Chapter 5
GET THROUGH IT
Nelson hadn’t believed it was possible to be flexible enough to put his foot in his mouth.
There was so much he didn’t know about Kenzie.
Not so much. Everything!
The ride to the wedding chapel that brought them into each other’s lives was longer than he’d hoped. And only three blocks from his hotel. He most likely walked down.
“There is the happy couple,” a woman said when they opened the door. “I thought we’d see you again.”
“Really?” he asked. “Why is that?”
“Well, though you two were all over each other, there was the thought you might not remember it much. And you left without your video.”
“We bought a video?”
“You got the complete package, big boy,” the woman said. Her hair was snow white, and with that poofy dome, she might match his height if she stood up, but he guessed she probably wasn’t much taller than Kenzie.
The blush rose up his neck and painted his cheeks with her perusal. He might need another shower after this.
“What did that entail?” he asked.
Kenzie let out a snort next to him. He doubted she was jealous. There wasn’t a reason to be considering the woman was probably older than his mother.
“Matching rings, the video, some pictures, which we’ll send electronically. You two rushed out of here so fast, you didn’t leave your email either. I told you we had rooms right next door, but you said you were covered.”
If he was such a big spender, he wouldn’t have gotten these cheap silver rings, but looking down at the display, even in his drug-induced state he probably recognized everything looked fake.
“I’ll give it to you now if you can send it to me,” he said.
The woman, Dotie by the name tag—not sure why he thought that was funny—put a keyboard in front of him and he typed his email in.
“I’m putting mine in too,” Kenzie said. “I want copies of everything.”
“You two make such a cute couple. Much nicer than the ones you came in with.”
“My friend was here for my wedding?” she asked.
“No,” Dotie said. “Don’t you remember anything? You all seemed a little... loose. But it’s not like people don’t come in here doing shots all the time.”
He turned where Dotie was looking and saw all the liquor on the shelves and the prices under it.
This place seemed to have it all. Even gowns for rent.
“Do you have footage of me coming into the building?” Nelson asked. “I noticed a camera outside.”
“Of course I do,” Dotie said. “We cover our butts.”
He wanted to point out if they were that good about covering their asses they wouldn’t let people get married who appeared wasted.
Dotie didn’t seem to move as quickly as he wanted, so he pulled a hundred out of his pocket and laid it down.
“Oh, you wanted to see them now?”
“Yes,” Kenzie said. “Now would be good.”
“With the way you two were all over each other, it’s not like I can see an annulment in the future,” Dotie said, wiggling her painted-on eyebrows.
Christ.
He looked over to see Kenzie’s flush matching his.
When the security cameras came up, he look drugged. He was walking normally, had a big grin on his face, but some of his family would say that was normal.
Normal when he was drunk too.
He watched as he opened the door to the building, looked around, then pointed his finger.
“What am I pointing at?”
“Let me switch the camera over,” Dotie said. “You were pointing at your wife.”
“Me?” Kenzie asked, her finger to her chest.
“Yes,” Dotie said. “You had your dress on and he said he’d been looking everywhere for you.”
He rolled his eyes. Even not remembering, he let out one of his worst pickup lines.
“What did I say?” Kenzie asked.
“You laughed and said you’d been waiting for him and it took him long enough to show up. I thought you two knew each other. Your friend had just left and you got another shot.”
“I had four shots?” she asked, her pitch loud enough to crack glass.
“Then you both had another after the ceremony,” Dotie said.
“It explains why I don’t remember anything, but I’m not sure how we got back to my hotel.”
“I called you a taxi.”
He blew the air out of his lungs. Considering what Dotie was saying, he could see where she wouldn’t think they were strangers.
“Can you send that video to me also?” he asked. Dotie’s eyebrow was lifted and he pulled another hundred out.
“Coming your way now,” Dotie said.
The minute they left and got in the taxi, Nelson had his phone out to see their wedding video.
Kenzie leaned in close to his shoulder, the smell of her hair floating in a cloud over his head.
He still had a headache but not as horrible as he’d thought. Or as bad as it could be.
Not enough to cover the way his body wanted to lean in and get closer to her, have their shoulders touch, their cheeks close together.
What. The. Fuck. It had to be the drugs causing these thoughts. Right?
“I’m not sure how I’m not more hungover,” she said. “I never drink that much.”
“Maybe you are, but there is so much more going on that you’re not focused on it.”
“Could be,” she said. “Wow, that’s a hideous dress.”
She was wearing some peach satin thing that looked like it might have been a popular prom gown in the nineties. Long before he was born.
“The color is nice on you though.”
“Oh yeah, it’s got nothing on your tuxedo T-shirt.”
“I’m never going to live this down,” he mumbled.
As if the whole situation wasn’t already bad enough, he had to be wearing some heinous T-shirt on top of it, that who knows how many other people might have worn before him.
He shivered at the thought.
“You’re not the only one.” Her head went back onto the seat. “This is all Bethany’s fault.”
“It’s no one’s fault,” he said. His phone rang in his hand, he saw it was Braylon calling and answered it. “Hey, did you find anything out?”
“Security is done with your room. They packed all your stuff up and are giving you another more secure room.”
“Doesn’t seem to matter much right now.”
“We’ll sort this out, Nelson. They are showing a call from you an hour before housekeeping went into your room. You requested more towels.”
“I don’t remember doing that. That’s the only time my door was opened?” he asked.
“That’s what they said. They talked to the housekeeper who said that the room looked fine.”
“She could be lying,” he said.
“I pointed that out.”
“Wait. What time did it happen? Because I know what time I got married. I’ve got the video showing when I entered and left the chapel. Then we went to Kenzie’s room.”
“You think you did,” Braylon said. “But you remember nothing.”
He didn’t need the reminder. “We can still trace our steps.”
“Housekeeping said the call came in at nine, and they went to your room at ten.”
“I was at the wedding chapel at eight fifty and didn’t leave until almost nine thirty.” He flipped through his call history. “I didn’t make any calls.”
“That’s good to know. I’ll make sure Rob is aware of it.
That means someone is lying because you didn’t make the call and you couldn’t have from inside the hotel if you’ve got proof of being elsewhere.
They also have video of you at the casino moving around.
I looked it over. You seem normal to me, but after your second drink you got up and didn’t return. ”
“I must have felt off then. I don’t know. I hate I can’t fucking remember anything.”
Kenzie nudged his arm. He turned to look at her frown, not sure why she’d done that.
“We’ll get through it,” Braylon said. “I’ll keep you posted if we hear anything else.”
“Thanks,” he said. He hung up as they pulled in front of his hotel.
“I thought your brothers were in the air,” she said when they got out of the taxi.
“They are.”
“How can they call you?”
Since she knew who he was, there was no use pretending. “Private jet.”
“Of course,” she said sarcastically.
He wouldn’t apologize for the life or family he had.
If she wanted to think poorly of him over things she didn’t know, that was on her.
He walked to the front desk. “Nelson Carlisle. They are supposed to have given me another room.”
“Of course,” the woman said. “Let me get your key and if you can just sign here when the light comes on.”
He signed his name, got his keycard and went to the elevators.
He was two stories higher and in a much nicer suite.
“Dang,” she said. “This is twice the size of my apartment and I’m sharing it with three other people.” She walked in past the living room and galley kitchen, then turned into the first room, then another. “There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Are your brothers staying with you here?”
“I doubt it. They can stay on the plane or fly back.”
He never asked those questions. Knowing his brothers, they might leave again. They had families to go home to and the last thing they wanted to do was get him out of some mess that fell into his lap.
“Stay on the plane?” she asked.
“Don’t ask,” he said.
“I’d rather not.”
He looked at his watch. His stomach was churning and he realized it was hunger. Those few boxed pancakes at her shanky hotel hadn’t cut it.
“I need food. Do you want to order lunch?”
“Here?” she asked.
“Yeah. Might as well chat and get to know each other some more. Unless you need to get back to your friends?”
“No. They are still fighting and need their space.”
He thought it was odd that her friend wasn’t here to support her right now. “Do they know what happened last night?”
Kenzie put her head down. “I just said I left with you, not that we got married.”
He looked at her hand, the ring still there, just like his was. Odd neither of them removed it.