Lucky in Love

by Kristen Ethridge

  Maybe it was the kiss that had gotten her so tongue-tied. She wasn’t usually like this. She was trained to speak to people. It frustrated her that she couldn’t speak to Ryan, that she couldn’t just carry on a conversation and answer his questions.

  A mirror ball the size of a basketball twirled just above them, throwing more sparkle and light on the dance floor. Three other couples staked their place and tapped and twirled along with the music.

  Lisa left all her dance training by the wayside and just swayed in Ryan’s arms.

  She wanted to just be.

  Who was Lisa Marie Fleming? At this moment, she knew the precise answer.

  She was a girl who just wanted to be supported for who she was. She wanted someone to stand beside her and be there for the future. She wanted to dream and inspire and have someone understand why. She wanted someone who would ‘get’ her, with no reservations, now that Nana was exiting stage right from her day-to-day life.

  “I’m scared, Ryan.” Lisa’s whisper held up just barely over the start of a Frank Sinatra standard.

  Ryan looked down, locked his gaze on hers, and pulled her a little tighter as she rocked back and forth like a metronome, doing the same movement over and over because it didn’t require any more thought.

  “The only person who really knows me is Nana. Who am I when she’s gone?”

  Ryan brushed back a lock of Lisa’s hair.

  “The woman she raised you to be. Her legacy.”

  A tear slipped from the corner of Lisa’s eye. It ran down the valley beside her nose. Ryan brushed it away with the care of collecting a rare diamond.

  “She’s the only person who hasn’t pulled the rug out from under me. My mother left because I cut into her personal life. My Broadway dreams were done when I realized the people who didn’t expect me to sacrifice my morals were few and far between. The man who said he loved me didn’t love me enough to let me work through some changes in my life.”

  “Do you feel this, Lisa?” Ryan flexed the muscles in the arm around her waist.

  She nodded.

  “It’s not going anywhere. You have a friend for life. No matter where life takes you, I’m not walking the other way.”

  Lisa gave a very unladylike sniff as she tried to choke back another tear. “But why not? You barely know me.”

  “Maybe. But I know my Pops. And if your Nana was special enough to stay in his mind through more than sixty years of living, then I think I’d be crazy to assume her great-granddaughter didn’t have some of those same qualities.”

  Squares of light from overhead dappled Ryan’s face, highlighting his eyes. The violet of the lights somehow made his eyes an even deeper blue. Lisa felt herself being pulled into them, like a rip current off a rolling seashore.

  “I’d call it placing an educated bet. I’m taking the knowledge of what I see before me, calculating the odds, and then committing to the play.”

  His words made total sense to Lisa. She picked up her feet and started to shuffle a little across their corner of the dance floor. Ryan matched her steps one by one until they were both in time with the music—and with each other.

  Six decades after last seeing Bill McBride, this week’s reunion with the man brought a genuine twinkle to Nana’s face. Ryan was right—there was something between the two grandparents, a lesson she could learn if she chose to be the pupil instead of the teacher for just a moment.

  It was more than something you’d see in a TV movie, more genuine than anything that could be memorized from a script and brought to life.

  It was life. Real life. And Lisa didn’t want to live in the shadows of the past, haunted by the questions of decisions made long ago.

  On this crazy makeshift dance floor in the middle of a replica paddle wheel boat, with the sounds of classic crooners filling the air, there were only bright spotlights, live colors, dancing diamonds of light. There were no shadows.

  Lisa longed to come out of the shadows which had started haunting her as a little girl, when her mother stopped coming back to Nana’s house. She tugged Ryan toward the center of the dance floor, where the colors glowed the most strongly, and she spoke in a language she knew he’d understand.

  “I’m all in.”

  Nana brushed past by Lisa, held tightly in Bill’s arms. He reached up and out and twirled Nana with practiced ease. Lisa smiled just watching her. She looked sure-footed and at-ease, as though she was still that girl caught up in a summer romance before enemies dropped bombs and pointed guns half a world away.

  On their next round of the dance floor, Bill and Nana slowed alongside Lisa and Ryan. “You two look like you’re enjoying yourselves. Bill, isn’t it like we’re looking in some kind of mirror? That’s just what we looked like almost eighty years ago.”

  Bill nodded in hearty agreement. “She looks just like you, the night that I took you to the dance at the Mueller family’s barn. You wore that white dress with the yellow flowers embroidered on it. I never forgot how beautiful you looked that night. And it does seem that Lisa got a good dose of those genes. You’re both beautiful—God knew what he was doing with you two.”

  He lifted Nana’s hand and gave it a gentle kiss.

  Lisa found herself caught up in something about the boat ride, the classic dance standards coming through the speakers, and this sweet man whose love for her grandmother had stretched across more than three-quarters of a century.

  She looked up at Ryan and saw the same eyes as the smitten older man next to them—only, a few shades darker, and not surrounded by the lines of life. She’d heard it said so many times that “character is who you are when no one is looking.” Bill McBride’s character was evident in every loving gesture, every compliment, every sentence he spoke. He loved Gina Mae Fleming. He loved his grandson.

  Ever the dreamer, Lisa had always hoped for a love like that. And she’d always gotten burned. But what if Bill McBride’s love and decency were just as much of a genetic legacy as the shape of his Irish blue eyes?

  Lisa knew what she wanted half a century from now. She wanted the chivalry, the caresses, the shared jokes that still made each other laugh. She wanted a lifetime love.

  “What do you think He was doing with us, Pops?” Ryan chuckled and elbowed his grandfather playfully.

  “Us? Well, my boy, we live in the luckiest town on earth. It only makes sense that he made us lucky in love.” With anyone else, a bold statement like that would have been cloaked in mirth and said with a chuckle.

  But with Bill, it came out as a statement of fact.

  He believed it.

  And as another song came on and Ryan pulled her close for a slow dance, Lisa believed it too.

  She was falling for Ryan McBride. She didn’t know how and she didn’t know why, but she saw the starry skies out the back window of the boat, closed her eyes, and made a silent wish that the luck of the Irish would rub off on her heart too.

  “I’m so glad you and Lisa decided to get married too.” Nana used enough volume that no one could mistake what she’d said.

  Lisa tugged a little on Ryan’s sleeve, trying to encourage him back to dancing. Ryan looked at her, that heart-stopping blue barely visible between the squint of his eyelids.

  “What is she talking about?”

  “I told you. She needs to go to Dr. Reynolds soon.” Lisa racked her brain, trying to think of a way to change the subject.

  She didn’t want her luck to run out before it ever started.

  On their way back to Las Vegas, Nana and Pops dozed in a corner of the limousine’s long, curved seat.

  “They’ve had a big day. And a bigger one ahead tomorrow.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Lisa tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. “I’m sorry, it’s not the company, I swear.”

  “I know it’s not. I’m used to late nights. I doubt you are. High school theatre is probably over by ten.”

  She laughed as she nodded. “Something like that. The kids may not be through, but they can take it
to the local pancake place. Their teacher sure is finished. I’m like Cinderella’s carriage. I turn into a pumpkin at midnight.”

  “I bet you’re the prettiest gourd out there.”

  “You sure know how to compliment a girl, Mr. High Roller.”

  Ryan leaned back in the seat. “Nah. My high-rolling days are over, remember?”

  “I do. Have you thought anymore about what you want to do?” Lisa kicked off her shoes and tucked her legs and feet up on the seat, underneath her. The position pulled her dark wash jeans tight and showed off her assets in a way that began to drive Ryan more than a little crazy.

  “Well, I guess your Nana thinks we’re actually getting married.”

  Lisa’s immediate tension at Gina Mae’s proclamation earlier told Ryan she knew far more than she was letting on. But other activities on the remainder of the boat ride prevented him from probing further.

  A nice, quiet limousine ride, on the other hand, seemed like the perfect time to ask—and actually get an answer.

  Lisa squirmed a bit in her seat. If she kept moving like that, he might not care what answer she gave.

  “She heard about your announcement. I told her it was all a misunderstanding.”

  Good news traveled fast.

  Ryan thought back to that kiss under the stars, and later, the feel of Lisa in his arms as they danced on that small dance floor. He turned over the moments in his mind, dissecting the sounds and emotions and the thoughts he’d had all night.

  “What if it wasn’t?”

  She sat up straight. “What if what wasn’t what?”

  “A misunderstanding.”

  Her lips pursed as her eyes narrowed. The blue glow of the custom overhead lighting fell on her, making her look like a curious Smurf.

  Ryan wasn’t sure he’d seen anything more beautiful. Saturday morning cartoons had never made him feel like this. The anxious waiting he’d felt during commercial breaks, waiting to get back to the animated action didn’t come close to the swift acceleration of pulse and kick of adrenaline swishing through his veins as he anticipated Lisa’s reply.

  “Like you and me?”

  “Isn’t that how it happens in the scripts and stories? Boom, you just know? Like a Hallmark holiday movie—just at spring break, in Vegas?” He ran a hand through his hair. This wasn’t going how he wanted it to.

  Of course, he didn’t know exactly how he wanted it to go.

  He only knew that he wanted Lisa.

  Wanted to know her better.

  Wanted to ease the worry she seemed to carry with her like a well-worn handbag.

  Wanted to kiss her deeply and find out what would make her wrap her arms around his neck again.

  “But this is real life, not the theatre or the Hallmark Channel, Ryan. Who acts like that in real life?”

  On one hand, Ryan knew she had a point. But on the other hand, he could think of evidence against real life.

  “Them.” He pointed back at the sleeping couple, Gina Mae’s head tenderly resting on Pops’ shoulder, their hands loosely clasped between them. “Me.”

  “You? No. You’re Mr. Direct. The moment I met you, you tried cutting me down to size.”

  “I won’t deny I wasn’t happy to be there at the airport. But Lisa, the way I see it, you and I have a lot in common. In each of our own way, we’re both dreamers. I’ll risk everything for a good card. You’ll slip into the world of a character. I’m a gambler by trade. I take risks. I’ve told you some of those moves are calculated. But you can’t be a good gambler if you can’t go with your gut. ”

  Ryan didn’t want to hear her protest. He knew he was right. As she opened her mouth to speak, he leaned toward her and covered her mouth with his own.

  Gently, at first, then instinct took over. He brushed his hands over her hair, feeling the soft curls and waves. He felt his fingers down the groove of her spine, first at her neck and then between her shoulder blades.

  Ryan shifted his weight and moved his arms to frame Lisa’s body. He braced his weight with his hands and waited for her to signal with a turn or a push that he’d gone too far by stealing another kiss tonight. He hesitated one moment, then one moment more, and then he was unable to hold back anymore.

  The blood pounding in his ears drowned out any other soft sounds in the limo and the lingering light floral scent at the spot between Lisa’s collarbones called to him like a magnet pulling in the direction of true north. He closed the kiss, lifted his head slightly, and moved his focus, nibbling along her jawline and caressing the slope of her neck. When he finally found the hollow he’d been searching for, he pressed a kiss in the soft curve and Lisa came alive with a low moan in her throat.

  If the driver turned now and headed for the California coast, Ryan knew he still would not have enough time to kiss Lisa the way he wanted to.

  She tangled searching fingers at the crown of his hair and Ryan almost lost all sense of himself at her own form of wordless risk-taking. Lightning storms were generally rare in the middle of the desert, but the electricity which flowed from Ryan to Lisa and back again drove him mad.

  “See. I told you, Bill. You said that lady in the casino was wrong. I told you she said they were getting married.” Gina Mae’s voice held a small sound of sleepiness and a large dose of smug. “Won’t a double wedding be fun, Bill? How lucky are we?”

  Ryan decided there was no use trying to casually slide back to his portion of the bench seat. They’d been caught.

  Lisa might have been worrying about a dementia diagnosis for her grandmother, but she clearly didn’t need to concern herself with getting Nana checked for cataracts.

  Caught. Red-handed.

  And red-lipsticked. Ryan swiped a hand near his cheek, trying to wipe away some of the evidence. Then he stopped himself. No sense in denying it, really. They were two grown adults.

  Plus, he’d enjoyed it. Really, really enjoyed it.

  “Nana, remember what I told you earlier...” Lisa weighed in with some hesitation.

  The older woman’s clear eyes looked back blankly. “No, not really.”

  Lisa took a deep breath, then spoke with clear syllables and a deliberately slow cadence. “It was all a mistake. The reporter made a mistake.”

  “Well, really, she didn’t,” Ryan interjected himself casually into the conversation.

  “Yes, she did.”

  He shook his head. “Nope. If we’re going to discuss that interview, let’s get it right.”

  “Ryan!”

  He didn’t know how she did it, but Lisa turned the four letters of his name into a whole different kind of four-letter word, just with her tone of voice.

  “I told her I was retiring and then I threw in that I was getting married, just to mess with everyone.” He raised his arms and locked his hands behind his head. “So she was just reporting what I told her.”

  “See, honey, the reporter wasn’t lying.” Nana just smiled.

  “Nana! Don’t you think I’d know if I was getting married?” Lisa looked at Gina Mae, then over to Ryan. The look on her face begged him for help.

  But he hesitated. He could help Lisa, but not in the way that she was hoping for right this second.

  Wouldn’t that solve all her worries about taking care of Nana and paying for the expensive tests that were to come? She said she didn’t want to accept his help in paying Nana’s part of the assisted living facility expenses. But he also knew she likely hadn’t come up with any way to make it happen on her own.

  What if financial support from him wasn’t a handout?

  Even if it was just a temporary arrangement—the quickie annulment or divorce was just as common around Vegas as the quickie wedding—he could handle that. Just something to get Pops and Nana settled in their new place in a way that caused as few disruptions for them as possible.

  And if Lisa chose to pay his investment back in another series of kisses like that last one, well, those would be acceptable terms.

  “Don’t you w
ant to get married?” Ryan decided to put his plan in motion.

  Her jaw popped open and her nostrils flared slightly with incredulity. “Aren’t you supposed to be helping me?”

  “You’re not answering the question. I can’t answer yours until you answer mine.”

  “Of course she does. She used to be engaged.” Nana chimed in when Lisa wouldn’t break the silence.

  “Thank you, Gina Mae. Now we’re getting somewhere.” Ryan nodded, a gesture of thanks. “So, you used to be engaged. That means you’re comfortable with the concept of marriage.”

  Lisa’s jaw set like a steel trap closing in around prey. She refused to let any words escape.

  The familiar tingle of adrenaline, of having an opponent on the run, began to percolate in Ryan’s veins.

  He wouldn’t necessarily call Lisa an opponent.

  But he didn’t have any plans to stop until she called.

  He’d come too far to fold now.

  “So if it’s not marriage, is it me?”

  “I. Don’t. Know. You.” The syllables barely squeaked out.

  “All evidence to the contrary. You’re in the habit of kissing men you don’t know, then?”

  Pops cleared his throat. “Son, I think you’re misunderstanding what she’s saying. I don’t know what you told that reporter, but I don’t think you’ve ever been engaged before. At least not to my knowledge.”

  “Nope, Pops. This is a first for me.”

  “A first? It would have to have happened for it to be a first. Right now, it’s still a zero. This is like trying to buy a burger with Monopoly money. Yeah, it looks kind of like money, but it doesn’t spend in the real world.”

  “Lisa, your grandmother is asking for a double wedding. You’re not going to give her what she wants for her special day?” He couldn’t keep the grin off his face.

  Now he was just having fun. He knew he’d have to ask her forgiveness later. He’d put some thought into it and come up with an appropriate plan.

  It would probably involve kissing.

  It would definitely involve kissing.

  That is, if Lisa ever allowed him within fifty feet of her again.