Chapter 58
Lucky woke up the following morning in a haze. He started to roll over, then realized there was someone laying in his arms, resting against him, their legs entwined. He could feel her warm breath on his chest and looked down as Elizabeth began to stir. She slowly opened her eyes and smiled dreamily.
“Morning,” she whispered, her voice low and scratchy.
Lucky squinted at her and smiled, still half-asleep. “Morning,” he greeted back, then leaned down to kiss her. As soon as their lips met, their eyes flew open and they quickly parted like two magnets repelling from each other.
“What are you doing in my bed?!” Lucky shouted, immediately grabbing his head. “Ow.”
Liz rubbed her face. “Maybe you’re the one in my bed,” she argued, whispering as her head began to pound.
He looked around the room in confusion. “Wait a minute, what happened to the other one? Weren’t there two beds in here before?”
Liz started to sit up, then gasped as she realized her state of undress. She pulled the blanket up around her and turned to Lucky. “Um, are you....wearing anything?”
Still in a daze, he lifted the covers and looked at himself, then clamped them down around him again. “Uh, just boxers. Why, are you...?”
“Underwear,” she said simply, holding her forehead as it’s throbbing intensified. She looked over the side of the bed and spotted the robe she discarded the previous evening. “Turn around.”
“What?” he asked, distracted by the knowledge that they just woke up together in the same bed, practically naked.
“Turn around, I found a robe,” she whispered. Lucky rolled over, grabbing his head as it started to pound again at the sudden movement. Liz leaned over and reached for the robe, then slowly slid out of bed to put it on. As soon as she had it tied around her, a wave of nausea hit her and she bolted for the bathroom.
Lucky heard a door slam and groaned, covering his ears. A minute later, when he had heard nothing further from Liz, he rolled onto his back, making sure to do it slowly this time. “Elizabeth? Are you done with that robe yet?” he asked softly. When there was no response, he opened his eyes slightly and saw that she was no longer in the room. Confused, he slid off of the bed, spotting his own robe on the floor. He hurried to put it on, then gingerly stood up, gritting his teeth against the giant headache he had. Once he was sure he wouldn’t fall over, he stumbled around the end of the bed, then froze when he saw the pile of discarded clothing in the middle of the floor.
“What in the world....?” he mumbled, looking around the room. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember anything from the previous night, and it was starting to scare him.
The door to the bathroom opened, and Liz stumbled out. “Did anyone get the license plate of that elephant that ran over me? Oh, and why is the tub heart-shaped?” she grumbled, rubbing her eyes, “and where do they keep the drugs?”
“Huh?” he asked, wincing at the sound of her voice. Even though she was whispering, it still sounded incredibly loud.
“Drugs,” she repeated, searching the various drawers and cabinets of the room. “I need drugs.”
“Mm,” he groaned, sitting on the edge of the bed so the room would stop spinning. “Do you have any idea what happened to us?”
Liz stopped her search and turned to face him, suddenly noticing the clothing on the floor. She kicked at it with her toe and frowned. “They’re wet.”
“Wet? Oh, wait, I think I remember rain,” he muttered, scratching his head as he desperately tried to recall something, anything, about the previous night.
“Rain, right, we stopped because of rain. That’s why the clothes are wet, but why are they....?” she stopped, not sure she wanted to finish the question. Besides, her head was killing her, and it seemed to hurt worse when she tried to think. She swallowed, frowning. “And when did I eat cotton?”
“I don’t know,” he replied, grimacing at his own situation, “but I must have shared it with you.”
Liz groaned as another wave of pain hit her, and resumed her search for painkillers.
“I still want to know where the other bed went,” Lucky complained, laying back. “And where did that mirror come from?” he added, looking at the ceiling.
Liz ignored him, consumed by her search. “Drugs, drugs, if I were drugs, where would I be?” she mumbled, stopping when she came to the room’s mini bar. “Whoa, I think I just remembered something....”
“ What?” Lucky asked, sitting up quickly, then immediately regretting it. He moaned and grabbed his head, falling back against the bed.
“Mini bar....there was a mini bar.....”
He chuckled bitterly, shaking his head. “That would explain so much. What did we do, drink the whole thing?”
She stood up and turned to look at him. “I don’t know, this one looks pretty full.” Suddenly remembering something, she gasped. “Wait! My purse! I have drugs in my purse!”
“Great, but can you not shout next time?” he groaned, trying to push himself into a sitting position without his head exploding.
“Sorry,” she whispered, digging into her purse for the bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol she kept there. She pulled out a few empty liquor bottles and groaned.
“Well, I think I found the culprit....wait a minute, what’s this?” she asked, holding up a flower. It was one of the ones that had been in her hair, and she had tossed it into her purse after the wedding. Lucky shrugged, not caring about anything except the Tylenol she was supposed to be looking for.
Liz tossed the flower aside, figuring it just fell in by accident. After another search, she finally found the bottle of medicine and pulled it out triumphantly. “There you are!” She spilled a couple of pills into her hand and quickly swallowed them, then closed the bottle and tossed it to Lucky. They both flinched from the noise it made as the pills clattered around inside the plastic container. The bottle hit the floor with a loud thud, and Lucky glared at her.
“Thanks,” he muttered angrily, leaning over to pick it up. He staggered to his feet and stumbled into the bathroom with it, unable to take pills without water, especially when his mouth was all fuzzy.
Liz sighed and looked around the room, trying to figure out what was going on. Suddenly, there was a piercing ringing. She grabbed her ears and looked around, searching for the source of the horrendous noise. Finally, she spotted Lucky’s cell phone on the table. She grabbed it, accidentally hitting the “on” button.
“SHH!” she shushed it, smiling when it stopped making noise. “Thank you,” she whispered, turning it off, then dropped it back on the table as Lucky came back from the bathroom.
“Did you know that the tub is shaped like a heart?” he asked, puzzled.
“I think I already said that.”
“Oh, sorry. Okay, we really need to figure out what’s going on here,” he said, striding over to the table and grabbing his sunglasses. He froze when he saw what was underneath them. Liz stepped up next to him and squinted at the envelope.
“Chapel of Love?” she asked, frowning up at him. “What?”
Lucky reached for it, but stopped when he noticed the ring on his hand. “Wait a minute, where did that come from?”
“Where did what...?” she asked, turning back to look at him. She saw the ring and immediately held up her own hand, her jaw dropping when she saw the matching one on her finger.
Lucky quickly slid on his sunglasses and hurried over to the window, pulling aside the drapes. Liz recoiled from the sudden flash of light.
“Hey, what are you, crazy? Close those!” she shouted, covering her eyes. Lucky looked outside for a moment, then shut the blinds and turned to look at her, realization finally sinking in.
“I don’t think we’re in New Jersey anymore!”
~*~
Laura walked into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffeemaker. “Luke? I’m starting to get worried.”
“Why, babe?” he asked, looking up from the newspaper.
“Lucky and Liz should have been back by now, don’t you think? What if something happened to them?”
“Nah, I’m sure they just got away from the camp late and had to stop at a hotel again,” he replied with a mischievous smirk. “I’m sure they’re fine. Actually, if my plan worked, they’re much more than fine!”
Laura sighed and shook her head, sitting down at the table across from him. “I hope you’re right, because if anything happened, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for going along with this.”
Luke started to say something when the phone rang. He reached over and answered it. “Hello?”
“Luke, it’s Charisma. Have you heard anything from Lucky yet?”
“Hey, partner!” he grinned. “No, actually, the missus and I were just talking about them. I’m sure they’re okay, don’t worry.”
“Well, I just got a call from my office in New York that I thought you might want to hear about,” she started, trying to figure out the best way to word her news.
Luke sat forward anxiously. “What? Come on, don’t tease me here!”
Charisma chuckled. “Lucky has his own plane, but he doesn’t use it very often, so they always let me know if there’s any strange activity with it.”
“Okay, and was there?”
“Luke, he took it to Las Vegas last night. According to the pilot’s report, he had a guest with him.... a female guest.”
“Hot damn!” Luke shouted, grinning at Laura. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“No, I’m not. What do you think they did?”
“I don’t know, but I’m about to find out. I’ll let you know. Thanks for the info!” Luke quickly hung up, then dialed Lucky’s cell phone, looking gleefully at Laura. After a few rings, there was a loud hissing sound, then the line went dead. When he tried it again, he got a recording that the phone’s owner was either out of the calling area or away from the phone.
“What? What happened?” Laura asked, confused by the strange expression on her husband’s face.
“I don’t know. There was this weird hiss, then it went dead, and now I think it’s turned off.”
“Well, what was the other call about?”
“It was Charisma. She said the cowboy took his plane to Vegas last night, and he wasn’t alone,” he answered, his sly grin returning.
“No...” Laura said in disbelief. “He wouldn’t....”
Luke shrugged and looked back at his newspaper, noticing a small story in the corner for the first time. He looked back up at Laura and laughed, showing it to her. “He would, and he did.”
The story’s headline read: “Local Celebrity Marries In Spontaneous Vegas Ceremony.”
