My Vegas Groom (The Greene Family #3) - Piper Rayne Page 0,19
expensive hotels. Nikki is skeptical about picking anything, so I hand the salesperson a few dresses for Nikki to try on.
While she’s doing that, I dial up Vince just to make sure he stays off my back tonight.
“You can’t just blow me off like that,” Vince answers without a hello.
“I don’t wanna talk about what angle you want to use this marriage for. I’m calling because I’ll be staying up in Sunrise Bay for the three months before the fight. I’ve sent messages and talked to all the trainers. Everyone will be joining me up there.”
“You can’t be serious! You have the gym here and in Florida. Why not just go to your mom’s if you want a change?” There’s anger in his voice that he’s trying to control.
When I was starting out, Vince never got angry with me, but that’s because I always did what he wanted. Now that I make a lot of my own decisions, he lets it be known when he doesn’t agree.
“Nikki is my wife. That’s where she’s from, so that’s where I’ll be. I’ve already rented a house for both her and me and also for the trainers and chef.” It’s not easy to transport your entire regime thousands of miles, but spending my off time with Nikki is worth the expense. There’s no way this would work if I was down here and she was up there. At least not for the end goal I’m hoping to achieve.
“She’s your Vegas wife. I have no idea why you’re so hell-bent on trying to make this thing work.”
“What are you even talking about?” I whisper, seeing someone point me out to his wife. I lower my head.
“This charade of yours. I know you met her that night. That you only married her because you were drunk.” I hear ice clinking into a cup. The fact Vince is drinking this early in the day says I’ve stressed him out more than I thought.
“Good thing I don’t have to get permission from you to live my life. I’m being courteous by telling you what’s going on. The training will happen up there. You can come up and visit if you’d like, but I won’t be doing any more interviews.”
“You’re gonna tank your career. She’s a distraction.”
I look up to see Nikki in front of a three-way mirror. The saleswoman is zipping up the back of her black dress. It hugs her curves and shows off her great ass. Vince is right. She’s a distraction, but the best kind of distraction.
“This is my decision. I’m not asking you to agree. I gotta go.” I hang up and pocket my phone, walking back into the store.
I sit in one of the chairs by the mirror. Nikki catches me in the reflection, and now that I see the front of the dress, I want to hand my credit card to the saleswoman and tell her she’ll wear it out of the store, but it’s Nikki’s decision, not mine.
“Do you like it?” Nikki asks while looking at me through the mirror.
“I could show you how much I like it, but we’d be arrested for public indecency.”
The saleswoman giggles, and Nikki shakes her head at my attempt at humor. This time I’m not rewarded with that smile of hers.
Okay, she doesn’t care for crude jokes, got it.
“I’ll take it then.” Nikki steps down and heads back to the dressing room.
“Here’s my card. She needs shoes and a shawl to cover up when we’re around others.”
“What?” Nikki says, stomping back over to me. She plucks the credit card out of the saleswoman’s hands and holds it back out to me. “I do not need a shawl, and I’ll be paying for it myself.”
“I told you it was my treat.” I take the card from between her fingers and hand it back to the saleswoman.
Nikki grabs it again. “I don’t want to owe you anything.”
“Fine. I’ll buy her the shawl.”
She stomps her foot. God, I love her feistiness. Makes me want to throw her over my shoulder and carry her off to bed. If only we were there already. “No.”
“Yes.” I look at the saleswoman. “If you could give us a moment.” She walks away, and I set my gaze on Nikki. “Please let me do this. I want to do this.”
She cocks her hip and stares at me. “I’ll let you buy the dress, but no shawl. First of all, I’m not eighty.”