Vegas Aces: The Wide Receiver Complete Series

CHAPTER 26 TRISTAN

“She’s en route to the chapel for pre-ceremony photos,” Luke tells me.

I glance at myself in the mirror. The last time I wore a tuxedo was to prom my junior year. I opted out my senior year since there was nobody I wanted to go with if it wasn’t Tessa.

I didn’t wear one when I married Savannah. It was a split-second decision on New Year’s Eve. We were on the Strip, and she suggested it, and I was drunk enough to agree. I didn’t have any better options and I had a good feeling that being connected to a respected journalist like her was a smart move.

That just tells you how stupid alcohol can make you.

I blow out a breath.

“It’s getting real, huh?” Luke says, slapping me on the back.

I nod. “Were you nervous when you married Ellie?”

He chuckles. “When I married Ellie, I was in Hawaii on a family vacation, and she was marrying me as a business transaction. But yes, I was nervous as fuck…mostly because I was already in love with her, but I was fighting hard against it.”

I’ve heard snippets of their story before, but never so candidly from Luke.

“And when you married Savannah?” I press.

He nods. “I felt like it was the wrong decision from the start, particularly since she was my brother’s ex—girlfriend, but I didn’t let that stop me. Are you nervous now?”

I press my lips together and lift my eyes to the window. I shake my head. “No. I’m not. And that feels weird—like I should be nervous but I’m not.”

He moves in behind me and pats me on the shoulder. “I think that just means you’re making the right choice.”

“Thanks, man. I should’ve listened to your advice when I was with Savannah.”

He shrugs. “Eh, live and learn, right?”

The door opens, and Travis walks in with my dad trailing behind him. Both are carrying tumblers filled with whiskey.

“To the groom,” Travis says, handing me a cup. My dad hands Luke one, too, and we all toast.

“To the groom,” the others echo, and we touch glasses before I chug the entire glass.

Okay, so maybe I’m a little nervous.

Not about marrying Tessa, obviously. I’m nervous about what could go wrong between now and an hour from now.

And as it turns out, I was right to be worried about it.

Every knock on my door sets me on edge.

The first time, it’s my mom. The next time, it’s Ellie. The pictures of the women are done. It’s my turn.

I head down to the chapel and smile with my dad, with Travis, with Luke, with my mom, with both my parents.

The photos afterward will have my bride in them, and I just want the time to pass a little faster so we can get on with this.

We’re ready.

Let’s fucking go.

Let’s do this.

The minutes seem like hours as the clock ticks toward five o’clock, like we’re just allowing enough time and space for something to go wrong. Why didn’t we plan this ceremony for four? Or three? Or two?

I glance out the window and see the way the sun has just faded beyond the buildings surrounding us, and I realize five o’clock is the perfect hour of light in the gardens. We’ll take photos there after the ceremony, and then we’ll have a special dinner, and then we’ll dance and head up to our suite to start the honeymoon.

Suddenly “Canon in D” is playing and I’m walking to the front of the chapel. My dad moves in beside me, and he shakes my hand before he pulls me into a hug. I hear my mom sniffle in the front row.

Ellie and Luke are sitting on my side, and the doors open as Travis escorts Sara down the aisle before she stands in place beside where Tessa will stand when she walks in next. Travis sits beside my mom.

The doors burst open, and there she is.

My bride.

I’ve never seen a more perfect vision in my life. She’s a queen in her white dress as she seemingly floats down the aisle.

Her mom walks beside her, and they’re moving achingly slowly. I just want her to get to me. I just want to hold her hands in mine, to say I do and slide a ring onto her finger and let the world know that this is the woman I’ve pledged forever to.

God, I love her. We took the long road to end up in this place, but I couldn’t be happier that this is where we are right now in this moment.

Tessa swipes a tear from her cheek, and I find myself doing the same as I take in the vision that she is, as I think about our future together that’s just within our grasp, our baby that she’s growing now, more babies that will fill the house on the corner and whatever house in Vegas we ultimately choose.

Our future is before us, and all we have to do is exchange the promises.

I shift on my feet as I wait for her to get to me.

Just as the slow-closing hinge on the door does its thing and the door seals us into the room, it swings open again.

My eyes widen as they move beyond Tessa to the three women standing there.

Savannah.

Brandi.

Tiffany.

Brandi? I knew Savannah and Tiffany met each other at the craft fair, and I had a feeling they’d kept in touch.

But how does Brandi figure into any of this?

Tessa stops in the middle of the aisle as she sees my eyes slide away from her and behind her, and she turns seemingly in slow motion to see who’s there.

Savannah holds a manila folder in her hands, and all three women are out of breath, as if they ran to get here in time.

“I’m sorry, this is a private event,” Gloria tells them quietly, as if all eyes in the room aren’t already on them as they interrupt our ceremony.

“Oh, I’m well aware of that, thanks,” Savannah says to her with a glare. “But we have some information the groom needs to be made aware of before he marries this…this…this liar .” She gestures toward Tessa.

“Get out,” I hiss through a clenched jaw. “I know exactly who I’m marrying, and you will not ruin this day.”

Savannah shakes her head, and my eyes move to Brandi. She won’t look at me.

“I have some information you need to be made aware of,” Savannah says.

“That’s enough,” Janet says, stalking back up the aisle toward Savannah. “Get out of here. All three of you.” She shoos them with her hand, but they don’t move.

Savannah looks at my would-be mother-in-law with disdain, like she’s simply an annoyance standing in her way, and then she huffs as she walks around her and down the aisle toward me.

She laughs as she moves. “Been down an aisle like this before, am I right?” she asks, her eyes laser-focused on me.

“You were the biggest mistake I ever made,” I tell her, anger coursing through my veins as she approaches me. I glance at Tiffany, who looks like she’s loving every second of this shit fest. “And you aren’t far behind.”

Savannah stops in front of me. “Well, sweetie, I’m just here to stop you from making another one.” She holds out the envelope to hand it to me, and I bat it away.

“I don’t care what’s in there. I don’t care what you have to say to me. Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of my life .”

Savannah tilts her head. “You don’t care that you have a child out there? A little boy who shares your flesh and blood?”

I blow out an exasperated breath as the anger swimming in my veins rises to the surface. God dammit. I am so fucking sick of this woman and her manipulations and lies. “Stop making shit up, Savannah! Stop with the lies!”

My eyes fall to Tessa behind her. She’s holding the side of her stomach and trying to take in a deep breath, but she’s also crying now, which appears to be making the deep breaths a little harder. Her mom takes the bouquet of flowers from her hands and sets them on a chair as she laces an arm around Tessa’s waist to hold her up.

“It’s not a lie,” Savannah says, her voice hard. She opens the envelope and takes some papers out. “This is a copy of a birth certificate dated over seven years ago. Check out the mother’s name.” She hands me a sheet of paper, and sure enough, Tessa Taylor is listed as the mother.

The date falls in October the year she left me.

Seven months after she left.

There is no father listed.

The name is simply “Baby Boy Taylor.”

She hands me another certificate, and I read the words on the top. Adoption Certificate .

A chill runs up my spine.

She disappeared seven years ago, and nobody ever really explained why.

Was she pregnant with my child?

Is this true?

Do I have a kid out there that I didn’t have any idea about?

I hold the papers in my hands. I step past Savannah, and I walk up to Tessa, whose tears have turned to sobs now.

If it’s true…she should be the one to tell me.

Not fucking Savannah.

I still don’t know why Tiffany and Brandi are here. I still haven’t wrapped my brain around how Brandi figures into any of this at all.

What the fuck is happening?

We were so close. So fucking close.

It was all within our grasp.

“Is this true?” I ask, my voice coming out too quietly as I grasp to hang onto some semblance of control. The room seems to spin around me as I try my hardest to focus on Tessa. “Is this why you left our senior year?”

Janet holds her daughter up as if Tessa’s knees are collapsing under her.

Her sob fills the room, and on the tail end of it, I hear the confirmation.

“Yes.”

TO BE CONCLUDED IN BOOK 5, FAVORITE MISTAKE