Chapter 51
Reluctantly, Lucky ended the kiss and pulled back, smiling at Elizabeth. She slowly opened her eyes, as though she was afraid that it was a dream. When she saw Lucky grinning at her, she smiled.
“That was...” she began.
“...nice,” Lucky finished.
She giggled. “I was going to say a surprise. ‘Nice’ is sort of an understatement.”
He chuckled and looked up for the first time since the kiss. “What the...”
Liz turned around to see what he was looking at, figuring that his family would all be staring. “What are they doing?”
“Oh, it better not be what I think it is!” Lucky said, putting his arm around her waist and hurryng back to their table. Liz smiled at the gesture. Actually, ever since he kissed her, she had smiled at pretty much everything.
“Dad, what’s going on?” Lucky asked accusingly as he approached them. Luke had been handing Laura a $50 bill, and his hand froze in mid-air. Laura quickly snatched it away from him and stuffed it in her purse guiltily. Lucky just stood there, looking back and forth between his parents. Behind them, Emily was arguing with Nikolas because he didn’t have enough cash on him.
“Oh come on,” Nikolas said, “you know me. My checks don’t bounce!’
She shook her head. “Nope, this is a cash-only operation. If you don’t have it on you, I’m just going to have to accompany you to the nearest ATM later.”
“What’s that all about?” Liz asked, looking at Lucky, then at his parents. She glanced around the room and noticed that there were other people exchanging money as well.
“Dad, please tell me this has nothing to do with me and Elizabeth,” Lucky said, glaring at his father.
Luke chuckled and shook his head. “Sorry Cowboy, can’t do that.”
“What?! You’ve got to be kidding me! You mean half the town was betting on whether or not we’d get together?”
“No, of course not!” Luke said with a smile. “We all knew that would happen. We just put a little money on which one of you would crack first.”
“Crack?” Liz asked, trying not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
“You know, give in and admit that you liked each other.”
“Oh,” she said, blushing, then smiled and looked at Lucky, knowing her next question would really get him. “So who won?”
“What? You can’t possibly think this is funny!” Lucky exclaimed, looking down at her. She just giggled and shrugged her shoulders.
Luke grinned. “I did!”
“Then why were you giving Mom money, instead of the other way around?” Lucky asked.
“Because I won the first bet,” Laura explained, trying not to laugh and the look of horror on her son’s face.
“First bet? You mean there was more than one?”
“At first it was just the two of us. We bet a hundred bucks on how long it would take you two to get together. I said it would happen within a month, but your mom thought it would take longer. Then Nikolas and Emily got in on it and my part changed to Halloween, but you guys were too darn stubborn, so I still lost. The other bet was only fifty bucks, so I ended up still owing your mom,” Luke explained, laughing. “Hey, the whole thing was your Mom’s idea!” he added, pointing at her. She gasped and smacked him.
“It was not! The second bet was all Nikolas’s! I just started the first one. It wasn’t supposed to get so out of hand!” she said, trying to defend herself.
“Whoa, Nikolas and Emily were in on this too?”
Liz laughed. “I guess that explains why they always seemed to be around.”
Before they could say any more, V came on-stage to announce the next round. Lucky threw another glare at his parents before leading Liz back to the table. As they sat down, Lucky took her hand. She turned and smiled at him, then looked back at the stage.
~*~
The rest of the contest went by quickly. Lucky and Liz were in their own little world, smiling at each other and holding hands the entire time, much to the amusement of the rest of the people at their table.
Finally, V came on-stage to announce the contest winners. After the two runners-up had come up to claim their consolation prizes, she took a deep breath and grinned. “The winner is Lucky Spencer!”
Liz squealed and threw her arms around him. He was so shocked, he didn’t get up right away.
“Lucky, get up there!” she said, pushing his back to get him to stand up. He got up and climbed the steps to the stage, taking the envelope from V’s hands. She gave him a quick hug and said congratulations before leaving him with the microphone.
“Um, wow. I never expected to win this thing. In fact, I never even planned on entering, but someone decided to do it for me.” He paused and winked at Liz. “At first I was too mad to even consider doing this, but my dad convinced me to give it a shot. I guess he’s smarter than he looks.”
“Hey! I resemble that remark!” Luke shouted from the audience, causing everyone to laugh.
Lucky chuckled. “Anyway, thanks for this, although half of it really belongs to Elizabeth Webber. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have been here, and I wouldn’t have written that song.” He nodded to signal the end of his speech and climbed down from the stage as everyone applauded.
Liz grinned at him as he walked up to her chair. “So, where are you taking me to eat?”
He pulled her out of the chair and into his arms. “Wherever you want.”
“It doesn’t matter to me. As long as you’re there, I know it will be perfect.”
“Damn good answer,” he whispered, flashing a dazzling smile at her before leaning down to kiss her. She kissed him back, melting into his arms.
“Oh, great, we’ve created a monster,” Luke said with a laugh. “Why do I get the feeling they’re going to be attached at the lips from now on?”
Lucky pulled away from Liz and laughed. “Like father, like son.”
Luke chuckled and grabbed Laura, looking at her devilishly. “He’s got a point.” He pulled her to him and kissed her, causing all the teens to turn away in disgust.
“Come on, guys, let’s get out of here,” Emily said, pulling Nikolas away from the table. “Nikolas has to get to the bank.”
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