, pulling her attention back to him.
“Everyone knows this.” Spoken with complete authority.
“I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to have like…
something old and new. Borrowed and blue.
” He scanned her body. “The sweater is blue. The daisies are new. That’s two of our four.
” He shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a silk handkerchief.
Because while she and Nash might be in jeans, Ryan was in a suit.
Looking stylish and handsome. He wrapped the handkerchief around the base of her bouquet.
“There. Something borrowed. Three of four done.”
“What is happening right now?” Delaney asked him.
A long suffering sigh. “I’m trying to give you good luck for your marriage. You have to follow the list or I’m pretty sure you’re doomed.”
“Are you superstitious?” Never, ever would she have thought Ryan followed superstitions.
“I’m minorly stitious.”
“What?”
“Not super so, just minorly.” Another sigh. Just as long suffering as the first one. “Let’s simply say I’d rather err on the side of good luck and not bad. Don’t you think you’ve already had enough bad in your life?”
“More than enough, yes.” Her hold tightened on the flowers.
“You still need something old,” he muttered. “Can’t just have three of four.”
Nash began heading toward them. Very determined steps.
The music stopped playing.
Delaney sucked in a sharp breath as she caught the fierce expression on Nash’s face. He kept coming forward, only stopping when he was about a foot away from her.
“Change your mind?” he bit out.
“No, dude,” Ryan responded before she could. “The woman does not have all the things on the list. Considering the way her last wedding ended, don’t you want her to have good mojo?”
Nash cut a quick glance at his brother, only for his stare to immediately return to Delaney. “What is he talking about?”
“He’s being stitious. Minorly so. Not super.”
The furrow between Nash’s brows cut deeper. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”
She was still trying to follow along herself. “Thank you for the daisies,” she murmured. “They are my favorite.”
“I know.” Nash cleared his throat. His head angled toward his brother. “What list are we talking about?”
“Her sweater is blue,” Ryan announced. “Her daisies are new. I gave her a handkerchief to borrow, but the woman needs something old or this marriage is just going to be doomed. Doomed, I say.”
“Heard you the first time,” Nash muttered.
“Do you want it to be doomed?” Ryan pressed.
It was a fake marriage. Ryan could ease up.
“I want you to be less of a dramatic asshole.” Nash shoved his hand into the pocket of his jeans. “I’ve got something.” He inclined his head toward Delaney. “Left hand, please.”
She extended her left hand. Her right continued to hold her precious daisies.
Nash slid a gleaming, diamond and pearl ring onto her finger. It was a perfect fit. A truly beautiful ring.
“An engagement ring,” he said. “There. Something old. Done.”
“Pearls are my birthstone,” she managed to say, feeling more than a bit dazed.
“I know.”
Her head whipped up. His expression had shut down. Gone so unreadable.
Ryan cleared his throat. “If you just got that from Jez for the cover story, it doesn’t count as old. Hate to break it to you, but those are the rules. I don’t make them. I just follow them.”
Delaney was pretty sure Ryan was just making things up as he spoke.
A muscle jerked in Nash’s jaw. “I didn’t just get it.” His Adam’s apple clicked. “I’ve had it for years. Happy, bro?”
“Getting there,” Ryan allowed. “Moment by moment. Gotta give this real marriage all the luck it can get.”
It wasn’t real. But she’d still take any luck that came her way.
Nash remained in front of Delaney. “Are you ready to marry me? Did we check off everything on your list?”
Not everything. Her list was different from Ryan’s. Her list mostly contained just one item. Nash hadn’t professed undying love to her, and that would be really awesome but…
Fake. Marriage.
But that confession was not going to happen.
“I’m ready,” she agreed.
He turned on his heel and strode back down the aisle. The organist resumed playing The Wedding March. Goosebumps rose on Delaney’s skin. “I really hate that song,” she told Ryan.
“I’m sure Nash would stop the music in a heartbeat, if that’s what you want.”
There was something about his voice…Her head turned.
Ryan quirked a brow. “How long do you think he had that ring? An engagement ring, with your birthstone? How utterly convenient that it was just in his pocket, am I right?”
Her heart beat faster. “You did the whole thing with the list deliberately.” Delaney wet her lips.
“Moi? Am I truly that much of a schemer?”
She thought he was.
“I’m just trying to help you have some good luck. Figure you and Nash could use some good mojo this time around.”
She wasn’t buying his easy words. “You knew that Nash had the ring.”
Ryan winked at her.
“You knew, and you wanted me to have it.” She took a step forward.
“Well, it was always supposed to be yours, so it makes sense that you should have it. And the guy had it in his pocket, so, clearly, he was going to give it to you today. Don’t know why he hadn’t already. Hmm. Maybe stage fright.”
She stumbled. Ryan caught her arm and balanced her.
From the end of the aisle, Nash frowned.
“What do you mean, it was supposed to be mine?” Delaney had locked onto those words. Hard. It was always supposed to be yours.
“I don’t like for my brother to hurt. It hurt him when he lost you.”
They took two steps together. “He didn’t lose me,” Delaney denied. “He walked away.” That was quite different from losing someone. It wasn’t like he’d put her somewhere and forgotten where she was. He had ended things.
Her heart had shattered.
“I think things were far more complicated than you realize.” Ryan’s voice carried only to her. “I was there when he had to live without you, and it was like he was some ghost. Barely going through the motions. I hated to see him that way. Closed down. Fucking grieving.”
She shook her head, an instinctive denial.
“Then he threw himself into the CIA. Took missions that were dangerous and deadly as hell. Scared the shit out of me.”
Two more steps.
“And you know I don’t get scared. At first, I thought the guy had a death wish. So I had to follow him.” Again, his words were low. Just for her.
A few daisy petals fell to the carpet.
“You’re holding on too tightly,” Ryan chided her. “Be careful with fragile things.”
Nash’s hands had fisted at his sides as he watched them approach.
“I soon learned Nash wasn’t interested in dying. He was interested in fighting. In learning to be the most lethal version of himself possible. He took out targets that other agents thought were impossible to reach. He was relentless. It was like—like he was trying to completely reinvent himself.”
More steps. “Why?”
“That is the million-dollar question. It’s also a question that you should ask him.”
They were almost to Nash.