10 Ways to Steal Your Lover (11 page)

 
      
“Well, son, I’ve married a lot of people
in my time. Forty years in this town, you get to knowing the good eggs from the
bad, if you know what I mean. And in all that time, I’ve never seen anyone as
in love as the two of you. Never seen anyone as off their asses either and in
Vegas, that’s saying something. But I knew you two would find your way back here
eventually. If nothing else, you were gonna want your hat back.”

 
      
Kane perked up. “You have my hat?”

 
      
Delilah’s smack to his shoulder stole
some of the excitement from his relief, but Kane could only grin at her.

 
      
“Hey, I love that hat. You know how hard
it is to find one that really fits, no matter what?”

 
      
She rolled her eyes, elbowing him over so
she could step closer to Santa, er, Norman. “What legal kinks are you talking
about?”

 
      
“Oh, signatures, that kinda thing. Usually,
we have everyone sign the license first, then come into the chapel they chose
and handle the ceremony. It was pretty busy last night and a couple of wedding
parties got into a brawl or something. She only left you for a second or two
but you were in such a hurry to get this little girl hitched you just grabbed
the license and hustled her over. Vera figured you’d changed your minds. I did
my part, you did your I dos and then you ran like preschoolers back out the
front door. It was pretty funny, actually. We got the whole thing on a DVD for
you, just waiting.”

 
      
“You made a DVD?” Kane decided not to be
concerned at Delilah’s slightly outraged question. It wasn’t like most people
were happy to hear about incriminating evidence.

 
      
“Sure, it was part of your package. I had
our guy add the security surveillance footage at the end for you, kind of as a
bonus. We didn’t notice the lack of a second signature until she was processing
all the paperwork for the night.”

 
      
“So…we’re not actually married?” Kane
wasn’t sure how to take the squeak in Delilah’s voice. There was some comfort
in the way she grabbed his hand, though.

 
      
He closed his eyes, swallowing. Damn it.
If they were legally married, he thought he’d have some extra time to convince
her. To show her the way they could be together. At the very least the time it
took to get legally untangled. Not being married at all, though… Now she could
pretend the night before was just a strange dream, a mistake.

 
      
It had been many things, but the last
thing he’d ever be able to take was hearing her call it a mistake.

 
      
“Well, he’s not, but you are,” Norman
answered, yanking Kane out of his mini-pity party.

 
      
Delilah blinked. First at Norman, then at
Kane, then back at Norman. “Excuse me?”

 
      
“You signed the license and the
certificate. He only signed the certificate. Without the license, though, it’s
not legal. So I guess you’re not actually married either, in the legal sense,
but that’s what you’re here to fix, right? all we’d really need is for your
young man here to sign and then file it at the courthouse. Then, vwah-lah, onto
your happily ever after.” Norman beamed now, no doubt thinking this was the
best news since Christmas.

 
      
“Vwah-lah,” Kane repeated Norman’s
mangled French duly. One signature and he could trap the woman of his dreams
into a marriage she didn’t want.

 
      
Fabulous.

 
      
He looked down at Delilah, meeting her
stunned gaze. This was one of the rare times when he had no idea what she was
thinking. For all that he’d laid his heart out for her, she had yet to say one
word about her feelings for him. If she even had any. Wanting him and loving
him were two different things. Just because he was just like his grandfather
didn’t mean she was a thing like his grandmother. Carrying her off until she
agreed to be his wife wasn’t going to work this time. Not in this era and not
with this woman. Not even seduction would make Delilah do something she didn’t
want to do. Which was why it had taken Craig three years to drag her to the
altar.

 
      
How did Kane think he was going to get
away with it in a single weekend?

 
      
“Could you tell me something?” Delilah
asked softly.

 
      
“Sure thing, Mrs. Wilkensen.”

 
      
They both started at that title, but it
sounded damn good on her.

 
      
“Who chose the sky thing?”

 
      
Norman’s smile impossibly grew. “You mean
Starry Night?”

 
      
“The galaxy thing, with the stars
everywhere.”

 
      
Kane frowned down at her. “I thought you
loved stars.” She’d gone to how many astronomy classes to see them. For a while
there, he’d thought she was going to settle on the topic for serious study, but
she’d finally admitted to him that she just loved looking at them.

 
      
“I do.”

 
      
“You told me you always wanted a night
wedding, so you could see them.” That had baffled him about her and Craig’s
wedding plans. Early afternoon hadn’t fit at all with what she’d said she
wanted in several conversations they’d had over the years.

 
      
“I did.” So why was she looking at him
like he was crazy?

 
      
“Your husband did the picking. Actually,
it was such a great effect, we’re making “The Night Garden” an option for our
predesigned packages. Usually, that sky is for the sci-fi fans who wanna get
married in space. Figured it all fit you two just perfect.”

 
      
“Yeah?” Kane asked, still unable to pull
his gaze from Delilah’s. “How’s that?”

 
      
“Heads in sky, feet on the ground. No way
you two knew what you were doing and that’s a fact, but I let you go through
with it because I have a feeling it wasn’t ever gonna happen if either of you
were in your right minds. You two got the mark of folks that let petty things
like responsibility and other people’s feelings get in the way of what’s
right.”

 
      
They both turned to look at Norman then,
incredulity a feeling Kane knew was coursing through both of them.

 
      
Norman only shrugged. “Like I said, forty
years of marrying people, you see a lot of things. No matter how many people
have passed through my doors and how many reasons they all did it, nothing has
ever made me sadder than the people that want to, but don’t. Or think they
can’t. Life is rough enough, you know? Having the right person by your side is
about the only thing that makes it worthwhile. Going without that person just
because there’s some obstacles in the way? Because it’s the noble thing to do?
I don’t know about you, but that just plain sucks to me. Love ain’t about being
noble. Love is about being whole. Trust me. Noble comes in its own time and
it’s usually miserable when it gets here.”

 
      
Kane had the distinct feeling Norman was
talking to him and if the knots in his gut had anything to say about it, Norman
was right.

***

       
The
ride back to the casino was silent and Delilah had the worst urge to bite her
nails, a habit she’d kicked years ago. Kane hadn’t let go of her other hand,
his thumb absently sliding over the bands of the rings she wore. But he hadn’t actually
looked at her since they got in the limo and he hadn’t said a word since Norman
had given him his hat and the certificate to sign. Brooding, as only Kane
could. Of course, as a result, Kane’s last words kept reverberating through her
mind like a clock striking midnight.
     

 
      
“Is it all right if we think about it
before signing it?”

 
      
We. But he didn’t mean we. He meant I.

 
      
Wasn’t this the man who’d been declaring
his claim on her since they woke up wrapped in each other? The closet romantic
who thought an inebriated wedding was true and binding? Why hadn’t he jumped to
sign the certificate and make this marriage as real as the one in his head?

 
      
The minutes dragged on, the quiet
dragging just as slowly across her nerves. Kane’s silences had never bothered
her before, but this one felt different. Full of questions and no answers and
it was making her skin twitch. His hat sat low on his brow, making it hard to
see what his eyes and figure out what he was thinking. He wouldn’t talk until he
was ready to talk, she’d learned that a long time ago. A girl was better off
pounding her head on the wall than trying to get him to open up after he’d
clammed shut, because she wouldn’t get a word out of him.

 
      
Just when she couldn’t take anymore, her grip
on his hand tugging before she could stop herself and drawing his distant gaze,
the car came to a stop under the portico outside the casino.

 
      
The corner of Kane’s mouth lifted in a
wan approximation of his smile. He opened the door, but instead of being
relieved to escape the car, she absolutely didn’t want to budge.

 
      
“Time to go, Del.”

 
      
“No, it’s time to talk.”

 
      
“We can talk upstairs.”

 
      
“No, you’ll find some way to shut me down
up there to. Tel Pete to keep driving or something, but we need to talk.”

 
      
A slow blink and a slower sigh.

 
      
Fine, they’d have to do this now. “Why
didn’t you sign the paper?” she asked, her other hand wrapping around his to
keep him where he was. “You could have just signed it there and let them file
it.”

 
      
“Del—”

 
      
“No, tell me. You said you wanted me. You
wanted to be married to me. You wanted to be with me. But you’re not signing
it. I don’t get it. What happened? What am I missing?”

 
      
The expression that had him closing his
eyes as if he were in pain had better not be regret. “Del—”

 
      
He never got any further than that,
though. The door was suddenly pulled wide and since his other hand was still holding
onto it, Kane all but fell out of the car as two very unlikely faces came into
view.

 
      
“Dad?” Delilah winced as she realized her
voice came out as a shrill near-scream.

 
      
Strangely, it didn’t drown out Kane’s
quiet tone as he acknowledged the other man staring at them. “Craig.”

 
      
Kane turned his head to glance at her one
more time, some message in his eyes she couldn’t understand, then he did the
last thing she wanted and got out of the car.

 
      
Dread pooled in her bely before
tightening into a solid block of jagged edges. If her father was here, that
meant her mother was here, no doubt behind Craig. And there was no way her
grandmother was going to miss out on this debacle, which mean Rainbow had to be
somewhere nearby. There would be yelling, crying, accusations, possibly even a small
heart attack. Definitely an ambulance for someone, though whether it would be
her mother or Kane, Delilah couldn’t guess. The only thing sure right now was
that it was going to be ugly. And loud. Very, very loud.

 
      
How much would it cost to get Pete to
peel out and drive her very, very far from here?

 
      
Sadly, it didn’t matter. all the money
was upstairs in the closet. Which meant she’d have to face the firing squad
whether she liked it or not. Whether Kane wanted to be her husband or not.
Somehow, listening to her parents freak out and facing Craig’s anger wasn’t
half as scary as being left adrift without Kane.

 
      
This, she realized as she slid to the
edge of the seat and put her foot on the road outside, must be what doom feels
like.