Lucky in Love

by Kristen Ethridge

  “What?” Lisa placed her glass on the table in front of her and looked at Ryan. “Is something wrong?”

  Ryan raised his glass. “Not at all.”

  She didn’t look convinced. But, he figured, that was okay. He wasn’t particularly convinced everything was going to plan for her, either.

  The waiter came back and brought several plates of appetizers, placing them in front of Ryan.

  “This is courtesy of the Renaissance Grand, Mr. McBride. It’s a pleasure to have you dining with us tonight,” the maître d’ stood just off to the side of the table.

  “It’s always a pleasure to be here, Jerome,” Ryan replied politely. Everyone at the Renaissance Grand knew him and took care of his every need—even ones he didn’t know he had. Once he announced he was leaving the tour, would they still place large, round croutons topped with a tomato and kalamata olive mix in front of him? Or were his days of bruschetta, drinks on the house, and a concierge who took care of last-minute ideas and whims soon to be a thing of the past?

  If that’s what happened, he’d just have to deal with it. Besides, he didn’t know if he’d even stay in Las Vegas. After years of calculating an opponent’s next move, next card, Ryan didn’t know his own next step.

  He’d made the decision to move on, but unfortunately, it was not soothing the sense of restlessness that had been hanging around his soul for almost a year now.

  The small party moved through several courses quickly. Ryan let Pops do most of the talking. If he was honest, he just didn’t know what to say to Gina Mae or Lisa, knowing that all he truly wanted was for them to get on a plane and go home before they’d brought any permanent change to Pops’s life. And his own.

  Pops smiled, looking like a high schooler on his way to his first prom. Ryan hadn’t seen his grandfather look so at ease in years. Ever since he’d moved out to Las Vegas, there had been a sadness around him that Ryan couldn’t place.

  In the last few hours, though, Ryan could see the grandfather he used to know. The one who cracked jokes, who loved a good adventure, who always had a helping hand and a listening ear. Ryan had almost forgotten that side of Pops.

  But he couldn’t help but feel like it was back for all the wrong reasons. And he just wasn’t going to be an enabler. It stood out to him that Pops had forgotten the whole conversation they’d had on Monday about the Shamrocks for Students tournament.

  Ryan hadn’t wanted to admit that age was catching up to Pops, but forgetting the tournament, keeping secrets about bringing Gina Mae to Vegas and these crazy wedding plans—something just didn’t make sense right now.

  Actually—nothing made sense right now.

  This whole spur-of-the-moment Vegas wedding scenario didn’t make sense.

  And neither did the fact that Ryan couldn’t keep himself from catching glances at Lisa Fleming out of the corner of his eye.

  “Lisa, I’m sorry my grandson seems to be working tonight. You can come help your Nana and me pick out flowers for the wedding.”

  “No, that’s okay. I don’t want to intrude. I’m sure there are plenty of things for me to do in Las Vegas.” Lisa shook her head, then turned toward Ryan with a practiced smile. “Not everything around here has to lead to trouble, right?”

  The only trouble he could see was looking right at him. Once he got this lady in the black lace dress and her great-grandmother back on a plane to Texas, Las Vegas would have a whole lot less trouble in town.

  Chapter Four

  Lisa knew Ryan didn’t want her here. She also knew she was bored, even in one of the fastest-paced cities in America. But she hadn’t come here to vacation, to see shows, to gamble, or to eat at one of the legendary Las Vegas buffets.

  Maybe if she just slipped here in the back of this tournament room, Ryan wouldn’t know and she could alleviate some of her boredom.

  Lisa took one of the few remaining seats in the Venezia Ballroom. It wasn’t quite the back row like she’d hoped, but it was near the edge of the room and seemed like it would suit her purpose—whatever that actually was. She didn’t know anything for certain right now.

  A young blonde, her hair falling over her shoulders in glossy, perfectly sprayed waves, lowered herself into the aisle seat next to Lisa.

  “I’m actually going to need that seat in a few minutes,” she said. “I’m with NCN, the National Card Network. I’ve got a live interview with Lucky Charm at the break.”

  “Oh, you mean Ryan McBride?” It seemed so strange to Lisa how many people referred to a grown man by such a silly nickname.

  “Yes. He told me he has an announcement to make.”

  Surely he wasn’t going to talk about his grandfather’s upcoming wedding. That seemed a silly thing to announce on a TV network. Actually, the idea of a TV network covering card games seemed pretty silly, too.

  Except...there had been a time when she’d have considered it a huge step in her career to have been given a job like this girl had. There had been a time, not so terribly long ago, when Lisa would have taken any job in film, on TV, or on stage if it had meant keeping her dream of being an actress alive.

  “Did he say what it was?” Lisa whispered back. She really had no business asking, but the curiosity was definitely getting the better of her. She’d never met a man like Ryan McBride. He threw around an AmEx Black like it was a children’s toy. He was treated with almost royal deference by everyone in this microcosmic little alternate reality known as the Renaissance Grand. But for all that he acted like a cool enigma, he was devoted to his Pops, she would certainly give him that.

  The blonde uncrossed, then recrossed her legs under her short charcoal-sequined skirt and scooted forward to perch on the edge of her chair. “No,” she said with a short clip off the edge of the single syllable. “But he never says much.”

  “Tell me about it.” Lisa also moved to the edge of her seat and leaned slightly left, in order to get a better look at Ryan.

  To his right sat Kramer Forde, a Hollywood veteran whose gray hair had moved him from the action hero roles he got thirty years ago to more distinguished casting, but hadn’t diminished his leading man popularity. To his left was social media entrepreneur Caleb Walsh, who’d just taken his mobile messaging interface company public and made a fortune that neared a billion dollars in just a matter of hours after the stock market’s opening bell. Across from Ryan was a man Lisa didn’t recognize. He wore a red hoodie and a white baseball cap, each with a logo embroidered on them.

  “Who’s that?” Lisa leaned back just enough to catch the blonde reporter’s attention.

  “Breck Goulding. Do you not watch much poker?” She kept her eyes glued straight ahead.

  “Um, no. This is a first for me.”

  Kramer Forde pushed an impressively tall pile of chips to the middle of the green felt-covered table, then slumped in his chair and ran his hands over his face in frustration as Ryan flipped his cards over with a practiced flick.

  “Well, that’s that.” The reporter looked at Lisa, then stood up. “So how did you wind up coming to watch by yourself?”

  “Lisa?” Ryan pushed through the door in the barrier separating the game from the spectators.

  So much for remaining off his radar. She felt a small trickle of sweat trickle down the crease between her shoulder blades and tried to tell herself it was from the hot stage lights overhead, not nerves.

  Lisa looked at the reporter, who now looked between her and a dark-eyed Ryan with a double-take that could easily be read by even a poker novice. The little blonde was not keeping her confusion a secret.

  “I...well...I know him.” Lisa nodded in Ryan’s direction, though she didn’t need to. The fact that he was quickly closing the distance between them said more than her spur-of-the-moment awkward attempt at an explanation.

  All of a sudden, the reporter’s eyes narrowed to slits. Lisa read that expression clearly as well. Maybe Lisa had more skill at calling people’s bluff than she’d previously thought, because the rep
orter’s look was pure jealousy. No doubt about it.

  “Hey, Lucky Charm, you ready?” The reporter reached out for Ryan’s arm and ran her fingers slowly from his shoulder to elbow.

  Lisa felt a little jealousy of her own creep up, but she couldn’t place why. She was only here because she needed to kill some time while her grandmother dreamed up wedding details with Bill. She was only here watching a celebrity poker tournament because an hour ago, it seemed preferable to pretending to be involved in the wedding plans. That felt like lying; like she was giving her support to what was going on.

  But all of a sudden, this felt just as awkward. Because even though Lisa tried to push the thought out of her mind as soon as it popped in there, she found herself wondering what it would be like to be as casual with Ryan McBride as the blonde with the perfectly styled beachy waves seemed to be.

  Ryan tugged his arm back, but the reporter’s hot pink nails threaded between his fingers and tugged. She didn’t quite have him where she wanted him, but she was certainly trying.

  “Yeah.” He disengaged and ran a hand through his hair. “Where do you want me?”

  She smiled, the expression as polished and hard as a diamond. “You name it, Lucky Charm. I’ll set up wherever you want.”

  Lisa couldn’t contain a most unladylike snort.

  The look she got in return could have frozen the entire Nevada desert.

  “I’m going to need you to stand somewhere else, Miss.” Disdain coated the blonde’s words like burned icing atop a sugar cookie.

  Ryan freed his hand from the young woman’s grasp and reached out, grabbing Lisa by the wrist. “No you don’t, Emma. She’s with me.”

  As instinctively as the little snorty laugh had come earlier, now her best Broadway smile flew up to Lisa’s lips.

  So...Ryan needed a buffer from Little Miss National Card Network. Well, Lisa didn’t know anything about poker, and she didn’t know anything about Vegas but the stereotypes.

  But if there was one thing Lisa Fleming did know, it was acting. She knew history, theory, and method.

  And she knew she could help Ryan McBride out right now.

  She owed him. He hadn’t cared when she’d said she couldn’t afford a dress in that boutique. He’d just bought her this red carpet-worthy dress without so much as a second thought so she could be appropriately dressed for her grandmother’s rehearsal dinner. He’d even thrown down that credit card again and paid for the meal, at what Lisa knew had to be a significant cost.

  Even though she wanted Nana to come home at the end of this trip without making any life-altering changes, she did recognize that Nana seemed happier than she’d been in so, so long. Her eyes had glowed with pride when she saw Lisa walk in wearing this fancy dress and her eyes had glowed when Bill McBride had toasted her as his first and last love.

  And Lisa knew Ryan McBride’s generosity—however cloaked behind a face Lisa could not read—had made both of those moments possible.

  “Sorry it took me so long to get here,” Lisa said, putting an extra dose of sugar in her voice in order to better sell the moment to Emma the reporter. “I had to get Nana settled with the spa menu so she could pick out all the wedding-day pampering.”

  Emma’s jaw dropped. She touched her ear and paused, then nodded and signaled the cameraman with a raised, pink shellac-topped finger. “Thanks, Ricky. I’m here with the leader in tonight’s celebrity round of the Shamrocks for Students tournament, the one and only Lucky Charm, Ryan McBride. Thanks for joining me, Lucky Charm. You said you had an important announcement to make tonight to National Card Network viewers. I figured it was going to be something to do with your career—I thought you’d be telling us you’d decided to go for a record-setting fifth consecutive world championship ring this season.”

  She put her hand on Lisa’s shoulder and roughly pushed her into the shot. Lisa tried to keep the smile on her face, not quite knowing what the scorned little reporter was trying to do.

  “But I had no idea you were going to announce to NCN viewers that poker’s most eligible bachelor is off the market.”

  Ryan looked at Lisa and then at Emma. He opened his mouth to speak, but Emma let out a girlish squeal.

  “The Lucky Charm is getting married! Congratulations!”

  It took all the skill Lisa had as an actress to keep her jaw where it was supposed to be. Just keep playing the part, she reminded herself.

  Only, she had no idea what part she was now playing. Surely Ryan would correct the misunderstanding.

  He slipped an arm around Lisa’s waist and pulled her tight against him. Lisa could feel the hard striations of muscles of chest and abs through the starched cotton of his button-down shirt.

  “This is my fiancée, Lisa Fleming.” Ryan gave Lisa’s waist a squeeze and the camera a quick flash of a grin, framed by a short dusting of yesterday’s five o’clock shadow.

  “You heard it here first, card fans. So, Lucky Charm, how did you two meet?” Emma’s smile dripped insincerity like an artificial sweetener.

  The fans at home probably couldn’t see the clench at the back of Emma’s jawline, but Lisa could—all too clearly. She felt like putting a hand over her eyes to keep the young blonde from clawing them out.

  Ryan’s expression never wavered. “Well, it probably sounds old-fashioned, but we were introduced by our families. I knew the minute I met her, my life was going to change.”

  Emma’s eyebrows raised skeptically. “Oh, really? What about you, Lisa? Did you know he was the one?”

  Lisa thought quickly back to their first words in the airport, when she’d told him to get his luggage and move on. Life-changing, indeed. “To be honest, Emma, the whole thing has taken me by surprise.”

  Shock might be a better word.

  At least when she passed out from the shock, Ryan’s solid chest would be there to break her fall.

  “Well, thanks for sharing your big news with us, Lucky Charm. Honestly, I didn’t know what your big surprise was going to be.” She tucked some blonde waves behind her ear in a self-protective manner. “You’re leading tonight’s chip count comfortably, so all in all a good night, right?”

  Ryan kept his hand circled around Lisa’s waist. She forced herself to remember she was just playing an unintentional role. It kept her from thinking about how long it had been since a good-looking man had pulled her close, wordlessly announcing to the world that she was his.

  “Yes, Lisa’s definitely my lucky charm.” He looked up at the larger-than-life LCD screen above them, broadcasting this interview live to the spectators in the room. “There’s one more thing, too, Emma.”

  Her brittle smile stayed virtually immobile. “Oh? What’s that?”

  “Shamrocks for Students will be my last tournament. I’m retiring from the Global Poker Challenge tour.”

  Lisa scanned the faces in the room as they processed Ryan’s bombshell announcement. A man in a flame patterned shirt in the middle of the room shot visual daggers straight at her. Several others looked at her with expressions ranging from disdain to outright hostility. Lisa imagined this must have been how Yoko Ono felt when confronted by the Beatles faithful.

  She wanted to tell them it wasn’t her fault, that she had only known Ryan McBride for half a day. She wasn’t his lucky charm, and she wasn’t his fiancée.

  But she couldn’t break character.

  And apparently, neither could Ryan, because before Emma even had a chance to provide commentary, he lifted his hand from Lisa’s waist and pressed it against her hair, leaning her head toward him.

  In front of one very hostile gallery of poker fans, he pressed his lips to Lisa’s cheek.

  A hoot came from the back corner of the audience. Then one decidedly strong wolf whistle.

  Ryan adjusted the position of his hands and turned Lisa toward him. They were so close she could hear the shortness of his breath and smell the faint sandalwood and spice of his cologne. He threw a quick grin at the gathered crowd, then leaned
in and locked his lips on Lisa’s.

  Lisa had been kissed hundreds of times when a role required it. Having chemistry with a co-star was an essential part of acting.

  But she couldn’t tell what Ryan McBride was playing at. He held her tightly and his lips pressed with some unspoken demand. Lisa heard the blood rushing in her ears as her own mouth met Ryan’s lips and matched their strong, questing slide against hers. The rasp of the short hairs on his chin slid roughly against her skin, forcing her awareness of what was happening.

  She’d kissed a lot of men that she barely knew in the name of theatre. But that was always about staying on script.

  Ryan pulled away and a few more claps and whistles filled the room.

  Emma the reporter stood, unmoving, and perhaps the only one more stunned than Lisa. “Well, there you have it, poker fans. The legendary Lucky Charm is cashing in his chips after this weekend’s tournament. The tour won’t be the same without you, Ryan McBride.”

  Lisa could hear the unspoken “And neither will I.” Clearly, Emma had more than a small crush on Ryan and she didn’t appreciate that it wasn’t going to be reciprocated.

  For her part, Lisa wanted to just keep smiling and keep going on with the show, like she’d done for so many meaningless kisses in meaningless roles. But Ryan still stood closer than a whisper to her. His arm slid back tightly around her waist. There was no way she could just move on to the next scene. Not until she figured out what was going on.

  An assistant tapped Ryan on the shoulder. “Hey, the break’s over. Time to get back.”

  “Okay.” Ryan dropped his hand from Lisa’s waist. The interview was over. So was the moment. Lisa shuffled to the side to let Ryan pass back through the door to the main gaming area.

  A low buzz filled the room, the sound of the assembled crowd discussing Ryan’s two bombshells. Distracted by the chatter and the celebrities coming back to the table under the lights, no one seemed to notice that Ryan McBride didn’t say another word or give a glance back to the so-called lucky charm of his own life.