“Hey, I’m an art lover,” protested Ramirez. “I love Thomas Kinkade. Painter of Light, you know what I’m sayin’?”Beverly’s smile froze. “Yes, quite.”

“Something tells me there’s more than one shaman in Vegas who performs weddings. I think we’re better off intercepting them at the fight.”“But they could be getting married right now!” Ivy protested, falling into a double-time step to keep up with his pace.“Lucky we’re in Vegas, then. They have quickie divorces to go with their quickie weddings.”

“She had left her legs bare, and if he wasn’t mistaken, they had a slight sheen. He realized she’d caught him staring when she cleared her throat.“Are your legs...sparkly?” he managed to ask, feeling the need to explain since he’d been caught leering.“My body lotion has a little bit of glitter in it,” she said with a trace of diffidence.She seemed apologetic. For what, he had no idea.”

“He’s been fighting a lot on the Midwest circuit, but Vegas is the big-time. If he ever wants to get anywhere, he has to fight here. And since we’re here, we thought we’d get married, since Vegas is so romantic.”Ivy could think of a dozen cities more romantic than Vegas—Akron, Ohio came to mind—but she didn’t argue.”

“I’m going to go," he said."All right."He didn’t move. Then: "I don’t want to.""Do it anyway."He chuckled. "You’re a hard woman, Faith Devlin.""Hardy.""I didn’t know him. He isn’t real to me. Did you love him?""Yes." But not the way I love you. Never like that.”

“Now, Doc—“ “Yes, Shiloh?” She interrupted with exaggerated sweetness, and fluttered her eyelashes. Shiloh grinned. “I dunno, I musta gone crazy there for a minute. I was actually going to try to talk you out of something. But don’t worry, I’m okay now.”

“I’m Sam Donovan.” “I know who you are. Mrs. Kulavich told me. I’m Jaine Bright.” “I know. She told me. She even told me how you spell your name.” Now, how on earth had Mrs. Kulavich known that?”