IT HAPPENED IN VEGAS.
I can't be held responsible. Things that happen there are supposed to stay there, right? Right? Yeeeah. Not so much.
Andie's just days away from tying the knot, but there's just ooooone little glitch. Apparently, she's already married. Or someone with her name is married to a guy out in Oregon of all places, and the courthouse won't issue her a marriage license until it's all cleared up. Tripping her way through cow pies and country songs to meet up with a man who gets around places on horseback is her very last idea of how to have a good time, but if she's going to get married, make partner at the firm, and have two point five kids before she's thirty-five, she needs to get to the bottom of this snafu and fix it quick ... before her fiance finds out and everything she's been working toward goes up in flames.
I can't be held responsible. Things that happen there are supposed to stay there, right? Right? Yeeeah. Not so much.
Andie's just days away from tying the knot, but there's just ooooone little glitch. Apparently, she's already married. Or someone with her name is married to a guy out in Oregon of all places, and the courthouse won't issue her a marriage license until it's all cleared up. Tripping her way through cow pies and country songs to meet up with a man who gets around places on horseback is her very last idea of how to have a good time, but if she's going to get married, make partner at the firm, and have two point five kids before she's thirty-five, she needs to get to the bottom of this snafu and fix it quick ... before her fiance finds out and everything she's been working toward goes up in flames.
A dinner of salad and a single breadstick wasn’t exactly a
gourmet meal, but with this tight black dress on and the stupid gel-filled boob
propper-uppers Candice had forced into my bra, there was no way to fit a normal
dinner into my belly, even if I’d wanted to. Thing was, though, I was too
nervous to eat that much anyway. I found the firey liquid diet I’d been
feeding myself since the haircut was more to my taste right now.
“God, all I had was a stupid salad and I feel like I’m going to
bust a seam on this thing.” I was walking on higher heels than I was used
to, thanks to Kelly and her having the same size foot as me. “You guys
conspired against me with this outfit, and don’t think I’m going to forget it
easily, either. We have at least two more bachelorette parties to plan in
the future and revenge will be my bitch when that time
comes.” I flicked my hair back, trying not to smile. The haircut
really did make me feel beautiful. It was totally Jennifer Anniston, and
both Kelly and Candice said I was pulling it off well.
“What’s she whining about now?” asked Candice, putting on
lipstick using her tiny purse compact.
Kelly hiccuped. “I’m not sure, but I think she’s
complaining about the shoes again. Or maybe the dress. I can’t keep
track. I lost my brain about an hour and three margaritas ago.” She
rubbed her stomach and grimaced. “Can I go to bed now?”
“No, you can’t go to bed.” Candice snapped her compact
shut and dropped it into her small handbag. “We’re just getting
started.” She rubbed her hands together. “Okay, girlies, where to
first? Poker? Slots? Craps?”
“Do you have to go to the potty? Because I do too.
Good idea.” Kelly tried to take Candice by the hand but Candice shook her
off.
“What are you talking about? No one said anything about
going to the bathroom.”
Kelly frowned at her while I laughed silently. I loved
watching my harebrained buddies try to have a grown-up conversation. The
several cocktails I’d consumed since my haircut was making it even more amusing
than usual.
“You said you were going to crap, so call me crazy, but in my
world, that means we need to find a toilet.” She smirked at Candice and
then looked at me, rolling her eyes.
“If you had a functioning brain cell right now, you’d be
dangerous,” said Candice. “I said do you want to play craps,
not I have to go take a crap. Jesus, I don’t even use that
word. You know I wouldn’t say that, what’s wrong with you?”
I decided to rescue my poor tipsy friend before she got too much
dizzier trying to figure out what Candice was talking about. “Craps is a
game, sweetie. Gambling. Where you throw the dice across the table
and that guy has that hockey stick he uses to push and pull chips around?
Like on TV where the guy’s on a roll making a bunch of money and everyone’s
standing around cheering for him while he throws the dice?”
Seconds ticked by and then a virtual lightbulb went on over
Kelly’s head. “Ooooohhh, you mean the gaaaame craps. That makes waaaay
more sense. It’s true … you never say crap unless you’re around people
you want to impress and then you say that word instead of saying shit.”
“No, I don’t,” said Candice, looking miffed or maybe a little
embarrassed.
“Yes, you do,” said Kelly, completely oblivious to Candice’s
mood change. “Okay, let’s play this crap thing. This crappy crapper
craps game.” She giggled.
Candice rolled her eyes. “Do I want to get her another
drink, Andie?”
“Yes and no,” I said. “Yes, because it’s her bachelorette
party and yes we want her to get good and hungover later so she never forgets
this trip and how much fun it is to be single … and no, because I hate it when
people barf. It makes me barf when I see it. And
if she drinks too much more…”
“…she’s gonna barf,” Candice finished for me.
“Exactly.”
“Waitress!” yelled Candice, running after a barmaid with a tray.
Kelly and I watched her go. “What’s she doing?” Kelly
asked.
“Getting us drunk.”
“Aren’t we already drunk?” she asked, scratching her head.
I smoothed down the hair that was sticking up as a result of her
confusion. “You are and I’m nearly there. But this is your party,
little sis, so you must drink until you fall over or until you kiss a stranger.”
Kelly looked at me in horror. “I did not come
to Las Vegas to cheat on Matty!”
“Then you better start drinking,” I said, handing her one of the
cocktails Candice brought over.
“How’d you get these so fast?” I asked her, looking down into
the glass, wondering if I was drinking something she found next to a slot
machine.
“What can I say? Cleavage works.” Candice raised her
glass high. “Here’s to winning big tonight and possibly getting laid in
Vegas!”
“Here’s to getting married!” said Kelly, raising her glass.
“Here’s to getting getting married and laid in
Vegas!” I said, clinking all of their glasses and downing my drink in one,
giant, three-swallow gulp session.
Candice looked at Kelly. “Do you think she knows what she
just did?”
“Nope.” Kelly giggled, sipping on her straw.
“Shut up, buttheads. You know what I meant.” As if
I’d drink to getting married in Vegas. Shuh, right.
That totally didn’t fit into my lifeplan or my personality.
As soon as I finished my drink and put the glass down on a
nearby shelf, we locked arms and walked into the casino area of the
hotel. Having my girlfriends on either arm made walking in Kelly’s
ferocious heels way easier, so I was all for it, even though it made quite the
barrier for people trying to get by. Whenever anyone scowled at us, I
smiled big and said, “She’s getting married. To a mortician. This
is her going away party,” and they’d turn their frowns upside down. It
was like Vegas magic or something. It was impossible to be cranky here.
As we left the restaurants and lobby behind, we entered a darker
area of the huge facility. The casino. Bells were dinging all over
the place, lights of every single color of the rainbow were flashing and
blinking, and thousands of people milled around. There were slot machines
in groups with small passageways between them to get by and chairs filled with
butts. People were dropping quarters like there was no tomorrow, pulling
one-armed bandits as fast as the money clanged into place.
A group of tables were across the aisle from the slot machine
section, all of them with green felt on top. The very first thing I
noticed when we walked in that direction was a cowboy hat. And it had the
most beautiful man I had ever seen sitting right under it.
“Oh. My. Good. Ness,” I said, caught in some
kind of tractor beam, unable to look away. My foot lifted up, trying to
walk that direction, but Candice held me back.
“I don’t feel so good,” said Kelly, pulling away from me.
I let her go without a thought.
“Oh, shit.” Candice let go of me too, leaving me to wobble
a little on my own. “Come on, Kelly, come with me. I don’t want you
to barf on their nice carpet. Please don’t yack. I hate it when you
yack, you’re so loud about it.”
My brain barely registered what they were saying. I only
had eyes for the god sitting on the stool just twenty feet away from me. Jeans,
dress shirt, cowboy hat, five o’clock shadow beard, muscles visible
just below his rolled up cuffs, bronzed like he spent most of the day
outside. “Be still my heart,” I said, talking to no one, to the wind,
to the goddess of love who I was pretty sure had just shot an arrow into my
chest cavity. I reached up and touched my hair, hoping it was perfect.
“Stay here while I take care of her,” ordered Candice, her voice
getting fainter as she got farther away. “I don’t want you watching her
and getting sick too or my whole night will be ruined.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said absently, walking towards the card table so
I could get a closer look at the cowboy who’d taken my breath away and sent my
brain on a vacation to Mars.
A cocktail waitress walked up to me when I was almost there and
offered me a drink that someone had paid for but never picked up. I
nodded and drank half of it down before I got to the table, hoping it was an
offering from the gods, concocted specifically for the purpose of giving me the
courage I’d need to say hello to this mystery man. He looked like he’d
just stepped out of a magazine ad for Levis or a Bowflex or something.
I was nearly to his spot at the table when the toe of my
borrowed heel caught something on the carpet and sent me flying forward.
I watched in horror as my hand went out to help find my balance, sending the
contents of my glass out in a stream right at the man who’d stepped out of my
lustiest of dreams.
I have
never heard of Elle Casey before, but trust me, after reading this book; I will
be stalking her books and buying them as soon as I can afford it! Elle has a way of taking a romance story;
adding some spice (ok A LOT of spice!), some drama (just the right amount of
drama), humor (had me LOL’ing for realz!), and of course the suspense (it
killed me!) in this book. While she had
all of those aspects, it added so much to the story, instead of distracting
from the story line.
“Do you want me to hit you?” he asked.
I looked at him aghast,
wondering what rule I’d broken so badly that I needed to be physically abused
over it. “NO, I don’t want you to hit
me. Do you want me to hit YOU?” I stood
up, ready to defend myself. This was the
worse customer service I’d ever experienced in my entire life. He was probably pissed off that I had half
the aces.
The old man put his hand on my
arm. “He wants to know if you want
another card. That’s a hit.”
Now you
get what I mean with laughter? Oh and
that’s not even the BEST line (in my opinion) out of the whole book, but I just
couldn’t share it with you. I’m mean
like that you know gotta give you something to read for!
Anyway,
the characters in this book were extremely well written. They each had their own story and life that
they brought into the story. While there
were quite a few of the secondary characters, it seemed like after they had
“said their part” they would go back into the background and let Mack and Addie
have the stage again.
My only
complaint with this book was that some parts of it were predicable, but even
taking that into account, it was still a great read! Ok it’s a MUST READ!!!
Elle Casey is a full-time writer of New Adult
and Young Adult titles in several genres, including romance, urban fantasy,
sci-fi dystopian, and action-adventure. She's an American girl who's been
living in southern France with her husband and three children since 2010. She
loves chatting with her readers, so feel free to drop her a line.
I LOVE "Shine Not Burn"
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