Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
“I won’t have sex with you.”
“Good. I won’t have sex with you either,” I countered. “But you’re moving in with me. I love my house.”
His eyes got cartoonishly big. “We have to live together?”
“Husbands typically do…”
“Why not my apartment?”
“I called it first.”
“Rock, paper, scissors?” Parker asked.
I stood and walked over to him. He looked at me, unsure and cutely annoyed. “Best two out of three, but I’m warning you, I’m a rock, paper, scissors champion.”
He didn’t comment, and we went the first round—I was rock, he was scissors. “Damn it!” Parker cursed. Round two went to me as well. “I hate you.”
“So I’ve heard. Does that mean we’re doing this?”
He covered his face with his hands and screamed into them. “Sorry. I had to get that out. We have ground rules. And…”
“And we’ll figure all that out later. Looks like what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay here at all.”
“Fuck my life,” Parker replied.
Yeah, I heard him there. Fuck mine too.
But a part of me that was maybe as irresponsible as I tried to pretend I wasn’t, that part thought this would be fun.
CHAPTER SIX
Parker
Elliott and I sat down and came up with a story. I took notes. He didn’t. Somehow that didn’t surprise me, but I was trying to trust him on this. We were going to say we’d met a year ago—truth. Dated for a few weeks—not true, but the reasoning behind that was my ex. We’d said we were dating back then, and if he caught wind of our romance, we didn’t want any loose ends.
So we’d broken up but stayed friends—also not true, clearly. But during our friendship, feelings grew, blah, blah, blah. All the things I’d hoped would really happen to me—meeting someone, getting close to them without realizing we were falling for each other until poof, we were in love. Elliott had amazingly been celibate the last couple of months, and while Declan, Sebastian, Marcus, and Corbin knew I’d been on a no-date/no-sex journey, I’d never mentioned it on The Vers or to anyone else.
We came to Vegas together, realized we were in love and wanted to be together forever but didn’t want a huge wedding, and now we were husband and husband.
He’d called his parents and told them yes, he was married, then lied his lying face off by saying he was head over heels in love with me and that he would bring me over to meet them.
Which I hadn’t thought of…the fact that I had to meet the parents, but of course I would meet the parents. I’d never done that before, and now, the first time I did, it would be a sham.
I was trying not to dwell on that.
My dad didn’t pay much attention to the internet, so I figured he hadn’t heard and likely wouldn’t until I told him, but the first thing I had to do was tell the guys. That, I wasn’t looking forward to.
I sent them a group text, telling them I was leaving Vegas and we needed to meet at Marcus’s as soon as I got back, gave them a time, then put my phone on Do Not Disturb.
Elliott had left a little over thirty minutes before, and I was already in my car, heading back to Santa Monica.
My eyes were continually drawn to the ring on my finger—which was fucking horrid, by the way. I was a married man. The official marriage certificate would arrive at Elliott’s house in two to three weeks. Apparently, even drunk us decided his house was where we’d live.
This was supposed to be one of the happiest times of my life, but really, all I could feel was like a fraud…a liar…and sad. But I was also the type to make the best of a bad situation, so that’s what I was going to try to do.
It took me four and a half hours to drive to Marcus’s house. I was tired, hungover, and wanted nothing more than to be surrounded by my friends. I also wanted to hit the gas pedal and drive out of there and not talk to them until this was over.
I wasn’t surprised to see everyone’s cars already in front of Marcus’s house when I arrived. The second I hit the porch step, the door pulled open and three people stood there staring at me. “You could have brought Sebastian,” I said. I didn’t want him to feel left out. He’d taught my best friend how to accept love from someone other than us, and I would always be grateful for that.
“Babe…what happened?” Declan asked instead of answering me. I closed my eyes, and before I knew it, I was pulled into Declan’s arms. “I’m going to kill him.”
“It’s not just his fault. We were both there.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t kill him,” Marcus added.
“Please don’t make me a widower,” I said, trying to make light of the situation. “Murder him after the divorce, at least.”