Bonus Chapter 39
OWEN
Vegas never slept.
Even at midnight, the city pulsed with neon lights and noise. But up here, on the thirty-second floor of Planet Hollywood, the world felt quieter.
Harlow was asleep beside me, her breathing slow and even, with one hand tucked beneath her cheek.
The sheets had slipped to her waist, and the city lights streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows painted silver across her bare shoulder, the curve of her spine, and the small heart tattoo on her lower back.
Tomorrow, she would be my wife.
The thought should have terrified me. A few months ago, it would have. Hell, a few years ago, I would have laughed at anyone who said I’d end up here, lying awake in a Vegas hotel room, watching a woman sleep like it was the most fascinating thing I’d ever seen.
But here I was, and I wasn’t scared at all.
I traced the line of her shoulder blade with my eyes, careful not to touch her, not wanting to wake her. She’d been exhausted when we landed, and barely made it through dinner before her eyes started drooping. I carried her from the restaurant to the elevator with her head tucked against my chest.
I rolled onto my back, staring at the ceiling, thinking about all the roads that led here. The wrong turns. The dead ends. The relationships I’d fumbled, the friendships I’d strained, the years I’d wasted chasing things that never mattered.
She stirred beside me, mumbling something unintelligible, her hand reaching out to find me in the darkness. Her fingers brushed my chest, and even that simple touch sent electricity crackling through my veins. I captured her hand, pressing a kiss to her knuckles.
Tomorrow, I would stand across from this woman and promise her forever, and for the first time in my life, I actually believed I could keep that promise.
My phone vibrated on the nightstand.
I glanced at the clock, 12:47 a.m., and frowned.
I reached over carefully, trying not to jostle the mattress, and squinted at the screen.
Kaia.
A slow smile spread across my face.
Kaia: We made it.
They were here.
Another text came through before I could process the first one.
Kaia: We’re in the lobby checking in. Jax is still Mr. Grumpy Pants, but now would be a good time for you to come down and have a face-to-face conversation before tomorrow.
I sat up slowly, the sheets pooling around my waist, my pulse hammering. This was actually happening. They actually came.
My thumbs hovered over the keyboard for a moment before I typed back.
Owen: Is Jax going to throat punch me?
The three dots appeared.
Kaia: Maybe, but probably not.
That was reassuring.
I glanced at Harlow, still sleeping peacefully, completely unaware that Kaia, Jax, and Syn were here.
I slipped out of bed as quietly as I could manage, grabbing my jeans from the chair where I’d tossed them earlier. Harlow shifted, and I froze, holding my breath, but she just burrowed deeper into the pillow and sighed.
Crisis averted.
I pulled on a t-shirt and ran my fingers through my hair, knowing I looked like shit and not really caring.
The elevator ride down felt endless.
I thought about the phone call with Kaia, after everything had gone to hell. Harlow had finally fallen asleep around 2 a.m., but I’d been wide awake, staring at the ceiling, my mind racing through every possible scenario.
I wanted to marry her. That hadn’t changed. But something felt off. We were eloping without our family. Without the people who loved us most, and while I understood why, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were doing it wrong.
So I called Kaia.
It was a risk, but I needed to give them a chance to be here if they wanted to.
“Owen?” Her voice had been thick with sleep when she answered. “It’s three in the morning.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I just...” I rubbed my hand down my face. “I need to tell you something.”
And then I spilled everything. The Vegas plan. The elopement. The reasons why we wanted to do it this way. The guilt I felt about not including them.
She was quiet for a long time after I finished. Long enough that I started to panic and think I had made a terrible mistake.
“Owen,” she finally said. “I understand why you want this to be just the two of you. I do. But Jax... he’s going to need time.”
“I know.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know.” I laughed, the sound hollow. “I don’t know, Kaia. I just... I love her. I love her so much it scares me, and I want to do this right. But I also want to marry her before I lose my nerve or the universe finds some new way to fuck everything up.”
Another pause. Then: “What if we came?”
“What?”
“To Vegas. What if we flew out? Jax might still be angry, but at least he’d be there. At least you two could work things out face-to-face instead of letting this fester for months.”
Hope had bloomed in my chest, fragile and tentative. “You think he’d agree to that?”
“I think I can convince him.” A pause. “But Owen? You’re going to have to grovel. A lot. Like, industrial-strength groveling. The kind that leaves bruises on your knees.”
“I can do that.”
“Good. Because if you hurt my sister, I will personally ensure you never father children.”
“Understood.”
And now here I was about to face my best friend of twenty years and find out if our friendship could survive this.
The elevator doors slid open, and I scanned the crowd, my heart pounding.
And then I saw them.
Jax stood near the reception desk, arms crossed over his chest, his jaw set in that stubborn line I knew all too well. Kaia was beside him, one hand on the stroller where Kailyn slept peacefully.
Syn looked up from her phone as I approached, and even exhausted, she managed to flash me a smile. Her black hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and she wore black sweatpants and a matching hoodie.
Jax’s eyes met mine, and his expression didn’t change. If anything, it hardened, his shoulders squaring like he was bracing for a fight.
This was going to be fun.
I walked toward them, trying to project a confidence I didn’t feel. Kaia saw me, her face softening into something sympathetic, and she nudged Jax with her elbow.
He didn’t budge.
“Hey,” I said when I reached them.
Jax grunted. Syn, at least, gave me a small wave.
“Owen.” Syn’s voice was warm despite the fatigue etched into her features. “Congratulations. I’m happy for you both.”
“Thanks, Syn. Really, and thank you for coming. I know this whole thing is…”
“Insane?” Syn supplied, but she was smiling. “Yeah. But that’s family, right?”
“Right.” I glanced at Jax, who was still doing his best impression of a stone statue. “That’s family.”
“Okay then,” Kaia said brightly, clapping her hands together. “Syn and I are going to take this sweet angel upstairs before she wakes up and realizes where we are.” She leaned down to check on Kailyn, then straightened. “You two have some things to work out.”
Syn stepped forward, surprising me by pulling me into a quick hug.
She was shorter than Harlow and Kaia, and she had to rise on her toes to whisper in my ear.
“Be patient with him. He’s scared he’s losing both of you at once.
” She pulled back, giving me a knowing look.
“And he loves you both too much to handle it gracefully.”
I nodded. “I’ll try.”
“Good.” She squeezed my arm once before moving to help Kaia with the stroller.
Kaia kissed Jax on the cheek, lingering for a moment to whisper something in his ear that I couldn’t hear. He nodded once, tightly, and she started toward the elevator.
I moved to follow, instinctively, wanting to delay the inevitable conversation.
Kaia’s hand shot out and shoved me backward. “Nope. You stay. Talk. Work it out. Don’t kill each other.”
Syn glanced back over her shoulder as the elevator doors began to close, giving me an encouraging thumbs-up that was so earnest it made me want to laugh despite the tension.
And then it was just Jax and me standing in the middle of the Planet Hollywood lobby like two gunslingers at high noon.
“Walk?” I offered.
He grunted again but turned toward the exit. I took that as a yes.
We made it outside, past the valets and the tourists taking photos, the cool night air wrapping around us. We walked without direction, just moving because standing still felt impossible.
“I keep thinking about that summer at the lake house,” Jax said finally. “When we were sixteen, and you swore you’d never settle down. You said relationships were for people who couldn’t handle being alone with themselves.”
I let out a breath. “I was an idiot at sixteen.”
“You were an idiot at twenty-four, too.” He stopped walking, turning to face me. “What changed?”
“Harlow.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.” I shoved my hands in my pockets, trying to find the right words.
“Look, I could give you some bullshit about growth and maturity, but the truth is simpler than that. Harlow and I started spending time together, and suddenly everything I thought I knew about myself was wrong.”
Jax’s jaw tightened. “You’ve said that before about other girls.”
“No, I haven’t.” The words came out sharp.
“I’ve said I liked other girls. I’ve said they were fun, or easy to be around, or whatever, but I’ve never said any of them made me question who I was.
” I paused, choosing my next words carefully.
“Harlow didn’t just change my mind about relationships. She changed my mind about me.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means...” I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated at my inability to articulate something that felt so obvious to me.
“It means I spent my whole life thinking I was the guy who didn’t do forever.
That I was fundamentally incapable of it and then her and I…
It was like…” I broke off, searching for the metaphor.
“You know when you think you’re scared of heights, but then you realize you’re just scared of falling? ”
“Yeah.”