Last Minute (Timeless Series Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Last Minute

  Copyright

  Blurb

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilogue

  Ready to fall in love at University of the Desert!

  Books by Mayra Statham

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2020 by Mayra Statham

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Image: Deposit Photos

  Editing: Julia Goda of Diamond in the Rough Editing

  Fomatting: CP Smith

  Blurb

  Our paths were meant to cross, but we jumped the gun. Meeting in a hazy drunken blur, we indulged in almost everything Vegas had to offer. Gambling, dancing, and weddings. She called me her last-minute good luck charm, and I rolled with it.

  How couldn’t I? Her smile is timeless. Her laughter the song of my heart, and her beauty? Her beauty wrapped around my heart like a vice.

  I’m older; she’s younger. I’ve planned every bit of my life, while she leaves everything to the last minute. There are a million reasons we shouldn’t work, but when I look into Leti Montenegro’s eyes, I don’t care. She’s mine. I know it in my gut.

  Now, I just need to figure out how to convince her of it.

  Dedication

  Life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings.

  -Frank Turner

  Prologue

  Leti Montenegro

  RIGHT THERE, IN front of me, was all the proof I needed to show me what an idiot I was to let everyone around me talk me into something I’d known wasn’t right from the get-go. My gut had been right after all.

  My stupid, good-for-nothing boyfriend was cheating on me.

  In my bed!

  “Leti, baby, it’s not what you’re thinking.” He sprung out of bed, reaching for his boxers on the ground. I gave them my back wondering how the hell he was going to try and talk his way out of this all while trying to figure out if I had enough money to buy a new mattress or if I would have to bug my parents. Ugh, my parents. They liked him. They liked his family more than anything, if I was being honest with myself.

  “Baby, say something,” he pleaded, and I turned, looking at his stupid face.

  “So, you two didn’t just hook up?”

  “No!” he exclaimed, but at least the blonde sitting in bed had the graciousness to look horrified. “Baby, it was just a moment. Didn’t mean—”

  “Are you serious right now?” The blonde spoke up and shook her head as she got off the bed. Thankfully, she’d already thrown her dress back on and was currently making good time of grabbing her shoes. “Look, I don’t know you, you don’t know me. But had I known Jeffrey was seeing someone, I would have never come back to his place. Like ever! That’s against the sisterhood, and I genuinely abide by the sister code.” She rambled on, “I’m all about women empowering one another, not playing shit on each other, even though it’s totally okay if you don’t believe me, since, well, this.” She pointed from him to her. I tried not to laugh.

  “This is my place. He still lives with his parents.” One of the biggest reasons my dad liked him. Like living with his parents made him some kind of virgin. I almost wanted to laugh at the entire situation.

  “Oh my god,” she gasped, her face ashen. “You’re a fucking creep! I didn’t know,” she said after slipping her feet into her heels and crossing her arms. “I’m sorry. I’m not that type. I don’t even do crazy shit like this. My boyfriend dumped me for his gym buddy, and I was at a bar, trying to cope.”

  “I’m sorry.” And I genuinely was. Jeffrey was a skeeze. I knew it; I just couldn’t prove it. I had the proof now to chuck him off my shoe like gross old gum.

  “Shit happens. He said he didn’t know he was gay until he and Patrick had a fight that ended with them kissing.”

  “Ouch.” I knew I’d just met the girl, and not in the best of circumstances, but call me quirky. I felt for her.

  “Yeah. Then he said he was single, and this was his place,” she said, pointing at Jeffrey, his face turning all shades of red.

  “Funny, he’s never paid a cent in rent.”

  “Dick.” She shook her head.

  “Hey. I’m right here.”

  “And why, I have no idea.”

  “What? Leti baby,”

  “No, Leti baby nothing. You should get your man-whoring ass out of my apartment before I call the cops for trespassing. Oh, but I need the key I lent you to water my plants when I was gone for my sister’s graduation before you go.”

  “Are you serious? You’re going to let this get in the way of us?”

  “Jeffrey, let me be very clear. There is no us,” I said seriously and looked at the girl.

  “You wanna go get something to eat?” I offered without a second thought. After all, she wasn’t the one who had done wrong. It had been him.

  “That would be good. Wait, what’s happening? Shouldn’t you hate me?” she asked, and I shrugged.

  “I never fucked him,” I bluntly shared.

  “Maybe if you had, I wouldn’t have to get my dick wet somewhere else,” Jeffrey muttered under his breath, and the girl hit him hard against the head.

  “You’re disgusting!” she said to him before turning to me. “You weren’t missing much.” She put her thumb and forefinger an inch apart, and I smiled. “Like, not much at all… if you know what I mean.”

  “Fucking bitches,” he mumbled, and I laughed as he walked out, slamming my key on the table next to the door before he left.

  “So, pizza or Chinese?” I asked.

  That was the day my life changed.

  Last-minute plans do that to you sometimes.

  A last-minute decision to go home and change your shoes might lead to you finding your boyfriend in your bed with a girl. But if your life is anything like mine, don’t worry!

  That girl might end up becoming your new best friend. A new best friend who talks you into a spontaneous Vegas trip, from which you end up having to hitch a ride back home with her sexy-as-sin older brother.

  The same guy you sorta maybe might have had a drunken Vegas adventure with the night before after your friends and sister left you all alone with a slot machine.

  Last-minute plans are what make life just a little brighter.

  Chapter One

  Leti

  I OPENED MY eyes and groaned. My head was pounding, and the room was spinning.

  “What the hell?” I groaned under my breath. It had been a while since I’d been hungover.

  Then it came to me.

  All of it.

  The huge mess that was my life. I was a complete and utter fraud.

  My new bestie, Rosalee, and our spontaneous road trip to Vegas to meet up with my older sister and her best friend.

  Shopping and dancing.

  Drinking
and partying at a club until way too late.

  That’s when things start to get a little murky. A last-minute attempt at getting lucky, I’d joked. The club guys had sucked, so a slot machine had been my next choice. I’d been on a losing streak and sober enough to be left downstairs at the casino alone. I’d moved to a different machine, one that I could have been blessed by Lady Luck herself with how much she was giving out! Then there was the sexy stranger with the velvety voice who came to my rescue when a drunk guy tried to kick me off my machine. He’d been sweet. Attentive and funny. One thing led to another, and we’d started to drink; my idea, of course! To celebrate my lucky streak, I’d toasted. We moved from the slots to the roulette table. The first try had been busy, so right before I had to make a choice on the second, completely last minute, I’d teased him into kissing me for luck, and I’d won. Once, twice, three times. By the fourth, I went all in; he gave me a kiss I’d felt down to the soles of my feet.

  “You’re alive,” a way too chipper voice said, and I peeked through my lids to see the all too familiar blonde with a cheerful disposition on the edge of my bed. Rosalee, my new buddy, sat next to me, a water bottle in her hands.

  “What happened?” I asked groggily, my mouth way too dry. My mind trying to reach and remember the guy or what happened after I’d gone all in.

  “Vegas?” she said in a question, shrugging her delicate shoulders, and I wanted to laugh but couldn’t. Not when I had the hangover to end all hangovers.

  “How can you possibly be this happy? You went shot for shot with me!” I reminded her.

  “I’m, like, eight inches taller than you and outweigh you by at least twenty pounds, Leti Lets! I also know the key to partying is hydration, while you refused to drink anything that wasn’t four percent alcohol or higher… per ounce.”

  “Funny,” I muttered, sitting up and looking around our room. “Did we go to a wedding?” I asked, looking at a bouquet on the nightstand by my bed. Her melodic giggle filled the air.

  “No. Or at least I don’t think we did. Come on, get dressed. Our ride is waiting, and he’s not a happy camper.”

  “Ride?”

  “Remember we took last minute one-way flights here?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I only agreed because I knew how we could get us home.”

  “You did? Wait, we could have hitched rides with Nina and Mace.”

  “True, but they’re all lovey-dovey. No offense, I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to third wheel it with them. Plus, they hardly know me.” She had a point, I guessed.

  “So, who is giving us a ride?”

  “My brother.”

  “The nice one or—“

  “The other one.” Her tone was apologetic. “He’s here for one of his old buddy’s wedding.” The light in Rosalee’s eyes seemed to dim, but before I could ask, a heavy knock sounded at our door. “Okay, again, remember I’m sorry about this. He’s…”

  “A grouch?” I guessed, rubbing my face, and she shook her head. I’d heard stories about him from her and her other brother, Ron.

  “That’s too nice. He means well; he’s just… my older brother. He has a lack of…” She paused, and another knock sounded. “Lack of personality.” That made me laugh and scowl as my head throbbed. Ugh, why had I drunk so much?!

  “Let me take some clothes and my water into the bathroom. I’ll get ready quickly.”

  “Take your time.” She waved. “He can wait.” She winked, and I smiled as I grabbed clothes and jetted into the bathroom.

  I looked into the mirror and groaned. I looked like a mess. A huge hot mess.

  My perfectly set makeup from the night before was all over the place like some kind of Pollack painting, and my hair… well, there was no nice way of saying it. It was a rat’s nest. Then something caught my eye and I frowned. I leaned forward, getting closer to the mirror as my hands touched my neck.

  “What the hell?” I whispered, focusing on a reddish-purple mark on my neck. A hickey?

  I closed my eyes, but as much as I tried, I couldn’t remember anything past winning big at the table. My mystery guy having an amazing laugh and suggesting I run away with him. Had we actually run off? Hand in hand, laughing down the halls of a lower level of a different hotel? I started the water as I tried to remember.

  We’d gone to a chapel.

  I could see it, and my stomach dropped as I shut my eyes. I lifted my hand and talked myself into taking a look. Relief washed over me as I looked at my ringless left hand. Then a memory hit. A gorgeous arch of fresh flowers, the soft clean scent of roses and jasmine surrounding the room. I could see it like it was happening in front of me. I’d looked up at him, and he’d winked. My breath had hitched, and my heart had squeezed. He was the kind of man who could do serious damage if you let yourself catch feelings.

  I shook my head and quickly took my clothes off and hopped in the shower. Whatever the hell happened after that was fuzzy. So fuzzy I almost thought that maybe I’d made it up.

  My hand dropped to my neck, and if that mark hadn’t been left behind, I would have believed it had all been a dream. A big over-the-top dream.

  I closed my eyes and faced the hot spray of the shower. My hand dropped to the temperature gauge and moved it in the other direction. A tiny squeal escaped my lips as the icy spray beat down. Maybe a cold shower would help my brain spark a memory? I closed my eyes and felt the water rejuvenate me.

  The memory of dark brown, almost black eyes flashed in my mind’s eye. A dark tense passion-filled gaze I almost seemed to know better than my own. As I lathered up my body, it didn’t go unnoticed how sensitive my skin seemed to feel, and it had nothing to do with the cool temperature.

  I rolled my neck and shook my head, confused by the way my body felt. Sensitive but sated.

  My head wasn’t hurting so much anymore by the time I shut off the water, but my mind was too fuzzy. The memories of last night weren’t clear, and all it left me thinking was, who in the hell was my mystery guy?

  Max Riley

  I’d woken up reaching for the girl I didn’t know was possible to dream up, craving to finally have her body and taste her kiss, but I came up empty.

  To say that had set the mood for my morning would be a fucking understatement. When her side of the bed had met me with nothing but cold sheets, I’d almost wondered if I had somehow conjured her up. I’d lain in bed with an arm thrown behind my head and thought about her.

  Dark brown hair that fell like a waterfall and a stare of milk chocolate pools swirled with golden caramel that made me feel like a fucking hero. She had been too good to be true. Funny and quick witted. Charming all my friends, even Logan, who had all but been left at the altar by the queen bitch herself, but that wasn’t about my girl.

  Leticia.

  Fuck, even her name made me hard.

  She had everyone eating out of her hand. Every single one of my friends, but I had been the one completely bewitched. Entranced by her and her no-game-playing, blunt mouth and captivated by a chemical pull I’d never felt. Looking around her, holding her in my arms while she laughed, had been euphoric. Then there was her sense of humor. I don’t think I had ever laughed as much as I did with her last night. She’d had me all but on my knees. Begging for more attention a mere second after meeting completely by chance.

  Some dick had tried to push her off a slot machine, and I’d stepped in.

  Thinking back, I wasn’t sure if I had done it knowing I’d be looking into the eyes of the woman I would one day marry. Not that I regretted it, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for the one. But fuck it now. It was too late because of how deeply looking into the golden-brown eyes had affected me in such a profound way I knew there would be no one else.

  It sounded crazy to look into the eyes of a woman and just know she was your future, but that’s what had happened. I’d known. Like a shot to the heart, I had known she was the one.

  She’d called me her good luck charm. Last-minute
luck, she’d said.

  We’d gambled and she’d won big.

  I’d taken her to my best friend Logan’s wedding, and when it didn’t happen, we had gone together to the reception. There we had celebrated him and the lucky hand he’d been given avoiding latching himself to his horrible now ex. Leticia had taken it all in stride. Drinking shot for shot with Logan.

  Coming back to my room had been a blur, but I knew I couldn’t have her with both of us intoxicated with lust and alcohol. Instead we’d made out like teenagers. Necking and grinding with our clothes on until we’d both come hard against one another. Just as the sun had been rising, sleep claimed both of us, our bodes tangled up in the sheets and one another.

  But time had run out, and so had she.

  Long gone from my room, without a note. If it hadn’t been for the sexy heel on the floor of my room, I would have thought she had been a fantasy. A drunken dream girl my imagination had made up.

  Now I had to go get my sister and her friend from their room at a completely different hotel and drive us back home. I hoped like hell they wouldn’t be hungover because the one I was nursing was enough of a bitch.

  I knocked once at the room door my sister had texted me. Then twice. I double-checked I was at the right place, rereading the text she’d shot off to me, and knocked a third time. Again with no damn answer.

  “Rosalee,” I huffed under my breath. She had always been on the straight and narrow.

  A good girl. Great sister. Stable and reliable, so unlike so many of my friends’ own younger siblings. That was until just recently, when she met this new friend of hers.

  She’d broken up with Patrick, her long-time boyfriend, and going out like the night called to her. She was young; I got that she had to spread her wings and live. But why she was being reckless and unlike herself, I blamed on this new “buddy” of hers. I pulled out my phone and started to text her. She was probably knocked out still, dead asleep to the damn world.

  “I’m coming!” she called, and the door swung open. Her hair was up in a messy bun, her eyes bright and awake. Too damn happy for the morning. “Oh! You look cheerful,” she teased. I wasn’t a bubbly person. I owned that. In our family I was the black sheep. Grouchy and serious.