Page 11 of A Winter's Wedding

It didn’t take long for the representative to inform him that the next available flight out of Vegas to anywhere in the Northeast wouldn’t be until Friday at the earliest.

“How do you feel about taking Margarete up on her offer to stay here?” Leo said. “We can’t get a flight home until Friday.”

“Friday!” America said from the bathroom where it sounded like she was rearranging pots and pans and not throwing a few plastic toiletries into a bag. “That’s a whole week. What are we supposed to do?”

“Hide out in Vegas and ignore the fact that we have to tell everyone coming to our wedding that we accidently got married already?”

“You’re not funny, Leopold Thorpe.”

“Yes, I am, America Thorpe. But why shouldn’t we have our honeymoon here?”

She poked her head out of the door and glared at him. “We can’t just ignore the fact that we’re getting married next Saturday, and everyone is counting on us.” She ducked back inside the bathroom, and he heard the metal shower hooks scrape along the curtain bar. “How long is it to drive home? Two days?”

“Maybe, if we drove all day and all night.” Leo checked the map app, and it showed three different routes. “The fastest route would bring us straight through the bad weather, so if we go the southern way, it’ll take us four days at best.”

“Sounds better than waiting here and driving myself crazy losing all sense of control over this wedding fiasco.”

“Really? Staying here and lounging in a beautiful hotel room with my new bride for a few days, sounds like heaven to me,” Leo said.

America came out of the bathroom, ignoring his reasoning, wearing light blue jeans and a white tee. She had twisted her long, dark hair into a knot on top of her head the way he liked so that he could see the length of her neck. She smiled at his smile. “When can we leave?”

“After I kiss you properly,” Leo said, settling for a single moment since the question of staying at the hotel and waiting for a flight seemed resolved for the time being.

He wrapped his fingers around her waist and used his grip to pull her against his body. Her hand rested on his chest as she bit her lower lip. There was no need to say anything. Without an audience or prying eyes, he was free to show her how happy he was that she was now his wife.

America arched up on her toes and their lips touched, sending little shocks through his body. As they joined in a passionate kiss, heat traveled up his neck and to the tips of his fingers. She was pliable in his arms and let out a little moan as he flicked his tongue gently against hers. The kiss was everything he needed to belay his own concerns. She loved him, he was sure the rest would work itself out.

She was the first to pull away. “Let’s get going.”

“I’ll get a rental car,” Leo said. This road trip was happening whether he wanted it to or not. “If we leave now, we should be able to get to the Colorado border tonight.”

Chapter7

America looked out the windshield of the rented Range Rover and spotted Leo walking into the gas station. She had put him on snack duty while she was on call-home-and-explain duty. Talking to Carol would be easy. As the woman that kept Christmas Cove together, Carol knew everything about everything. People knew it was better to just tell her things up front and save the trouble of having to dig out of a hole later. Calling her parents was something America wished to avoid for as long as possible and was relieved that they were unreachable on a cruise for a few more days.

After a few rings, Carol answered. “America, is that you? You’re back already?”

“Hi, Carol. There’s been a change of plans, and I needed to let you know something.” America hesitated, not wanting to let down the woman who had become like a grandmother to her over the past year. “Leo flew out to Las Vegas to surprise me for Valentine’s Day, and well…” she paused not knowing how to say the thing that she didn’t quite believe herself.

Carol cleared her throat in the silence. “This sounds ominous. Is everything okay?”

“No. I mean to say, that we are both fine. Good, even. But we accidentally…”

“Is this about the wedding?” Carol hid a giggle in her throat. “You’re not getting cold feet, are you? The whole town is buzzing about the big day.”

“They are?” America knew they were, but hearing Carol admit it made it sound truer.

It was also true that the news of the wedding had brought more joy and excitement to the village than any other event had all year, except when the heavy spring rain added to the snowmelt and temporarily refilled the cove. It had been dried up for so long, people forgot what it felt like to dive in, swim, float, and splash. Now, with the wedding rapidly approaching in only one week’s time, and excitement building, she didn’t have it in her to tell Carol the truth yet.

“Our flight got canceled, and we decided to drive home. It’ll take a few days, but the earliest they could reschedule our flight was going to be Friday. This way, we should roll back to town Tuesday some time. There’s still so much to do and I don’t want to waste the week away.”

“Well, we can help out, if you need anything in the meantime. Where are you now? Still in Vegas?”

“We’re at a stop somewhere in Utah already,” America said. “Scrubby bushes and red dirt, that’s all I see around here.”

“Missing the Cove?” Carol said.

“You know I am.”

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