Chapter 63
Liz woke up the following morning from a wonderful dream, the subject of which eluded her. She started to stretch, then realized she couldn’t move. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Lucky was completely wrapped around her, holding her tightly in her arms, with one of his legs thrown over her. She couldn’t help thinking that this must be what a body pillow feels like, because that’s pretty much what she was to him at that moment.
“Lucky!” she hissed, shaking him lightly. He murmured something inaudible and shifted his weight a little, but didn’t release his hold of her.
“Lucky!!!” she said, more loudly this time, hitting him on the shoulder. He groaned and squinted at her sleepily. “Lucky, wake up!”
“Hm?” he mumbled as his eyes began to focus on her. Suddenly, they flew open and he let go of her, backing away.
Liz couldn’t help snickering at his reaction. “We really need to stop waking up like that.”
He groaned and rubbed his eyes. “No, we need to stop sleeping in the same bed! Is it morning already?”
“Yes, now get your lazy butt out of bed. I want to go home,” she complained, standing up and stretching. She stumbled over to the mirror and groaned. “Ugh, I look like hell.”
“I’m sure you don’t look any worse than I do,” he said, still laying down, letting himself wake up slowly. Liz turned to look at him as he leaned on his elbow, propping up his head. He didn’t look horrible at all, in fact, with his hair all mussed and that sleepy look of his face, he was actually...
She shook her head and turned back to the mirror, picking up her hairbrush. Lucky watched her quietly as she brushed her hair, thinking that she looked just as beautiful in the morning as she did the rest of the day. He then frowned, wondering where that thought had come from, and slipped out of bed, hurrying into the bathroom. A few minutes later, they were both ready to go. They checked out and hopped into Lucky’s car, then started off for home in silence.
About halfway into the trip, Liz glanced down at her hands and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Lucky asked, looking over at her briefly, before looking back at the road.
“In all the craziness yesterday, I forgot to take off this silly ring,” she answered, pulling her wedding ring off her finger. “It would have been kind of hard to keep this mess to ourselves if I still had that on!”
Lucky nodded, then realized he was also still wearing his. “Oops, I guess I did the same thing.” He slid it off his finger and tucked it into his pocket. “Good thing you noticed. That would have been pretty hard to explain away.”
“Yeah, I know. Luke would have probably seen them a mile away.” She opened her wallet and dropped the ring into the change compartment, then sat back and closed her eyes, figuring she could take a quick nap until Lucky needed her to drive.
~*~
Luke walked into Kelly’s and grinned at his sister. “Hey Barbara, what are you doing here today?”
“Someone’s got to run the place while Liz is out of town, you know,” she replied with a smile.
“Just as long as you’re at the party this afternoon,” he warned, sitting down at the lunch counter. “Do you have a gift for the happy couple yet?”
Bobbie chuckled at his eagerness, knowing that this party was really just a big joke. “Yes, I do, but if this whole thing turns my nephew against me, I’m coming after you!”
“Nah, he’ll be too busy being angry at me to notice. Anyway, what’s the point of living if you can’t have a little fun at the expense of the ones you love, right?”
They were interrupted by the jingling bell over the door and turned to see who had come in. A FedEx delivery man walked up to them with a package in his hands. “Is there a Lucas Spencer here?”
“That would be me,” Luke answered with a grin, knowing full well that the package was most likely for Lucky. Bobbie just sighed and went back to wiping down the counter. Luke signed for the package and turned back to her with a devilish smirk on his face.
“Luke, what are you doing? You know that’s for Lucky.”
“I just figure he’ll be at the house for a while today, so why not bring it with me? It looks important, you know. He may want to see it right away,” he explained, trying to look innocent, but failing miserably.
“Just remember that opening it without his permission is mail fraud,” she warned, turning around to ring up a bill in the cash register.
“Don’t worry about me, little sister, I know what I’m doing,” he said, standing to leave. “I have to head home and help Laura finish setting things up. I’ll see you in a few hours?”
Bobbie turned back to him and nodded. “I’ll probably regret this, but I’ll be there. Just try to be easy on them, okay?”
“Oh come on, you know me better than that! Since when am I easy on my kid?” He asked with a smile. “I promise you, though, a good time will be had by all. Well, mostly all, I can’t say anything for sure about the guests of honor.” With that, he left the diner, heading home with the package under his arm.
After a short drive, Luke arrived at his house. He hurried inside, calling out for Laura.
“Hey, babe, get in here! You’re probably going to want to see this!” he shouted. Laura appeared at the top of the stairs a moment later.
“What is it?” she asked, coming downstairs. “They’re not here already, are they?”
“No, not yet. The place looks great, by the way,” he added, taking a seat at the dining room table and setting the FedEx package in front of him.
“Thanks. What’s that?” she asked, sitting next to him and looking over at the label. “Chapel of Love?”
Luke grinned. “More importantly, it’s the Chapel of Love in Las Vegas, Nevada. What do you think it its?”
She shrugged, still studying the label. “I don’t know, maybe it’s just their marriage papers or something. Why do you have it?”
“I was in the right place at the right time. The guy delivered it to Kelly’s while I was visiting my sister, so I signed for it.” He saw that she was about to argue with him, and quickly added, “It only says ‘Lucas Spencer’ and that’s me, too!”
“You’re going to open it now, aren’t you?” she questioned, knowing her husband all too well.
“You got it!” He tore open the large envelope and pulled out the contents, quickly leafing through them. “Copy of marriage certificate, boring. Copy of bill...ooh, the Super-Deluxe package, that cost him a pretty penny! Nothing but the best for the little woman, I guess.” He laughed as he looked it over. “Hey, they got a video of the ceremony. Now there’s something I wish I could see!”
“Oh, I doubt you ever will. They probably have it, and if they didn’t destroy it by now, they’ll hide it away somewhere where you’ll never find it. What else is there?”
Luke flipped over the bill and looked at the next two items, his eyes growing wide. “Well now we’re getting somewhere! Babe, I think we just found our wedding gift!” He turned them over so she could see, smiling at the shocked look on her face.
“Wow,” she whispered. “They look....” Her eyes traveled from the first picture to the second, growing wider. “Oh, they’re going to kill us!”
