Paul Martinez had planned every detail of their Las Vegas wedding down to the cake so that Hope could enjoy the day without having to obsess about the details. She’d been working three days a week as a private-duty nurse on the mainland, commuting back and forth on the ferry. The arrangement had been working out well, but noticing how tired she’d been, he’d seen to the wedding details so the only thing she had to do was buy a dress and pack for her and Ethan, who was out of his mind with excitement about the trip.

Paul had shown him pictures of the Hoover Dam online, and he couldn’t wait to see it for himself. One of the many things he loved about Ethan was his endless enthusiasm for anything that interested Paul. A man could get hooked on that kind of adoration coming from a boy who’d had more than his share of upheaval in his life.

He’d love to adopt Ethan if that option became possible. That would depend on what happened when his father was released from prison, which was hopefully years in the future. They’d cross that bridge when they got to it, but in his mind, Ethan was already his son in every way that mattered. The two of them were inseparable, to the point that Hope worried endlessly that Ethan was annoying him. He repeatedly assured her that he loved every minute he got to spend with the boy who would soon be his stepson, and he was more than happy to take care of him when Hope was working on the mainland.

Paul couldn’t imagine anything better than the way things had worked out for the three of them, though he wished his mother could still be at home and that Hope could still work as her nurse rather than having to commute for a job that was critical to her need to support herself. Selfishly, he wanted her at home with him. However, he respected her need to pay down the debt her ex-husband had left her with and to ensure that she was never again in the position she’d been in after her ex was charged with having sex with the girls he’d coached at their local high school.

Standing now in their suite that looked out over the Vegas Strip, Paul adjusted the cufflinks on his shirt and donned the gray suit coat he would wear to get married.

Married.