Page 1 of Say it Ain’t So

1

RYLAN

What happens in Vegas doesn’t really stay in Vegas. Those memories you got—of watching half-naked dancers strip on stage, of gawking at the guys wearing banana hammocks and silver platform go-go boots strutting along the sidewalks, of zip lining down Fremont Street—are all coming home with you. The concussion you got from falling off the mechanical bull at that country bar will be with you on the plane ride home. The impromptu drive thru wedding is still as real as the paper the marriage certificate is printed on.

And all the money from the fuckin’ jackpot I won was going straight into my bank account.

With my celebratory beer in one hand, I tore my attention off the receipt from the cashier’s cage in my other and cast my gaze across the casino floor.

Twenty bucks.

Twenty bucks had just changed my fuckin’ life.

Never mind the hours I’d spent playing blackjack in the past two days. Never mind the meager ten thousand I’d collected as I decided to tap out and move along to the next big thing.

I’d been itching for action. Aching for something else to do. I saw that slot machine in front of me and, distracted by a gorgeous brunette in a purple floral sundress and cowboy boots, I’d shoved twenty bucks in it and pushed a button. It was either that or feel like a creeper for gawking at those beautiful, long, lean legs of hers.

The blaring bells and whistles behind me hadn’t made a lick of sense, not until that woman marched out of view on the heels of a handful of other women and I turned myself around.

Now here I was, two point seven million dollars richer with a beer in my hand.

And there she was, the woman I’d been gawking at, perched on the edge of the fountain while she stared down at her cell phone, alone.

My entire body lit up at the sight. My heart pounded and my mind spun through a thousand fantasies I was all too willing to play out. Before I knew it, I was off my bar stool, my drink abandoned as I shoved my receipt in my front pocket.

But something stopped me from moving her way. Something I didn’t understand. For a split second, my chest clenched and my stomach tensed, and I stumbled backward onto my stool, grabbing for my abandoned beer. I swallowed down a big gulp, gaze locked on that girl.

She swept her long brown hair off her neck and over one shoulder, the movement blocking my view of her gorgeous face.

That was, until she swiped the heel of her palm over her cheekbone before turning her watery gaze my way.

Our connection was brief, our eyes locked for half a second before the saddest smile I’d ever seen graced her full lips. Then it was gone. Her smile. Her attention.

My inability to move.

Tossing back the last of my beer, I shoved off my stool and strode her way. That itch to take action pulsed through me. My heart thumped in my chest, in my ears, until I could no longer focus on anything but her.

Her long, delicate neck.

The press of her collarbone against her tanned skin.

The defeated slope of her shoulders.

I couldn’t stand for it. I couldn’t sit back and let this woman, whose mere presence had changed my life, continue to look like her world lay crumpled beneath her feet.

She didn’t look up as I approached. Swiped another tear from her cheek as I pulled to a stop in front of her. When she turned her beautiful blue eyes on me, all the words I’d planned to say to coax her out of her gloomy funk suddenly took off on the rest of my vacation without me.

My mouth dried up, and my muscles twitched as something in my stomach took flight, chasing after my words in an effort to get away. When her brow pinched, causing the sparkling casino lights to glimmer off the moisture clinging to her lashes, all my nerves skittered away, and an unfailing certainty washed through me. I had to know her, had to talk to her and make her smile.

“Morning, gorgeous.”

Yep. That’s what decided to come out of my mouth. I cringed as one sculpted brow rose on her forehead, and her fingers tangled in her hair.

Kicking myself for my sudden awkwardness, I pushed aside the voice in my head telling me I’d already fucked this up and I should just walk away, and I forced myself to smile.

“You look like you could use some help. Are you lost?”

Her eyes lit up for half a second before she dropped her gaze to her phone’s blank screen. She hesitated, then set the thing down on her purse at her side. “Not really.”