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My heart was pounding as I reached the door and opened it with minimal squeaking. I stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind me as gently as I could. I blew out a breath of relief, took one step onto my wet shoelace, and slipped backward into the door hitting it hard with my back. I froze, leaning against the door and hoping they didn’t hear me. I was just about to make my getaway when the door abruptly opened. I staggered backward into the room. Elvis had a towel wrapped around his waist but was shirtless. Gwen was in a pink silk robe and had apparently been undressing, when I tripped over my own feet.

“Hey, Lexi,” Gwen said, surprise on her face. “What are you doing here?”

I smiled, my cheeks flushing hot. Elvis looked so nervous to see me, I thought he might faint. My brain scrambled for the best answer. “Ah, I stopped by because Elvis had a question about…roses.”

“Roses?” they both repeated together.

I looked pointedly at Elvis. “Yes, roses. Don’t you remember?”

“I…ah…” he stumbled, trying to figure out where to go with it. “I guess I don’t remember because I’ve been drinking a little.”

“More like a lot,” Gwen said. “But, Lexi, we have exciting news. Elvis just proposed to me. Isn’t that wonderful?”

“Wow!” I said, hoping I feigned the right amount of surprise. “Elvis proposed? That’s truly astonishing.”

Gwen thrust out her hand with the ring, beaming. “Look at my ring. You’re the first to see it. I can’t believe it, but we’re engaged.”

I bent over her hand and pretended to study it. “It’s beautiful, Gwen. Good choice, Elvis. I’m just amazed the proposal…um…actually happened.”

“Me, too,” Elvis said, swaying on his feet.

Gwen stared at me with a strange look on her face. “Lexi, are you wet?”

“Wet?” I looked down at myself, pretending shock. “Oh, yes, I am. I…ah…got stuck in…the rain. I wasn’t sure what Elvis needed to know about roses, so I went outside to see if the hotel had any, and it unexpectedly rained…on me.”

“Rained? Really? That’s so weird. I was just outside at the restaurant and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.”

“It must have been a…a microburst.” I groped at anything remotely plausible, and although it was alotmore than a stretch, it was the only thing that presented itself.

“A microburst?” Gwen’s brow knitted together in confusion.

“Yes, it’s a storm that emanates from one source in a cloud and rains down on a small area. It happens all the time, and airplanes must be careful of them as they have caused crashes. What a coincidence I happened to be standing in just such area at that exact moment.” I shifted my weight nervously from one foot to the other as the water in my shoes squelched loudly. I was making as much sense as Elvis’ poem.

“I know what a microburst is, but why didn’t your hair get wet?” Gwen asked.

“Because…I was carrying an umbrella?” Jeez. Did I just make that a question? Elvis, still semiplastered, looked more confused by the minute.

“But your clothes got wet,” Gwen said, clearly trying and failing to follow along.

I spread my hands. “You know me. Clumsy to a fault.” It was time to get out of here before I dug myself a bigger hole. “Look, guys, I’ve obviously interrupted an intimate moment, so I’ll come back another time.”

“What about the roses?” Gwen asked.

“Oh, the roses. I’ll just talk to Elvis about them tomorrow. They’re not that important. Right, Elvis?”

He nodded vigorously, not daring to say anything that might contradict me.

“Anyway, congratulations again on the engagement,” I called over my shoulder as I headed down the hallway. “See you later.”

I sighed in relief when I heard the door shut behind me. Gwen probably thought I was a lunatic or had bride brain. I wouldn’t blame her one bit. It was way better than the alternative of her finding out I’d been hiding in her shower during Elvis’s proposal.

I pushed into the stairwell, passing a hotel maid, who stared at me in astonishment as I dripped and squelched my way up the steps.

“Don’t ask,” I said without stopping. “You really wouldn’t want to know.”

THIRTY

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