Chapter 43
Lucky came downstairs from his apartment the following morning and frowned when he saw Liz at the counter.
“I thought you were off today?”
“Good morning to you too,” she grumbled. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I had to change my schedule around.”
Lucky shrugged and walked out of the diner, not wanting to be late for his meeting with Charisma at the PC Grille. He had asked Nikolas the previous night about going with him to drop Lulu at camp, but he couldn’t get away from work, so the only other people he could think of were Charisma and Rich.
He walked into the restaurant and saw that she was already seated, so he hurried over to join her.
“So, what did you want to ask me?” Charisma asked, smiling innocently.
“My mom asked me to take my little sister to camp this Friday, and since it’s kind of a long drive, she suggested I bring someone along to share the driving. I tried my brother first, but he has to work, so I thought maybe you and Rich would like to come along.”
“Where’s the camp?” she asked, not wanting to answer too quickly. It might tip him off if she was too agreeable.
“It’s in New Jersey somewhere,” he answered, taking a drink of the water in front of him. “I don’t have the exact location yet.”
“Why Jersey?” she asked, chuckling to herself Luke had never mentioned where he was going to be sending them, but she hadn’t expected it to be in another state! “Sure, why not? Sounds like fun, like a mini road trip. I’m sure Rich will go, too.”
“Cool, thanks, Charisma. If you and Rich didn’t go, I would have probably ended up asking my cousin.”
“Who’s your cousin?” she asked, playing dumb.
“Carly Morgan. You probably saw her at that auction, she came with Sonny Corinthos, but was assigned to her ex-husband, Jason. They’re back together now, I think.”
Charisma smiled, thinking how funny it would have been if they had both asked Carly to go. “Well, don’t worry about it, I’m looking forward to it.”
~*~
Carly came into Kelly’s with Michael and sat down at a table, waiting for Liz to come out of the kitchen. When she did finally appear, Michael squealed and ran over to her.
“Lizzie!” he called out, rushing into her arms. She grinned and scooped him up.
“Hey, pumpkinhead, long time no see! What have you been up to?”
“Nothin’,” he said softly, grinning at her. Carly chuckled and stood up.
“Jason’s at the coffee warehouse all day, so I thought I’d bring Michael along. He wanted to see you anyway, he misses you.”
Liz smiled at her, then at the wriggling little boy in her arms. “Aw, well I miss him too. Anyway, it’s good that you’re here, because I wanted to ask you something.” She set Michael down on the ground and he ran back to his mother.
“Okay, just a minute,” Carly said, walking with him to the front door. “Okay sweetie, why don’t you play outside for a few minutes while I talk to Lizzie?”
Michael nodded and hurried out the door.
“Make sure you stay where I can see you!” she shouted after him.
”Why did you send him outside?” Liz asked, sitting at one of the tables. “This actually involves him, too.”
Carly smiled and sat down across from her. “I know, I ran into my Uncle Luke earlier, and he asked me if you had invited me yet. I had to drag it out of him, but he finally told me that you were taking Lulu to camp, and that he had suggested to ask me and Michael to tag along. I just didn’t want Michael to know about it yet, or else he won’t talk about anything else all week!”
Liz chuckled and nodded. “Okay, that makes sense. So you’ll go?”
“Yeah, it sounds like fun. Us girls, on the road together, no men.... We’ll be like Thelma and Louise!”
“But with kids, and without Brad Pitt!” Liz added, laughing.
“No Brad Pitt?” Carly teased, pretending to pout. “Then what’s the point?”’
The two women giggled as Michael came back into the diner, followed by a customer. Liz cleared her throat and stood up to help him while Carly gathered her son to leave. “I’ll see you Friday, Liz!” she called out on her way to the door. Liz waved from behind the counter in acknowledgment, and she left. Once she was outside, she looked down at Michael and smiled. “Why don’t we see if your daddy wants to join us for lunch?” He nodded excitedly, and they headed off to the warehouse. Scheming always made her hungry.
~*~
Once they finished their meal, Charisma looked up at Lucky and sighed. “Okay, I have some news for you that you’re probably not going to like.”
He frowned and sat back in his chair, bracing himself for whatever it might be. “Fine, shoot.”
“One of the tabloids found out about your little stint in jail. They even managed to get hold of the mug shot. It’s a pretty big article.” She slid a paper across the table and he grabbed it, quickly scanning the page.
“This is ludicrous!” he growled. “It wasn’t a real arrest, it was just some stupid scheme of my dad’s, and now everyone’s going to think I’m a criminal!”
She sighed and pointed to the article in front of him. “It gets better. They know you shared your cell with a woman. Actually, they said a ‘strikingly beautiful’ woman.”
“I don’t believe this!” he said, throwing the paper down on the table. “Next thing I know, they’ll be saying we’re getting married next week!”
Charisma chuckled. “Well, that’s fame for you. You have to learn to just let it roll off your back, Spence.”
“Sure, easy for you to say. You didn’t have one of the worst nights of your life written up in a major publication for half the world to read! Can I sue for slander?”
“I wouldn’t recommend it, it just ends up giving more publicity to the thing you didn’t want publicized in the first place. Plus, it’s not a lie, this stuff is all true. It may be slanted a little, but the basic facts are right.”
Lucky sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I came home to avoid this sort of thing. It was supposed to be an escape.”
“Sorry, Spence, but you can’t escape fame. It follows you wherever you go. Just enjoy it, and try not to let little things like this get to you. Really, it’s no big deal. People don’t put much stock in this paper anyway. They’re notorious for printing bogus stories.”
“Well, at least they didn’t print Elizabeth’s name,” he muttered, looking down at the article again.
Charisma raised an eyebrow quizzically. “I thought you couldn’t care less about her?”
“I don’t, but I do care that she would have broken my neck if her name was in this. She’s about as thrilled at what happened as I am, and since my father was behind it, she probably blames me.”
She smiled and played idly with the remaining food on her plate. “Oh, I’m sure she’ll come around. Now, I want to talk to you about rescheduling that show at Luke’s.”
“What? There was a shoot-out at the first one, I think that was a sign that I shouldn’t be doing shows there!”
She shook her head. “Nonsense. You’re going to give me that show sooner or later, Spence. Might as well stop arguing. What about a couple of weeks after our trip to Jersey?”
Lucky thought for a moment, sighing in resignation. “Fine, whatever. Schedule something, then let me know when to be there. But if someone else gets shot at this one, I’m never performing again!”
