Chapter 3
As a child, Lucky had spent a few summers in Ever After with her godmothers, and she was thrilled to be able to share some of that magic with Gwen’s kids now. Even though it was the end of January, it was a perfect day in Ever After. Unseasonably warm, but beautiful.
The sun shone overhead, the trees were thick and lush . . . come to think of it, the only time she’d ever seen snow in Ever After had been the one Christmas she’d come to visit. Snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
She supposed a town named Ever After had to be a little different from the rest of the world. Or at least, that’s what her inner child hoped.
And speaking of children, the three-hour car ride hadn’t been too awful, and Brittany and Steven were entranced by the little fairy-tale-style cottages, the town square, and the abundance of wildlife that allowed the children to get ridiculously close as Lucky took them on a walking tour of the town.
If Lucky didn’t know better, she’d swear all the animals had some kind of silent agreement with the children that they could get close as long as they didn’t touch.
Brittany and Steven laughed and squealed when one gray squirrel with a giant, puffy tale threw an acorn at another squirrel when he seemed to take one from the first squirrel’s pile. They made sounds at each other that sounded like a laser gun. Pew. Pew. Pew.
The children couldn’t stop giggling.
“I can’t believe we’ve never come here with you before,” Gwen said.
“I totally should’ve brought you to visit sooner. I’m glad you’re here now, though. The kids seem to be having a great time.”
“Who wouldn’t? This place is so cool. You’re so lucky that you got to spend time here as a kid.”
Normally, she would’ve cringed at the use of the word, but Gwen was right. “Yeah, I am.”
“I can’t believe the godmothers rented a cottage for the kids and me.” Gwen shook her head. “I also can’t believe that more people don’t know about this place.”
“They will after the fake wedding.”
“When does he get in?” Gwen didn’t have to specify which he she meant. They both knew.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it.” She pointed to the edge of town at the castle that looked like it had been plucked directly from the Brothers Grimm. “Look at the castle.”
Gwen looked up at the spires rising out of the forest, and a path into the woods seemed to become more visible.
“We’re actually in a fairy tale. I don’t want to go back.”
“Not even for your stuff?” Lucky teased.
Gwen bit her lip. “You know what? Not even for my stuff.”
“I’m sure the godmothers could help you out with that, if you’re serious.”
“Really? You think? I don’t know what I’d do here. How I’d pay my bills.”
“Specialty baking. You were going to bake three hundred allergy-friendly cookies like it was nothing. I’m sure with a booming wedding industry here, they’ll need something like that.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Gwen was quiet and thoughtful as they wandered down the quaint path.
“Oh, hey. We should take the kids to the fountain. It’s on the way to the castle. Come on.” Lucky led them through the forest.
The trees arched like a cathedral overhead, and the path seemed to open up for them, almost as if the forest itself invited them to explore her leafy depths.
The sounds of the gurgling water led them onward, and warmth swelled inside her chest. She hadn’t been to the fountain since she was little. It was her safe place. Where she went to think, to plot, to be with her thoughts when she thought that the whole world was coming down around her ears.
It was especially amazing during summer evenings when the fireflies danced and flickered long into the warm night.
Except when they emerged into the carefully manicured little park, they were not alone.
Lucky knew before the figure standing by the mermaid fountain turned around that it was him. She hadn’t seen Ransom in years, but she’d recognize his broad shoulders anywhere, and the way his dark hair curled just under his ear.
“I’m gonna puke,” she murmured.
“Aunty Lucky’s gonna yark,” Steven echoed.
“Shh,” Gwen said. “She’s fine.” But she stopped short and held the children’s hands. To Lucky, she said, “You’re fine. You’re not gonna puke.”
“Yes, yes, I am.”
“You should listen to a person when they say they’re going to be sick,” a deep voice said from the other side of the fountain.
“I think I know my friend, thanks.” Gwen scowled at the man who emerged.
He looked familiar. Lucky thought she might have seen him somewhere before. He was obviously one of Ransom’s friends.
“Do you know her better than she knows herself?” The man arched a dark brow.
Lucky noticed that he was handsome. Not as handsome as Ransom, of course, but there were few creatures on heaven or earth that were.
“I do. Not that it’s any of your business,” Gwen growled.
Her best friend bristled next to her, and for a brief moment, she was terrified that Gwen’s immunity to Lucky’s bad luck was going to run out. Lucky was definitely going to be sick. Why was her stomach like this around him? He hadn’t even turned around to face her yet.
She considered running back down the path the way she’d come, but Lucky had known this moment was coming since she’d agreed to this charade.
Ransom had agreed to it as well, she reminded herself.
“Of course it’s my business. I’m Roderick, the best friend, the best man, and the personal assistant. We can’t have little Lucky here puking all over the groom, can we?”
At that moment, Lucky knew that he knew. About the Incident.
That shouldn’t have surprised her. Everyone knew. Of course he did. She’d become an urban legend, a cautionary tale they told coeds about the dangers of all the sins to be found on campus. From eating the cafeteria sushi, which she didn’t, to drinking, which she didn’t, and to having sex. Which she almost gave up on after the Incident.
“Really? You’re an asshole.” Gwen rolled her eyes at him.
“Asshole,” Brittany repeated in her little voice.
Gwen didn’t correct her, and she began to sing a song made entirely of “asshole.” She skipped around, singing and doing a little dance, stopping every so often to point at Roderick.
“You’re not going to correct her?” Roderick drawled, with doubt scrawled across his features.
Ransom still hadn’t turned around. Lucky wondered if he was still as embarrassed as she was. That gave her a small measure of comfort.
“I teach her not to lie.” Gwen smiled.
“I can’t believe Jonquil wanted to set us up. That’s the worst idea in the history of bad ideas.” Roderick snorted.
Gwen bark-snort-coughed. “That has to be a lie. Jonquil loves me. She’d never saddle me with you. Plus, I’m married.”
“Not for long, it seems.”
“Thank God for that.” Then, a stricken expression crossed her face and she looked at the kids.
Steven hadn’t noticed anything, but Brittany stopped and wandered back over to her mother.
“It’s okay, Mama. We’ll live in Ever After and you can marry someone else. But not him.” She stuck her tongue out at Roderick.
Lucky slid a glance to Ransom to see that he’d finally turned around.
The years had been overly kind. Not that she expected he’d look like a mole person or anything, but where there had been the first awkward bloom of male youth, there was a man. His jaw had been a sharp angle, but now it was a bladed edge. His shoulders had once hinted at the way he’d fill a space, an outline of the width and breadth of the muscle to come. He moved with the confidence and grace of a man used to power. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the depth in his eyes. The warmth and kindness there that made her fall in love with him so many years ago.
Roderick and Gwen, the kids, everything faded away at that moment. It was as if the two of them had been caught in a bubble outside of time and space. The sound of her heartbeat in her ears was like listening to the ocean in a shell.
Lucky didn’t want any of the old feelings that surged in her chest. She didn’t want to remember how much she loved the way he smelled. How natural it felt to move closer to him, because that had ended so well the last time.
Why did he have to smell so good?
The bastard actually smelled like chocolate.
What an asshole to come to this meeting smelling like her favorite thing in the world.
Worse? He looked down at his feet just for a second before raising his ridiculously blue eyes to meet hers once again. It was endearing. It was devastating.
Then he gave her that half smile that had always given her a case of what Lucky liked to call “Turtle Syndrome.” It made her want to throw herself on her back, and stay there, much like a turtle that couldn’t seem to right itself.
He was the first to speak. “It’s good to see you.”
“I didn’t expect to see you,” she blurted.
“At all?” He gave her a full grin. “Since we’re getting married, I’d say you have to look at me at least once.”
She pursed her lips. “You know what I mean.”
They stared at each other again for a long moment. His eyes moved over her, and his perusal made her squirm. Ransom wasn’t gross about it, he wasn’t objectifying her or treating her like a fuck doll, but the butterflies in her stomach had started cannibalizing each other. It was getting ugly in there.
Lucky wrapped her arms around her stomach.
“Are you okay?”
“Why, you scared?” She mentally slapped herself. Why was she such a dick? He’d been nothing but gracious and she was acting like a spoiled brat.
Except, he didn’t seem to take offense. He actually laughed. “Nah, I’ve dealt with worse.”
Then he winked.
He. Fucking. Winked.
It brought back all the shame and horror from that night, that final night, when everything had shattered around them.
If he hadn’t winked, it would’ve been fine. She didn’t know why the wink enraged her so much, but it did. Lucky would’ve called herself out on her own bullshit and she could have settled in for a nice pretend wedding.
But instead, he’d winked, and her carefully constructed wall that was supposed to keep her safe shattered into a million, tiny, stupid pieces.
“Nope, I’m out.” She turned to walk away.
“Oh, hey. Come on. It’s either laugh or cry. Everyone else has already laughed. Why can’t we?”
She spun on him. “We’re supposed to pretend like it didn’t happen, Ransom.”
“But it did. Have you forgotten it? I sure haven’t.”
Heat rushed her entire body.
“I . . . When I applied for my first loan to start the business, I heard them talking about me before I went into the loan interview. The Boy Who Missed. If I couldn’t figure out how to fuck, I’d never be able to navigate my own business. I didn’t get the loan.”
“You went in anyway?” Lucky studied him, something like admiration blooming in her chest. Not that it was a surprise he’d go in anyway. That was the kind of guy Ransom Payne was.
But Lucky, she didn’t know if she’d have had the fortitude.
“Of course, I did. Screw them.” He smiled at her. “And I don’t bank there. I advise everyone I know not to. I pulled out of a deal with a distributor because they still bank there.”
“Petunia is definitely your godmother.”
“Her nickname is Petty for a reason.”
She couldn’t deny that being here in this same space with him fed something inside of her that she hadn’t known was hungry.
He exhaled heavily. “It is good to see you, Lucky.”
“Yeah, it’s good to see you, too.”
“See, this won’t be so bad.”
Of course, that was the wrong thing to say. Those words were to the universe like a red flag to an angry bull. Or so Lucky was sure.
“Don’t jinx us.” Lucky looked around, trying to spot the form their destructor would take. No birds overhead to shit on her. At least there was that.
“I don’t believe in that.”
“Well, you sure did when you said I was a curse.”
“We both said a lot of things. It was a high-stress situation. I think we can forgive each other.” He took her hands in his. “Can’t we? Even if it’s just for the godmothers?”
He was right. Plus, it was for the godmothers. That’s what mattered.
“Of course. It was a long time ago. I was always more embarrassed than anything.”
“Me too,” he admitted.
Her mouth was moving before she had a chance to censor herself. “I guess we should spend some time together before all of this goes public. Get to know each other again.”
“Are you staying at the godmothers’ or the castle?”
“The godmothers’. I guess we’ll have to move to the castle when it’s time for the show.”
He nodded. “I’m at the godmothers’, too. Looks like we’ll be sharing the attic suite.”
“Okay, that’s a lot more togetherness than I’d planned on.” She bit her lip. “It’s so weird. Why didn’t I ever see you here when we were kids? How did I not know they were your godmothers, too? Not until . . . well . . . after that time I don’t want to talk about.”
“I don’t know. It’s weird, though. Right?”
She nodded. “So weird.”
Suddenly, she was aware of the world again. Their little bubble had been popped by little fingers. Brittany and Steven were pulling her away from him, begging to go to their cottage.
“I think I have to go.”
He smiled. “Dinner, then? Bluebonnet is roasting a chicken.”
“Dinner,” she repeated, numbly. “Dinner.”
Lucky allowed the children to lead her to Gwen and they walked back down the path toward the town proper, where guest cottages sat fat and happy, with rounded roofs shaped like red-spotted mushroom caps from a fairy tale.
“That’s the guy? Oh my God. His friend is a first-class asshole, but he’s . . . Girl. Girl.”
“Yeah,” Lucky mumbled.
“Hey. Guess what?” she said as they continued walking toward the cottage Lucky had indicated was theirs.
“Huh?”
“Nothing bad happened. There were so many opportunities. You had an upset stomach, the woodland animals, the birds . . . so many crows. I thought for sure you were going to get shit on. Again. The fountain could’ve malfunctioned. It was all fine.”
“I didn’t see the crows!” She looked up to the sky to make sure she wasn’t in any immediate danger before she continued. “No, it was not all fine. He still makes me stupid.”
“Why is that bad?”
“It just is.” Lucky huffed and stuffed her hands into her pockets.
“I thought we were going to the castle?” Brittany asked.
“We’ll go later. We’re going to be spending a lot of time at the castle, right, Lucky?”
“Yeah, sure.” She was still in a daze.
“Will the buttface be there?” Brittany asked.
“That’s not nice. He was an asshole, but we don’t insult people with how they look.”
“Why not?”
“People can control being jerks. They can’t control how their DNA combined to make their face.”
Brittany was thoughtful for a moment. “Okay. I suppose.”
“It’s this one,” Lucky said, and came to a stop in front of the largest mushroom structure.
It had a solid wooden door, with a giant brass key on a long chain sticking out of the lock. Yellow and purple flower buds huddled tightly in their bed, waiting to unfurl.
Brittany stuck her nose on one and sniffed so hard, it almost went up her nostril.
“I hope they bloom while we’re here!” Brittany sniffed again.
“Maybe they will,” Lucky said.
“I have a sneaking suspicion who we’re going to be neighbors with.” Gwen nodded at the cottage next to them. It also had a key in the lock. The rest of the cottages were sans keys.
“Yeah, me too. Sorry about that. The least the godmothers could do was wait until you’re divorced.”
Her godmothers were amazing, but they’re meddling was legendary. It all came from a place of love, of course. But it was exhausting trying to constantly thwart their matchmaking efforts.
She really hoped their business would take off. Not just to take care of them and help the town, but to keep them occupied with their version of fairy godmothering and matchmaking other people instead of herself.
“I should tell you something.” Gwen leaned on the door for a moment before opening it and ushering in the kids. “Guys, go pick out your beds while I finish up with Aunt Lucky.”
Lucky shook off her fugue and kissed the kids’ foreheads before they went inside. Then she gave Gwen her full attention. “What happened?”
“I told Jake we weren’t coming back.”
“You what?” Lucky was shocked, but that quickly melted into happiness. Jake and Gwen were miserable together, and she wanted nothing more than to see her friend happy and fulfilled.
“Yeah, I . . . after what happened in the tea shop, it was satisfying to see PTA Nancy get what she deserved, but why put myself through that? I don’t want to be bitter and hateful. So . . . I took the leap. I don’t know where we’re going to land, but I just had to.”
Lucky hugged her friend tight. “It’s going to be okay. You’re going to get through this, and you know the godmothers will help you. Me too. Anything I can do. You’re going to be so much happier. You’ll be free.”
“Same to you, toots.”
Lucky narrowed her eyes. “I hate it when you quote my good advice back to me.”
“I know.” Gwen laughed. “So what are you going to do about it? I think you should sleep with him. That’s when things started going horribly wrong instead of just a little wrong, right? And it doesn’t look like it would be a chore, if you know what I mean.”
After seeing Ransom again, she wasn’t so sure she would ever be free. She couldn’t stop thinking about his smile, the way he smelled, his hands . . . oh, his hands.
She’d be lying if she said she didn’t want to feel his hands on her body again.
While remembering what had happened the last time was an anti-aphrodisiac, she reassured herself he had to have made progress since then.
Gwen’s idea was unwelcome.
Unwanted.
Most likely the stupidest thing she’d ever considered.
But her whole life had gone even more wrong that night when . . . Lucky took a deep breath and realized she had to face it. She had to let the memory bloom fat and ugly in her mind. She couldn’t look away. Not anymore.
Ransom had pressed forward eagerly, fumbling in the dark, and had made entry into the exit-only portion of the ride. It had been just the tip, because when she shrieked, he immediately withdrew.
She’d started that awful nickname by screaming he was a loser Harry Potter who didn’t know what to do with his wand. He was The Boy Who Missed. For better or worse, it had stuck.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I do need to go to bed with Ransom.”
“That’s the spirit!”
He was willing to marry her. So it shouldn’t be too hard to get him into bed, right?
Lucky had a sneaking suspicion that things were going to get a lot worse before they got better.
Especially since she just realized she hadn’t called her mother to inform her of her upcoming fake nuptials.