Chapter 3
Lucky sat at the lunch counter, waiting for Elizabeth to bring out his chili, hoping she wouldn’t spit in it or do anything else equally disgusting. He had been shocked to see her there, and was still recovering. The last he heard, she was off at art school somewhere, but here she was, looking more beautiful than he remembered.
“Stop that!” he muttered to himself, sighing as he rested his face in his hands. “She’s made it perfectly clear in the past that she has no interest in you, so give it up. If you ever had a chance, you missed it a long time ago!”
Lucky couldn’t remember exactly when he had started to notice her as more than just the annoying little sister of Sarah Webber, the girl he had a huge crush on in high school. One day, he just realized that Sarah was always going to want Nikolas, and it just wasn’t worth the effort to keep chasing after her. All of a sudden, he noticed Elizabeth, really noticed her. She was beautiful, fun, and full of life. She wasn’t afraid of anything, and she always spoke her mind. Unfortunately, at about the same time she seemed to suddenly take a strong dislike for him, and he was never able to even hold a decent conversation with her. After a while, he came to accept that she just plain hated him, and began to return the feeling. Now, seeing her usually just made him cringe. She was still just as rude and nasty to him as when they were in high school. Some things never change.
The bell jingled and he quickly slipped on his sunglasses before turning around, a habit he picked up on the road. He smiled and took them off again.
“Lucky Spencer! My God, what a surprise! What are you doing here/” Jason asked, walking over to him and shaking his hand, then pulling him in for a quick hug.
“Just visiting. I’m taking a break from the road, thought I’d surprise my parents. How are you and Carly doing these days?”
“Good. Um, since you left, Carly and I got divorced. We’re sharing custody of Michael now.”
“I’m sorry, are you okay?” Lucky said symathetically. He knew all about Carly’s grand scheme to get Michael away from AJ all those years ago, and was still surprised that it had actually worked. AJ had gone back to drinking after ELQ had started to deteriorate. Edward and Ned were always on his back about it, and finally he just snapped. He divorced Carly, gave up his rights to Michael, and shipped himself off to a rehab center somewhere in the desert. Shortly after that, Carly and Jason were married, and he legally adopted Michael.
“Yeah, it was for the best. I guess being married to me wasn’t as great as she had built it up to be. She’s just one of those people who’s never happy, you know? She started to become interested in Sonny, and I was getting tired of it, so I threw her out. She fought me for a while, then agreed that it was best for Michael to get a divorce.”
“Well, it sounds like you’re better off now. How old is the kid, anyway?”
Jason grinned, something he only did when talking about his son. “Believe it or not, he’s 7 now! He’s outside with Mike, watching some ducks.”
Elizabeth came out of the kitchen with Lucky’s chili, hoping he hadn’t scared away whatever customer had just come in. She smiled widely when she saw Jason and quickly dropped the bowl in front of Lucky, then hurried around the counter.
“Hey there, stranger!” she greeted happily, reaching up to hug him. He hugged her back, then kissed her quickly.
“Stranger? I just saw you this morning!” he said.
She laughed and hit him lightly on the shoulder. “You just can’t take a joke, can you?”
Lucky watched this exchange curiously, wondering what was going on between the two of them. Were they going out? He tried to ignore the pang of jealousy he felt, reminding himself that he hated her now.
The door opened again, and a young boy with bright red hair came running inside. “Lizzie!” he shouted happily, launching himself at her and nearly knocking her down.
“Hey, pumpkinhead,” she laughed, tousling his hair. “You’re getting too big to do that, you know. I almost fell on my butt!”
Michael giggled and hugged her. “Sorry, Lizzie. Are you coming to the park with us?”
She smiled and shook her head. “No, honey, I have to work today. Maybe another day, though. You still owe me a push on the swings, remember?”
Michael nodded as Jason laughed. “Well, we just stopped by to say hello.”
“Daddy, you promised!” Michael pouted.
“Oh yeah, I promised Michael he could have a cookie,” Jason said as the boy’s face broke out into a smile again.
Lilz chuckled and went to the other end of the counter, ignoring Lucky along the way, and grabbed the biggest chocolate chip cookie she could find. She walked back and handed it to Michael. “There you go, on the house.”
“Liz, you know I’ll pay for it,” Jason said. She shook her head. “If I want to give my favorite little boy a cookie, I will. I told you, your money’s no good here!”
Jason knew when she got stubborn like that to just give up, so he shrugged and leaned down to kiss her again before leaving. He reached for Michael’s hand and smiled at Lucky. “Bye, Lucky. It was good to see you again. Stop by the motorcycle shop sometime before you leave, okay?”
“Sure, man. Have fun at the park,” Lucky said, waving as they left. Once the door was shut, he turned to Liz. “Does my dad know you’re giving food away?”
“Oh, stuff it, Lucky. It’s just a cookie. Kelly’s isn’t going to go under because of it,” she grumbled, her good mood suddenly turning foul again.
Lucky frowned and ate a spoonful of chili, then made a face. “Did you nuke this?”
“Sorry, but I’m in the middle of cleaning the oven. You’re just going to have to deal with it,” she answered, heading back into the kitchen. If she was lucky, he’d be gone before she came out again.
