by Cari Quinn
She followed Ivy to the window and her stomach dropped. The entire Vegas strip was in front of her. The sun was still beating down on the world. It had a different feel than look at night with all the neon. Snake had brought her there once. A long bus ride and a low-end hotel on the strip had been the highlight of their relationship.
She was pretty sure that was where Axl had been conceived actually.
Hmm. Funny how life changed in a few short years.
Now she was in a gilded showcase of a hotel that catered to the rich and famous. Her son’s godfather was a millionaire, and her fiancé…well, he was gone.
She placed her palm against the glass. Snake would have loved this kind of place. He longed for the big time, just never wanted to work for it. He was more interested in talking about being a musician than following the passion of being one. Her eyes pricked as she shut out the tangle of cars and towering buildings.
She hated to think badly of him.
Hated that he’d left her with so many questions. Just when she thought their lives were turning around, he went and died on her. He’d left her alone again, this time with a little person who counted on her for everything.
“Okay, we need to book time in the spas.”
Chloe dabbed at her eyes and turned to Jinx. She had two brochures in each hand. Each place looked more expensive than the last. “Did you gain a sugar daddy that I’m not aware of?”
Jinx leaped onto the bed closest to the window. “Live a little.”
“I have to live within a budget.”
“Actually, no, you don’t.” Ivy waved a card propped on the six-foot-long bureau. She tucked her honey-blond hair behind her ear before clearing her throat. “Enjoy yourselves and don’t think about money. The tab is on me. Nick.”
Chloe crossed the room to snatch the note out of Ivy’s hand. “No way.”
Ivy cocked her hip and grinned, her dimples winking. “Yes, way.”
Jinx crowed. “Yes! Salon, spa, and shopping!”
“No. We are not taking advantage of Nick’s generosity.”
“Hell yes, we are.” Jinx bounced off the bed. “When the hell are we going to get the opportunity to be spoiled like this again?”
“This is being spoiled.” Chloe whirled, arms out. “This room is us being spoiled.”
Jinx came up in front of her and gripped her shoulders. “Anything we spend is a thumbnail of a fraction of what rockstars spend on their own.”
Chloe’s stomach flipped. “You don’t know Nick. He’s frugal. A penny-pincher even. There’s no way he would give me an unlimited spending account.”
Ivy lifted a notepad off the dresser. “Funny, that’s what this says. Charge everything to your room number, that’s an order.”
Chloe shook her head. “You’re just making that up.”
Jinx swiped the paper out of her sister’s hand before Chloe could. “Looks like a dude’s handwriting to me.”
“Would you guys stop being so fucking grabby,” Ivy groused.
Jinx shoved the paper at her. Sure enough, it looked like Nick’s handwriting. She was used to it. He sent her a check every damn month, even when she asked him to stop helping them.
Even though she needed every damn penny to keep her head above water. She hated taking it. Hated cashing the check every month. She only used the money for things for Axl and socked away the extra for the future. For her not-such-a-baby’s future.
She was determined to make a good life for him. A life like she’d never had as a child. The daughter of a crackwhore mother and an alcoholic father had not been an ideal start in life.
Her father may have come around to begin the process of father of the year, but her mother never had. She’d split long ago, no forwarding address, no letters of remorse.
Another person who had just up and disappeared in her life. Her mother could be dead for all she knew.
Fuck.
She so couldn’t drink. It always made her sad. At least if she stopped drinking. Right now all she had was a headache and a whole lot of confusion.
Jinx pushed her toward the bathroom. “Get cleaned up. We’re finding our way down to the spa on…” She raced around to the bed she’d left the pamphlets on. “If we’re going all out, then we’re going to floor thirty-six. The Golden Dragon.” She grinned. “I’m getting everything waxed. This chick is getting laid.”
Chloe escaped to the bathroom. “Holy crap.” The room was all marble and shine, with a tub, a separate shower, and a sink big enough to give her kid a bath in.
Even the toilet was locked away from the perfection of the room.
“Unbelievable.” She dropped onto the edge of the tub and pulled out her phone. She flicked her phone awake and shot off a text to Nick.
CA: Are you sure? Were you delusional when you wrote that note? It’s too much.
The little bubbles on her screen came up right away.
NC: I’ve been waiting for this text. Yes. Have fun. Pretend you’re Princess Chloe for three days. Don’t fucking argue with me. Now buzz off, I’m busy.
Chloe laughed. Only Nick could say something so sweet and so rude in the same breath. She was about to switch her phone off when she tapped on the top of her sparkly red case. “Just one call,” she said quietly.
She thumbed over the FaceTime icon and her father’s number. It rang three times before he answered, a harried look on his face.
“Hey, Dad. How’s my kid?”
“He’s currently covered in peanut butter.” He panned the phone away to show her son with his russet hair sticking to the side of his face along with a smear of his snack. His cheeks were covered, and his two teeth gleamed from his bow lips.
“Pee butter, momma!” He slapped his hand on the tray of his high chair, peanut butter and jelly spraying the front of his bib.
“Wow. I see.”
“Miss you!”
Chloe’s belly flipped and her heart shuddered to a stop. “I miss you too, pal.”
He covered his mouth and made a sucking kiss sound and blew her a kiss. “Pee butter!”
Chloe laughed and blew his kisses back.
I will not cry.
I will not cry.
“You are not using FaceTime in there, woman! You’re peeing so we can go!” Jinx called through the door.
Chloe scrunched up her shoulders. “Everything okay there, Dad?”
“I’m going to go dump him and his peanut butter-scented self into the tub. Then we’re going to read books.”
“Books!” Axl screeched.
Her dad laughed. “Yes, books. We’re just fine, cupcake.”
Chloe swallowed down a lump. Her boys were doing just fine without her. Was it bad that she wished they weren’t so put together? She made herself laugh because that was what her father intended. “Okay. Call me if you need me.”
“Have fun, Chloe Bear. Don’t worry about us. Axlsaurus is having a blast. Right, dude?”
“Axaserres is a-okay.”
Chloe laughed at Axl’s bastardization of her dad’s nickname for him. “I love you guys.”
Her dad swung the camera around again. “Say g’night, Axl.”
“Niy-nites, mama.” Again, his sticky fingers made kisses over his lips.
She blew back kisses. “Night, little man.”
Her dad came back into the frame. “We’re fine. Have fun. Pretend you’re young and carefree for a few days.”
“Come on. We’re burning daylight here!” Jinx hollered again.
Chloe sniffed back a few tears. “Gotta go, Dad.”
“Love you, Chloe Bear.”
Man, the mushy stuff was going to kill her, but she liked it too. She blinked back tears and smiled. “Love you too, Daddy Bear,” she murmured, using the old nickname she’d had for him. Every now and then, it made a reappearance, usually when she was feeling out of sorts.
This weekend qualified.
“There’s my girl. See you on Sunday.”
She nodded. “I’l
l check in tomorrow.”
“Lori next door invited us to a picnic. So we’ll be gone all day. But you can check in at bedtime.”
“Right. Wow. Got it all planned, huh?” They didn’t need her even a little bit. She tried to push aside the hurt. She wanted them to have a great time, just not too good a time.
So stupid.
“Yes. We’ll have a full day. So text me later and I’ll see if he’s even still awake.”
“Right.” Chloe nodded. “I will.”
“Bye now.”
“Bye.” She thumbed over the end button and rubbed her phone against her jeans. Yeah, she definitely couldn’t spend the whole weekend thinking about how little her boys needed her.
Nope, not even a little. She stood up and dashed the tears from her eyes. In fact, she was going to make sure she had one helluva time this weekend. She went over to the sink and splashed cold water on her skin. Her golden brown eyes were free of makeup, thanks to a very long day already.
She used the ultra-soft towel hanging from the ring by the sink and blotted her face. “You’re going to have all of the fun, girl.” She opened the door. “All right, bitches! Let’s get this party started.”
“Fuck yeah!” Jinx leaped off her bed. “I just made us appointments.”
“Of course you did,” she said with a laugh.
“So fancy.” Ivy drew her fingers over the leather cushion of the creamy wingback chair in the corner of the room. “I could get used to this.”
“Don’t get too used to it,” Chloe muttered.
“Live a little.” A little wrinkle formed between Ivy’s eyes. “You used to know how to have fun.”
Before the baby. Before Snake died. Before Snake…
No.
She shook her head. There were good times with Snake. Lots of them. She was just swimming in the crappy memories today. And she was tired of it. “I’m so ready to live it up this weekend. This weekend I’m not a mommy, not an ex-fiancée, or a responsible member of society.”
“Now this is more like it.” Jinx linked her arm with Chloe’s.
They all marched toward the door. Chloe meant to stop to get her purse, but Ivy and Jinx hauled her out of the room. They linked arms with Chloe in the middle as they strutted down the hall, and laughter bubbled out of her chest.
God, when was the last time she laughed? At least when it didn’t apply to Axl. He was the light of her life and made every day bearable. But she’d rarely taken time to do anything for herself. Everything was for her little boy.
Nick honestly wanted her to have some fun this weekend, and she would not feel guilty about it.
Ivy slapped the down button on the elevator. The big car was gilded and over the top. The back of the elevator had a huge painting that depicted the shark tanks that were part of the hotel. Everything about this hotel was over the top.
Hell, everything about Vegas was over the top.
For once, she wasn’t going to feel like the little red and gold fish at the bottom of the picture. She was going to be the shark this time.
Ivy and Jinx poured over the pamphlet, picking out things for them to do. She tried to block out the mud masks, and sea wraps. She would do it all.
The doors opened to the thirty-sixth floor. The entire floor was the spa.
Her eyes bulged as Jinx dragged her through the doors.
“Welcome, ladies. Room number?”
“Forty-one-oh-eight,” Ivy said.
Jeeze. She already had it memorized? She wasn’t even sure she had the room key in her pocket, let alone know the number.
A very perky, very tiny blond smiled from behind the jade desk. Chloe was pretty sure it was actually jade, or at least marble of some kind. A large gold and red dragon covered the wall behind her. “Miss Adams, and Miss Johnson…both of you?”
Jinx smiled. “That’s us. Sisters.”
“Perfect. I’ll just need you to scan your room key here.” She pushed out a little reader.
Crap. She didn’t have her purse.
Jinx pulled a spare room key out of her ass pocket. “Here we go.”
Well, at least someone was prepared. The little machine beeped and the woman’s smile grew wider. “Excellent. You have full access to the facilities. Janet, Suzanne, and Emily will be your technicians.”
Three woman seemed to materialize out of nowhere. They all wore seafoam green smocks and khakis, along with discreet gold name tags over the establishment’s embroidered logo. Suzanne came forward, her smile wide in her exotically beautiful face. She had bright gray eyes that seemed to glow from her mocha cream skin. “We’re going to fix you right up.”
God, did she look that bad?
“Don’t even think that thought.” Suzanne clutched Chloe’s fingers. “I can see it in your dark eyes. Really pretty eyes, by the way. Just need a little shaping of those brows.”
She immediately smoothed the pad of her finger over her brows. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually remembered to tweeze.
“Stop. That’s what we’re here for. To pamper you and make you feel as beautiful on the outside as you do on the inside.”
Chloe straightened her shoulders. “Pamper away. I’m not going to argue.”
“My kind of client.” Suzanne led Chloe down a hallway. The walls were a lighter color than their uniform smocks. The air was…odorless. A far cry from the small spa she’d been treated to for Mother’s Day. That had been full of chemicals and an underlying blast of bleach.
She’d appreciated the bleach for the clean factor, but man, the crisp perfect air in this place was to die for.
Chloe looked over her shoulder as Jinx and Ivy were taken to separate rooms.
“Don’t worry. We know that spa days are much more fun as a group. We’re just going to figure out what you need and then you’ll be back in the same room together.”
“I look that worried?”
“A little.”
She sighed. “I’m just not used to all this. Single mom.”
“Oh?” Suzanne’s face brightened as she opened a door at the end of the hallway. “I have a little boy. My husband is home with him right now. We work opposite shifts so he’s always got someone home with him.”
Chloe’s chest tightened. “That was the plan for me too.”
“Oh, believe me, I understand. My husband isn’t my baby’s father—well, not biologically. He totally is his dad though. Ty and Kevin are like two peas in a pod now. Sometimes I get a little jealous.”
She couldn’t imagine what that felt like. It had always been her and Axl. Even her dad, as wonderful as he’d been, seemed like he could melt away any day. Relying on herself was all she’d ever known.
She followed Suzanne across the threshold and hoped to hell her jaw wasn’t physically on the marble floor, because it felt like it had to be.
The room was ridiculous. Bamboo chests dominated one wall with towels stacked on them and muted candles flickered from tall glass columns. Light, tinkling music piped into the room—actually all around the room. As if the walls had their own speakers.
A huge pie-piece shaped chair sat in the corner, piled with pillows in soft sand and sea colors. She crossed to it before she even thought to ask permission. She smoothed her hand over the microfiber material with a sigh. Microfiber hadn’t been a material in her life in a very long time. It definitely didn’t hold up against baby drool, food, or any other manner of baby hazards.
No, she was all cotton and plastic these days.
“Wow.”
“Curl right in there.” Suzanne waved toward the chair.
“If I do, I’ll be unconscious.”
Suzanne laughed and pushed a beautiful robe into Chloe’s hands. “Get undressed and put this on then.”
“All the way undressed?”
Suzanne’s lips twitched. “Right down the skin. I’ve decided you need a massage and a facial to start, then once you’re all malleable, we’re going to sit you in one of our zero gravity ch
airs and let the nail techs de-mommy your hands and feet. Time to pamper yourself, Chloe.”
She didn’t know what a zero gravity chair was, but she was all for it. “Sounds awesome.”
Three hours later, she was sitting in an atrium with tropical plants overflowing from every corner. Huge rocks and a lovely stone bench were set up next to a water feature as large as her entire apartment.
The technicians had set up Chloe and her two girls in triangle formation. Each one of them were stretched out in the special chairs—which were awesome. Some girl by the name of Heather had beat the crap out of her with a massage, followed by a steam shower—which had been glorious. Then another girl attacked her face with a tweezer and pore reducer, ending with some soothing mask that made her feel tight and young for the first time in three years.
Well, tight that didn’t have anything to do with dry skin because she forgot to put moisturizer on.
She had wine-colored toenails and fingernails which made her feel a little vampy—in a good way. They’d touched up her red hair with strips of deep burgundy that made her feel like she was on trend for once. Some girl named Darla had even done her makeup.
Even better, it didn’t look like she’d been attacked by a cosmetology student.
Everything made her feel young and fabulous. Sometimes she forgot she was twenty-three, for goodness sake.
“I think we should go to Light tonight.” Jinx held her phone over her head as she tapped carefully over her screen so she didn’t smudge her purple chrome nails.
“Club?” Chloe asked.
“Yes. Wait until you see this place. It’s a huge pool and outdoor concert area by day and at night a deejay takes over. All of the screens and craziness. God, it looks so cool.”
“We’re from Los Angeles, it’s not like we don’t see cool clubs.” Ivy stretched her arms over head with a sigh. “We were just at one last weekend.”
“This is nothing like that hole.”
Ivy opened one eye. “You loved that hole last weekend.”
“Well, we are getting an upgrade.” Jinx dropped her phone into her robe pocket and draped her hands over the arms of her chair. “And we’re shopping to match.”
