Getting Lucky (44 page)

   "And now I pronounce you man and wife," Luke said. "You may kiss your bride, Eli."

   Mamie threw her arms around Eli's neck and didn't wait for him to do the kissing. She rolled up on her toes and planted one on him that said Eli Donavan was hers for all eternity and no one had better ever get in the way.

   The kiss ended and Julie handed Mamie her bouquet. Strange, she couldn't even remember Mamie giving it to her, she'd been so busy chasing her fears.

   "And now it gives me great pleasure to present for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Eli Donavan," Luke said.

   Everyone clapped as Mamie and Eli wound their way through the people toward the back of the room where the wedding cakes waited on a table draped in white satin.

   Luke looked at Julie.

   She nodded, reached out for Griffin's hand, and whis pered. "Mamie said it would be fine. You absolutely sure?"

   "Never more sure about anything in my whole life," he said.

   Luke cleared his throat. "Before you all jump up and run, I have an announcement. Since the room is decorated and both the families are already here, Julie and Griffin have expressed a desire to make this a double wedding. So if everyone will sit still for another few minutes, we'll just have their wedding right now."

   In the buzz that filled the room, Mamie and Eli turned around and walked right back up the aisle. "We want to be the witnesses," Mamie said.

   "I think that's fair enough," Luke said.

   Griffin took Julie's hands in his and the room went quiet. "On the night I proposed you only asked me for one thing and that was my heart. I give it to you tonight along with my name and my love."

   Julie swallowed the lump threatening to send tears down her face. "I never believed in fate or luck but I've got to admit, something brought me to Montague County, and I'm glad for it. You and our daughters aren't the only ones who have lucky streaks, Griffin Luckadeau. I have one too, and it brought me straight to you. I give you my heart and my love."

   "And now, dearly beloved we are still gathered here in the presence of God, family, and friends to join Griffin Luckadeau and Julie Donavan in holy matri mony," Luke said.

   When the ceremony ended Luke said, "And now you may kiss your bride."

   Griffin picked her up and kissed her passionately. "I love you," he whispered when the kiss ended.

   "And I love you," she whispered.

   "Does that mean we are sisters?" Annie asked Lizzy.

   "I think it does," Lizzy whispered back.

   "Well, hot damn," Annie said.

   Sally and Alvie snickered.

   "I give you Mr. and Mrs. Griffin Luckadeau for the first time. And Griffin, you've got your work cut out for you," Luke teased.

   "Don't I know it," Griffin grinned.

   Hands were held out as Julie made her way to the back of the room. She reached behind the bouquet she'd carried for Mamie's wedding and brought out folded bills. She put a twenty and a five in Nellie's hand, and the same amount in Ellen's, Milli's, and Jane's. Alvera got fifty. Mamie held out her hand at the wedding cake table and Julie paid her off, too.

   "What's that all about?" Griffin asked.

   "I always pay my bets and it's the best money I ever spent," Julie answered.

When everyone had gone home after the reception, Griffin pulled Julie down to sit on his lap in one of the folding guest chairs. "I really do love you, Mrs. Luckadeau."

   "I can't believe I'm really one of those obnoxious Luckadeau women," she kissed the end of his nose.

   "What's a noxous Luckadeau?" Lizzy asked.

   "It's what you'll grow up to be," Julie told her.

   "Come here, all three of you," Griffin said.

   Annie and Chuck came from the den where they'd been playing with a strip of illusion and joined Lizzy, the three of them in a line with Chuck in the middle.

   "Do you understand what happened here tonight? Julie and I got married," Griffin said.

   "Does that mean Griffin is my daddy like he is Julie's and I can call him Daddy?" Annie asked.

   "Yes, it does. I have adopted you, Annie. From now on even at school you will be Annie Luckadeau."

   "I'm 'dopted! That means you really are my daddy, don't it?" Annie said.

   "It does but…" Griffin started to tell her that she didn't have to call him that until she wanted to do so but that on paper she was now his daughter as much as Lizzy was.

   "Yippeee. I've got a daddy," Annie said with a wiggle of her head. "Lizzy, your daddy is my daddy and I get to call him that all the time. Ain't that right, Daddy?"

   Lizzy's eyes filled with tears. "But now Annie has got both and I want a momma like Julie 'cause I want to grow up to be white trash just like her."

   "I'll be your momma," Julie smiled.

   The girls high-fived.

   Chuck stood in the doorway looking at the floor, his chin beginning to quiver.

   "We have something else to share with you kids tonight. Chuck, can you come over here and sit on my other knee?" Griffin asked.

   Chuck did but he didn't look up.

   "Are you happy living here with me and these girls?" Griffin asked.

   Chuck nodded.

   "I'm glad to hear that. A man needs a boy around to help him when there's so many women in the house. You reckon you'd be happy living here the rest of your life?"

   Chuck nodded again.

   "I know you miss your real momma and daddy a lot sometimes, but they are going to be away until you are almost a grown man. They have agreed to let me adopt you and the papers are being fixed up for that. Would you mind changing your last name and being a Luckadeau?"

   Chuck looked up with love and amazement in his eyes. "I'm like Annie and Lizzy, now—I'm a real Luckadeau?"

   "You are a real Luckadeau if you want to be. If you want to still be a Chester, I can leave it like that on the papers," Griffin said.

   The girls waited with big smiles on their faces until he put up both hands. They high-fived him and he hopped off Griffin's knee to take off in a dead run up the stairs. In a minute, Chuck ran back to throw himself in Griffin's arms.

   "I want to be a Luckadeau like Annie and Lizzy. Does that mean I can call you Daddy, too?"

   "It does, son," Griffin said.

   He looked at Julie. "And can I call you Momma like Annie does?"

   She nodded.

   "Today is the best day of my life," he said and ran up the stairs to Annie's room. Giggles could be heard all the way into the den.

   "Let's get those rug rats to bed and go make another one," Griffin asked.

   "Which room is going to be ours?" she asked.

   "I was thinking maybe we'd move over to the first one on the left when you go up the steps. It was my parent's room and my grandparent's before them. I think that would be fitting."

   "I like that," Julie snuggled down into his arms. "I like you, Griffin."

   "I'm very glad. I was afraid the jury might stay out a lot longer."

   "It's in. I'm guilty."

   He toyed with her hair. "Then I sentence you to a lifetime of carrying my name and being my wife."

   "I'll serve my time but that doesn't mean I'll be one of those little walk-behind-you-three-steps-and-agree with-everything-you-say women," she said.

   "Any day you do that, I'll start getting my affairs in order."

   "Why?"

   He gathered her tightly into his arms and hugged her. "Because if you act like that it'll be because you are about dead. I can't live without you. So I'll get my affairs in order and get ready to die of a broken heart."

   "That is the sweetest thing you've ever said," she wiped at a tear.

   "Well, I'll be hanged. If I'd known you just needed some sweet-talkin' I could've gotten you to the altar months ago," he teased.

   "And maybe I'll even get a little dark-haired son with a lucky streak out of the deal."

   "Honey, you might get a dark-haired daughter but any sons will have blond hair."

   "Then I'll wait until Lizzy and Annie grow up and get dark-haired grandsons. Or maybe there's a dark-haired gene hiding somewhere in Chuck."

   He swept her up into his arms. He carried her up the stairs and into the bedroom. He laid her gently on the bed and kissed her until she almost forgot that they had three kids to put to bed.

   "I love you, Julie Luckadeau. The day you walked into my life was my lucky day," he said.

   "I think everyone in this house got lucky the day I moved to Saint Jo. Let's get those kids to bed and I'll show you just how lucky you are," she whispered.

ALL THE AIR ESCAPED DAISY'S LUNGS IN A WHOOSH WHEN the cowboy collapsed on top of her. She sucked in air and pushed at the weight, but her arms were pinned. She opened her eyes to see a head full of dark hair and felt the sharp bone of his nose pressing into her left breast.

   He raised his head and looked over at her, his face only inches from hers, his eyes zeroing in on her lips.

   
Hot damn! That's one sexy face,
they both thought at the same time.

   She shut her eyes and started to lean in for the kiss, then reality hit. She had fallen flat on her back on the floor of the Honky Tonk beer joint and taken the nearest cowboy down with her. She popped her eyes wide open and wriggled back away from the sexiest gray eyes she'd ever seen.

   
Oh, shit, who saw us?
Daisy looked up to find everyone staring down at them, the cowboy's body still touching her from breast to toe even though he had rolled to one side. The joint was as quiet as a tomb. It was a hell of a time for the juke box to go silent.

   "You all right?" Tinker, the bouncer, asked. He was hovering over the two of them, worry etched in his face as he bent to touch her shoulder.

"I'm fine. Make sure he is, too," she panted.

   Tinker held out a hand and in one swift movement the cowboy was on his feet.

   Then Tinker picked up Daisy carefully and set her on a barstool. "You all right?"

   "I'm fine. My dignity is in tatters and I might have a bruise or two, but I'll live," she said.

   "I'd better get back to the door. Motion if you need me," Tinker said.

   She nodded and raised her voice to the customers, who were still watching the whole scenario as if it were an X-rated movie. "I'm fine, everyone. I promise. Get on back to having a good time."

   Someone plugged coins into the juke box and George Strait's song, "River of Love," filled the place. Several people started a line dance and by the time the song ended everything was back to normal.

   All except Daisy's heart. It still raced.

   She looked at the cowboy. He was just as sexy sitting on the bar stool as he'd been lying on top of her. "Sorry about that. I hope you don't have anything broken."

   The cowboy barely nodded. "Just a little stunned. Stupid things like that happen so fast it's like it happened to someone else. Might have a bruise—but you broke
my
fall. You sure
you
are all right?"

   It was her turn to nod.

   "Guess we stepped in that beer at the same time. Where's the bartender? We both ought to sue the hell out of him." Jarod was amazed that he could utter a single word the way his pulse was racing. That was one dazzling lady he'd taken a fall with. One minute he'd been walking toward the bar; the next he was grabbing for anything to break the fall. Then as if in slow motion he'd seen the girl slip in the same slick puddle of spilled beer and grab for him.

   Daisy knew every rancher, cattle rustler, and hot blooded male and female in five counties, but she'd never seen that damn fine-looking cowboy before. Snug-fitting jeans covered one sexy tight butt hitched up on the stool. Bulging biceps underneath his snowy white T-shirt stretched the knit. His black hair and high cheek bones said that he had some Native American blood somewhere but his eyes were the color of heavy fog. He could have played the resident bad boy in an old movie: maybe James Dean in
Rebel Without a Cause.
She remembered watching the movie with her grandmother back before Granny died. From that day forward, Daisy O'Dell had been attracted to bad boys, and that had been her downfall.

   For the first time she seriously considered breaking the rules and taking a man through the door into her apartment at the back of the Honky Tonk. She shook her head to remove the crazy notion. The man could be a serial killer or a drug pusher. Hell, he could be worse than either of those two things—he could be married.

   Why did that dark-haired, broad-chested cowboy give her hot flashes? Maybe it was because when she felt him collapse on her for a micro-second she'd felt as if they'd just finished a hot bout of sex. She reached up and rubbed the back of her head to see if there were bumps or indentations. Something had to have knocked every bit of sense out of her brain. She couldn't find a bump or a sore spot, so maybe he'd rattled her hormones instead of her brain cells.