A Billionaire for Christmas

I look at Jesse. “We’re stuck here, babe. We might as well let Fingers make it up to us.”

I sigh. “Fine. But this one had better go as planned or I’m… I’m going to… well, I don’t really know what I’ll do.” I point my finger at Vinnie. “But I will do something, mister. You can bet on that.”

“You have my word, Miss Dumas. This one will go exactly as planned.”Vinnie insists that I do not have to clean up before we leave, but I stop at the restroom in the jet lounge anyway and am horrified when I look in the mirror.

Not only do I look like a clown who just went skydiving and then slept on said makeup, my hair is a catastrophe. No wonder that jet lounge lady didn’t want to tell me where my jet was! I’m a freak! At this point I don’t even care about the wedding. The bath and professional make-up and hair seems like a fair deal for ruining three marriage ceremonies.

But I start to get hopeful that the fourth time might be the charm when, after cleaning up a little in the jet lounge, Vinnie leads us over to a proper limo and not a sparkly purple Fingermobile.

“This is more like it,” Jesse says, opening the back door and waiting for me to get in.

“Much better,” I agree, sliding in across the soft leather seat. “I might still look like a ragged pirate wench, but the princess package is coming. I can feel it.”

He chuckles, sliding in next to me. Then the driver closes the door.

“Wait,” I say, putting up a hand. “Where did Vinnie disappear to?”

Jesse turns and looks around through the windows. But nope. No Vinnie. Then he shrugs and settles back into the seat, putting his arm around me. “He’s just the coordinator. We don’t want him to ride with us anyway.”

“Yeah, but every single wedding coordinator so far has also pulled this little disappearing act.”

Jesse squeezes my shoulder. “This one will be different. I’m pretty sure Fingers is thinking about all the bad publicity coming his way if Emma Dumas starts telling the world how he cheated us out of our wedding day.”

I tsk my tongue. “I’m not gonna badmouth him in public. But I will tell my brothers.”

“That would be enough to make me set things right.”

My brothers take their sibling responsibilities seriously. Of course, they are much calmer now that we’re all grown up, but back when I was a teenager? Yeah, buddy. Anyone who messed with me learned to never do it again. Except Karen Krakken. Because that bitch had a hold of Lonz back then. Normally though, they do swoop in to rescue me any time I need it. They are very suspicious of Jesse and I never even told them about how he broke my heart all those years ago.

So yeah. Fingers should be trying his best to make this right. You do not mess with the Dumas family.

Even though I’m hopeful, I’m super skeptical as the car takes us further and further from the Strip until we’re outside the city limits completely and pull into a Santa Fe-style resort with dozens of well-dressed people milling about in front.

“That’s them, huh?” I ask, leaning into Jesse to try to get a better look at everything.

“I guess so,” he replies.

But there’s no time to say anything else because the moment the car stops there’s a valet opening his door. Jesse gets out, adjusting his puffy pirate shirt uncomfortably, and then extends his hand to me, and helps me exit with grace. Even though there is absolutely nothing graceful about me in this moment. I’m a hot pirate-wench mess.

Immediately a horde of women attaches themselves to me and all of them are speaking Italian. So I have no idea what they are talking about.

I look back at Jesse, and he’s being equally monopolized by a group of men. Old, young, even a few teenagers. They have him by the arms and are dragging him off.

“I’ll see you at the altar,” he yells, smiling big.

I don’t know what to say. The women are all pushing and tugging me off in the complete opposite direction. And then he disappears around the corner of the building and I’m being ushered through a wooden gate and into a small courtyard paved with cobblestones.

The women are all speaking to me. From their tone I can tell they are excited and happy. So I relax and think about the upcoming bubble bath, then hair and makeup. Finally, for the first time today, I will feel special.

Yeah. OK. I’m in. I can do this. Fingers will come through for us and this wedding… it’s gonna be the dream wedding. So what if they’re not my family? Maybe Vinnie was right? The Shotgun Wedding just might be the golden ticket as far as Vegas elopements go.