Page 31 of Somewhere Only We Know (Healing in Cincy #4)

JAX

O uch . That’s the first thought that enters my head as the sunlight shines through the curtain I forgot to close before our night out.

I scrunch my eyes closed as if that’ll eliminate the light and plunge me back into darkness.

How much did I drink last night? We polished off an entire bottle of tequila last night, that I vaguely remember.

The kiss? Of course I remember that. Nates lips on mine.

How could I ever forget that? But I don’t remember much of anything after we left the rooftop.

I stretch and recoil when my foot hits something solid.

Slowly, I turn my head to the left and see Nate lying face down in my bed.

But it’s only then I realize that this is not my room.

What the hell happened last night? My bladder is screaming at me and I go to flip off the covers when something catches my eye.

No . No, I am not seeing that. I scrunch my eyes together again, hoping that it’s just the remaining alcohol coursing through my bloodstream playing a trick on me.

I stay perfectly still as I feel Nate start to wake up. Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out.

Nate turns his head and meets my eyes. If he’s shocked I’m in here, he played it off, although I didn’t miss the slight widening of his dark brown eyes upon seeing me in his bed. His eyes have a slight redness around them probably from how late we stayed out and the alcohol.

“Jax?” his hoarse voice does something to me. Focus, Jaclyn!

I give him a small wave and then his eyes narrow on the diamond sitting on my finger. Nate sits up rather quickly for someone who drank more than I did and the jostling of the bed proves motion sickness is here.

“What the hell is this?” He asks and grabs my hand, inspecting the ring I’m most certain he put there if the gold band on his ring finger is any indication.

“I’m assuming that’s rhetorical?”

Nate places my hand back down and rolls off the bed like we didn’t polish off more alcohol than humanly possible last night.

How is he moving so easily? He paces and gets this furrow in his brow that I would find cute now if we weren’t married.

Married!? How the hell did this happen? Fucking tequila that’s how.

I’m never drinking again, says everyone who ever woke up after a night they can no longer remember.

I’m realizing that last night the wall I had up came down in spectacular fashion. Or I at least created a little doorway. We laughed, we drank, we kissed…we kissed a lot–but other than that, I’m failing to see how we both ended up with rings on our fingers .

“Nate, what are you doing?” I ask on his third round of pacing the room. I understand people’s need to work things out, but his pacing is threatening to make me barf.

“Trying to remember what we did last night.”

“Well, can you stop? It kind of makes me want to barf.”

He stops and looks at me with a wince before a frown mars his dark brown skin and he’s moving to the living room pit to continue his pacing there. I roll my eyes and finally slide out of his bed. My dead phone is on the nightstand so I gather that up along with my shoes.

“Where are you going?” Nate asks from his spot with a hint of panic in his voice.

“To my room to shower. And to brush my teeth. I feel like something died in my mouth.”

He nods because he’s probably realizing he feels like ass too. “Yeah. Okay.”

“I’ll be right next door. If I’m not back in an hour, come over.

” I turn from his nodding form and push out into the hallway.

Seriously. What happened? I pull my room key out of my small clutch and push into my room.

Tossing my things on the other bed, I head straight to the shower to feel somewhat put together.

While the water warms up, I undress and then stare at the ring on my finger.

Even in his drunken state, Nate knows me better than any man.

The oval cut engagement ring is framed by smaller diamonds wrapping halfway around the band.

Maybe he remembered me talking about what kind of ring I would want?

But that’s impossible as I said it offhandedly and we were still in the friend zone.

Shaking my head, I slide the ring off and set it on the vanity before washing the night away.

There is no way he remembered this was my dream ring , I say to myself as the warm water washes over me. There’s no way.

Someone knocking on the door when I’m finishing up my skincare routine has me jumping on the spot. I place my moisturizer on the counter and wait, thinking someone got the wrong room. Only it continues until I check the peephole and open the door.

“Jax! Oh my God! Where were you last night?” Kamryn asks when she flies into my room like a tornado and then turns to look at me. “Are you just now waking up?”

“Nate and I went out after you all ditched us to play games and must have lost track of time.” I tell her and take the towel off my head.

My curls are back in action after a deep conditioning session and I’ve never felt more like myself.

While Kamryn loves her blowouts, I for one hate going to the salon for anything other than a trim.

Last night was an exception to the loose curls that swept to the middle of my back.

I toss the wet towel back into the bathroom and move sit on my bed.

“You and Nate? You and your ex-boyfriend? Hung out? Like all night?”

“Yes. Did you think I’d walk around Vegas by myself?

Have you seen the earlier seasons of C.S.I.

Las Vegas ? No thank you.” I attempt to joke with my sister but it falls flat when I see said joke failed to land and I sober up.

“I’m sorry. I should have called you. Or at least sent a text.

But then my phone must have died and I didn’t even realize it. ”

Kamryn moves and sits on the other bed across from me. Dressed in a black bodysuit and dark wash jeans, my sister is the definition of collected. I admire her confidence and resilience more than she’ll know. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. Did you two do anything fun last night? ”

Got married , I say to myself but I’m not ready to tell my sister Nate and I got married and that neither of us remember it. So I settle with, “Not really. We people watched mostly and he took me to the Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio.”

“That was sweet of him,” she observes with a tilt of her head because even she knows that the Botanical Gardens is one of my favorite places to visit.

“Don’t give me that look.”

“What look?”

I give her a get real look. “Don’t think we both weren’t onto what you guys were planning,” I call her out for their blatant need to push us together.

“What? We just gave you two the push you needed.” Kamryn stands up from the bed when she sees I’m alive and well and turns towards the door. “But I am glad to know you two got through last night unscathed.”

Just married. “Me too.” I say and walk with her towards the door. “Have Sophie and Chance said anything about today’s plans?”

She shrugs. “No clue. I lost them after they ran off to the Blackjack table.”

Opening the door, I make a note to text Sophie and see Nate strolling down the hall in a pair of black joggers that mold to his muscular thighs and a matching black hoodie. Drool .

“I heard you two had fun last night.”

Nate looks at me and I widen my eyes, slightly shake my head indicating that Kamryn doesn’t know everything.

“Just a bit of people watching,” Nate says. And I’m glad he unknowingly said what I told my sister.

Kamryn looks between us as if she can read what we’re hiding. But we give nothing away. If Nate and I are indeed legally married, then what? We get a divorce? An annulment? The thought of going through that process makes me nauseous.

“Okay. You two are acting weird. So, I’m gonna go call my husband.” She says happily and floats back to her room. When she turns the corner to go down the hall, Nate and I let out a breath as I let him into my room.

“I found something.” He tells me and I watch as his eyes trail down and land on my chest. Following his gaze, I see my robe has gaped open giving him a perfect view of my cleavage.

“I’m gonna get dressed.” I tell him and walk past him to my suitcase.

“Don’t change on my account,” he says cheekily and the dimple in his left cheek pops out.

I throw a sock at him and head into the bathroom.

Pulling on a bralette and an oversized tee with loose, dark washed distress jeans, I feel more me than with the outfit from last night.

I rake some leave-in conditioner through my hair and rub an oil on the ends, praying that the air drying Gods are in my curly hair's favor. I pause before leaving as I look at the ring on the vanity. Do I put it on? Put it in my pocket? The me at twenty-one would yell to put it on. But only if she knew that Nate and I went on different journey’s.

Decision made, I put the ring in my pocket and head back out to my room.

“So what did you find?” I ask as I come to sit next to him on the couch, tucking my leg under me as I sit facing him.

Nate unlocks his phone and hands it to me.

My eyes go wide as I see pictures of us with a marriage license, standing with Elvis, and showing off our rings.

The signed marriage license is then placed on top of his phone.

And clear as day, our signatures are more legible than anyone in our possible inebriated states should’ve been.

“What the hell did we do last night?” I ask again for what feels like the hundredth time today.

“Better question is what was in those drinks?” Nate asks.

“100 proof alcohol that’s for sure. So we’re married,” I conclude. My heart races at the thought of being married to Nate. This was always where the road would lead us. So why does it feel wrong?

“It appears so,” Nate starts, “I would suggest a quickie divorce or an annulment. But even suggesting those makes me wanna hurl.”

At least we’re in the same boat with that. It’s not that either of us are against divorce. It was one of the things we talked about in college. But a divorce from each other would put the final nail in the coffin for us. I nod and blink hard as tears threaten to expose me.

“Hey. Come here.” Nate holds his arm out and I slide over, burying my face in his shirt.

“I’m not taking offense because I know this is not the road we were even close to driving on.

Hell, we’re still in the shop. And while I was hoping that one day we would get to this place, I wanted us to remember it. ”

His words are a comfort and the tears pour out.

I always dreamed that my wedding day would be one of the most memorable days of my life.

With the white dress, my dad walking me down the aisle, the man I love waiting for me at the altar, and the vows–the promise that the life we’re promising to spend together is one full of laughter and love.

And to find out that neither of us even remembers what happened last night is crushing.

“So what do we do now?” I ask through my tears .

“We date. I assume you don’t want to live together right away?”

I snort and I’m pretty sure a snot bubble is smeared into his hoodie. “You'd be correct.”

“I’m a great roommate,” he says as he begins to plead his case for us to live together.

“I’m aware.” Slowly the tears stop and I wipe the remnants away.

He places a kiss on the top of my head and I feel that all the way to my toes. “We’ll fight because the past is our painful reminder. But we’ll stay because this time I’m not letting you go.”

I nod and wrap my arms around his waist. Those walls I had up around Nate are completely gone now. Well, not completely. They’re still up, but I can walk back and forth if need be until I can finally take a sledgehammer and knock it down for good.

“So we date?” I ask for more clarification.

“Yep.”

“You haven’t asked me.”

His chest rumbles with a silent laugh and I smile against his chest. “Jaclyn Marie Rawlins, will you go out with me?”

I make him wait longer than necessary. “I guess.”

“Okay. What do you say we go find some food? Because I’m starving.”

At that my stomach rumbles and we both laugh. “Will you text the guys and see what they’re up to?”

“Mm hmm. Go get your shoes on.”

Our drinks are dropped off along with baskets of fries long before the sunshine couple joins us .

“You guys look like you had a long night,” I say to Sophie and Chance when they finally join us at the burger place across from the hotel.

Our hostess set us up at a table on the patio.

We almost immediately balked at the idea until just walking through the restaurant made us all gag.

Thankfully the table is big enough for the six of us.

Nate sits at one end of the table and I’m on his left, Bryce is across from me and Kamryn is sitting next to me.

My foot is hooked around Nate’s leg and it’s thrilling to have a secret that no one is aware of.

“We didn’t go to sleep until almost four.” Sophie tells us as they take the only two empty chairs. They both have sunglasses pasted on their faces and look like they threw on whatever they could find.

“Did you two even shower?” Bryce asks with a wince and leans away from them.

As soon as he says that a breeze pushes their scents towards the rest of us.

“Fuck off, Bryce. The alcohol has decided to ooze out of our bodies.” Chance scolds.

“Ew,” Kamryn says and decides to take mercy on them and pour them both glasses of water and shoves over the other basket of fries that was delivered their way. We all watch on in amusement as they take tentative bites of the salty potato.

“So what’s the plan for tonight?” Bryce asks. We leave tomorrow and after last night I doubt anyone wants to go as hard as we did. I for one want a chill night, but in Vegas anything is possible.

Sophie and Chance look at each other before swinging their gazes to us. “Probably just dinner and then call it a night. ”

“We’re game.” We all agree and finally place our orders for lunch when our waitress comes back to our table.

We recap each other on our respective nights. Seems we all don’t remember much of what happened once we entered the casino. Once we all have food in our bodies, I for one feel better. And when the afternoon turns to evening, we regale on the weekend and look forward to the future.