She laughs. “You got off easy.”
“Tell me about it. I would’ve paid anything to make this moment special for you. This house, this backyard, all of it means something to us. I want you to look back on this day and remember it the same way you did the first time we met, the first time we sat out here together.”
“I remember thinking you were the hottest boy I’d ever met.” Her cheeks flush crimson. “I had an instant crush on you.”
“And now?”
“Still the hottest boy I’ve ever met. Only now, you’re a man. My man.”
The corners of my mouth turn up into a smile. “One more thing,” I add, nervous about how she’ll react to the last part. “Since I had to ask your dad and your brother if I could marry you—”
“You did?” She claps her hands together and laughs. “Was that Will’s idea?”
“Of course. You know your brother. Goddamn pain in my ass. I had to ask him over dinner like we were on a fucking date.”
She shakes her head. “He’s insane.”
“If you only knew. That’s not what I wanted to tell you, though. Since Will is my best man, he’s already started planning my bachelor party.”
She rolls her eyes. “What if I said no?”
I smirk. “Look who’s got jokes.”
“Whatever. It could’ve happened.” She glances down at her ring and smiles. “So, where is Will taking you? On a tour of every strip club in the world?”
“Would you let me go?”
She laughs. “Not like I could stop you.”
“I would do anything for you. If you didn’t want me to go, I’d tell Will no. But you’d have a very angry brother to deal with. Will’s been looking forward to my bachelor party since I told him I want to marry you. He already booked our rooms in Vegas.”
“Vegas, baby.” She throws her arms above her head. “I’m coming, too. I can have my bachelorette party there.”
“Are you serious?”
She shrugs, nonchalant, as if hijacking my bachelor party isn’t a big deal. “Yeah, why not?”
“Because your brother will have a stroke. No women allowed.”
“Same city, different parties. Let me handle Will.”
“Whatever you say, boss.”
Mia grips my hand, and a pulse of electricity dances up my arm. No matter how much time passes, the sensation never fades. She smiles as if she can feel it too.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mia: Six months later
Clarke’s party girl side came out to play the second we touched down at McCarran Airport. She was already slightly buzzed from the drinks my brother passed down the row to her during the flight, and now she’s so drunk she’s dancing on the bar at Coyote Ugly, of all places. Yep, it’s not just a bar from a movie.
Located inside the New York-New York Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, the bar looks exactly like what I remember from the movie. And Clarke managed to talk her way up there. We were supposed to keep the bachelor and bachelorette parties separate, but somehow we all ended up here.
Will is standing beneath Clarke with a fistful of bills in his hand and a drink in the other. I knew he had a crush on Clarke, but he hasn’t left her sight since the second he saw her. Zebras don’t shed their stripes, and my brother sure as hell won’t stop with his manwhoring ways for Clarke. And she knows it, too. So, why does she keep egging him on?
She drops low enough to allow Will to slip some money down the top of her shirt, his hands lingering at her breasts for far too long. I stand next to Ethan, sipping my martini and watching the show play out before us.
“A hundred dollars says they hook up before the end of the night,” I say.