Nothing about her demeanor even signaled a case of bridal nerves. No eyelid tics, no deep breaths, no tell-tale beads of perspiration. She was as calm and collected as always.
Same old unflappable Nana.
Lisa wished she could say the same about herself.
The ethereal sounds of Pachelbel’s Canon in D began to play from the back of the intimate chapel.
Two fingers pushed on the spine at the small of Lisa’s back. “That’s your cue.”
The wedding coordinator sent Lisa down the aisle. Lisa looked ahead but tried to keep her thoughts on her feet.
Step one-together. Step two-together. Step one-together. Step two-together.
The rhythm of the formal style of walking kept her thoughts off what was waiting for her at the end of the aisle.
Ryan McBride.
Lisa’s gaze lifted, and she intended to look only at the spot to which she was walking. But Ryan caught her eye like a magnet pulling toward true north. Her gaze was locked. All she could do now was hope her staring wasn’t too obvious. And that she didn’t trip over her own feet.
Ryan’s hair had been neatly smoothed back, as usual, and the shine of the overhead lights made it look as though he’d styled it with a little bit of gel. He had dressed formally, as befit the role of best man, and his tuxedo accentuated broad shoulders and a long body that just hinted at a healthy relationship with the gym, filling out and supporting the suit in a way that emphasized what Lisa could tell was an expensive fabric, made perfect through expert tailoring.
Ryan’s eyes were dark, and he smiled as he noticed her gaze. White teeth that could have come straight out of a toothpaste ad stood out among the dusting of dark five o’clock shadow that covered his cheeks and chin. The longer he smiled, the more pronounced his left dimple became.
In short, Lisa decided, as she slowed her steps in advance of the altar, Ryan McBride put the sin in Sin City.
Sinfully good-looking, that is.
Ryan put his arm out, then looped it through the crook of hers.
Lisa worried that she would melt, and it wouldn’t be the dramatic overhead lighting to blame.
“It’s not polite to outshine the bride, you know,” Ryan whispered in her ear. Lisa listened for a note of sarcasm, a short laugh. But she couldn’t hear it. He sounded completely serious.
“Sssh.” Lisa turned her head to face forward. She made herself focus on the cream-colored roses and delicate white freesia that filled the wall sconces behind the altar. Below them, on a hip-height table were groupings of navy, baby blue, and ivory candles. Their glow and the faint perfume of the flowers gave the chapel a comfortable, cherished look.
Lisa’s surroundings, however, were at direct odds with the pit of her stomach. It dipped and fluttered as Ryan’s arm stayed intertwined with her own as he helped her up the stairs and saw her to her assigned spot on the side of where the bride would soon be standing.
He slid his arm away, but his hand trailed over the curve of her waist. No one else would have noticed the half-second hesitation except Lisa.
But she couldn’t ignore the prickle of her skin where Ryan’s hand had traced, nor could she ignore the tingle that ran up and down her spine.
As the music changed and loudly announced the procession of the bride, Lisa had to make herself turn and face the aisle instead of following Ryan’s footsteps back with her eyes.
Once she saw Nana, though, she couldn’t think of anything other than how radiant her great-grandmother looked. Nana wore a simple, ivory suit. The candlelight ivory dupioni silk dress gathered across the waist in a criss-cross, emphasizing Nana’s petite figure. Over the dress, she wore a coordinating, knee-length coat, left open to show off the dress. The collar of the coat had been embroidered with crystals and rhinestones and pearls.
In the candlelit room, it looked like a mantle of snow and ice had passed by Nana and dusted the collar of her elegant dress.
She looked every inch the radiant bride, and Lisa’s heart began to glow along with the candles in the chapel and Nana’s own cheeks and eyes.
Lisa had never seen Nana look happier, more proud...or younger.
And she knew, at that moment, that this was right. Nana deserved her fairytale. She deserved that and so much more. Lisa turned her head and looked at Bill. His smile was wide, with just a touch of nervousness in the lines around his eyes.
Nana deserved the world, and this man had waited almost a whole lifetime to give it to her.
“Dearly beloved...” the preacher began as Nana took her spot at the altar.
Lisa tried to focus on the preacher’s words. She knew she had one more important role to play before Bill and Nana became one in the eyes of God.
Before she knew it, the moment had arrived. “Who gives this woman in marriage?”
Lisa tried to speak, but for the first time, all her years of training had failed her. She’d never missed a cue, and it had been years since she’d flubbed a line. But the seriousness of the moment fell upon her in a way that playing a role on stage had never meant to her.
She couldn’t just give her Nana away. They were a team.
The frog in her throat pushed against the cartilage rings of her windpipe, making her even more aware of how conflicted and heart sore this very second in time made her.
She opened her mouth, but the words just wouldn’t come.
“Her great-granddaughter and I give these two people to each other.” Ryan’s baritone rang true in the acoustics of the small wedding hall.
She nodded in agreement and the motion dislodged a small tear from the inner corner of Lisa’s eye. She felt the warm trail down the side of the bridge of her nose.
But most of all, she felt part of something greater than herself.
She felt part of a real family, of a unit that was now more than just her and Nana against the world.
She felt love.
And when the groom finally kissed his bride, Lisa stole a look instead at the best man.
Follow her heart, Nana had said earlier. Learn from Nana’s example. As Ryan again slipped his arm in the crook of Lisa’s so they could follow the new Mr. and Mrs. McBride back down the aisle, Lisa couldn’t help but think of a silly fantasy.
One where she followed her heart back down this very aisle, then left the chapel as another Mrs. McBride.
“That’s all you brought?” Ryan suspiciously eyed the bag the porter had brought up to the penthouse in the Renaissance Grand residential tower.
Lisa shrugged. “I didn’t pack. Nana did. I just got handed a ticket as soon as I walked in the door from school and was told we were getting on a plane.”
“Steve, you can take that to the guest room. Second door on the left down that hall.” Ryan pointed to the arch at the far side of the open-floorplan living area.
The uniformed man picked up the small maroon suitcase and carried it with ease toward the room where Lisa would be staying. When he came back, Ryan pressed a few bills into his palm. “Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it.”
“Certainly, Mr. McBride.” Steve had been a fixture at the residential tower even longer than Ryan had. He was easy to work with and never complained.
The penthouse door shut behind Steve with a metallic click. Ryan shoved his hands in his pockets, unsure of what to say next. Neither he nor Lisa had planned on this arrangement, but of course, the newlyweds wanted to enjoy the honeymoon suite in private. Anticipating time alone with his bride, Pops had canceled his reservation and it had quickly been snatched up by an attendee of a medical industry conference that was taking over the Renaissance Grand for the upcoming week.
He didn’t know why he felt nervous, like a student asking his crush to prom. The penthouse stretched for several thousand square feet. He had a spacious master suite on one side, and the guest room was all the way on the other side of his home. They wouldn’t even have to cross each other’s path for the rest of the night if they didn’t want to.
The problem with the brava
do he was trying to sell to himself was that it wasn’t what he wanted.
Lisa was under his roof, and he wanted to cross paths with her. It was still early by Vegas standards, and he wanted to watch the Vegas skyline with her until the dawn peeked at the edge of the horizon. He wanted to hold her tight in the middle of the floor and sway to a jazz standard, since Pops and Gina Mae had opted for a post-ceremony dinner, instead of a reception with any kind of dancing.
He wanted whatever he could get, for as long as he could get it.
And after a few years of being one of the highest rollers in Vegas, Ryan was used to getting what he wanted.
As he watched her walk across the living room and toward the hall leading to the guest bedroom, he studied the hug of her bridesmaid’s dress along her curves and the gentle sway of her hips and how her honey and flax curls hung down to the center of her back, then popped and bounced as she walked.
When she disappeared around the corner, Ryan felt a small cut from the metallic blade of fear. He’d been craving the next big thing in his life for a while now. It was why he quit the tour—to test out new waters, find a new adventure.
And now that he knew exactly what he wanted and where he wanted to go, it scared him that Lisa was going to get on a plane, head back to Texas, and that would be it. They’d see each other at Christmas with Nana and Pops, likely. But that wasn’t good enough anymore. He’d realized that earlier today.
“Lisa? Do you need anything?” Ryan called around the corner. He needed to do something, to keep his mind from wandering down the path it was on.
Because girls like Lisa Fleming didn’t get caught up in the Vegas myth. They didn’t leave what happened in Vegas behind in Vegas. And they certainly didn’t head to the legendary wedding chapel with someone they’d only known for days.
Shake out of it, McBride. You don’t either. Just because you’ve made some changes in your life doesn’t mean you’ve changed who you are. You don’t do any of those things either.
Lisa came back to the doorway. “Actually, yes.”
She looked at him with a lopsided grin paired with a sheepish shrug.
“I’d thought of changing out of this formal wear and putting on something a little more comfortable, but it seems that the hook at the top of the zipper is stuck. Do you think you could get it for me?”
He hoped hadn’t lost the ability to keep his thoughts from taking up residence across his face. Because Lisa didn’t need to know his mind wasn’t stopping with the simple metal loop on the back of her dress.
That dress brought out the best in her.
He couldn’t decide if it brought out the best—or the worst—in him.
Ryan held out his hand. He couldn’t not help her. And if he indulged himself just a little bit in the process, well...
She walked over and turned her back toward him. The hook and eye came apart easily. A thread from the seam had somehow gotten wrapped around the hook. His fingers didn’t move. With almost no effort, he could put the flat metal tongue of the zipper between his thumb and forefinger and tug.
That would probably be helpful, he thought to himself. Most women he knew had always said that zippers in the back were a struggle.
They’d never been a problem for him, though.
“You didn’t have to...” Lisa’s words trailed off as the zipper trailed down. She raised a hand and laid it on the silky fabric, trying to hold the crest of the dress up on her shoulder.
The room was silent and Ryan could hear the slight rasp of her fingertips moving across the fabric as he gently brushed her hand aside.
“Ryan, I didn’t come to stay with you for this.”
He adjusted his hands and guided her gently to face him. “I didn’t invite you to stay for this.”
Her lashes veiled her eyes. She looked up at him, but he couldn’t see the irises. Couldn’t get a read on what shade of honey they took on, what kind of feelings they were hiding.
A lot of women had thrown themselves at him over the years, all desperate for one night with the champion. They were all in it for the power, the prestige, the sense of high rolling.
Lisa’s hesitation confirmed what Ryan already knew. She wasn’t in it for any of that. In fact, her shallow breaths and the gentle cross of her arms, tucking the material up at a modest point, told him all he needed to know about Lisa.
In a city full of fake, she was real. In a city full of people who only lived once, she considered the consequences. In a city full of women he could have, she was the one he wanted.
Ryan slid his arms around Lisa’s and ran five fingers down her spine and tangled the other five in her hair. He pulled her close and he lowered his head to hers.
Lisa had left her island home and come to Las Vegas. She never expected herself to drown in the desert.
But yet, here she was, drowning in Ryan’s kiss. Everything about him pulled her in. From the moment she’d locked eyes on him in the airport, she knew there was something different about him. Something edgy. Something dangerous.
She didn’t know then that the true danger would be the effect of Ryan on her heart.
Because as much as she wanted to lose herself in the waves of this moment, there were other waves calling her.
The waves of Port Provident.
She had to go back.
Tomorrow. There was a plane ticket with her name on it and a classroom of students waiting for her once Spring Break was over.
This almost fairy-tale-like attraction to Ryan couldn’t be denied, but then, neither could the strong pull of her real life. This wasn’t going to work, and she needed to speak up before it ruined the friendship she and Ryan had built—a friendship they would both need in order to support and care for Nana and Pops in the years to come. She couldn’t blow that on a few hours of indulgence that were completely incompatible with the fact that she and Ryan lived half a country apart and led very different lives.
“Ryan, I need you...” she started to say, hesitating as she pulled out of the kiss.
He jumped in at the pause. “I know.”
She hadn’t gotten the rest of the words out fast enough and could feel another mess brewing. This conversation could not go as badly as the pedicure chat with Nana. “Wait, let me finish.”
Lisa summoned all the strength she had to take a step backward. She pulled in a deep breath, trying to clear her head as quickly as she could.
Ryan’s face went dark. His jaw tightened.
“I need you here. In Las Vegas. I have a plane ticket home tomorrow. I live on the beach. You live in the desert. We’re worlds apart. Realistically, I don’t know how to make things work between us. I’ve tried to come up with some kind of plan that keeps us together, that keeps what we’re coming to feel for each other alive. But I can’t. I have an obligation to my kids. We have a spring play coming up at the start of April. They’ve worked for months on this. I can’t let them down. I have to go home.”
“But?”
Ryan didn’t give Lisa anything to go on. She couldn’t tell if he understood or if he hated her for ruining the moment and what might have been.
“But I need to know you’re here. Taking care of Nana and Pops. Helping them get settled into married life together. Finding Nana the right doctors and specialists out here. She’s starting a whole new life in a whole new place—but at the same time, we know what’s coming. I need to know she’s going to be okay and that someone is looking out for the details. You know the details. You told me so yourself. Calculating odds is taking care of the details. You’re the only one who can do this for me. I trust you, Ryan.”
Lisa could feel her heart slamming into her chest with each word. Never before had so much ridden on the words coming out of her mouth.
And this time, there was no role. No supporting cast. No script.
Just Lisa.
A woman who knew she loved Ryan McBride...but had to love her duty to those who counted on her more. She couldn’t trade a few days with Ryan for
the year with her students or the lifetime with Nana.
But would he understand? She couldn’t tell.
Was this what it felt like to put everything on the table and go all-in on one hand of cards? This crazy mix of adrenaline and shortened breaths and the hope that everything would be okay?
“So you’re giving up on us?”
Lisa wanted to shake her head and tell him no—if only to convince herself that somehow, somewhere, there was a chance.
But there wasn’t.
At least not that she could see right now.
Nana and Pops needed someone here. Lisa couldn’t be here. But Ryan could. And that’s all there was to it.
“I know the ads basically say this is the place where you can forget it all. But I just can’t. Too many people are depending on me.”
Ryan shifted his weight from his left foot to his right, the first time he’d made any kind of motion. Too bad Lisa didn’t know what that tell meant.
“And what about you? What are you depending on? You aren’t on the outside looking in, you know. It’s your life, Lisa.”
His words hit hard. In a perfect world, she knew she’d grab Ryan’s hand. They’d run down to the boutique and grab the white dress on the front rack and then they’d go straight to the closest, cheesiest wedding chapel—and spend the rest of their lives figuring out what might come next.
But even Ryan—with his years of focus on odds and outcomes—would have to admit that was more fantasy than forever.
“I’m depending on you, Ryan. Please.”
Ryan walked across the room and picked up his black jacket and put it on.
“I’ll take care of Nana and Pops. You know I will. There’s no question about that.”
Lisa thought her heart rate would slow as soon as she knew Ryan would be here for Nana. But it didn’t. Adrenaline continued to prick and fizz through her veins and her fingertips; like someone had shaken a soda can then let it explode inside.
Ryan turned toward the door. Lisa’s heart rate picked up even more. He couldn’t be leaving. This was his house.
“But remember this, Lisa. You were wrong when you came here to stop your great-grandmother’s wedding. And you’re wrong now too.”
Lucky in Love Page 16