Her Las Vegas Wedding

by Andrea Bolter

  “And world peace.” Then he let the joking subside. “I mean, I don’t know anything real about you.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “You strut around the hotel with your conferences and your high-heeled shoes, yet today at Feed U you looked like a scared little girl who couldn’t find her mommy.”

  Her neck flushed. He was right. He’d seen her naked today. Not in a bathing suit at the pool under the moonlight where he might have been able to make out the shape of her body. No, she’d been exposed when she freaked out about being around the children and wasn’t quick enough to cover up her emotional scars.

  An only child, she didn’t have nieces or nephews. Her work had her dashing from one of the Girard properties to the next, and their brand of boutique hotels tended to attract adults rather than families. She simply wasn’t around kids very often and was uncomfortable in their presence. How odd, that as a twenty-eight-year-old woman she’d had almost no contact with children.

  Part of her had wanted to go play in the garden with those kids today. To sing silly songs in the sunshine and cheer them on while they picked their “matos” and “kooky-umbers.”

  She’d almost come completely unglued when Shane asked if she’d ever cooked with her mother. Not only didn’t Jill cook or let Audrey in the kitchen, but his question had brought back a particularly telling memory.

  Audrey was not much older than the kids at Feed U when a girl at school had told her that her mother had baked her a birthday cake and that they had decorated it together. Already having a sweet tooth, that sounded like the most fun Audrey could imagine, to decorate a cake exactly how she wanted to. She mentioned it to Jill during her five-minute visit one night before bed.

  When Audrey’s birthday came around a couple of weeks later, Jill drove her to their hotel in Philadelphia. There, the pastry chef had laid out all of the necessary components for a birthday cake. Several flavors of cake to choose from, and icing with various colors to mix in, piping bags, candy sprinkles and sugar beads in every shape and variety.

  But since Daniel was out of town and Jill had merely dropped Audrey off with the hotel’s bell captain, it was with a kitchen assistant that the birthday girl decorated and ate her cake. A smile never once crossing her lips.

  That was Jill in a nutshell. She’d administrated Audrey’s upbringing rather than participating in it.

  Being around the children at Feed U earlier that day had made her wonder, and not for the first time, what it would be like to have a child herself. Yet that seemed impossible, unthinkable. With the kind of lessons she’d learned from Jill, she’d have no clue how to properly parent and would no doubt fail miserably at it. No way she’d let that happen!

  Shane had pushed the wrong button and Audrey retaliated, knowing she was being defensive but unable to bite her tongue. “I could say the same about you. You skulk around your own kitchen seemingly lost, yet you give kids you don’t even know that incredible experience. If you can teach them to cook, how come you can’t write down a recipe?”

  Shane’s teeth clenched; he turned his gaze away from her and directed it forward out the limo’s front windshield. Colored lights reflecting from the giant advertisements on the Strip played shadows across his face.

  Yikes, she shouldn’t have picked at his wound like that, but he’d riled her up. Rolling around in her own old hurts hadn’t helped her move forward any. All it had served to do was hold her back and limit her world.

  “Shane, I’m sorry I said that,” she begged. “I had a really difficult relationship with my mother and when I saw those kids—”

  “It’s none of my business,” Shane interrupted, but he kept his eyes forward. His jaw ticked.

  “Exactly,” she agreed. “Let’s just have a fun evening as colleagues and we don’t have to talk about anything serious.”

  “How long do we have to stay?”

  How did this evening get off to such a sour start so fast? Audrey answered her own question. Unlike everyone she’d ever known in her life, including herself, Shane Murphy wasn’t someone who pretended everything was okay.

  * * *

  Alright, Shane thought as he helped Audrey out of the limo at Caesars Palace. She wanted a fun evening...he’d give her a fun evening. He could use one himself. But what constituted fun? He didn’t know anymore. Did she?

  As they were ushered onto the night’s red carpet, he didn’t have time to ponder the question. A solid wall of arms aiming camera lenses stretched for yard upon yard toward the new club’s entrance. The camera flashes were like endless exploding fireworks blinding guests as they promenaded down the long carpet.

  Shane spotted some film actors, musicians and sports stars among the lineup. Each grouping stopped at a few interview stations set up for reporters to try to grab a sound bite that news outlets could use with the photos.

  “This is a big whoop,” Shane said as he leaned down toward Audrey by his side while they took slow steps to keep pace with the crowd. He knew that with her job, she’d probably been involved with extravaganzas like these many times. “Have you orchestrated high-rolling shindigs like this?”

  “Well, you know loud and glitzy isn’t Girard style,” she replied, both of them having to raise their voices to be heard over the festivities. “But we’ve done red carpets on a smaller scale. Like for charity fundraisers. You?”

  “The opening in LA was all-out glam. In New York, we built ourselves up slowly with invitation-only nights. But to have an impact on Los Angeles, we figured we’d better go full tilt. A lot of press. Not that I did anything but get out of the kitchen to put my arms around people for photos.”

  Conversation was coming easier than he’d thought it would with Audrey after that brisk exchange in the limo. Small talk was hardly Shane’s specialty but he had to admit it was nice to get out and Audrey looked killer in that shiny dress. He was tempted to reach out and run his fingers along the fabric. And what was underneath it.

  “What do we have planned for our opening?” He continued their chat between the two coworkers who were not the slightest bit attracted to each other.

  “We’re doing a number of what I’m calling parties.” She looked up to him in the shoulder-to-shoulder throng on the carpet. “An opening night at the restaurant with invited guests. Another opening for investors. A late-night bash for our social media followers. Brunch for the press. A dance party at the pool.”

  “Shane Murphy!” A reporter thrust her microphone in his face. “What can you tell us about the new Shane’s Table opening at the Girard?”

  He turned on the hundred-watt smile he only took out of his back pocket when it was absolutely necessary. “Fresh food. Craft cocktails. A fiesta every night.”

  “Shane, who are you with tonight?” another reporter probed as the cameras pointed at them.

  “This is Audrey Girard, director of public relations for the Girard hotels.” The Girard family had a renowned name but, apparently, her face wasn’t as instantly recognizable to the press as his was.

  “Are you two a couple?” the first reporter interrogated with glee while the photographers went at them.

  “Nah, she’s out of my league,” Shane quickly retorted.

  Audrey blushed.

  Which was, of course, so out-of-control cute he wanted to scoop her up and demand Caesars Palace’s best suite. There he’d lay her down on a bed fit for a Roman emperor and do things to her that would certainly make her blush some more.

  “Come on Shane, you look smitten!” the second reporter persisted. Shane suddenly realized he hadn’t been hiding his pull toward Audrey as well as he’d thought he had.

  Audrey stepped in with, “The Murphy family of restaurants and the Girard family of hotels are excited to continue our professional collaboration here in the great city of Las Vegas.” She stretched her hand out toward Shane in an exaggerated
gesture of a professional handshake. He took hers and they pivoted to the cameras for a perfect shot that the photographers gobbled up.

  “Mission accomplished.” She lifted on tiptoe to whisper this in his ear as they proceeded through the nightclub’s tall entrance doors.

  Shane and Audrey took in the totality of Big Top, a circus-themed nightclub. They looked up to the swaths of heavy red and gold fabrics draped across the ceiling to make the enormous space look more like a circus tent and less like the arena its size could accommodate.

  The entrance had led them to an elevated level of the club. Down on the ground floor, thousands of revelers danced to a pounding rhythm. From a center booth that shot yellow, pink and green light beams in every direction, a deejay commanded the crowd though his microphone, “Let’s get this party started, Las Vegaaaas!”

  It was rhetorical, because he need only glance around to see that the revelry was well underway.

  Gigantic cages hung by chains from the ceiling held dancers whose bodies were painted to look like circus animals. A tall lioness in one cage, a muscular tiger in another, and two painted as parrots in a third swayed to the music, deeply into their own rhythms.

  Right beside where Audrey and Shane were standing, a trapeze artist clad in a black-and-white polka-dot leotard swung past them on her way to the other end of the cavernous space where she perched on a landing. At the same time, a male counterpart swung back toward Audrey and Shane. Audrey gawked as he flew by them. “Fantastic.”

  “Who has a vision for a club like this?” Shane nodded in amazement. “This is astonishing creativity.”

  Somebody conceived of this, and these days he couldn’t even put together a simple ceviche.

  A hostess dressed like a lion tamer in a top hat, red tailcoat, tiny shorts and lace-up boots showed them to one of the plush booths that ringed this level of the club. “Run away and join the circus,” she said as she handed them a cocktail menu.

  A waitress, in the same top hat plus bra and shorty shorts took their order for the “lion juice” that Shane picked for them, a multi-liquored concoction they’d feel awful from the next day if they drank more than one. Shane wasn’t much of a drinker and he noticed Audrey wasn’t, either. He’d keep an especially close watch on himself tonight. Drunken unwanted advances toward Audrey would be a big no-no.

  After sipping and people-watching, Shane suggested they explore the rest of the club. One level down, photo booths captured guests wearing costumes and props that had been provided. Audrey put on a clown’s red nose and curly orange wig while Shane mimed swallowing a pretend flaming sword made of plastic.

  They walked away giggling at the instant photos they were handed.

  “Let’s dance,” he suggested when they reached the ground floor.

  He maneuvered them into the belly of the dance floor, which was jam-packed with partyers.

  The deejay boomed out his directive, “Las Vegaaaas! Fists up, hearts open!” The crowd obeyed as everyone lifted an arm in the air and they undulated as one to the throbbing beat. Fists up, hearts open.

  Shane and Audrey danced. And danced. And danced some more, until they were sweating. There were some seriously good-looking people in the mass around them. Buff guys in tight shirts and women in dresses the size of postage stamps. But Shane’s eyes were only interested in Audrey. How stunning she looked with her hair loose and tousled, sweat glistening on her skin, her golden eyes that gazed up at him.

  They writhed and wriggled against each other in uninhibited dancing that almost ought to be called something else. Sobriety notwithstanding, it still took every fiber of Shane’s being not to steal Audrey into an embrace, not to claim her lips. Which wasn’t allowed.

  But in that moment he experienced a freedom, one he’d never felt with Melina nor since. Hearts open, the deejay had commanded.

  A sudden clearing in Shane’s personal raincloud allowed him to see light in a way he hadn’t in a long, long time.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “I DON’T KNOW if it’s a good idea for me to take charge of Shane’s publicity,” Audrey confessed to her dad as they inspected one of the newly finished guest rooms. The various crews would be coming through to give their okays on everything, but Daniel liked to take a look at each of his rooms himself. As he’d taught Audrey, even the tiniest detail can bring a guest back for another stay or make them choose never to return.

  “Why?” Daniel asked as he jimmied the windows and checked the sills to make sure they were completed to the specifications.

  “I’m uncomfortable around him. He’s so...intense.” Audrey lay down on one of the beds as a Las Vegas visitor might after a full night on the town. Which was exactly what she’d had. Staying out until almost dawn last night at Big Top with Shane, it was no wonder she was groggy today. In any case, she enjoyed the comfortable mattress for a moment under the guise of quality control.

  “You and Shane did great last night,” Daniel said, “with your appearance at Caesars Palace.”

  “How would you know how we did, or didn’t, do?” Audrey propped up on her elbows while continuing her sprawl on the bed. “He’s the celebrity.”

  Daniel took his phone out of his pocket and tapped in. “It was on the gossip sites this morning.” He read from his phone, “‘Formerly reclusive star chef Shane Murphy seems to have come out from hiding, tearing up the town with petite hotel powerhouse Audrey Girard. Though they insisted their dealings were of a professional nature only, the pair were their own three-ring circus dirty dancing the night away at Big Top. From the way they had eyes only for each other, we see a unification that might go past the contracts.’”

  “Dirty dancing? Eek.” Audrey sat up, and opened and shut the drawers in the nightstand that, like the headboard, were finished in a shiny black veneer. It wasn’t a lie, though. She and Shane did dance, booty shake, twerk, gyrate, rub up against each other and do every still-legal thing people could do on a dancefloor last night, lost in the music and the crowd.

  And therein lay the issue. Of course, they looked like a couple to an outside eye. It was a struggle even for her to believe they weren’t more than professional partners after the whole magical evening.

  “The point was to get Shane photographed out in the nightlife. Not to start gossip about his dating life.”

  “What’s that old saying—any publicity is good publicity?” Daniel chimed in.

  “I guess it’s all good for the bottom line,” she reasoned.

  Had she seen attractive widower Shane Murphy out in Las Vegas with a young woman she, too, would have assumed they were out on a date.

  In reality, they were both unattached. Audrey hadn’t thought of her status as single for a long time. She’d settled into this vague vision of a future with Reg, one that demanded nothing of her. A future she could play out in her mind before it had even begun.

  Last night wouldn’t have been a problem if she’d been out with Reg. They’d look like a couple, pretend to be in love if it was for the cameras and then get right back to their agreed-upon friendly companionship. All previously plotted and outlined and tied up with a ribbon.

  Whereas, with Shane, even being in the same room with him set her off questioning the limitations she had carefully defined for her life.

  Daniel inspected the teal and hunter green fabric of the curtains, drawing them open and closed to make sure they slid properly.

  There was so much her sweet dad didn’t know. He wasn’t aware that his wife’s pregnancy was accidental. Wasn’t aware just how much Jill never wanted to have a child, because she’d never told him. Or that when she did become pregnant and Daniel’s happiness prevented her from any option other than having the baby, she didn’t know what to do with Audrey once she was born.

  Jill had treated Audrey like a chore. She would make sure the nanny gave Audrey a bath at night, she’d take her to the docto
r if she was sick and sought out good schools for her. In other words, she fulfilled the job requirements of a mother.

  Her mother had managed her daughter’s upbringing. But she had never been a part of it. Like the time with the birthday cake. She had never let Audrey need her. Daniel had tried his best to fill in the gaps, which Audrey was grateful for, but there was no substitute for a mother’s love and involvement.

  It was only years later that Audrey would come to understand that her mother had suffered from crippling depression. And that the pills and alcohol she’d used to numb her pain only took her even further away.

  A distant mother who wasn’t warm or watchful, Jill had died without letting her daughter love and dote on her, either.

  It was no surprise, then, that Audrey was committed to spending her adulthood with her walls firmly erected.

  Argh, she wished Shane Murphy would stop complicating matters by putting those convictions to the test!

  Audrey slid open the room’s clothes closet to make sure everything was in order. “I just wonder if we shouldn’t hire someone to work with Shane. You know, not get ourselves so mixed up in his personal business.” That dancing last night surely felt, uh, personal.

  “I think we’re down to the wire here. And he’s comfortable with you. It’s what he wants.”

  “Yeah but...”

  “Listen, I don’t want to worry you, but I met with Wayne and Suzanne this morning.” The building contractor and the hotel general manager. “Because of the teardown and rebuild we had to do in the north corridor, the zeroes to the twelves on all four floors aren’t going to be ready in time for the opening.”

  Audrey’s eyes widened in alarm. “For our grand opening, the whole hotel won’t be fully opened?”

  “Our other guests won’t be inconvenienced, but it does mean we can’t take reservations to capacity.”

  “But the first quarter of revenues isn’t going to be what we hoped it would be.”

  “Which is why I don’t think this is the time to let anything out of our hands. Who knows what we’d really get if we hire someone to handle Shane. We know you’ll do the job right.”