All's Fair in Love and Las Vegas

Chapter Ten

For the date, I chose to wear a butter yellow sundress that came halfway to my knees, along with cute white flip-flops and a matching yellow flower pin to hold the front strands of my hair back from my face. Maybe it wasn't really an official date, but I still wanted it to be as close as possible, so I'd dressed up. I could tell Grayson was trying to dress up too, because he wore a sharp white t-shirt and black jeans, and regular sneakers to match. He looked incredibly nice for dressing so casually.

"What are we doing first?" I asked, feeling excited.

"I thought we could take our walk first, if that's alright?" he asked, seeming shy again.

I nodded, beaming. So we set off down the path towards the veranda, and my nerves almost exploded when Grayson took my hand in his large one. Noticing my reaction, he murmured in a very low voice, "There's security everywhere. I wouldn't put it past my mother to check the tapes later tonight."

"Oh," I said, nodding at his wise suggestion. Secretly, there was a twinge of disappointment in me, because the insane butterflies I'd gotten when he'd first grabbed my hand had been euphoric. Now I understood, it was all another part of our act. But it made sense; the more in love we appeared to Laura, the less she'd stick her nose in unexpected places. Nevertheless, it was still nice to hold his hand as we walked down a small slate pathway lined with rose bushes.

"Here," Grayson said, kneeling down and plucking a crisp white rose. He stood, weaving the short stem into my hair.

"No one will mind?" I asked worriedly.

"No, my parents rarely come out here, and even then it's a gift from me," he said, smiling. "You look really cute right now."

For some reason that made me blush more than anything he'd said to me so far. "Thank you," I said, so quietly it almost morphed into a whisper.

Tangling our fingers together again, we kept walking. My smile was so gooey, and I wasn't even faking it. I wondered if Grayson knew that, because every so often he would glance at my face and his own smile would get a little brighter.

"Oooh," I breathed as the path suddenly opened up and snaked under a curtain of ivy. Grayson pushed some of it aside to reveal a glimmering pond, complete with a small waterfall and a bubbling spring. I was delighted to see little frogs resting on lilypads, their little croaks adorable. The area surrounding the pond was magnificent, with a hanging willow draping its hair over the surface of the water. A huge magnolia tree sat in one corner, near the hedge wall, and the flowerbeds were filled with bright petals in every color of the rainbow.

"Why would no one ever come here?" I asked, still drinking in the beauty of this magical place. It didn't seem fair that there was such an enchanting corner of the world and no one ever got to enjoy it.

"Well, I do, occasionally," Grayson said. "But father is never home and mother prefers to do things instead of sit and admire them."

"How horrible," I whispered, wondering how long it had been since this garden had last seen a friendly face. I couldn't imagine knowing about this place and then never coming here.

Grayson was smiling at me again as he said, "You can come here whenever you like, Jackie. I've personally found that it makes a great hiding spot concerning my mother." The last part was said with a wink, both shocking me and making me laugh a little.

"Thanks," I said, still looking around in wonderment.

"There's more, but we can stay here a bit," he added, sitting down on an adorable iron bench.