A Hilarious and Charming Feel-Good Read

by Saranna Dewylde

  A loud pounding on the door echoed like thunderclaps.

  Lucky’s gut twisted on itself and nausea rose like waves. This was it. She knew it. It was some kind of bad news.

  Gwen hopped up out of bed and padded to the door.

  “Someone better be dead. What’s wrong with you, pounding on the door this early in the morning like you’re the police,” Gwen said as she opened the door.

  Roderick stood there, his expression grim. “Is he here?”

  “Ransom?” she asked.

  “The Dalai Lama. Who do you think?” Roderick growled. Then he sighed and scrubbed a hand over his head. “This is awful.”

  “What’s happened?” Lucky asked as she slid out of bed and wrapped a robe around herself.

  “Heart’s Desire. The board made a move to push him out as CEO. They’re trying to buy up falling shares faster than we can. He’s going to lose the company.”

  Lucky was stricken. She put her hand to her chest as she tried to catch her breath and digest the news.

  Was this because of what happened between them in the boathouse?

  “Didn’t he come back with you last night? I thought you two . . .” He splayed his hands. “Whatever. I have to find him.”

  “Wait, I’ll help you look. Maybe the godmothers can help.”

  “No! You’ve done enough,” Roderick snapped. He sighed again. “I’m sorry, that’s not fair. But I told him if he went through with this, this was what was going to happen. The stock ate shit, and after the board saw that story Melvin did on you, it was too easy to blame you for what happened in Ecuador.”

  Gwen grabbed him by the lapels. “What is wrong with you? Can’t you see she already blames herself for everything as it is? And you come in here and dump this on her? If your board lost confidence, that has nothing to do with Lucky. Those are from your own decisions. Stocks tanking? Still not her fault. How dare you.”

  “No, it’s okay. I told you the other shoe would drop,” Lucky said quietly.

  “I did, too. I warned him. I told him this was too far gone and he needed to make other plans, but he didn’t listen to me,” Roderick said.

  “And he chose his own path. He’s an adult. You don’t get to drop it all in Lucky’s lap.”

  “You’re right, but I need to find him. He’s not answering his phone.”

  “Maybe he’s with the godmothers. He might have slept over on the couch,” Lucky suggested.

  “We’ll go with you,” Gwen suggested.

  Lucky thought that she was probably the last person he wanted to see, but she had to do something and Roderick didn’t tell her not to come.

  “I’ll get dressed.” Lucky stepped into the massive walk-in closet to quickly shrug into some clothes and joined them.

  This was made of awful. She wouldn’t let him lose his company. Lucky wasn’t quite sure yet what exactly she could do about it, but she’d figure it out.

  Gwen slipped her hand into Lucky’s and they set out to find Ransom. If he wasn’t at the godmothers’, she didn’t know what they were going to do.

  On the way through the path in the forest, Lucky’s phone buzzed with a text. It was Bluebonnet, bless her.

  Ransom is here. Come.

  “You guys, Ransom is there! Bluebonnet just texted me.”

  “I’ve got it from here,” Roderick said.

  “No, Bluebonnet asked me to come.”

  Roderick didn’t say anything, but continued down the path toward the godmothers’ house.

  Gwen squeezed her hand.

  She didn’t know what she’d ever do without her best friend. The thought turned sour in her mind, and something told Lucky she was about to lose everything she cared about.

  Each step she took seemed heavier than the last one, but she wasn’t going to lose faith.

  Not even when they walked inside the godmothers’ house and it didn’t smell like vanilla and cinnamon. Neither Bluebonnet nor Petty had warm, welcoming smiles, and Ransom’s eyes were haunted and tired.

  “What’s happened?” Lucky asked.

  Petunia shook her head slowly. “They’ve all canceled. All of the guests who started booking when we announced the wedding. They saw the story Melvin did and every single one of them has pulled out.”

  “I refuse to think our plan failed,” Bluebonnet said. “Something will happen. Something good. It has to.”

  Lucky didn’t look at Ransom when she went over to comfort Bluebonnet.

  “Ransom, I need to speak to you outside,” Roderick said.

  “Whatever it is, just say it,” Ransom sighed.

  “The board made a move to take the company. They cited loss of confidence in you as CEO and they’re not only trying to push you out, but they’re buying up stock as fast as we are.”

  “So we have to outbid them and get to the shareholders before they do,” Ransom said.

  “You can’t do that here.”

  “No, I can’t. I still have to go to Ecuador. You can, though.”

  Roderick shook his head slowly and closed his eyes. “Ransom, you have to choose.”

  “This isn’t about her. It’s about my godmothers. I’m not going to leave them when they need me most.”

  Petty put her hand on Ransom’s shoulder and squeezed. “That’s okay. You go do what you need to do.”

  Lucky could feel Ransom’s eyes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

  “I still need you on this while I’m in Ecuador.”

  “Fine. I’ll get the chopper to pick us up.” Roderick pulled out his phone and stepped outside.

  To Petunia, Ransom said, “We’ll figure this out. I promise.”

  “I know we will. I was just so sure this would work.” Petunia looked at Lucky and it seemed that her words were more meant for her than anyone else.

  She wished she knew the right thing to say. How to explain to her godmother she’d tried her best. “We will figure it out,” Lucky reiterated. “We will.”

  “Anything I can do, I’m here for it,” Gwen swore.

  “You kids are the absolute best,” Petunia said.

  “I’m going to go home so Jonquil can be here with you.”

  “Lucky, why don’t you go with her?” Petunia suggested.

  Her first thought was that the godmothers didn’t want her.

  This latest catastrophe had been the bridge too far. The one that made them wash their hands of her.

  Bluebonnet patted her hand and leaned over to whisper in her ear. “She’s going to need you. My wings are tingling. That usually means trouble is on the way.”

  Relief washed over her. “Okay. I’ll be back later to check in on you.”

  “I’m going to step outside, too. I’ll wait for you, Lucky.” She nodded toward Ransom and followed Roderick outside.

  The godmothers suddenly found work to busy them in the kitchen.

  Was she expected to apologize? Well, she wasn’t going to. They both knew the risks when they decided to flip fate the bird. Now, here they were. Dealing with the consequences.

  “Whatever happens, we have to make sure the godmothers are okay,” he said.

  That hadn’t been anything near what she’d expected him to say, but somehow, it was a relief. It was something normal. Something real.

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  “I’m leaving, but I’ll be back as soon as I can. Promise me you won’t leave until I get back.”

  “I can’t do that. What if you never come back? Then I can’t leave.” She’d meant it to be lighthearted. A little humor in the midst of all the gloom.

  It hadn’t exactly worked.

  She laughed, a nervous and high-pitched sound. “If that will help you do what you need to do, I’ll try to wait for you to come back. Is that better?”

  “Yeah, it is. Take care of them until I get back.”

  “I will.” She pressed her lips together in a grim line. They tingled, remembering what it felt like to have his lips on hers.

>   Bluebonnet’s wings tingled before a catastrophe, maybe that’s what this was. Maybe Lucky’s lips tingled.

  She decided in that moment that she was done with this self-doubt, self-recrimination. She was tired of feeling this way.

  So Lucky decided to leave before Ransom did. She was done watching him walk away. It was her turn.

  Of course, he could let her. “Lucky?”

  She turned on her heel. “What?”

  “I don’t blame you.”

  Lucky thought those were the words she’d wanted to hear, but they weren’t. Instead of soothing her, they enraged her. “Good to know. I wasn’t there by myself.”

  “I know that.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I blame myself.”

  “Ugh. I’m so done with this. The Blame Game. I’m not playing anymore. Have a safe flight. I hope you save your company.”

  Lucky lifted her chin and turned away from him to walk out the door. She linked her arm with Gwen’s and they walked down the little path toward her cottage.

  “It’s all going to work out,” Gwen reassured her.

  Gwen opened the door and they found Jonquil sitting in the rocker as it rocked all on its own, knitting needles in her hands, but with her head tilted back and long, deep snores rattling her tiny body.

  Gwen sighed. “I guess someone is sleeping well. That’s a plus. I hate to wake her.”

  “We could let her sleep for a few minutes.”

  Suddenly, the needles started clacking and Jonquil coughed. “I’m up, I’m up.”

  “I’m afraid there’s been some bad news,” Gwen said.

  “What’s happened?” Jonquil put down her knitting needles.

  “After the article that appeared in the paper about me, and because Ransom is about to lose his company, everyone who booked canceled,” Lucky summoned the courage to say.

  “Everyone?”

  “Everyone,” Lucky repeated.

  Jonquil gathered her things quietly. When she stood, she said, “This may seem like the darkest time, but this is when people show you who they are. All will be well, child.”

  Lucky didn’t understand how she could say that. She desperately wished it made sense to her, because if it did, it meant Lucky understood that kind of hope. It meant she could believe.

  Jonquil kissed Lucky’s and Gwen’s cheeks on the way out the door. “I’m sad I won’t see the kiddos today, but I’ll get some good time with them when things calm down.” Jonquil winked.

  Gwen leaned on the counter. “Irish coffee?”

  “Make it a double,” Lucky said.

  Gwen was pulling out the coffee grinder when her phone buzzed. She stopped to check it, and then she shook her head slowly.

  “That philandering shitlord,” she murmured. “The audacity.”

  “What’s happened?” Lucky asked, unable to swallow past the lump in her throat.

  “He’s going for full custody.”

  “Why? I thought you said you couldn’t even get a firm commitment out of him for when he was going to see the kids, and now he wants full custody?”

  Gwen looked down at the phone and back up at Lucky. Then back at the phone again.

  “It’s because of me, isn’t it?”

  “It’s because of what Nancy said about you. He thinks you’re a danger to the children.”

  Lucky didn’t know what to say. What to do.

  She’d lost everything.

  Tears slipped down her cheeks, hot and angry. She wouldn’t put Gwen in this position to have to choose between going to war with her husband and keeping her children.

  Lucky locked Gwen in a fierce hug before heading for the door.

  “You don’t have to go. You know I’ll fight this.”

  “You shouldn’t have to. Tell the monsters I love them. I’m going to fix this,” Lucky swore. “All of it.”

  Chapter 21

  Lucky didn’t actually have the first clue how to fix what she’d broken, except by leaving.

  But that wasn’t the solution she wanted, so she had to keep looking. Even though she accepted that eventuality might be best for everyone.

  Honestly, she thought she should probably seclude herself on some mountaintop or desert island somewhere.

  Lucky’s first instinct was to ask the godmothers for their opinion, but they had too much on their plates right now. If they’d had a ready-made solution, she was sure she’d have been the first to know.

  She considered the nature of choices.

  Her mother knew what it meant to make hard choices.

  A lot of people never knew out of the thousands of choices they made every day, which one would be the one that dramatically altered the path of their life, so they did the best they could with the information they had and went in blind. Only this lesson has been different for Fortune Fujiki. Her choice had been put to her, a riddle with no answer.

  Lucky made her way back up to the castle and to her mother’s room.

  “Ma?” she asked quietly, easing in through the door.

  Her mother sat in the butter-yellow light of the morning sun, drinking her coffee and reading the paper. She made a pretty picture that reminded Lucky of when she was young. When things were much simpler and all she’d needed was a kiss on her skinned knee.

  She supposed she’d skinned her heart this time.

  One glance at her daughter, and Fortune asked, “What’s happened?”

  “Everything, and it’s all bad.” Lucky shook her head. She didn’t know where to start.

  “Certainly not everything is bad. Come here and tell Ma all about it.” She patted the chair next to her.

  Lucky sat down in the chair next to her mother and wilted, an exhausted little flower. “After that stupid article about my luck ran in the paper, Ransom may lose his company, all of the potential customers canceled their bookings with the godmothers, and Gwen’s husband is suing her for full custody.”

  “Okay, you’re right. That’s all awful. So what are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. That’s the problem. I don’t know what to do.” Lucky wanted her mother to hand her a solution wrapped up in a glittery bow. A solution that didn’t hurt. A solution that on the other side, she knew for certain everything would be okay.

  “Yes, you do,” Fortune reminded her gently. “Think about everything that’s happened. If Gwen were in your position, what would you tell her to do?”

  Lucky considered for a long moment. “I’d tell her that she has to be honest. That if she wanted to help Ransom save his company, she had to talk to the investors. I’d tell her that she had to talk to the godmothers and tell them she’s going to come clean.”

  She sank farther down in her chair. This was not the solution she’d been looking for.

  “Don’t slump, dear.”

  “I can’t help it. Everyone’s future is on my shoulders. That’s kinda heavy.”

  “Not slump? Sure, you can. Just straighten your spine.”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about. I can’t tell Ransom’s investors the truth. It would ruin what the godmothers are trying to build. They’ve done so much for me, I can’t betray them.”

  “No one is asking you to betray them. Just as it’s not okay for them to ask you to betray yourself.”

  “They would never!” Lucky was insulted on their behalf.

  “Exactly. You need to go back and talk to them. Tell them what you’re planning and get their blessing. I have a feeling that they’ll be expecting you anyway. Your godmothers know you. Inside and out.”

  “What about Gwen?”

  “If the problem is you, remove yourself. Not forever, just until Gwen can get things figured out. Take yourself out of the equation. You know she’d fight for you. This is you fighting for her.”

  “I want to be there for her. I don’t want her to feel like I abandoned her.”

  “She’s fighting on all fronts right now. Let her focus on her children. Let go a little bit, Lucky.”

 
; “I feel like I have to let go of everything that matters,” she confessed. “I can’t have Gwen and the kids. I can’t have Ransom. What do I get, Ma?”

  “I’m going to ask you a hard question, Lucky Charm.”

  “Aren’t they all hard?”

  “Some are easier than others. You said you’ve got the weight of the futures of all of your dear ones on your shoulders. It’s so heavy it’s physically pushing you down. I know it’s a lot of responsibility, but isn’t it also a tremendous gift?”

  “I can’t see how.”

  “Because you’re looking at the outcomes that affect you negatively and not what those outcomes will be for them.”

  “Was there a question in there that wasn’t rhetorical?” Lucky grimaced.

  “None of it was rhetorical.” She took a sip of her coffee and nudged a pastry Lucky’s way. “Go on, have a bite.”

  Lucky didn’t have to be told twice. She needed the fortification.

  “The people you love are all facing impossible dilemmas. Each of them is locked in a kind of an escape room, but there’s no key inside. They’re all with you on the outside. Your gift is the ability to unlock their doors. Wouldn’t you do that for them at all costs?”

  Imagining any of her loved ones in that situation and Lucky knew she would do anything to give them those keys. Looking at it that way made her course of action so much easier.

  For a single, selfish moment, she wondered when it was going to be her turn. When someone would save her, but maybe that was the lesson all along. She had to learn how to save herself.

  Or maybe there was no lesson at all. Maybe this was just how things were. There was no point in wishing things were different, and later when she was alone in the dark wishing she could play with the monsters, or eat ice cream sodas with the godmothers, or kiss Ransom Payne, she’d remind herself of that.

  Like she’d said, wish in one hand . . .

  She ate the rest of the pastry slowly. This time, she didn’t cram the whole thing in her mouth. Lucky allowed herself to chew each bite thoroughly, to let the buttery crust melt on her tongue.

  This was her last breakfast in this phase of her life. Everything was going to change and she didn’t know if it was for good or bad, but Lucky was choosing the best lane of a bad lot.