She glanced over at him. “She ran away?”
“Worse.” He shook his head. “She wants to get married.”
“So young?”
“Yeah,” Parker said, and scrubbed his hands down his face. “Last time I talked to her, I said she needed to be a grown-up. I think this is her way of showing me she’s doing just that.”
“Who’s the guy?”
“Henry. Also eighteen. He’s quiet and shy and utterly guileless. This is all Amory’s doing.”
When they landed a short time later, Parker arranged for a rental car and drove them straight to Elvis’s Wedding Chapel.
Zoe stared at it. “You’re kidding me.”
“It’s where she called me from,” he said. He parked and turned to Zoe, who was torn between horror and laughter. “She loves old movies, especially Elvis,” he explained.
“Not judging,” Zoe said. “Do you want me to wait here?”
Parker actually looked uncertain at that. She’d never seen this look on his face before; he’d never been anything but one hundred percent sure of himself.
Which settled it. She unhooked her seat belt and got out of the car.
Parker did the same. With his dark sunglasses and a pair of dark jeans with a white button-down shoved up at the elbows, he looked movie-star handsome.
And tough and impenetrable.
Unapproachable.
She walked right up to him. She pulled off his glasses. “Better,” she said, and cocked her head, studying him. “Don’t take this personally, okay?” Sliding her hands up his chest and around his neck, she tugged his head down and kissed him.
Not one to be a passive participant in anything, Parker kissed her back, hard and more than a little bit rough, and a whole lot desperate. She was breathless when she pulled back and stared into his face.
Much more relaxed, she decided, and nodded. “Better. You don’t look nearly so intimidating or scary as hell now. You look almost . . . sweet.”
“You think I’m sweet?” he asked in disbelief.
“No, I think you’re intimidating and scary as hell.” She smiled and patted his arm. “And okay, maybe a little sweet.” And kind. And decent. And loyal. And . . . shit.
He was everything on her damn list.
They walked into the wedding chapel reception area, which was bright white with flowers everywhere. Wedding pictures were plastered across one entire wall. Next to the reception desk stood Elvis.
In drag.
“Hubba hubba,” the guy said. “We got a live one, folks.” He grinned at Zoe. “You want your groom to dress like Elvis, too, darlin’, or just me?”
Zoe opened her mouth and then managed to close it. “We’re not . . . getting married.”
Elvis sized up Parker. “He not getting the job done? Do we need to put more men on the job?”
Parker started to speak, but Zoe quickly put a hand in his and squeezed, talking hurriedly before he could. “We’re looking for someone. She’s—”
“Ah,” Elvis said, understanding crossing his face. “So you’re who they’re waiting for. The two mentally retarded kids, yeah?”“Down syndrome,” Parker said. “They have Down syndrome.” He spoke quietly. Calmly.
But Zoe knew him now, knew the tells, and he wasn’t feeling quiet or calm.
“Whatever,” Elvis said with a shrug. “They’re inside.” He gestured with his chin to the open door to the chapel.
Back in charge, Parker took Zoe’s hand and pulled her along with him. At the back of the chapel was one guy. A kid, really. He was sitting on the back row bench, head bowed, but when they entered, his gaze went straight to Parker. With an audible gulp, he stood up and shuffled his feet a little bit, his dark hair falling into his sky blue eyes. “You made it,” he said with what sounded like great relief.
“Where is she?” Parker asked.
The kid pointed to the front of the chapel. “They don’t have any other weddings today. The lady—er, the guy—um, Elvis said we could stay as long as we wanted.”
Parker nodded and strode down the aisle. Zoe watched him head toward a girl sitting huddled in misery on the front pew.
Zoe turned to Amory’s boyfriend. “I’m Zoe,” she said. “And I’m guessing you’re Henry?”
Henry nodded. “We didn’t do it.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Parker said to wait. So we waited.”
Zoe smiled. “That’s good.”
He gave her a tentative smile back. “Yeah. Except probably it’d be even better if we hadn’t come at all. Everyone’s upset.”
“How about you and Amory?” she asked. “Are you guys upset?”
“No,” he said. “We’re in love.”
Zoe’s heart squeezed at the sincere honesty in the kid’s voice, and she smiled. “Then everything else will work out,” she said.
Henry nodded, and when his glasses slipped down his nose, he shoved them up again. “I told her that. And I told her we have time, too. But Parker wanted her to be a grownup and stuff, and so yeah . . . here we are.”
“I don’t think Parker meant she should get married to show she’s an adult,” Zoe said carefully.
Henry nodded. “Sometimes she gets mixed up between her parents and Parker, and confused on what they want her to do.” Poor Henry immediately looked stricken and guilty as soon as the words were out, like he felt awful saying anything bad about Amory’s family.
Zoe looked down the aisle, at the two heads bent together. Parker had pulled Amory up to a seated position and was next to her, his arm around her shoulders, speaking quietly.
Amory was listening carefully and then speaking in return, the polar opposite of the body language of her brother. Her arms waved, her face became animated, and her voice got high and excited. She was seriously adorable.
And though Parker wouldn’t like to know it, so was he. Cocking his head, he listened to everything she said without interrupting her. When she’d wound down, he spoke again and Amory clearly hung on every single word with rapt adoration.
Zoe’s heart sighed. She knew the feeling. She suspected that she’d often looked at Parker the same way. “What was the plan after getting married?” Zoe asked Henry.
“She wanted to see snow,” Henry said. “But I don’t think we have enough money to get all the way to Glacier Park.”
“Montana?” she asked, surprised.
“Yeah, they still have snow, right?” Henry asked. “I searched it on my phone and couldn’t find any other place that had snow at this time of year.” He looked uncertain. “But Montana’s pretty far from here.”
“It sure is.” Zoe whipped out her phone, sent a text, and then waited.
In the front row, Parker pulled his phone from his pocket and eyed the screen, and then craned his neck and stared at her.
She smiled.
He smiled back and shook his head, like maybe she was a complete nut. Well, that or she was annoying as shit, but she was really hoping it was the former.
Parker murmured something to Amory, who squealed so high-pitched that Zoe’s eardrums nearly burst. She was looking around to see if the windows had shattered when Amory bolted up the aisle and threw herself at Zoe.