Page 48 of #Moonstruck

“What I need right now is some really great food. I need loud chaos so I can forget.”

“If there’s one thing Vegas does exceptionally well, it’s loud chaos.” He asked the driver to stop. He took me into the nearest casino.

We ate a restaurant where the waitstaff fell all over themselves to serve him. Once we were seated at a table near the door where we could hear the casino, I noticed the menu didn’t have any prices listed.

“Don’t worry about it.” He had to yell when I pointed it out. “This is a date, remember? Really great food is coming your way.”

I ordered a steak, and he had some kind of lasagna made out of vegetables. He spent the entire dinner telling me story after story about people in the industry, completely distracting me.

It was perfect.

After Ryan paid the bill, we went to the cage cashier, and he handed me a bunch of chips. I had no idea how much they were worth, as I’d never gambled before. Fox got us into a VIP area. I recognized a movie star seated at one of the tables. I tried to remember his name. Unfortunately, most of my pop-culture knowledge was stuck in the 1980s, along with my mother’s brain. He was the one who just got married. Chance or Chase something. The woman he had his arm around had to be his wife. They looked happy and very much in love.

We sat down at the blackjack table with them, and Ryan said hello. He made the introductions to Chase and Zoe Covington. We chatted for only a few minutes. They were in town to do some fund-raising for an ocean-conservation charity they had just started together, and they offered to send some materials to Ryan. They left shortly after we arrived, arms wrapped around each other.

I tried to imagine Ryan and me being like that. Having those kinds of feelings for each other, and I couldn’t.

I’d never played blackjack before, so both the dealer and Ryan tried to help me with my cards. He had the waitstaff bring me a big bowl of ice cream, and I discovered that gambling was pretty fun when it wasn’t your money you were spending.

Nothing but utterly loud chaos, making it impossible for me to dwell on my father sighting.

Then it was time for us to go back to the bus. We were driving up to Northern California, then on to Oregon and Washington, spending two to three days at each spot.

It was unbelievably awkward when we pulled into the hotel’s parking lot, right next to our bus. I’d never gone out on a date before where we both ended up in the same place at the end of the evening.

We went into the lounge, where most of the band and my brothers were watching a movie about giant robots. There were a few strange glances, but we went into the bunk alley, past a snoring Anton, and stopped at my bunk.

“Everybody saw us on our date,” I offered. That had to be helpful, especially if they were gossips who would pass the word along.

“They did.” Ryan was so tall and broad that he took up the entire hallway. Like there was nowhere for me to go and nothing for me to do but just give in. The temperature rose as he moved closer to me. “Now what?”

The way his gaze dropped to my lips, I knew what he hoped I’d say. I fought off the tingles. “Now bed.”

“Excellent idea.”

Good grief. “No, me in mine and you in yours.”

“That’s not nearly as much fun.” He looked like a kid who’d been told he wouldn’t be getting a puppy for Christmas. I wanted to laugh at his forlorn expression.

“My brothers tend to punch first and ask questions later. Another delightful thing we inherited from our father. They would probably remove all of your favorite body parts.”

“That would be a shame for both you and me.”

“Somebody should wash your mind out with soap.”

He held up both hands, laughing. “Hey, I’m not the one who started it.”

“Then I’ll be the one to end it. Good night, Ryan.” I grabbed my carry-on bag and shooed him away so I could go into the bathroom and change.

As he left, someone grabbed my knee, and I yelped. Cole was on the bottom bunk. “That was ... disturbing.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” I told him, knowing I was furiously blushing. It was one thing for Ryan to flirt and tease in private; it was a whole different ball of wax to know it had taken place in front of a judgy brother. “Speaking of things I didn’t want to hear tonight, did you know our father was in Las Vegas?”

The guilty expression on Cole’s face told me everything I needed to know. “How did you find out?” he asked.

“Guess where Ryan took me on our date tonight? To the club he was playing.”

“Did you talk to him?”

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