Lucky (25 page)

The cat arched its back and hissed. Disgusted with his moods, Fluffy swatted him to the floor.

“Get then,” she muttered. “See if I care. I’m no longer just an old, used-up woman with a moody cat. I have friends now, too, you know.”

The cat skittered sideways and then dashed across the floor at an imaginary foe. Just two old enemies who long ago had agreed to disagree.

Lucky groaned and shifted on the truck seat, trying to find a spot on the bumpy leather that didn’t have a spring about to poke through. The old driver grinned and winked, then shifted gears to negotiate the sharp mountain curve. Being crammed three in a seat had made for a a long, miserable ride from Nashville. But Lucky wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The driver and his assistant had been well paid for the job. Having a pretty woman along for the ride, despite the fact that she’d been less than talkative, had not bothered them one bit.

“I been workin’ for Nashville Monument for twenty-two years, and this is, without doubt, the longest trip I ever made to set a stone.”

“Yes, sir,” Lucky said, and nodded.

The driver had volunteered that same information when they had headed east out of Nashville. Again as they’d exited north off of Interstate 40 just outside of Cooksville. And now, only minutes out of Cradle Creek, she was hearing it again. The big one-ton’s gears ground again as he geared down once more.

“Looks like we’re just about here,” he offered.

“Yes, sir,” Lucky said, and willed down the nausea that bubbled low in her stomach.

Now was not the time to get a case of nerves. Besides, what could these people do to her that they hadn’t already done? As soon as Johnny’s monument was set in place,
she would be on her way out of Cradle Creek, headed back to Nashville to catch the next plane out to Las Vegas.

Her fingers curled a little tighter around the small flat box in her lap as the first signs of the small mountain town came into view.

“Ooh, damn.” The assistant had just gotten his first good look at the town. And then he cast a swift glance at Lucky. “Excuse me, miss,” he said. “Just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

She grinned wryly. “It has a way of doing that, all right,” she said. “The sooner we get this over with, the better I’ll feel.”

The truck was loud. The noise from its engine was enough to send people scurrying to the windows to see what stranger passed their way. If they looked quick, they would not miss the sign on the doors of the big white one-ton: N
ASHVILLE
M
ONUMENT
.

Unknown to Lucky, excitement was growing as, one after the other, people looked at the truck, saw the sign on the door and the load on the back. It didn’t take a fool to figure out that someone had ordered a headstone for a grave. Surely it wasn’t going to be set in Cradle Creek? But when the truck turned up the hillside just past the station, the word went out. It was!

By the time Lucky got out of the truck and stretched her weary bones, a few of the hardier souls were already braving the cold out of curiosity. She looked down the hillside into the trees and saw them coming.

“Oh, no.”

It was just as she’d feared. One more time she would be
forced to bear the brunt of Cradle Creek’s disdain. Her chin went up. Her lips tightened as she buttoned the last two buttons on her blue wool coat. The wind whipped the coattails against the back of her knees, but it didn’t matter. She’d been a lot colder in this town before and survived it all.

“One last time,” she muttered, pulling the scarf around her head a little tighter against the wind’s chill. She stood aside and watched as the truck was backed into place and then the men began unloading the shiny black stone.

Absorbed in the process of the men at work, she ignored the low-pitched muttering that drifted through the sharp, winter air. She suspected that they hadn’t recognized her, or hadn’t yet seen the name on the stone.

“Might be slow settin’ this one in place,” the driver warned. “The ground’s a bit froze.”

Lucky nodded. “Just do it right,” she said. “That’s all I ask.”

The old man hitched at his pants. “I ain’t had one tilt on me yet, miss,” he said. “Don’t aim to start now.”

“Remember,” Lucky cautioned. “Before you set the stone, I have something I need to put down under it.”

He nodded. Their earlier instructions had been clear.

Unknown to Lucky, another stranger mingled with the locals, standing far back at the edge of the crowd, ducking his head in deference to the wind as well as the hope that he would not be seen…at least not yet.

Nick watched her and ached for her loneliness. A tall, slender girl in blue in a town full of hate. He wanted to
hold her. He needed to feel the lifeblood pulsing beneath that satin skin and know that it beat for him. But it wasn’t time. And so he waited, like the rest of Cradle Creek, to see what would unfold.

The driver’s assistant rose from his knees. “Miss…?”

Lost in old memories, Lucky jerked at the sound of his voice.

“The little hole…it’s ready just like you asked.”

She nodded, then went forward and knelt. The ground was cold against her knees, her blue jeans faint protection against the damp wind blowing down from the mountains. But it didn’t matter. What she had to do wouldn’t take long.

“I did it, Johnny. I found your luck,” she whispered, and tried to smile. But she couldn’t feel a smile anywhere inside. Only tears that came without invitation.

She laid the little box into the hole. And when the man knelt to cover it up, she pushed his gloved hands aside and pulled the cold hard chunks back in place herself with trembling fingers. Little by little, she covered up the watch that had cost her so much to retrieve.

“Rest easy, my daddy. I won’t forget.”

Someone helped her to her feet. She didn’t know who. And she could not have cared less. She was too blinded by tears to look around and see a tall, dark man who was sharing her grief. Before she could move, he’d disappeared back into the crowd, and she thought little of his assistance. Her entire focus was on the black marble stone being lowered into place.

It was then that a hiss from the people went up in the
air. The name on the stone was, at last, revealed. Polished to a glassy shine, the black stone gleamed like the veins of coal beneath the ground at their feet.

“It’s for old Houston! Can you beat that? Why would someone…? Do you suppose…? Maybe it was a…?”

Gossip was something she’d heard all her life, and so she ignored everything and everyone around her save the men who were doing their job.

And then the deed was done.

“We’ll wait down the hill a piece,” the two men said. It was customary to give the family members some time alone and today was no different for them.

Lucky nodded, and therefore did not see the same tall man step out of the crowd and speak to the drivers, nor note that as the truck pulled away from the hillside, it kept on going instead of waiting for her below as they’d promised.

“John Jacob Houston.”

Lucky looked up. An old woman stood nearby, clutching the edges of a threadbare coat. She squinted up at Lucky, then back down at the impressive black stone.

“Cain’t rightly say I ever knowed his given name,” she said. She nodded once more at the stone. “Fine piece. Says in the Bible to honor thy father. You done real good…even if he might not have deserved it.”

Lucky tried to smile. But there was too much pain between her and the people of Cradle Creek to forgive this easily. To be accepted this quickly. She looked back down at the stone as the woman walked on.

Below her father’s name was the date of his birth and
death, and the single line that she’d requested be engraved. It blurred before her eyes, but she knew what it read all the same.

IN MY FATHER’S HONOR—Exodus 20:12.

The old man’s snort was soft. “It’s more than he deserved, but it’s a fine thing that you went and did,” he said. “’At’s one of them ten commandments, ain’t it?”

Lucky looked once again, this time recognizing one of Johnny’s cronies from Whitelaw’s Bar, and nodded.

“’At’s the one ’bout honorin ’yore father and mother, I ’spect. Good girl. Keepin’ to the Good Book an’ all.”

Lucky nodded, and when the old man thumped her once on the shoulder as he passed, she nearly went to her knees. The approval in his voice was more than she’d been prepared to hear.

One by one, the people who’d been watching filed past, paying respects to the stone when they hadn’t the man. But Lucky didn’t care about their timing. It was the fact that they’d come at all that made her weep.

And then finally they were gone. She was left with nothing but the sound of silence as she stared down in fixation at the spot beneath the stone, knowing that in death he now had what he’d most wanted in life. His luck.

And then something fluttered to the ground at her feet. She blinked, unwilling to trust her vision. But it was there all the same. An ace of spades now lay on the cold, dead grass, an odd but fitting accompaniment for a gambler and the day at hand.

She bent down to pick it up, then saw the shadow behind her. Startled, she spun around, unaware she still held
the card clutched tight in her hand. But when the shadow turned to man, she gasped.

The card fell from her fingers, fluttering with the wind back down to the ground near the stone. There were tears in his eyes, and a tremble to his lips. But no sound of judgment would pass his lips this day. She knew this man…and his heart. He’d given it once. Would he give it again?

“Nick…?”

He opened his arms. Seconds later she was fast against the rough warmth of his coat, not caring why or how he’d come. Only that he was here. He was the backup that she’d needed all along.

“Baby…are you all right?” His voice was as tender as his touch as he stroked the center of her back in a gentle, reassuring touch.

“Oh, Nick. They came. It might have been curiosity that got them here, but they stayed. They didn’t turn away from him…or from me. Not this time.”

“Not ever again,” Nick whispered, and lifted her chin, tilting her lips toward his.

Chilled, their cold lips warmed as their kiss deepened. And when Lucky groaned and then sighed, Nick lifted her off of her feet and turned her in a slow, small circle, while he pressed her face against his neck. If it took the rest of his life, he would make sure she never suffered alone like this again.

“Nick?”

He’d been waiting for the question he heard in her voice. He’d answer her, but he wasn’t turning her loose. She’d have to forgive…or else understand, even if he
had to kidnap her. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

“What, baby?” he asked, and feathered kisses down the side of her neck.

“Why the ace?”

“It was my hole card, baby. I’ve come to claim my prize.”

She gasped. And then her head came up, and her eyes blazed green with fire.

“You won?”

He nodded and tightened his hold, fearing the worst. “Now, Lucky, you’ve got to—”

“You cheated!”

He nodded. It was beyond him to deny it now.

“And you lied by letting me believe that I’d won.”

He was beginning to worry. And then she started to laugh. The sound rang out among the tombstones and far down into the miserable little town below. If anyone thought it strange that she was standing in the cemetery laughing, they simply shrugged it off. She was, after all, that gambler’s daughter. What more could they expect?

“Lucky? Honey?” He was daring to hope.

“Oh, my God,” she gasped, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ve done it. Oh, Johnny, if you could see me now. I did exactly what I swore I’d never do. I fell head over heels for a lying, cheating gambler.”

Nick grinned. “Only on occasion,” he reminded her.

“What? That you love me only on occasion, or that you lie and cheat only on occasion?”

“You have to ask?” he whispered, and nuzzled the spot
beneath her ear that he knew did things to her better left unsaid.

“No. I don’t have anything to ask you. All I’m saying is, I love you, Nick. Thank God I didn’t ruin that too.”

“Ah, baby. You didn’t ruin anything. But I have something to ask you. I’ve already talked to your father, and strangely enough, he seems to agree.”

Lucky looked startled. The brown demons in Nick’s eyes looked too good to be true. “My father? But he—”

“I came several weeks ago. We had a good long talk, he and I. I made him a promise then. And like you, I always keep my promises. I told him when I came back that I’d be with you. It’s only fair that when a man proposes to the woman he loves, that her family is in on it all.”

Lucky started to cry.

“Ah, God, baby, don’t do that again,” Nick said.

But Lucky could only shake her head and hold on to the man who’d stolen her heart.

“Lucky Houston, will you marry me?” Nick asked, and waited anxiously to hear the words that would make his world right again.

“I probably need my head examined, but yes, you crazy fool, yes!” she sobbed, and threw herself back into his arms.

Long, silent moments passed when nothing was said but the kisses they gave each other to seal the promises that they’d made. Finally, Lucky was the first to break the silence.

“I wish we weren’t so far from home,” she said.

“It’s not that far,” Nick said, thinking of the plane that
he’d chartered and had waiting for them back in Nashville.

She sighed. “I want to be held.” She slipped her arms around his waist. “I want to be loved. All night. And forever. By you. And it’s too darn far for us to get home anytime soon.”

He grinned. “Wanna bet?”

“M
rs. Chenault.”

Lucky turned and then grinned. The sound was still as sweet four months after the wedding as it had been the first time she heard it. Nick stood in the doorway to their bedroom wearing nothing but a towel and a smile.

“What do you want, Mr. Chenault?”

He pounced. “You. I want you, baby.”

Lucky opened her arms and took him with her as they fell backward onto the bed.

“I finished unpacking,” she said, as he covered her face with kisses.

“Good. But you might want to keep the suitcases out. Don’t let Shari put them in storage just yet.”

Lucky stilled. “Why? Please don’t tell me you have to go somewhere. We just spent four months on the most wonderful honeymoon a woman could want. But now I’ve seen Greece. And Italy. I’ve seen more islands and more
beaches than I knew existed. I’ve eaten stuff in Istanbul that I didn’t want identified. And I was sort of looking forward to playing house now.”

More things had been going her way than just the honeymoon. Now that Paul knew that she held no more grudges, he was finally beginning to forgive himself. Fluffy was going strong and had decided to go gray, although Lucky doubted that her hair roots would know what to do.

The pout on her lips was too sweet for Nick to ignore. He leaned over and gave her a kiss, then laughed, wrapping his arms around her and rolling until she was beneath him on the bed.

Lucky moaned softly, then sighed. Nick did things to her with his hands that gave her pleasure that was too great to deny. And as always, the fire in his eyes was too warm to ignore. Lucky shivered as he began unbuttoning her blouse and slipping it out of her slacks.

“In a few short weeks, it will be Christmas again. I want to…”

His mouth centered upon her breast as his tongue traced the nipple caught gently between his teeth.

“Ooooh. Uh, I want to decorate for…Oh, Nick.”

The last of her clothes were on the floor as he levered himself between her knees. Obligingly, she made room, and then when he lingered too long at the edge of reason, she lifted her arms and pulled him on in.

“What was it you wanted to do?” Nick asked, and gritted his teeth at the sweet feel of her body tensing around his manhood.

“I don’t remember,” she groaned, and arched upward, inviting him to respond.

It was all he needed to feel. “I do,” he whispered, and started to rock. “You wanted to play. House, I believe. You be the mommy. I’ll be the…”

This time, it was Nick who was unable to finish what he’d started to say, because he was too busy trying to finish what he’d started.

He had everything he’d ever needed or wanted. The warm, sweet feel of his lady in his arms. The welcome rush of joy that was beginning to gather down low in his soul. The rush of her breath against his cheek. Her hands clutching him, pulling him lower, closer, tighter. The soft, almost nonexistent sounds of her pleasure as she moaned into his ear.

“Nick!” She locked her legs around his waist and closed her eyes as she started to burn.

“I know, baby,” he whispered, and gathered her closer. “I’m with you. All the way.”

With a sharp cry of release, Lucky arched against him, and for a moment, hung suspended in time by the uncontained fire rushing through her body. A heartbeat later Nick followed.

And when he could think again without seeing stars, he remembered what he’d been going to say.

“Lucky, darling.”

“I sure am,” she said.

He grinned. “How much luck can you stand?”

She opened her eyes and gazed with love at the dear familiarity of his face.

“I don’t need luck. I have you.”

He kissed each corner of her mouth. “You know, we were pretty much out of circulation for a while,” he said.

She nodded. “I could not have cared less.”

“Lots of things happened…lots of things changed and we never even knew it.”

“So. It didn’t change what we have. For me, that’s all that matters.”

Nick sighed. “Thank you, baby. You matter the world to me too. But…”

Lucky smiled, and then teased the sensitive skin on his backside with the flat of her hands. “But? I thought you took all the ‘buts’ out of my vocabulary in Nassau.”

He grinned. “I did give you cause to retract a lot then, didn’t I?”

“Retract? It was more like a plea for mercy, my love. So what in the world are you hedging at saying? Just spit it out now and put me out of my misery.”

Nick rolled over, grabbed his towel, and headed for the bath.

“Where on earth are you going?” Lucky asked.

“To get my pants,” he said.

“Whatever for?” she muttered, appreciatively eyeing his bare behind as he momentarily disappeared into the dressing room. “You look just fine the way you are.”

“I heard that,” Nick said, as he returned to the room wearing a pair of shorts. “Had to get my surprise,” he said. “I left it in my pants.”

She wiggled her eyebrows in a naughty manner. “You always keep your surprises in your pants.”

He shook his head and tried to glare. “I think you hang out with too many old strippers.”

She grinned, caught the small, flat package that he tossed toward her, and then dropped back onto the bed, tearing through the wrappings.

Seconds later she sat straight up again. Her hair was falling down around her face in a disheveled mess. Her bare breasts were taunting Nick to look but not touch. But it was the complete and utter joy on her face that he knew he would always remember.

“Oh, Nick.” She kept reading the name and then clasping it back against her chest.

“Honey, you can’t hear it that way,” he teased, and took it out of her hands. “It goes in a tape deck, not between your breasts.”

She was shaking as he slipped the tape into the stereo. “No, Nick. You’re wrong. Maybe you couldn’t, but I could hear it in my heart.”

Seconds later she was out of bed and into his arms as the music began. Moments later, as the sweet sounds of country music filled the air, a voice came calling. A voice Lucky hadn’t heard in over a year.

“It’s Di! Oh, Nick! You found my sister for me.”

He grinned and tugged the rest of her hair down from the mess he’d made of it earlier. “Honey, from the sounds of that tape, the whole world has found your sister. If we hadn’t been gone so long, you would have rediscovered her for yourself a lot sooner. I just happened to beat you to it. Rumor has it that she’s going to perform in Vegas sometime next year. Right after the holidays.”

Lucky sighed. A missing piece of her heart had just slipped back in place. She laid her cheek against Nick’s bare chest as he slowly danced her in a circle around the room.

“About those suitcases,” he reminded her. “How would you like to spend Christmas in Nashville with her?”

Lucky started to cry.

“Well hell,” Nick said, as he lifted her in his arms and carried her back to bed. “Will I ever get used to the fact that you cry when you’re mad. You cry when you’re sad. And now I find you also cry when you’re happy. Damn, woman. Is there anything else I should know?”

Lucky’s arms slid around his neck as she pulled him back down to the bed.

“Sometimes I cry from pure joy.”

His mouth tilted up at the corners. “Is that a hint…or a request?”

“Take it any way you want to, mister. But just take it,” Lucky whispered, and encircled him with her hands.

“Oh, God,” Nick groaned. “I don’t know if I can do this so soon after—”

“Wanna bet?” she asked.

The last thing he remembered was the smile upon her face.

Trees were thick along the roadside. Snow was spitting disobediently against the windshield as Nick fought to stay in the ruts in the snow-packed roads.

“Damn.” He whistled through his teeth as he negotiated a particularly slick spot in the road. “Las Vegas was never like this.”

“Nick. I’m scared.”

He took his eyes from the road long enough to see panic filling those wide green eyes.

“Why, baby? You two love each other. There’s nothing to be afraid of. And you’ve already met Jesse, so it can’t be fear of meeting a new brother-in-law.”

The car fishtailed, and he had to turn his full attention back to driving just to make sure they arrived in one piece. It was because he looked away that he missed seeing the tears flood her eyes.

“I can’t wait to see Di,” Lucky said. “That’s true. But what if we never know what happened to my Queenie?” Her voice broke, and she bit her lip to keep from sobbing. “She’s my sister, and she’s also the only mother I ever knew, Nick. It seems almost sacrilegious to be this happy and not know where she is, or if she’s safe. If she’s even alive.”

“Damn, woman. Don’t you know not to borrow trouble? Didn’t your daddy teach you anything?”

This time, she managed to grin through tears. “Actually, no,” she said.

The mood lightened, and a few minutes later when they turned from the country road into a narrow driveway leading up to a two-story log home nestled against the hills in a thick stand of trees, Lucky began to bounce in the seat.

Nick grinned. She turned hot and cold faster than any woman he’d ever known. A minute ago she’d been in tears, and now she was all but clawing the seat to get out of the car.

“We’re here!” she shrieked, and planted a swift, excited
kiss on his jaw as he came to a sliding halt near a split-rail fence.

“Barely,” Nick muttered, then grinned as she bolted out of the car.

Deciding to leave their luggage until later, Nick started up the path behind her when the front door opened. A tall blonde came out of the door much in the same manner that Lucky had exited the car. On the run.

A very tall, very nervous-looking man was right behind her.

“Diamond! Honey! Don’t jump!”

Jesse Eagle’s frantic warning to his newly pregnant wife was too late. She’d cleared the porch in one leap just as Lucky flew into her arms.

Nick was dumbstruck. He’d known that Diamond Houston was pretty. He’d seen her picture. Besides, she was Lucky’s sister. But he wasn’t prepared for the pure, alabaster perfection of her features, or those same green eyes in another woman’s face.

He knew he was staring, but he couldn’t seem to stop.

“I know,” Jesse said, as he walked up and shook Nick’s hand. “I haven’t forgotten the first time I saw all of them together, either. They looked nothing alike, except for those cheekbones…and those cat eyes. But to this day, I’ve never seen three more beautiful women in my entire life.”

Nick could only nod. His gaze was still locked on the joy on Lucky’s face, and the laughter spilling out of her mouth.

“Welcome, brother,” Jesse said. “We’re going to have to stick together just to survive them.”

Nick grinned and offered his hand. “Nick Chenault,” he said. “I’m the gambler.”

Jesse rolled his eyes, then grinned. “Oh, hell, so I’ve heard. And I’m the no-count singer who nearly ruined Diamond for life. Welcome to the family. Come in out of the cold. We’ll get your bags later. The surprises aren’t over yet.”

Nick frowned as they started inside, wondering what Jesse meant. Lucky went from his arms to her sister’s and then back again, each time remembering something she wanted to share with the other. Before they got in the house, Nick felt like he’d been sucked backward through rapids.

“Nick! Isn’t this fantastic? We’re going to have the best time! And you’ll never guess! Di is going to have a baby!”

Lucky threw her arms around Nick’s neck, and accepted the hard, swift kiss he planted on her lips.

“What was that for?” she asked.

“In case I don’t get another chance before the action starts,” Nick said.

“What action?” Lucky asked.

“Beats me,” Nick said. “Jesse just said that…”

He forgot what he’d been about to say. Another woman had entered the room.

Amazon.

It was the first thought that surfaced.

Absolutely beautiful, came next. Her hair was red. Wild, luxuriant, curly, red. Everywhere a woman curved, she did and more.

But it was the eyes. Those same deep, green eyes looking at him. It was then he knew. He went still as Queen
looked deep into his soul…judging…and finally…accepting.

“Lucky…baby, turn around.”

Nick turned her in his arms while she was still talking. He didn’t need an introduction to know that the last of the sisters had just come home. And when he felt Lucky go weak against him, it was his arms that caught and steadied her until she was able to move.

And move she did. On air. With a cry of joy the likes of which he’d never heard.

“Queenie! My Queenie. You came.”

Queen Houston Bonner opened her arms. Just as she’d done all her life. Just as she’d done to Cody Bonner and his children and then their own baby. Giving herself and her love because it was all she had to give.

“Jesus.” Cody Bonner’s shock was just as evident as he stared at Lucky as Nick’s had been moments ago.

“Nick Chenault,” Nick said, and shook the big man’s hand. “Never saw anything like them myself,” he added.

Cody was dumbstruck. “I knew Queen was beautiful. To me she’s magnificent. I was just getting used to Diamond when this dark beauty comes flying into the room. Did you ever…?”

“Nope,” Jesse said, crossing his arms as he leaned against the door. “Can’t say as I did.”

“Can you beat the way…?” Nick couldn’t remember what he’d been going to say.

“And the way they…” Cody shook his head, unable to finish his remark.

The gambler’s daughters had center stage.

“Your daughter is beautiful,” Lucky said, as she leaned against the door frame, watching Queen put the baby down to sleep.

Queen smiled. Contentment radiated from her person like a light. Lucky hugged herself with joy. She was still pinching herself on a regular basis just to prove she hadn’t been dreaming.

Diamond tiptoed into the room.

“She’s asleep,” Queen said. “Come on. Let’s go outside.”

“It’s cold,” Lucky warned.

Queen grinned. “But quiet.”

Cody’s three sons were arguing loudly in another room about the merits of one video game versus another when they suddenly fell silent.