She laughed and tipped her face up to the brightening sky. ‘Gawwwwwd, Brandon. Will you still love me when I’m so fat you have to roll me from room to room?’
They’d played this game all night. Will you still love me when …? It was sort of silly, seeing who could top the other, but he liked it. It meant she was considering the rest of their lives together, and, though she hadn’t come right out and said, yes, she’d marry him, he was more certain than ever that’s where all this was leading.
‘Of course. Will you still love me when I lose my hair?’
‘I thought you were going to grow hair.’
‘In my ears,’ he said. ‘I’ll probably go bald on top.’
She pretended to consider it. ‘OK. So long as the hair in your ears is long enough to do a comb-over.’
He cringed even as he laughed. She was rarely this silly. ‘Dude. Gross.’
She slapped his arm. ‘Do not call me dude!’
‘You and Kate call each other dude all the time!’
‘Kate,’ Leah said archly, ‘is my bestie. And a woman. Women can call each other dude. You do not call me dude. I have a vagina, not a penis.’
He slid his hand over her ass for a squeeze. ‘Mmmm … vagina.’
She shifted until she was between him and the railing, her ass nice, round and shoved up tight against his crotch. Leah leant against him. ‘Yes. I will still love you when you’re bald.’
‘Good.’
They swayed a little. Exhaustion should’ve weighted his eyes, but he’d gone past the point of being tired into being hyper-awake. Everything seemed too bright, too colourful.
‘It’s kinda like being high,’ he said out loud.
‘What is?’
‘Being this tired.’
She twisted to look up at him. ‘Sorry we stayed awake?’
‘Nope.’ Brandon watched people going in and out of the hotel. People just starting their days, heading to work.
‘What do you know of being high, anyway?’ she said sternly.
He grinned. ‘Garsh, ma’am, not a thing.’
‘Uh huh.’ She pushed her butt back against his crotch again. ‘What would your mother say?’
‘My mom and dad were kids in the sixties,’ Brandon said. ‘I’m pretty sure they know about pot.’
‘I can’t picture that,’ she told him.
Brandon laughed. ‘Leah, you know … my parents aren’t as squeaky clean as you think.’
She was silent for a moment. ‘Your parents are wonderful.’
He hugged her. ‘And I told you, they love you.’
‘Yeah.’ Her shoulders lifted and fell in a sigh.
‘Leah …’
‘Yeah, baby.’ She yawned.
‘We could do it here, if you want.’
She looked at him again with a naughty grin. ‘Right here? On the sidewalk? I’m not sure we could get away with it.’
He turned her in his arms to face him. ‘No. Not that. I mean … we could get married here.’
One of the things she’d never said but that he knew was that Leah didn’t want a lot of pomp and circumstance. It wasn’t that she didn’t like being the centre of attention – she loved that, actually, when it was the right sort of attention, and from him. And he knew it wasn’t that she had any qualms about planning an event like a wedding, because that too wasn’t anything that intimidated her. He simply knew her well enough to know she didn’t necessarily want something traditional like a ceremony where they’d have to get up in front of people and exchange vows. And he knew it was because no matter what she ever said, part of her would always wonder if people were questioning their relationship.
‘In Las Vegas?’ Her brow furrowed.
‘Yeah. People do it all the time.’ He actually had no idea how much preparation went into getting married in one of those chapels, or even if they had enough time. But if Britney Spears could do it, he was pretty sure they could.
‘Oh, Brandon.’ She put her forehead against his chest.
‘What? No?’ Shit, had he screwed it all up?
Leah looked up at him, her eyes dancing with laughter but her mouth holding back on the smile. ‘I love you so much.’
He let out a breath. ‘OK, good.’
‘But I don’t want to marry you in Las Vegas.’
‘OK.’ This was a better answer than saying she didn’t want to get married at all.
Leah shook her head. ‘No. We’ll have to have a wedding. Reception. The whole thing. Kate in a bridesmaid’s dress, oooh, she’ll kill me.’
He didn’t want to admit until she’d said it how much he’d wanted the whole shebang himself. ‘Really?’
She nodded, solemn. ‘Yes. Really. I’m sure your mom will want a big, splashy wedding.’
‘It’s not about what my mom wants.’
‘I know that. But … it’s what you want, isn’t it?’ She studied him seriously. ‘I know it’s what would make you happy.’
His hands settled on her hips. ‘Yeah. I’d like a wedding.’ He paused, thinking. ‘Does that make me a pussy?’
She laughed. ‘No. I don’t think so. It makes you very sweet.’
He groaned. ‘Oh, God, that’s worse than being a pussy.’
She poked his chest. ‘No. It is not. I love that you’re so traditional. I love that you want to get up there in front of everyone we know and wear a monkeysuit and dance the Chicken Dance and toss the garter and all that. I love that about you. Well, that and your huge, gigantic, immense …’
He was already grinning before she finished.
‘Ego,’ Leah said with another poke.
He caught her hand before she could poke him a third time. ‘Ouch.’
Her other hand snuck between them to give him a quick fondle. ‘And this, of course.’
He looked around, hoping they were alone enough for her to keep stroking him, but of course now that the sun was up even more people were bustling about, and they were still on a public sidewalk. Leah held back a yawn that triggered one of his. She laughed.
‘Let’s have something to eat and head back to the suit to shower and pack up. We have to return your tux, too.’
Brandon sighed. ‘Back to reality.’
She flashed him one of those
