Chapter 70
Lucky stifled a yawn and stood up. “All right, I can’t stay awake any longer. I’m going to bed.”
Liz nodded, standing as well. “Yeah, me too. Any more deliveries are just going to have to wait until tomorrow.” They shut off the lights and drug themselves upstairs, disappearing into their respective rooms.
Too tired to even bother with a shower, Lucky got undressed and fell into bed, too exhausted to care that he was sleeping in a teenage girl’s room, essentially. He rolled onto his side, smiling as he spotted the pile of stuffed animals in the corner, then promptly fell asleep.
~*~
As tired as she was, Liz couldn’t bring herself to go to bed until she had bathed, so she jumped in the shower for a few minutes, then threw on a nightshirt and crawled into bed, happy to finally be home. She laid there in the dark, thinking about everything that had happened in the past few days, wondering how they had gotten themselves into such a mess.
She turned onto her side and looked at her door, wondering what Lucky was doing, if he had fallen asleep already or not. Quickly reminding herself that she didn’t care, she rolled over, turning her back to the door in an attempt to forget that he was even in the house. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy, and as much as she hated to admit it, knowing he was there somehow made her feel protected and safe. She told herself that it wasn’t because of him, that having anyone in the house with her would do that, and closed her eyes, willing herself to go to sleep.
~*~
Liz woke up the next morning and smiled at the familiar surroundings, happy to be waking up in her own room for once. She sat up and stretched, taking a deep breath, then froze as the scent of fresh-brewed coffee and french toast tickled her nose. She hopped out of bed, grabbed her robe, and hurried out into the hallway, curious to see where the smell was coming from.
Tying her robe around her, she crept down the stairs, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. As she approached the kitchen, she could hear someone whistling inside. Assuming it was Lucky, she pushed open the door and walked in, but froze when she saw who was standing there.
“Luke! Laura! What are you doing here?” she asked, looking at them in utter confusion.
Laura turned to smile at her from the stove, while Luke finished pouring glasses of orange juice. “Good morning, Liz.”
“We thought you two could use a good home-cooked breakfast this morning, and we know the cowboy doesn’t really cook, and you shouldn’t have to, so we came by. I hope you don’t mind, we used our key to get in. Oh, and you might as well start calling us Mom and Dad, right, Laura?” He grinned at his wife, making her chuckle at the embarassment he was probably causing the poor girl.”
Liz shook her head, too dumbfounded to speak. She had given them a key to her house last year when she went on vacation so they could feed Gatsby, and had since forgotten about it.
“So,” Luke continued, looking behind her. “Where is Lucky, anyway?”
“Um, he’s, uh, still sleeping,” she stammered, trying to think of an excuse.
Luke grinned devilishly. “Wore him out last night, huh?”
“Luke!” Laura scolded, snickering at how quickly Liz blushed. “You promised you wouldn’t tease them.”
“Did I? Hm, must have forgotten.”
“Why don’t I go wake him up?” Liz said, quickly backing out of the kitchen. Once she was out of the room she paused to gather her thoughts, then rushed up the stairs to her old room to give him a piece of her mind about his parents.
She started to knock, then thought better of it, afraid they would hear and wonder why she was knocking on the door. Instead, she cracked it open and peered in side, hoping he was decent. When she saw that he was buried under the covers, she slipped into the room and crept over to the bed, calling out his name.
“Lucky! Hey, Lucky, wake up!”
He stirred and mumbled something incoherently, but didn’t seem to be waking up, so she reached over to shake him, repeating his name more loudly.
“Lucky! Damn it, Lucky, wake up, your parents are here!”
“Mmm, Elizabeth,” he murmured dreamily as he burrowed deeper into the blankets. She jumped back, startled to hear him say her name. Telling herself it was only because he heard her voice calling him, she walked over to the radio and switched it on, turning up the volume enough to wake him, but keeping it low enough so his parents wouldn’t be able to hear it downstairs.
“Wha-?” Lucky shouted, jumping up suddenly. He looked around the room, disoriented for a moment, until his eyes fell on Liz standing by the radio.
“What’s wrong with you!” he grumbled as she shut off the music. “If this is how you’re going to wake me up every morning, we definitely have grounds for divorce.”
She rolled her eyes and walked to the bed. “No, this is only how I’ll wake you up when your parents are in my kitchen cooking breakfast.”
He frowned at her, processing her statement slowly, sniffing the air. “I thought I smelled food....wait a minute, did you say my parents are here?”
“Yeah, Sherlock, that’s what I said. ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ are in my kitchen right now cooking us breakfast, and if we don’t get down there soon, they’re going to come looking for us!”
He groaned and slid out of bed, reaching for his sweat pants. Blushing as she realized he was only in boxers, Liz turned away from him as he continued to grumble. “No, they won’t come up here, they’ll just think we’re...”
“We better get down there,” she gasped, realizing where his statement was heading. He nodded quickly in agreement, pulled on his pants, ran a hand briskly through his hair, and followed her out the door, hoping they could make it downstairs before his parents started to get any ideas.
~*~
“I can’t believe I agreed to do this,” Laura sighed, turning off the range and sliding the french toast onto plates. “Lucky’s going to kill us.”
“You keep saying that, yet we’re still here. Just remember, it’s for a good cause. Now, what do you think is keeping them?”
“Come on, you know they’re sleeping in separate rooms. She’s probably knocking on his door right now, trying to wake him up,” Laura said, carrying the empty pan to the sink.
“Well, obviously they’re not going to share a room here, but I’m working on a plan to change that,” he mused, flashing her a knowing smile.
“Uh-oh, now what are you going to do?”
“Oh, not me this time. I think I’m going to leave this one to my partner.” Before he could finish his thought, the door opened and Lucky and Liz walked in, He looked up and grinned slyly. “Well, there’s the lovebirds! We were starting to wonder what happened to you up there.”
“He didn’t want to wake up,” Liz mumbled, pointing at Lucky. At least that was actually true.
Figuring he might as well start playing along, he stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Well, can you blame me for not wanting to leave her bed?” he asked, plastering a flirtatious smile on his face.
“But I wasn’t even in it anymore,” she added, trying not to retch.
“But you would have been, if my parents hadn’t been down here,” he said, letting his annoyance show through, even though it was for a completely different reason than he was making it seem.
Luke chuckled and turned to Laura. “See, honey, I told you they wouldn’t want us dropping in so early.”
“What?!” she shouted, glaring angrily at him for turning the blame on her so smoothly.
