Chapter 9
Lucky turned back to Elizabeth and rolled his eyes. “Why did he have to show up now?”
She shrugged, finally coming to her senses as she wriggled out of his arms. “Before I forget...” She brought her hand up and slapped him across the face. “Don’t ever do that again!” she said angrily, then stormed back into the kitchen.
Lucky stood there in shock, rubbing his cheek.
“She’s a feisty one, that’s for sure!” Luke said from behind him, causing him to jump.
“How much did you see?” Lucky asked, turning around to face his father, trying to ignore the smug look on his face.
“Enough. Why’d you do it, Cowboy? I mean, of all the things to do just to get rid of a few groupies....”
Lucky shook his head, knowing he wasn’t going to get off the hook so easily. “It was the first thing that came to mind, and I knew it would bug her. Although, looking back on it, I now realize it was a stupid thing to do.”
Luke shook his head. “Oh no, quite the opposite. That first kiss is always the hardest, and now you’ve gotten it out of the way!”
“Dad, we’re not going out, so just give it up. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go into the kitchen for a minute. No one slaps me like that and gets away with it,” he grumbled as he stalked out of the room.
Liz was standing in the kitchen, trying to keep herself busy so she wouldn’t have to go back out into the diner and face Lucky. She knew that after slapping him like that, he was bound to get angry.
“What the hell was that for?” Lucky asked loudly, bursting into the kitchen.
Liz spun around and glared at him. “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me? Why did you kiss me?”
“I was trying to get rid of those girls. Was it really necessary to hit me, though?” he asked, rubbing his face again.
“Well, you should feel lucky that’s all that happened. What if Jason had seen that little stunt?”
He rolled his eyes. “Right, Jason. What was I thinking, kissing the mob boss’s girlfriend? What’s the punishment for that anyway? Do they just cut off my lips, or my whole head?”
Liz glared at him. “He’s not the mob boss!”
“Oh, right, he’s just the mob boss ‘runner-up.’ If anything should happen to the current mob boss that prevents him from carrying out his duties, then Jason steps in,” Lucky said with a sarcastic smile.
Realizing they had been shouting across the room the entire time, Liz stomped over to him, closing the gap between them. She stopped right in front of him and whispered fiercely, “Sonny and Jason are not in that line of work anymore! They run a coffee warehouse, that’s all!”
He chuckled at her quick defense of them. “Either you’re in complete denial, or you’re really naive!”
She stepped closer so that their faces were only inches apart. “What makes you so sure of that? You’ve been gone for a year, a lot has happened. They left the business to keep Michael safe, why is that so hard for you to believe?”
Lucky was distracted for a moment at having her so close to him again. He hadn’t wanted to admit it before, but kissing her had more of an affect on his than he had expected. He shook his head, trying to clear away those thoughts. “Elizabeth, I’ve had a lot of experience with those kinds of people in my life, and trust me when I say that once you’re in that line of business, you can never completely get out of it. Not without some serious consequences.”
She could feel his breath on her face and suddenly realized how close she was standing to him. She quickly stepped back and cleared her throat, trying to mask the fact that he had just hit on her deepest fear. Jason never said anything to her about it, but she knew he had a guard on her at all times, which was enough to worry her that he might still be in danger. She looked down at the floor for a moment, then back up at Lucky. “Why do you even care?”
“Because you’re close to my family, and anyone connected to Jason and Sonny could be a target, which puts the people I care about in danger as well.”
“Sonny’s been your father’s business partner for longer than I’ve known any of you!” she said, growing angry again. “If your family’s in danger, it’s not because of me! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a diner to run.” She pushed past him and stormed out of the kitchen, nearly running into Luke, who had been standing outside the door the whole time. He grinned as she flew past him, then pushed the door open and walked into the kitchen.
“Now that’s pure Spencer if I’ve ever seen it!” he chuckled.
Lucky whirled around and glared at his father. “Why are you still here?”
“What, and miss all the fun? A wild pack of Cassidines couldn’t even chase me out of here right now!”
Lucky rolled his eyes and headed for the door. “Well, the show’s over. Why don’t you go home?”
Luke laughed and followed him out of the kitchen. “Okay, I know when I’m not wanted. Granted, that’s usually when I stick around, but I’ve seen all I need to, so I’ll leave you two alone.” He grinned at Lucky suggestively. “Maybe you can finish what you started earlier.”
Lucky groaned and pushed Luke towards the front door. “Good-bye Dad!”
“Okay, I’m going, I’m going.” He laughed as he stepped outside. “This is the first time I’ve been thrown out of a place I own!” Lucky shut the door and went back to the lunch counter, grumbling to himself.
“Why did you just throw Luke out of here?” Liz asked.
“He’s obnoxious. I just want to get this shift over with, and I don’t need him breathing down my neck, cracking jokes.”
She laughed. “Like you have anything better to do!”
“As a matter of fact, I have plans tonight,” he answered smugly.
She raised an eyebrow curiously. “Hot date?”
“You could say that.” Actually, Nikolas had a last-minute business trip to New York and had asked Lucky to watch Dominique for the night.
Liz felt a small pang of jealousy and wondered who he was going out with already. He had only been in town for a day! “Oh,” she said, not able to think of anything else. Lucky chuckled and went over to take someone’s order, leaving her alone at the counter.
