“I remember that one,” Cruz said and she looked up to see him glancing down at the page. He chuckled. “You danced like you had two left feet while I was busy keeping Bev’s hands…above the waist. She definitely wasn’t shy in offering her congratulations.”
“Bev? You’re kidding.” She laughed and studied the photo a little more carefully. Sure enough, in what looked like a moment when Cruz and Lenny were about to hand off the women to each other, Bev’s hand was planted directly on Cruz’s buttock.
Payton dissolved into giggles. Tears slipped from her eyes, happy tears, the tension of the past few days all but forgotten. Cruz looked at her uncertainly.
She grabbed his arm, trying to explain. “When my mother envisioned her only daughter’s big day, she planned for twelve-piece orchestras and Champagne. A professional photographer and a six layer tiered cake. Not mariachi bands and tequila or Kodak instant cameras and churros—which were delicious, now that I can remember them.” She paused and took in a breath. “Then again—neither did I.” Her stomach quivered with more giggles and she gave into another belly laugh.
This time, Cruz actually joined her. Her body seemed to be relaxing under the endorphins flooding her, a euphoric feeling of calm settling over her.
Cruz nodded to the album. “Let’s see some more.”
For the next few minutes, with Cruz keeping his attention on the road in between glimpses of their wedding album, they studied memories from a night that neither one of them seemed to be able to remember in full. Cruz shook his head at one where he was on his knees in front of Payton, his hand under her skirt. “What am I doing in that one?”
A rush of heat warmed her face as she remembered and explained, “I think Patty had tied a handkerchief in place of a garter around my leg and was insisting you…remove it. This was taken just before you, uh, used your teeth to pull it down my leg.”
“Now that should be a memory I have emblazoned in my mind,” he said in a decidedly wistful tone.
She smacked him and laughed again. “Well, you weren’t the one mortified by the gazes of all the lecherous old men trying to catch a glimpse of more than I wanted to give them.”
Reaching the end of the book, she closed it, her hand resting on the cover. That same melancholy feeling hit her.
For a night that Cruz had summarized as nothing but a mistake, memory holes and all, it was one of the best nights of her life.
An image of Cruz tickling her under her rib as they lay together, tired and spent, in the early morning came back to her.
Maybe even the best night of her life.
Chapter Eleven
It was just after noon when the taxi they’d taken from the airport—where they’d dropped off their rental car—pulled up to the front of the hotel. Cruz paid the driver and helped Payton climb out, a courtesy that came easily to him.
Not so easy was knowing he had to relinquish her arm, and let her go.
He had thought that when he reached this moment, as he handed off the duties of sole protector of Payton to her friend and his family, that he would be feeling overwhelming relief that she wasn’t his to worry about. Instead, there was a sense of sadness. Of loss. Of a chapter ending that had been—although unexpected—strangely fun and exciting.
He followed Payton inside and up to the check-in counter. Despite the hangover from hell that they both had been recovering from most of the morning—who knew those Bueno bars would be the prefect hangover cure?—he was unable to keep his eyes off her.
Her face makeup-free but bright and glowing, those green eyes that looked at him with a little bit of wonder and surprise the past few hours, she was beautiful. Just as beautiful now as when he danced with her under the moonlight in that dress, or later, when he’d held her in his arms naked and resplendent. When he’d thought she was and was going to remain…his wife.
At least, until morning came and the haze of alcohol was wiped away with sobriety. And needling doubt.
They passed a fountain and a bar where people were leaving with tall fruit-rimmed drinks. The hotel attendant was already checking in another couple, so they hung back and waited. The silence between them was now painful, and neither of them made eye contact with the other as they instead feigned interest in the hotel’s bright orange toned walls, the high-pitched ceilings, and the people passing through the lobby.
“We’re here at last,” Payton said brightly, but the words sounded forced. She was trying to fill the silence that had grown between them over the past couple hours as they arrived closer to their destination.
“Even made it in time for the lunch with half an hour to spare.” His own words sounded equally hollow.
The hotel clerk, a younger guy in his twenties with decent English skills, motioned them over. Cruz stood next to Payton, waiting patiently as she checked in first. News that their luggage had arrived the day before and was already up in their rooms brought a squeal of excitement from Payton, and she reached her hand out and squeezed his arm before stopping, almost uncertain, and then pulling away. “Sorry.”
Right. Payton and he were already falling back into their usual awkwardness.
The next words from the hotel agent froze them both to their spot. “It appears your mother also arrived a couple of hours ago, Ms. Vaughn. She wanted me to relay that you’re to call her immediately on arrival as she was hoping to, uh, stay in your room. Of course, under hotel policy, we couldn’t release the rooms to Mrs. Vaughn, regardless of your relationship.”
Cruz looked down to see how Payton was handling the news. Her fingernails almost dug into the surface of the desk where she’d been resting them.
“My mother is here.” But it was a statement rather than a question. “Of course she is.” She looked up at Cruz, her eyes imploring him now. “Cruz, can I have a moment alone with you?”
He nodded to the hotel clerk and they stepped away from the desk.
Her voice was low and laced with panic. “Under no circumstances can my mother know that we shared the same room last night—let alone…well, everything else. Even taking away the whole marriage thing,” she gulped and took a breath before starting again, “I couldn’t bare to have her go into a lengthy lecture of the impropriety of my lewd and immoral behavior. Sleeping with a man who wasn’t—in my mother’s eyes—my fiancé.”
“Of course, Payton. I’m not usually in the habit of parading the details of my private life to anyone,” he added, his voice cool. It sounded an awful lot like Payton was ashamed of being with a guy like him. That he was someone to be ashamed of. And it cut to the quick. “It will remain our secret.”
A family of four arrived in the lobby and started toward the desk. “Look. Why don’t we both get settled into our rooms, take a moment to relax, and remember why we’re here today. To watch the two people we care about really do this marriage thing the right way. We can talk later.”
She nodded but her eyes were already unfocused, and her shoulders seemed so tight and tense that he was afraid she’d shatter to the touch. But they stepped forward and continued with the registration. They were just getting their key cards handed to them when a familiar voice cried out for them across the lobby.
And like that, their crazy, unexpected trip, a trip that had brought him more adventure and excitement, the feeling that he was fully alive, came to an official end.