The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,348

grabbed her left hand and kissed her wedding ring. “Flash this at any man who gets within six feet of you.”

She laughed.

“You think I’m joking. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known and I’m not the only one who notices. When we get home I plan to get you a huge-ass diamond to blind any man who comes near you.”

She tried to keep a straight face. “Huge-ass. I think I heard they added that to the list of diamond sizes.”

He looked into her eyes, all teasing gone. “I love you, Libby.”

That caught her attention. “Noah, what aren’t you telling me?”

He hesitated and then flashed her a smile. “In full disclosure, my apartment is a total bachelor pad. I think I even left dirty laundry on the floor when I was throwing my clothes around in my haste to pack. I hope it doesn’t scare you off.”

“Just take me home and we’ll sort it all out when we get there.”

He gave her one last look, the seriousness in his eyes scaring her, and left the room.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The beauty of Las Vegas was it was warmer than Kansas City, but the wind still nipped through the weave of Libby’s sweater. She hugged it tight, wishing Noah was with her to keep her warm. But she knew this meeting was more important than he was letting on. Why hadn’t he told her about it sooner? When had he found out the guy was in Vegas?

She lingered in front of the fountains, waiting for them to turn on. She knew they were on timers, but they seemed to be lagging behind.

While she waited, she photographed people on the strip and found herself concentrating on couples. There were two distinct groups—those who were simply there together and those who wanted to be with their significant others. The ones in the former group filled her with sadness. With one couple, the husband wore a look of irritation while his wife stared at him with a yearning that broke Libby’s heart. But there were others. A wife on her phone while her husband lagged behind. And another couple that had clearly had a recent argument—the wife in tears, her husband with a set jaw and a hard look in his eyes.

But the couples in love filled her with hope. Those couples had to touch each other in some way, even if only with their eyes. She watched as a couple in their forties stopped next to the fountains, probably waiting for them to turn on. The wife wore a light jacket and shivered when the wind gusted, so her husband pulled her into his arms. After wrapping his jacket around her back, he kissed her gently. The moment reminded her so much of her and Noah during their visit to the Czechoslovakian egg. Other than the kissing, had they looked like that? She remembered his gentleness and realized he’d already known he loved her. He’d planned that entire day out of love for her. How had she been so blind?

The familiar insecurities rushed in out of nowhere—her worn, faithful companions. They whispered into her ear, telling her that she was doomed, that she couldn’t keep Noah’s love. And maybe it was true. So many men—men she’d never even loved—had left her. And if her string of lost lovers wasn’t proof enough that she might be unlovable, her parents were icing on the cake. Her mother may have been physically present in her life, but she’d always made it clear that Libby was more of a nuisance than a blessing. And her father had left her when she was a baby.

And then he’d left a second time.

The memory she’d never shared with anyone—not Megan, not Blair, and not even her mother—washed over her, sickening in its clarity.

He showed up at their front door one day after Libby came home from school. Her mother was still at work. She wasn’t supposed to answer the door when her mother wasn’t home, but she recognized him from the photo she kept in her underwear drawer. She pulled it out often enough that she would have recognized him anywhere, even if he now had wrinkles around his eyes and streaks of gray in his dark hair. She’d dreamed of this day since she was little. In her fantasy, her dad would show up and tell her that he’d never intended to leave her for so long. He’d been kept from her by some overpowering force—he’d been in a coma, or he’d