The Accidental Elopement

by Maggie Dallen

  “I guess I do kind of like him. Even though he is a jerk.”

  Holly’s sigh was so over the top, Lucia and Ivy both started to giggle.

  “Crushes are the worst,” Holly said.

  “Oh yeah, they suck,” Ivy added.

  There was a moment of silence as Lucia digested these words of wisdom. She’d never felt this way before—needy and aching. If this was what it meant to have a crush, she wanted no part of them. Ivy was right, they did suck.

  “But they’re kinda great when they’re reciprocated,” Holly added.

  Now it was Ivy’s turn to let out a sappy sigh as she held out her arms for her daughter. “Yeah, they’re pretty amazing.”

  Lucia rolled her eyes at her friends. It was easy for them to talk. They had their happily ever afters. Their crushes not only liked them back, they’d fallen head over heels. And Lucia? Well, hers looked at her like she’d grown a second head when he’d found out she came from money. A now-familiar stab of pain stole her breath as she remembered the sneer on his face when he’d called her a brat.

  But then he’d kissed her.

  And then he called her a spoiled brat. Talk about mixed messages.

  Baby Anna was still on her lap and smiling up at her. The smile was contagious and Lucia gave the little girl a watery smile in return. “I don’t know what do,” Lucia admitted.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know what you’re going to do?” Ivy said. “Don’t you have a shift tonight?”

  Lucia nodded. “But I can’t go back there. Not with Ryan hating me. He thinks I’m some spoiled rich kid. And maybe he’s right.”

  Holly’s voice piped up in the middle of the room. “Coming from money doesn’t make you spoiled, sweetie. You’ve been working since you were old enough to have a job—”

  Lucia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but at Grandpa’s office.”

  “So?” Ivy said. “You still have a strong work ethic.”

  Lucia heaved a deep breath. “All of the money I came here with I made on my own.”

  “See?” Holly said. “Sounds like this Ryan guy has a chip on his shoulder that has absolutely nothing to do with you.”

  Ivy pulled back so she could face her. “Do you want to keep this job?”

  “I need to keep this job,” Lucia said with a pathetic laugh.

  “Then why are you going to let this guy stop you?”

  Ivy had a point and she knew it, but the idea of walking back into that restaurant and facing Ryan after everything that had happened the night before—the proposal, that kiss….his rejection. Another thought occurred to her. “What if he’s told everyone I’ve been lying this whole time?”

  “The only way to show them the real you is to go in there and be your sweet, charming, lovable self,” Holly said. “And if they don’t like you once they get to know you….they’re not worth knowing.”

  Ivy was nodding in agreement so vehemently her auburn hair started slipping out of the topknot holding it off her face.

  Lucia kept imagining what she would do or say if she went back to that bar tonight. What would Ryan say? What would she do? She was torn between slapping him for his rude rejection and begging him to let her explain. She dropped her head back against the couch with a sigh. Either way it involved her going back to the bar.

  “Fine,” she said. “I’ll go.”

  * * * *

  Ryan would have preferred to do pretty much anything else with his day off.

  “Grab another box, you wuss.” Billy shoved past him with his arms full of boxes.

  His mother was already inside, putting away the kitchenware Ryan had just hauled inside the tiny studio apartment in Queens. He loaded up two more boxes and carried them inside.

  His mother was already complaining—not that he was surprised. She’d done little else these last eight years, ever since his father had drunk himself into the grave. Things had gone from bad to worse to absolute hell and it all started when Daniel Gladwell stole the family company out from underneath their father. Years later they still suffered while Daniel sat up there in his cushy penthouse suite, with his beautiful wife and happy daughter.

  And Lucia. Don’t forget Lucia.

  He’d known that Daniel had family in Italy. It was well known that he’d married his wife Ivy in Italy and stayed for months to be with family. If he’d been smart, he would have made the connection the first day he’d met Lucia. What were the odds that a random Italian chick happened to wander into Daniel Gladwell’s bar? He’d been kicking himself for not seeing any of it sooner. The lies, the family connection, the wealthy background. He’d been blind to all of it.

  He hadn’t been blind to her. That had been the trouble from the start. He’d been blinded by her good looks and the way she laughed at herself and at him and that body and her eyes and the way her lips—

  “What’s wrong with you?” His mother stopped complaining long enough to turn her angry stare in his direction.

  “Nothing’s wrong, Ma.”

  His mother gave a sniff “Then why does it look like somebody just ran over your dog?”

  “Again,” Billy said with a snicker.

  Ryan glared at his brother. “Seriously? Only a sick psychopath would find that funny. You loved that dog, too.”

  Billy dismissed him with a shrug as he started unpacking a box of electronics.

  “That’s the last of it,” Ryan said, already inching toward the door. Surely by coming out to Queens and doing manual labor he had fulfilled his familial obligations for the day.

  “Not so fast.”

  He turned to find his mother and brother watching him with matching grim looks. How had he never noticed the similarity before? Ryan had gotten his father’s Irish features, with his dark hair and blue eyes, while Billy shared their mother’s sandy blond hair and gray eyes. But it was more than just the physical similarity. At that moment, he saw the same negative tendencies, the ability to find fault with anyone and everyone around them. Particularly him.

  And right now, he was clearly in the hot seat.

  Resigning himself to the inevitable, he sank onto the couch which he and his brother had hauled minutes before. “All right, let’s hear it. What did I do now?”

  “You haven’t done anything wrong, Ryan,” his mother started.

  “It’s what you haven’t done,” Billy finished.

  Seriously, did these two rehearse these scenes? Ryan rubbed his eyes and tried to explain. “I’m making progress, but it’s not easy.”

  “What kind of progress?” His mother folded her arms as she waited for his response.

  “Yeah, what have you been doing other than flirting with that new waitress?”

  Ryan shifted on the couch. “Daniel called me into his office yesterday. He’s taken a liking to me.”

  Well that wasn’t entirely true…but it wasn’t a lie either. It was a lie of omission.

  Just like Lucia.

  Dammit, why did all thoughts lead back to her? Ever since she’d stormed out of the bar last night, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. Guilt had him tossing and turning all night as his traitorous brain flashed an image of those hurt eyes staring up at him when he’d called her an entitled, spoiled brat.

  Then this morning he’d obsessed over whether or not she would show up for her shift tonight. Clearly she didn’t need the money…and it wasn’t like she was a natural at it. She was probably halfway back to Italy by now, telling the rest of Daniel’s family about the jerk of a bartender she’d kissed.

  That kiss. The other reason he hadn’t been able to get her off of his mind. That kiss had been earthshattering. Ryan had kissed his share of women before but none of those experiences could compare to the blazing fire she’d ignited.

  “Yo, earth to Ryan.” Billy was sneering at him and his mother did not look pleased.

  Crap.

  “Sorry, what?”

  His mother spoke in s
low motion, like he was hard of hearing. “What did that monster want?”

  That monster. For as long as he could remember that was how she referred to Daniel. It had always seemed melodramatic to Ryan, but then that was his mother. She lived for drama. She’d raised her sons to think of Daniel as the boogeyman—some dark, twisted evil henchman who’d set out to ruin their lives. Ryan had outgrown the boogeyman stories ages ago and now, having met the man up close and personal, it was even harder to think of him as anything other than what he was—a man. Ruthless and heartless, perhaps, but just a man.

  “He wanted to commend me on my quick thinking,” Ryan said.

  His brother scoffed and his mother scowled. “And how is that helping us? Huh?”

  The two shared a knowing look that didn’t bode well for him. Uh oh, here it comes.

  “You’re not there to make nice with the boss, you pansy,” Billy said.

  Ryan leaned back against the couch cushions. “Actually, that’s exactly why I’m there, remember? To make nice and gain information. Watch his inner circle and keep my ear to the ground.”

  “And what have you learned so far?” his mother cut it. “Other than the fact that you’re employee of the month.”

  He should be used to that derisive tone by now but even as an adult, her sharp tongue had the power to make him feel like a little kid who’d wet the bed. I learned that Daniel has a mysterious relative working at the hotel who’s on the run from someone. It was tempting. They would latch onto this bit of news like leeches and before the day was over, he would be embroiled in some new farfetched revenge plot that somehow included Lucia. No. There was no way he could do that to her.

  He watched his mother and brother, who were snapping at one another over whose stupid plan it had been to send him in in the first place.

  “You didn’t have any choice,” he reminded them politely. “Billy the hothead over here isn’t allowed within thirty yards of Daniel thanks to the fights he picked…with the bellboy.”

  Billy’s puffy face was pulled into a sneer. Not even he could argue that his attempt to get to Daniel had been a complete and utter whiskey-driven disaster.

  “And Mother here couldn’t do it since Daniel knows her so well from the takeover,” he reminded them, as if this was a new fact. From the way his mother told the story, Daniel had blown through their company like a whirling dervish, destroying everything in his path. But not without some epic showdowns with his mother. Their father had never been the aggressive one in the family. That, he had left to their mother.

  “That’s right,” she said. “It all comes down to you.” It didn’t take a mind reader or even a terribly intuitive person to see how disappointing that was to her. As if he was useless.

  “I don’t know what you want from me,” Ryan said. “I’m keeping my ear to the ground like you asked. But seriously, what do you think I’m going to learn working behind a bar?”

  Aside from the fact that he has a mysterious relative with a past. Who wanted to marry him. He shifted uncomfortably at that thought. He wasn’t used to keeping secrets from his family, but Lucia was not a part of this. Liar or not, she didn’t deserve to pay for Daniel’s crimes.

  “There have got to be some skeletons in that man’s closet,” his mother said. “Believe me, that man has his secrets. And we all know he has a weakness now….”

  Oh no, not this again.

  “That family of his will be his undoing, believe you me.” His mother lit a cigarette and Ryan turned so he could open the window behind him for some non-toxic air.

  “Mother, we are not going after an innocent woman and her baby. That’s final.”

  His mother raised an eyebrow and peered at him over the smoking cigarette in her mouth. After she’d exhaled, she said, “Do you have a better plan? If not, I don’t see any other option. We’ve been watching Gladwell for years….family is his only weakness.”

  Lucia is my family. Daniel’s words echoed in his mind. Ivy and Baby Anna weren’t the only family in Daniel’s life. And he had access to this one.

  “Have you forgotten what that man did to our family?” his brother asked. Billy had that motivational speaker look on his face. Before his brother could launch into a well-rehearsed diatribe on the evils of Daniel Gladwell, Ryan cut him off.

  “I remember, okay? It’s my family too. I remember the way the Gladwell takeover ruined Dad.”

  “That man left me with nothing,” his mother added, never one to be left out of a pity party. Gesturing to the apartment around her she added. “Just look at how far we’ve fallen.”

  We. There she goes again. It was true that she’d lost everything when their father lost the business and then promptly passed away. But it wasn’t like she’d done anything to help save them once they’d fallen. She and Billy had been content to sit back and scheme and plot vengeance rather than move forward or, heaven forbid, get a job. Which meant it had been up to him to work his way through school and attempt to start a new life. He’d been off to a pretty decent start with an entry-level job at a marketing company…before they’d managed to guilt-trip him into working at the bar.

  He should be well on his way to a career by now but he had somehow gotten sucked back into their revenge plans. And for what?

  His mother took another drag of her cigarette and answered his unspoken question. “He owes us.” That was another one of her favorite refrains. He owes us. That’s always what their revenge schemes came down to—the money they think they’re owed.

  “That’s it.” His mother leveled him with a stare before turning and sharing a look with Billy—a look that sent a shiver of apprehension down his spine.

  “We’ve tried it your way.” She gestured to Billy and rolled her eyes. No one wanted to rehash that drunken disaster.

  She waved her cigarette toward Ryan, “And we’ve tried it your way….the nice way.” She didn’t need to roll her eyes, the sneer was enough. “Now, it’s time we do it my way.”

  “Ma—”

  She continued as if he’d never interrupted. “We know his weakness is his wife and baby. And Daniel may be untouchable but that wife of his….she has a past.”

  “I’ve told you, Ma, I don’t think it’s right to use a man’s family against him.”

  That earned him a vicious scowl. “Daniel was no better when he took everything and left us with nothing. Do you think he cared how his actions would hurt your father’s family? No. He’s ruthless and he deserves the same kind of treatment.”

  Ryan shut his mouth. They’d had this argument before, too many times. He knew where this was going.

  “She has a past. Everybody knows she was engaged to his business partner before Daniel stole her away, just like he steals everything else.”

  “That’s old news, Ma,” Billy said.

  “Maybe, but no one got the whole story—how did he steal her and….” She paused to take a drag of her cigarette, which conveniently added a dramatic effect. “Who knows who’s really the father of that baby?”

  “Really, Ma, you’re going to start gossip about an innocent baby,” Ryan said. Sometimes the extent of his mother’s vendetta never ceased to amaze him. There was no way he would go along it.

  “Is Jack Everett the baby daddy?” Billy asked.

  Their mother shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Daniel is a proud man and he loves his privacy. He’ll pay to stop the talk, whether it’s true or not.”

  And yet again, that’s what it came down to. Money. That’s all that mattered to his mother and brother, despite their talk of justice for their father and for their family name. It was bull, all of it. They just wanted the money they felt they were owed.

  Money was all it would take. He thought of Lucia’s expression when she’d pleaded with him to think of his family and how money could help them. “What if I can find another way to get us money?”

  They turned to him then with gratifyingly shocked looks. “How?” his mother
asked.

  “It’s not just about the money,” Billy said.

  Of course it was, but he didn’t have the energy to argue. Ryan would bet everything he had that they would be satisfied once they bled some money out of Gladwell. That’s what this was about for them, whether they admitted it or not. He could end this whole disastrous scheme and get back to his life. Ryan and his family could have their vengeance in the form of money—a smile started to form as he thought of Daniel’s face if he learned his precious Lucia had married the bartender. Okay, sticking it to Daniel would be gratifying. And in the end, Gladwell’s money would go to Ryan’s family. He would get his vengeance on Daniel and his mother and brother would get their blood money.

  And Lucia?

  The image of those sad eyes staring up at him flashed through his mind for the millionth time. He couldn’t drag her into this.

  This was her idea. The devil on his shoulder had a point. She’s the one who’d proposed the plan—literally. And it wasn’t like she had nothing to gain. She was in it for the money. They would all get what they want.

  A flicker of doubt gave him pause. If Lucia got hurt….

  She wouldn’t. She wouldn’t even need to know his family’s history or his hatred toward her relative. Much as his mother and brother might insist they need more—namely public humiliation and a smear on Daniel’s good name—they would change their tune when they got their hands on his money.

  And this would finally be over. His family could move on with their lives. Ivy and her baby could go about their lives without a care. And he would be free.

  Well, married but free. And he was quite certain Lucia didn’t intend for this to be a lifetime commitment. He could handle being married to Lucia for a couple months. How hard could it be?