A Billion Reasons Why

by Kristin Billerbeck

  “Thanks, Mam. That’s comforting.” Katie narrowed her gaze. “Since when is Luc DeForges your best friend?”

  “Are you hungry? I’ve got some—”

  “I’m not hungry. That gown isn’t very forgiving. What do you have for Spanx in the house?”

  Mam looked confused.

  “A girdle. Do you have a girdle?”

  “What would I have a girdle for? When you have fish guts on the front of your shirt, you tend not to suck your fat in.”

  “Pretty.”

  Mam giggled.

  “Did you just giggle?”

  Mam covered her mouth with her hands, which were manicured, of all things, and flapped them as she tried to conceal laughter.

  “What is so funny?” Katie pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail and tied it into a knot. “I’m glad you have a reason to laugh, Mam. Maybe if you share it I won’t remember how much my life stinks.”

  “Honestly . . .” Mam’s laughter stilled. “What do you have to complain about? You come here on a luxury private jet, you’re wearing Ginger Rogers’ original gown, and you have a multimillionaire in love with you. I fail to see which part of your life stinks.”

  “The part where I wasted eight years of my life and now it may be too late for Luc and me to ever get it right. He looked really angry with me when he walked away last night, Mam. Almost disgusted.”

  Mam giggled again.

  “Stop that! Why are you like the cat who ate the canary?”

  “I’m happy. I’m free. Katie, when I told you about my gambling problem, I had no idea how uplifted I’d feel. Almost like I was flying. I’ve kept that a secret for so long, so that you wouldn’t think badly of me. Today I feel a hundred pounds lighter. And I’ve harbored this grudge against Luc for so long, and he never knew why. I should have known Paddy would always protect me. It’s not fair, really. I didn’t deserve it.”

  “That’s what grace is, Mam. What better expression is there of love?”

  “I never dreamed it would cost you, Katie. I would have said something years ago. I never knew Paddy didn’t tell Luc the truth.”

  Katie waved her hand. “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

  “You’re wrong, Katie. Luc protected you too. Maybe not in the best way, but he did what he thought was right. Just like I did what I thought was right by keeping my secret— never knowing it was causing you to think ill of Luc. Though what did I expect, when I thought ill of him myself?”

  “I could have told you that Paddy would have done anything to protect you. And he certainly wouldn’t have shared a secret like that with Aimée DeForges, your archenemy.”

  “It all seems obvious now, doesn’t it?” Mam started climbing the stairs. “Let me come see this dress.” She stopped midway. “I think you should go today. You should do what you promised and stop worrying about the consequences.”

  Katie nodded. Everything sounded so simple when her mother said it.

  “Leon’s picking us all up at five. Eileen will be here by then, and we’ll all go together in the limousine.”

  Katie hung the garment bag on Mam’s antique mahogany armoire. She unzipped the bag again, cautiously this time. She touched the gown lightly. “Mam, I can’t wear this. It’s got to be worth more than my annual salary.”

  “What isn’t worth more than that? You’re a teacher.”

  She pulled the gown out of the bag. The dress was structured underneath with a 1920s-style bathing suit and short tap pants attached. “Mam, look. It’s got the girdle already in it!”

  The gown was the palest of pinks, not white as she’d first thought. The skirt was long and flowing and weighted down at the bottom by something sewn into its hem. She imagined it helped the gown move correctly as Ginger danced.

  In the front of the Grecian-style gown was an X of hand-sewn sequins. Another sequined X made up the backless dress and attached to the skirt at her lower back. She held it up. “It looks long enough.”

  “Ginger was five foot four and a half, just like you. Luc said so. He said if it didn’t quite fit not to pin or anything.”

  “Duh.”

  “I’m just passing on the message.”

  “Are you going to try it on? Or just stare at it?” Eileen walked into the room holding her own garment bag. She threw it onto the mangled bed, causing Mam to start tugging at the sheets immediately.

  “What if it doesn’t fit? What am I supposed to do then? Why would Luc take the other dress?”

  “You’re afraid of your own shadow,” Mam said. “Enough already. Try it on, for crying out loud.”

  “Why do you think he did this? What was wrong with the first gown?” Katie asked.

  “Maybe he was trying to get this dress all along and hadn’t gotten it yet, so he had a backup made. Maybe he wanted you to wear the real thing so that you felt like Ginger herself. Maybe, just maybe, you should stop overanalyzing everything poor Luc does and say thank you for a change.”

  “Did that just come out of your mouth, Eileen, or am I in the Twilight Zone?”

  “New Orleans, same difference,” Mam said.

  “Jem told me I had misjudged Luc,” Eileen said, “but I didn’t believe him either. Luc has that cocky swagger that drives me insane! My mind was made up after years of listening to your crying, but now I think Jem is right. I think you’d told yourself that story so many times about being rejected by Luc, you weren’t able to hear an alternative—and neither was I. I get it now; you were afraid. It makes sense that you tried to marry a man you didn’t love. So that everything would be safe. But love isn’t safe.”

  “What is this, Dr. Phil? Listen, here’s the truth: Luc dumped me eight years ago. And last night he left me splayed out on the banquette, and now he’s got me dressing like a bride at someone else’s wedding. You all can wax poetic all you want, but Luc puts on a good show. When the rubber meets the road you’ll find out how serious he is about commitment. Mark my words.”

  “No, Eileen’s right,” Mam said. “Love isn’t safe. And whoever you love will hurt you. It’s part of the human experience. No one is perfect, not even your Paddy, Katie. People make mistakes. The secret is to focus on what they do right and decide what quirks you can live with.”

  “I know,” Eileen said. “Can you live with the quirks of a rich man? Because I don’t know . . . I think I might be able to get past the European vacations, personal stylists, and the private jet-setting, but no way could I live with the shopping sprees. No doubt about it.”

  “Eileen, this is Luc. He only has the plane for convenience. He doesn’t live like that.”

  “Why don’t you tell him you know that? That you know him?”

  She shook her head. “It’s too late. I have ruined my last DeForges shindig.”

  “It’s too late if you’re afraid of getting rejected again,” Mam said. “But sometimes love is dangerous. Are you willing to take the risk?”

  Katie looked at the gown once again. The first thought that came streaming into her head was that Harry Connick, Jr. would laugh her off the stage, but then, would that really be worse than Luc rejecting her again? All she had to do was don the gown and tell him she loved him. That was it. Simple. Luc, I love you. I’ve never stopped loving you, and I’ve been waiting for you to come get me for eight years, and if you don’t act now I am going to throw a major hissy fit at this party!

  The rest was up to Luc.

  “I’ll never know if I don’t try.”

  “That’s my girl!”

  Katie sucked in a deep breath and approached the gown. “I’m not going to chase him. If he wants me, he has to make his move. I have to leave with some kind of dignity.”

  Mam shook her head. “Oh, then you’re not ready after all.”

  Eileen rolled her eyes. “Because flying you out on his private jet and renting Ginger Rogers’ gown and proposing to you in front of all his brother’s wedding guests, those weren’t moves at all. You’re right, Katie. I really think you should wa
it until pigs fly. Then you’ll know for certain.”

  Maybe she had put too many constraints on love. Jesus loved unconditionally. Wasn’t that the example? She prayed for the strength to dance like no one was watching, sing like no one was listening, and love like she’d never felt pain.

  Chapter 22

  FROM THIS MOMENT ON

  Katie felt amazing in Ginger’s gown. The shoulder straps glistened in the evening light, and as the crickets and frogs started their beautiful night song, she felt infused with confidence. She looked ahead at the road, anxious and filled with the good kind of adrenaline. If there’d been a benefit to ruining the rehearsal dinner, it was that she’d completely lowered expectations for the reception.

  Neither Ryan nor Olivia wanted a church wedding, which seemed strange to Katie, with their mothers both being doyennes in their church. Then again, that’s probably why they chose a different locale. The wedding was to be held on a rooftop terrace at the historical Hotel Monteleone. It overlooked the French Quarter and bustled with old-fashioned romantic ambiance—the closest she’d ever come to Paris. The French Quarter came alive at night with an energy all its own. Jazz echoed off its classic architecture and wrought iron galleries.

  The Monteleone itself stood at the edge of the Quarter, and its locale on Royal Street freed it from some of the darker aspects of the city. It always bugged her that New Orleans took the rap for so many drunks in the streets, when most of them were tourists from other places who descended on the city for their dark reveries. Although only a block from the infamous Bourbon Street, the hotel embodied the sophistication worthy of its nickname, the Grand Dame of the French Quarter. It was a natural locale for a DeForges wedding. The reception, where she would sing after the rooftop ceremony, would be inside the Queen’s Ballroom.

  The golden glow from the hotel lights shimmered off her gown as if she wore her own spotlight. She felt like a star in the Mardi Gras parade, compelled to do the princess wave as people passed her and commented on her gown.

  “Beautiful dress.”

  “Thank you, it was Ginger Rogers’!”

  “I knew it looked familiar.”

  She fell into character, just as she’d done all those nights at the Barrelhouse.

  The magnificent lobby opened before her like a sparkling secret world that the gown had given her access to. A lobby of enormous proportions with towering ceilings, marble floors, and climbing columns in differing shades of gold and crème gave her the oddest thought. “I’ll bet there are absolutely no salmon walls in this hotel,” she said.

  “Don’t be so sure,” Mam said. “My, my. Imagine what it must cost to have a wedding here. We were just going to boil some crawfish in the backyard when you married Dexter.”

  “We were not,” Rusty said. “Don’t tease her, Irene. She’s nervous as it is.”

  Her gaze focused on a lone figure in the middle of the lobby’s vast floor. Luc stood in a tuxedo, his hands crossed in front of him. His expression told her nothing, and under the light, his small, cross-shaped scar beneath his eye became more evident as she walked to the center of the room.

  “What’s with Luc?” Eileen asked. “He looks like the bachelor at the end of the show, when you don’t know if he’s going to dump the girl or propose to her.”

  Katie wheeled around. “Thank you, Eileen.”

  “He does,” Eileen said.

  “So you’ve watched that show enough, which is it? Is he proposing or dumping me?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see if you were first to get out of the car or not. Plus, they edit, you know.”

  “I’ll meet you guys upstairs. The elevators are that way.” She dismissed her group and they tottered off, unfazed.

  Katie pranced toward Luc and twirled about in her dress, letting the weighted hem take flight. She lifted her skirt and curtseyed. “Your Majesty. Is this what you had in mind?”

  He raised one brow but said nothing. She turned again and gave him the view of her exposed back embraced by the glittering straps.

  “Luc? Will you rob me of my compliment?”

  He didn’t move. Instead he crossed his arms in front of him.

  She stepped closer to him. “Is this a wax figure? Or is the magnificent Luc DeForges present?” She got close enough to snap her fingers in his face.

  He twitched, but like an English Royal Guard, he didn’t move.

  “You’re not going to ruin my evening, Luc DeForges.”

  “I should hope not. By the way, you throwing my BlackBerry at the Barrelclub? Cost me a pretty penny.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Was I worth it?”

  Despite himself, he grinned. “You were. That’s my problem.”

  “There are easy couples out there. They meet. They fall in love. They get married and have 2.5 children.” She spun around just to feel her dress take flight. “We, Luc DeForges, are not those people.”

  “No, we aren’t, but I am in desperate need of your help this evening.”

  “My help?”

  “To redeem the DeForges family name and rescue it from the public humiliation hall of fame.”

  She put a hand to her chest. “But that’s my specialty. Not the redemption part. The dragging your name through the mud part.”

  He grinned. “After you.”

  Her heels tapped along the marble floor when the dress overtook her. She stuck out her arms like an airplane and lifted them up to the sky as she spun away again and smiled. “Well, if it’s of any interest to you, I love you, Luc DeForges.”

  She looked back to see Luc sprinting toward her. He swooped her up into his arms, and she squealed like a child. He headed toward the elevator, and she traced her finger along his scar as they bounced.

  “Have you told anyone else how you really got that scar?”

  He grinned. “It’s so unmanly to say my little brother wielding a switch gave it to me. I prefer the mystery. It makes me more Bond-like. Have you told anyone else how you got the nickname Katie-bug?”

  “No reason to tell anyone. I’m not the snuggly type any longer.”

  “We should fix that.”

  The elevator doors opened and swallowed them into its gold entrance.

  Luc put her down and gazed at her menacingly. She stepped back until she felt the wall at her back. Luc leaned over her, his forehead on hers. “Listen to me, Katie McKenna. This mission is very important, should you choose to accept it. You have been asked to redeem the DeForges family name.

  Should you undertake this mission, you will receive my family’s undying love and me as a consolation prize.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Don’t think you’ll accept the mission?”

  “That you’re a consolation prize.”

  “Not if you believe the tabloids.” He chuckled.

  “Good thing I don’t. Do I make a good Ginger?”

  He shrugged. “You know I never cared for blondes. I was more of a Rita Hayworth man myself. Maureen O’Hara. Let’s see, who is another redhead? Wait a minute, wait a minute. I got this . . . Oh yeah, you!” He pressed the button.

  “This is the wrong floor,” she said when the doors opened.

  “Already correcting me. We’re like an old married couple.”

  “You did that on purpose.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe.” He led her down a hallway until they came to a set of double doors, where he slid a card key and opened the door to a luxury suite.

  “What is going on?”

  “Wait here.” He left her in the foyer and walked to an elegant French chair covered in gold tapestry. He lifted a shirt box from a marble-topped table and handed it to her. “Open it.”

  She pulled the lid and saw the cape to her gown. “You had it all along!”

  “Actually, it’s a new one I had made. The dress is original, but I wanted to make some changes to the cape, so I had it fashioned.”

  “You’re turning into quite the designer. It’s kind of creeping me out, actual
ly.”

  He shook out the cape. It reached to the floor and had French seams like a bat wing, encrusted with hand-sewn sequins that matched the dress.

  “That’s not a cape.”

  He shook his head. “It’s a veil. See?” He showed her the crystallized combs that would attach to the crown of her head.

  “Luc.”

  He placed it on her head, then knelt before her. “Katie McKenna, before you send me to an early grave, would you marry me already?”

  “That’s not romantic!”

  “I beg your pardon? You are in a luxury suite, wearing Ginger Rogers’ gown and a handmade veil. What is it you want from me, Katie? I’m a guy, for crying out loud. Give me a break, will ya?”

  She felt her eyes tearing and wanted to strike herself for ruining the moment. “That was it. That’s all I wanted. A proposal. A proposal from you, Luc, the man I love. The only man I’ve ever loved.”

  His eyes met the floor. “Should I mention that this is actually your third proposal? Or that you are wearing on my nerves?”

  “No, that definitely takes the romance down a notch.” She snuggled into the crook of his neck, then stepped back to see his reaction. “You’re pouting. I said yes! Let’s forget I said anything else, okay? Do you have my ring? You have my ring, right?”

  “Katie, if this is going to work, you have to trust me and give me the benefit of the doubt that I only want the best for you. Do you believe that? If I don’t do what’s best for you, you can tell me afterward, all right?”

  “Absolutely!” She nodded. “But I still want a ring. I mean you say you asked three times, but there’s something missing.”

  “Naturally, you noticed. In return for you giving me the benefit of the doubt, I will understand that my life will never be absent of drama. Agreed?”

  “Would you want it to be? I mean, really? If you did, wouldn’t you have just married one of the Barbies in LA?”

  Luc laughed. “The thought never crossed my mind. And how about you give me a break on the Barbies? The press loves a good story, but you know my heart and my fondness for a certain redhead.”