“Careful,” Ethan warned. “You’re hanging out that window like a dang spaniel.”
Indignant, she pulled her head back inside, but before she could protest such a comparison, he started singing “Ooh Las Vegas.”
Ethan sounded nothing like Gram Parsons, but AnnieLee joined in on Emmylou Harris’s harmony, and they sang their way past the Luxor’s enormous black pyramid, past a showgirl grinding on an embarrassed-looking grandpa outside Mandalay Bay, and bridesmaids in bright feather boas skipping down the sidewalk like a bunch of drunk Dorothys in Oz.
Finally they reached the south end of the Strip, and Ethan turned the Sprinter around so he could point out the iconic WELCOME TO FABULOUS LAS VEGAS sign, shining like a beacon against the dark-blue sky.
“The only cigarettes I ever smoked were in Vegas,” Ethan mused as they headed back north to their hotel.
AnnieLee brushed her windblown hair out of her eyes. “You’ve been here before?”
“Only once,” he said. “I lost a lot of money, ate myself sick at the Emperor’s Buffet, and got harassed by a prostitute. Then I got drunk at a dive bar with a bunch of Elvis impersonators, and that’s the last thing I remember.”
“Sounds…fun?” AnnieLee offered.
Ethan laughed. “Not exactly. I have a good feeling about this trip, though,” he said as he pulled up to the Aquitaine Hotel. “It won’t be nearly as low-rent, for one thing.”
He handed over the Sprinter’s keys to the valet, and a bellhop dressed like a French footman unloaded their bags. AnnieLee people-watched outside while Ethan went inside and checked them in. When he came back outside, he bowed facetiously to her.
“M’lady?” he said, holding out his arm. “Allons-y!”
“Say what?” AnnieLee said.
Ethan laughed. “It means Let’s go—or so I was told. The lady at the front desk said it would impress you.”
“Oh, definitely,” AnnieLee said. “I’m seeing you in an entirely new light now that you can speak two whole words of French.”
“What if I tell you that I’ve also got us a dinner res?”
“Even more impressive,” AnnieLee said. She tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow as they walked down the street.
At a bistro straight out of Moulin Rouge, they gorged themselves on steak, salad, and red wine served in goblets as big as goldfish bowls. They kept their conversation light, mentioning neither their unfinished talk nor the upcoming show. AnnieLee was tired, and her nerves were revving up again. She felt as though the best thing to do after the chocolate soufflé was simply to go to bed.
“We have to make one stop first,” Ethan said. He paid the bill, and then he led her along the sidewalk until they were standing on the edge of a huge, placid lake in front of the Bellagio Hotel.
She wasn’t sure why Ethan wanted to show her such a thing, but she supposed she could admire it if he wanted her to. “Pretty,” she said mildly.
“About twelve thousand bucks’ worth of coins get thrown in there a year,” Ethan said.
“That’s a lot of wishes,” AnnieLee said. “What do you think all those people want?”
“Probably to win at blackjack,” Ethan said.
“Shoot, I can think of way better wishes than that,” AnnieLee said. “You got a penny?”
He dug into his pocket and held out a nickel. She squeezed it in her fist, felt the cool coin grow warm against her skin. She was thinking about what to wish for when she heard what sounded like church bells chiming. She turned to Ethan. “What’s that?”
He said, “You’ll see.”
A moment later, a rush of sound came pouring out of speakers placed all around the lake’s perimeter, and the air filled with the soaring, symphonic opening to “Luck Be a Lady.” Seconds later, hundreds of sinuous streams of water shot into the sky, matching the rhythm of the song. They waved back and forth, twisting and gyrating.
“The dancing waters,” Ethan said.
AnnieLee laughed, leaning forward to feel the cool mist on her face. Flashbulbs popped, traffic on the boulevard slowed, and not ten feet away, she saw a man get down on one knee and hold out a ring to a weeping woman in a Boston Red Sox T-shirt.
When the song was over, Ethan put his arm around AnnieLee’s shoulders, and she let herself lean heavily against him. “That was just about the most beautiful waste of money and water I ever saw,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Ready to go back to the hotel?” he asked.