Chapter 67
“What is it?” Liz asked quietly, seeing his reaction. She leaned over to see what had him so stunned. Luke just stood back and grinned, enjoying their reactions way too much. Liz gasped and covered her mouth.
“Um, how did you get this?” Lucky asked softly, still staring at the gift. It was a framed picture of the two of them kissing at their wedding. Sally must have taken it without their noticing, not that they would have remembered either way, since that whole night was still a total void. They both stared at it, spellbound. Granted, they had already seen it in full-motion on the wedding video, but something about seeing it frozen in time like that made it much more shocking. Lucky could feel his palms sweating, and started to put it back in the box.
“Hold up, there,” Luke said quickly, stopping him. “There’s another one under it. We didn’t frame that one, in case you wanted to put it somewhere else.”
Lucky moved aside the rest of the tissue paper and lifted out the other photograph. This one was the “official” one, taken in the lobby before they changed back into their regular clothes. Lucky had his arm around Liz, and they were both grinning like lovesick, or drunken, fools. He shook his head slightly and put both back in the box, hoping no one else had seen them, then looked up at Luke.
“You didn’t answer my question, Dad.”
“Oh, well, Federal Express brought them by today. The package just said Lucas Spencer, so I thought it was for me.” He smiled innocently, knowing his son wasn’t going to buy a word.
“What else was in there?” he asked apprehensively, praying there wasn’t another copy of the video anywhere.
“Just copies of the marriage certificate and the bill. I see you went for the Super-Deluxe package. Very nice,” he teased.
Lucky stared blankly at him, completely lost. “Huh?”
Luke shook his head, not wanting to blow their cover. “Nothing. Come on, let’s get on with this party. The night is still young!”
Everyone started talking again, their attentions finally away from the newlyweds. Laura started to gather up the wrapping paper to throw away, while Luke retreated into the kitchen for a drink.
Lucky turned to Liz, still recovering from the last gift. “I can’t believe he got those.”
She nodded slowly, chewing on her bottom lip. “Yeah, I know. Kind of scary, aren’t they?”
He chuckled sarcastically, glancing back at the open box. “Yeah, something like that. What are we supposed to do with all these gifts?”
“Beats me. I guess you can take some and I’ll take the others,” she suggested.
Lucky started to nod, then stopped. “Uh-oh, I just realized something.”
“What?”
“If we’re going to pretend we’re really married, we’re going to have to live together.,” he said disgustedly. “I guess that means I’m moving in.”
“What? Hold on, whoever said you were moving in with me?” she asked, trying to keep her voice down so no one would be able to tell they were arguing.
“Well, we can’t live above Kelly’s, that would be silly. Besides, you’ve got that big house of Audrey’s, it’s not like we’d be crammed together. And I’d stay in one of the other bedrooms, obviously.”
She frowned, not liking the idea at all. “Do we really have to play along with this? Why don’t we just tell everyone the truth, that we were drunk, and we can’t even remember doing it!”
“Because it’s already been leaked to the press, so I have to make it look real for a little while. Besides, could you really tell all these people the truth, now that they’ve given us such expensive gifts?”
“No...damn it, why did Luke have to do this? I should be home sleeping by now, not sitting here pretending to be your wife!”
“Sorry, babe, looks like you’re stuck with me for a while,” he said dryly, looking around the room. People were starting to watch them, wondering why they hadn’t moved from the couch yet, so he leaned in and gently kissed her neck, taking the opportunity to whisper in her ear, “People are starting to look, we better act married again.”
Liz shivered as a chill ran down her spine from feeling Lucky’s lips on her neck. She silently chastised herself for reacting and pulled back. “Do we have to?”
“Do you have a better idea?” he asked, smiling lovingly at her to keep up appearances.
She sighed and shook her head. “No, I guess I don’t. Anyway, I’m sure the worst of it is over, right? I mean, what else could Luke do?”
As if on cue, Luke came back out into the living room and went over to the stereo. “Okay, everyone, time for the newlyweds to have their first dance!” he shouted gleefully, looking at Lucky and Liz for their reactions.
“What?” Lucky asked automatically. Realizing that didn’t sound like something a happily married man would say, he cleared his throat and stood up. “I mean, this isn’t exactly a ballroom, Dad, it’s a living room. Where are we all supposed to dance?”
“I agree, it’s not very spacious, but there’s enough room for you two over there.” He pointed at the empty space behind the couch and smiled. “We’ll all just have to stand back and watch.”
He walked briskly over to his father, his eyes blazing. “I’m going to kill you for this!” he hissed once he was close enough to be sure no one could hear him.
Luke just chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. “No need to thank me, now go dance with your beautiful wife!” he said loudly, grinning over Lucky’s shoulder at Liz, who was looking equally horrified.
After shooting one last glare at Luke, Lucky sighed and turned around, pasting a smile on his face. He walked over to her and extended his hand. “You heard the man, I guess we better dance.” She sighed and took it, following him around the couch as Luke turned on the CD.
As the music began, Lucky pulled her into his arms, trying to make it look as realistic as possible, since everyone in the room was now staring at them.
“If you don’t kill him, I will,” she hissed in his ear, wrapping her arms hesitantly around his neck.
“Well, we’ll just have to kill him together, then,” he whispered, “For now, the best thing we can do is not let him see that he’s getting to us, it just spurs him on more.”
“I know, but it’s hard to keep from reacting normally, especially when he pulls something like this.” She paused, listening to the song that was playing. “Lucky?”
“Hm?” he asked, finding himself distracted by the smell of her hair.
“What song is this?”
He listened for a moment, then shrugged. “I think it’s ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’, why?”
“I don’t know, I just got this really weird deja vu feeling, like we’ve done this before.”
“It’s probably because we danced at that auction, that’s all,” he said, trying to ignore the fact that he was feeling the same thing.
“I thought about that, but it’s not just the dancing, it’s the song. They didn’t play this at the auction. Do you think it was playing at the wedding or something?”
“Could be. Hey, maybe we’ll finally start remembering what happened.”
“Hm, maybe, although I’m not so sure I want to remember. I don’t know if I’d want to know what I did that night!”
