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“Pictures are going to be amazing,” he said cheerfully. “The video should be particularly good.”
“I don’t think I want to know. But glad you’re enjoying yourself.”
He gri
“That’s the rumor.”
“I’ll take it. It flies better than the truth.”
“It is the truth.”
Oliver winked at me. “Sure it is. Now, let’s keep the events moving.”
The single gals were all behind me, so I decided to get back to having fun. Pierre played Mado
Next it was garter time. Back in a chair on the dance floor, Pierre spi
Martini’s turn to do the fake tossing a few times, then for real. Since the guy who caught the garter would put it on the bouquet wi
He enjoyed putting it on Alicia, but then he had the whole “you’re getting married next” thing explained to him. Offered to do the toss over again. Entire crowd said no in unison. Tim explained that Michael wasn’t marrying his girl, and much more hilarity that’s only fu
More dancing, mostly slow songs, and Martini and I made out through most of them. It truly was the best reception ever.
CHAPTER 74
SOMEWHERE ALONG IN THE NIGHT the dance floor got crowded enough that no one was paying attention to us any more, and Martini took my hand and led me off to the side.
Reader joined us, carrying my veil. “I have the gate scheduled for noon tomorrow.”
Martini nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Girlfriend, unless you want to take it with you, I’ll get your bouquet preserved.”
“Anything you’re not taking care of for me?”
He gri
“I think we can handle it.” Martini hugged Reader. “Thanks, James. For everything.” They patted each other’s backs in that man way, then Martini put his arm around my waist.
“James . . .” I moved away from Martini and hugged Reader tightly. “I don’t have any gift for you.” That wasn’t everything I wanted to say to him, but all the things I wanted to say I didn’t want to share with anyone else, not even Martini.
He hugged me back. “It’s okay. This working out is the best present.” He kissed the side of my head and whispered in my ear, “Now Paul and I can get married, too, you know. I do have some skin in this game.”
“You’d have done it if you hadn’t.”
“Sure, but I’m not completely altruistic. Bring me back something nice from Cabo. It’ll give you two a reason to get out of the bedroom—shop for your wedding party while you’re on your honeymoon.”
I laughed. “Will do.” I kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear. “I love you, James. Thank you for always being there for me.”
We finally broke apart, Martini put his arm back around my waist, and Reader hustled us off in the middle of a particularly popular song, “Pe
We got out into the foyer, and Martini cocked his head at me. “So, you want to hit the tables before we hit the room?”
I was kind of surprised at the offer. “Erm . . . well . . .”
He gri
“You don’t mind? You’re not hurt?”
“Nope. You’ve wanted to gamble since we got here. And dressed like this, you should be Lady Luck personified.” He scooped me up and carried me off. We got a lot of looks, lots of comments, all of them fu
Martini spotted a somewhat empty craps table and set me down there.
“Lady shooter!” the stickman called. “Just married lady shooter!” He slid the dice to me, as the table started to fill up. Martini tossed some cash down, but he stood behind me.
Did the thing my Nana had taught me, moved the dice to show seven, tapped them against the table three times, and rolled.
“Seven! Wi
“Jeff, can you handle the betting? As in, get most of that money off the table?”
He laughed and reached down and put a more reasonable number of chips on the pass line.
Did the dice thing again, got another seven. Table started to get excited and loud, more people shoved over and in. Rolled another five sevens in a row. Started to wonder if Martini was using hyperspeed on the dice but decided not to care. I was wi
“Go shooter!” The voice was familiar. I looked at the other end of the table. My grandparents, all four of them, were there. Nana Sadie laughed at my expression. “Taught her everything she knows about the dice, folks. Roll ’em, kitten!”
Shrugged, did the dice thing, got an eleven this time. “Wi
Rolled again, finally rolled a number. “Eight, the number is eight. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.”
I avoided looking at the money on the table, particularly the money Martini was putting on and around. I wanted to stay in the zone. Dice slid over to me, the stickman turned them to double fours for me. Did the tap, tossed the dice. Got the hard eight. The table went nuts.
I ended up rolling for over forty-five minutes. Finally crapped out and apologized. Had chips tossed to me from most of the table. Nana Sadie got the dice next, held onto them for fifteen minutes. The gambling force was strong in my family. Interestingly, Martini had pulled most of our money off the table both for my last roll and Nana’s. “Table’s cold,” he said in my ear.
I didn’t argue, just gathered up our chips, gave the dealers each a nice tip, then we left the table. My grandparents followed our lead. “Where to next?” Nono Dom asked.
I looked around. We were near a roulette table. I never played roulette unless I wanted to sit down. “Go ahead,” Martini said.
I shrugged and put some chips down on double zero. It was the longest shot around, but I didn’t care. Nana Sadie and Nona Maria followed suit.
I watched the wheel spin with no expectations of wi
I did, and they had to exchange them for the pretty black chips because I couldn’t carry what I had. I looked up at Martini. “I want to cash out now.”