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Lisa knew Ryan didn’t want her here. She also knew she was bored, even in one of the fastest-paced cities in America. But she hadn’t come here to vacation, to see shows, to gamble, or to eat at one of the legendary Las Vegas buffets.
Maybe if she just slipped here in the back of this tournament room, Ryan wouldn’t know and she could alleviate some of her boredom.
Lisa took one of the few remaining seats in the Venezia Ballroom. It wasn’t quite the back row like she’d hoped, but it was near the edge of the room and seemed like it would suit her purpose—whatever that actually was. She didn’t know anything for certain right now.
A young blonde, her hair falling over her shoulders in glossy, perfectly sprayed waves, lowered herself into the aisle seat next to Lisa.
“I’m actually going to need that seat in a few minutes,” she said. “I’m with NCN, the National Card Network. I’ve got a live interview with Lucky Charm at the break.”
“Oh, you mean Ryan McBride?” It seemed so strange to Lisa how many people referred to a grown man by such a silly nickname.
“Yes. He told me he has an announcement to make.”
Surely he wasn’t going to talk about his grandfather’s upcoming wedding. That seemed a silly thing to announce on a TV network. Actually, the idea of a TV network covering card games seemed pretty silly, too.
Except...there had been a time when she’d have considered it a huge step in her career to have been given a job like this girl had. There had been a time, not so terribly long ago, when Lisa would have taken any job in film, on TV, or on stage if it had meant keeping her dream of being an actress alive.
“Did he say what it was?” Lisa whispered back. She really had no business asking, but the curiosity was definitely getting the better of her. She’d never met a man like Ryan McBride. He threw around an AmEx Black like it was a children’s toy. He was treated with almost royal deference by everyone in this microcosmic little alternate reality known as the Renaissance Grand. But for all that he acted like a cool enigma, he was devoted to his Pops, she would certainly give him that.
The blonde uncrossed, then recrossed her legs under her short charcoal-sequined skirt and scooted forward to perch on the edge of her chair. “No,” she said with a short clip off the edge of the single syllable. “But he never says much.”
“Tell me about it.” Lisa also moved to the edge of her seat and leaned slightly left, in order to get a better look at Ryan.
To his right sat Kramer Forde, a Hollywood veteran whose gray hair had moved him from the action hero roles he got thirty years ago to more distinguished casting, but hadn’t diminished his leading man popularity. To his left was social media entrepreneur Caleb Walsh, who’d just taken his mobile messaging interface company public and made a fortune that neared a billion dollars in just a matter of hours after the stock market’s opening bell. Across from Ryan was a man Lisa didn’t recognize. He wore a red hoodie and a white baseball cap, each with a logo embroidered on them.
“Who’s that?” Lisa leaned back just enough to catch the blonde reporter’s attention.
“Breck Goulding. Do you not watch much poker?” She kept her eyes glued straight ahead.
“Um, no. This is a first for me.”
Kramer Forde pushed an impressively tall pile of chips to the middle of the green felt-covered table, then slumped in his chair and ran his hands over his face in frustration as Ryan flipped his cards over with a practiced flick.
“Well, that’s that.” The reporter looked at Lisa, then stood up. “So how did you wind up coming to watch by yourself?”
“Lisa?” Ryan pushed through the door in the barrier separating the game from the spectators.
So much for remaining off his radar. She felt a small trickle of sweat trickle down the crease between her shoulder blades and tried to tell herself it was from the hot stage lights overhead, not nerves.
Lisa looked at the reporter, who now looked between her and a dark-eyed Ryan with a double-take that could easily be read by even a poker novice. The little blonde was not keeping her confusion a secret.
“I...well...I know him.” Lisa nodded in Ryan’s direction, though she didn’t need to. The fact that he was quickly closing the distance between them said more than her spur-of-the-moment awkward attempt at an explanation.
All of a sudden, the reporter’s eyes narrowed to slits. Lisa read that expression clearly as well. Maybe Lisa had more skill at calling people’s bluff than she’d previously thought, because the reporter’s look was pure jealousy. No doubt about it.
“Hey, Lucky Charm, you ready?” The reporter reached out for Ryan’s arm and ran her fingers slowly from his shoulder to elbow.
Lisa felt a little jealousy of her own creep up, but she couldn’t place why. She was only here because she needed to kill some time while her grandmother dreamed up wedding details with Bill. She was only here watching a celebrity poker tournament because an hour ago, it seemed preferable to pretending to be involved in the wedding plans. That felt like lying; like she was giving her support to what was going on.
But all of a sudden, this felt just as awkward. Because even though Lisa tried to push the thought out of her mind as soon as it popped in there, she found herself wondering what it would be like to be as casual with Ryan McBride as the blonde with the perfectly styled beachy waves seemed to be.
Ryan tugged his arm back, but the reporter’s hot pink nails threaded between his fingers and tugged. She didn’t quite have him where she wanted him, but she was certainly trying.
“Yeah.” He disengaged and ran a hand through his hair. “Where do you want me?”
She smiled, the expression as polished and hard as a diamond. “You name it, Lucky Charm. I’ll set up wherever you want.”
Lisa couldn’t contain a most unladylike snort.
The look she got in return could have frozen the entire Nevada desert.
“I’m going to need you to stand somewhere else, Miss.” Disdain coated the blonde’s words like burned icing atop a sugar cookie.
Ryan freed his hand from the young woman’s grasp and reached out, grabbing Lisa by the wrist. “No you don’t, Emma. She’s with me.”
As instinctively as the little snorty laugh had come earlier, now her best Broadway smile flew up to Lisa’s lips.
So...Ryan needed a buffer from Little Miss National Card Network. Well, Lisa didn’t know anything about poker, and she didn’t know anything about Vegas but the stereotypes.
But if there was one thing Lisa Fleming did know, it was acting. She knew history, theory, and method.
And she knew she could help Ryan McBride out right now.
She owed him. He hadn’t cared when she’d said she couldn’t afford a dress in that boutique. He’d just bought her this red carpet-worthy dress without so much as a second thought so she could be appropriately dressed for her grandmother’s rehearsal dinner. He’d even thrown down that credit card again and paid for the meal, at what Lisa knew had to be a significant cost.
Even though she wanted Nana to come home at the end of this trip without making any life-altering changes, she did recognize that Nana seemed happier than she’d been in so, so long. Her eyes had glowed with pride when she saw Lisa walk in wearing this fancy dress and her eyes had glowed when Bill McBride had toasted her as his first and last love.
And Lisa knew Ryan McBride’s generosity—however cloaked behind a face Lisa could not read—had made both of those moments possible.
“Sorry it took me so long to get here,” Lisa said, putting an extra dose of sugar in her voice in order to better sell the moment to Emma the reporter. “I had to get Nana settled with the spa menu so she could pick out all the wedding-day pampering.”
Emma’s jaw dropped. She touched her ear and paused, then nodded and signaled the cameraman with a raised, pink shellac-topped finger. “Thanks, Ricky. I’m here with the leader in tonight’s celebrity round of the Shamrocks for Students tournament, the one and only Lucky Charm, Ryan McBride. Thanks for joining me, Lucky Charm. You said you had an important announcement to make tonight to National Card Network viewers. I figured it was going to be something to do with your career—I thought you’d be telling us you’d decided to go for a record-setting fifth consecutive world championship ring this season.”
She put her hand on Lisa’s shoulder and roughly pushed her into the shot. Lisa tried to keep the smile on her face, not quite knowing what the scorned little reporter was trying to do.
“But I had no idea you were going to announce to NCN viewers that poker’s most eligible bachelor is off the market.”
Ryan looked at Lisa and then at Emma. He opened his mouth to speak, but Emma let out a girlish squeal.
“The Lucky Charm is getting married! Congratulations!”
It took all the skill Lisa had as an actress to keep her jaw where it was supposed to be. Just keep playing the part, she reminded herself.
Only, she had no idea what part she was now playing. Surely Ryan would correct the misunderstanding.
He slipped an arm around Lisa’s waist and pulled her tight against him. Lisa could feel the hard striations of muscles of chest and abs through the starched cotton of his button-down shirt.
“This is my fiancée, Lisa Fleming.” Ryan gave Lisa’s waist a squeeze and the camera a quick flash of a grin, framed by a short dusting of yesterday’s five o’clock shadow.
“You heard it here first, card fans. So, Lucky Charm, how did you two meet?” Emma’s smile dripped insincerity like an artificial sweetener.
The fans at home probably couldn’t see the clench at the back of Emma’s jawline, but Lisa could—all too clearly. She felt like putting a hand over her eyes to keep the young blonde from clawing them out.
Ryan’s expression never wavered. “Well, it probably sounds old-fashioned, but we were introduced by our families. I knew the minute I met her, my life was going to change.”
Emma’s eyebrows raised skeptically. “Oh, really? What about you, Lisa? Did you know he was the one?”
Lisa thought quickly back to their first words in the airport, when she’d told him to get his luggage and move on. Life-changing, indeed. “To be honest, Emma, the whole thing has taken me by surprise.”
Shock might be a better word.
At least when she passed out from the shock, Ryan’s solid chest would be there to break her fall.
“Well, thanks for sharing your big news with us, Lucky Charm. Honestly, I didn’t know what your big surprise was going to be.” She tucked some blonde waves behind her ear in a self-protective manner. “You’re leading tonight’s chip count comfortably, so all in all a good night, right?”
Ryan kept his hand circled around Lisa’s waist. She forced herself to remember she was just playing an unintentional role. It kept her from thinking about how long it had been since a good-looking man had pulled her close, wordlessly announcing to the world that she was his.
“Yes, Lisa’s definitely my lucky charm.” He looked up at the larger-than-life LCD screen above them, broadcasting this interview live to the spectators in the room. “There’s one more thing, too, Emma.”
Her brittle smile stayed virtually immobile. “Oh? What’s that?”
“Shamrocks for Students will be my last tournament. I’m retiring from the Global Poker Challenge tour.”
Lisa scanned the faces in the room as they processed Ryan’s bombshell announcement. A man in a flame patterned shirt in the middle of the room shot visual daggers straight at her. Several others looked at her with expressions ranging from disdain to outright hostility. Lisa imagined this must have been how Yoko Ono felt when confronted by the Beatles faithful.
She wanted to tell them it wasn’t her fault, that she had only known Ryan McBride for half a day. She wasn’t his lucky charm, and she wasn’t his fiancée.
But she couldn’t break character.
And apparently, neither could Ryan, because before Emma even had a chance to provide commentary, he lifted his hand from Lisa’s waist and pressed it against her hair, leaning her head toward him.
In front of one very hostile gallery of poker fans, he pressed his lips to Lisa’s cheek.
A hoot came from the back corner of the audience. Then one decidedly strong wolf whistle.
Ryan adjusted the position of his hands and turned Lisa toward him. They were so close she could hear the shortness of his breath and smell the faint sandalwood and spice of his cologne. He threw a quick grin at the gathered crowd, then leaned in and locked his lips on Lisa’s.
Lisa had been kissed hundreds of times when a role required it. Having chemistry with a co-star was an essential part of acting.
But she couldn’t tell what Ryan McBride was playing at. He held her tightly and his lips pressed with some unspoken demand. Lisa heard the blood rushing in her ears as her own mouth met Ryan’s lips and matched their strong, questing slide against hers. The rasp of the short hairs on his chin slid roughly against her skin, forcing her awareness of what was happening.
She’d kissed a lot of men that she barely knew in the name of theatre. But that was always about staying on script.
Ryan pulled away and a few more claps and whistles filled the room.
Emma the reporter stood, unmoving, and perhaps the only one more stunned than Lisa. “Well, there you have it, poker fans. The legendary Lucky Charm is cashing in his chips after this weekend’s tournament. The tour won’t be the same without you, Ryan McBride.”
Lisa could hear the unspoken “And neither will I.” Clearly, Emma had more than a small crush on Ryan and she didn’t appreciate that it wasn’t going to be reciprocated.
For her part, Lisa wanted to just keep smiling and keep going on with the show, like she’d done for so many meaningless kisses in meaningless roles. But Ryan still stood closer than a whisper to her. His arm slid back tightly around her waist. There was no way she could just move on to the next scene. Not until she figured out what was going on.
An assistant tapped Ryan on the shoulder. “Hey, the break’s over. Time to get back.”
“Okay.” Ryan dropped his hand from Lisa’s waist. The interview was over. So was the moment. Lisa shuffled to the side to let Ryan pass back through the door to the main gaming area.
A low buzz filled the room, the sound of the assembled crowd discussing Ryan’s two bombshells. Distracted by the chatter and the celebrities coming back to the table under the lights, no one seemed to notice that Ryan McBride didn’t say another word or give a glance back to the so-called lucky charm of his own life.
But Lisa did.
And as soon as all the eyes were focused back on the dealer and the rapid-fire flick of the cards, Lisa quietly slipped out of the room, unable to think about anything other than that kiss—and unable to understand why it felt like more than a role she was playing.
“Mr. McBride?” Carlos, a hotel staffer with a slight Caribbean accent called out across the breezeway.
Ryan stopped and turned around.
“Your fiancée is out by the pool.”
“My what?”
“Your fiancée,” Carlos repeated. “The one you introduced tonight in that interview with Emma Brown. The tour’s going to miss you, Lucky Charm. I don’t think anyone saw that coming.”
They’d probably all be shocked to know Ryan hadn’t seen it coming either. Sure, he knew he was retiring from the tour, but he had no idea why he’d introduced Lisa as his fiancée.
Or why he’d kissed her.
Or why he’d kissed her again. On the lips.
Or why—if he was honest with himself—he’d liked it.
In fact, if he knew the answers to those questions, he could probably use them as an explanation for his biggest loss in two years. He hadn’t lasted long after he got back to the table. It served as more confirmation that he’d made the right decision to retire. He’d lost his edge. Kissing women he didn’t know and folding early at a card table were two things he never did.
“Rod set her up in a cabana. Number thirty-six, I believe, sir.” Carlos gestured toward the far end of the pool. “He said he knew you’d want us to take good care of her, since it looked like she was upset. We tried to help.”
“Thanks, Carlos. I appreciate it.” Ryan turned away from the path leading to his condo. He didn’t know what Lisa Fleming had to be upset about. She’d scored an expensive dress, a Michelin-starred, multi-course dinner, and a kiss from the man named last year’s Most Eligible Bachelor in Las Vegas.
Maybe the wedding between Pops and her nana had been called off and she was mourning the loss of the McBride gravy train. Typical gold digger behavior.
Ryan was about halfway to the striped cabana near the corner of the pool when he stopped himself. What was he doing? He’d already bought her dinner and that dress, and he’d only known her a handful of hours.
Of course, in Vegas time, that was like an eternity.
He stood there, unable to turn back toward his penthouse, but unwilling to get any closer to cabana thirty-six. Ryan shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the still-heavy crowd milling about the poolside nightlife.
“Excuse me,” a voice said, sounding just above a whisper.
Ryan stepped closer to the edge of the sidewalk and looked at the woman trying to walk by. She looked down at her shoes, causing her face to be veiled by the night shadows, but there was no mistaking that short feathered skirt.
“Lisa?”
She rolled her eyes up slightly. “Oh,” she paused. The syllable came out as flat as a poker chip. “It’s you.”
There weren’t a lot of people in Las Vegas who spoke to Ryan McBride that bluntly. “What do you mean by that?”
“You tell me what you mean by kissing me in front of a live studio audience, and then you’ll get your answer.” She stood up straight and pressed her shoulders back. The realignment of her posture made all her lace-covered curves fall into their proper place.
Although it was a balmy mid-March night, Ryan felt certain she was only a few degrees away from making steam come out her ears. The flush on Lisa’s cheeks reminded him of a hot Nevada summer.
If he was perfectly honest with himself, when paired with that lacy little number she had on, everything about her was flaming hot. His own pulse flared a few notches as he stared her down.
“You tell me what you meant by not kissing back.”
“What?”
Ryan almost couldn’t believe he’d said that to her. But it had been a long time since he’d sat through such an ugly defeat at a poker table, and it seemed he was itching for some kind of confrontation to get the sting out of his system.
“You heard me. I thought you said you were a theatre teacher. Don’t you know about acting?”
“Who are you, Lee Strasberg?” Her tawny eyes locked on him as they took on a flaming ember that turned them to the color of a good sherry. “And a similar question could be asked of you. Don’t you know anything about gambling?”
He held up his right hand and let the moonlight wink off the diamonds crusting the edges of his latest Global Poker Challenge championship ring. “I know plenty about gambling, Doll.”
“Well then, let me put it in terms you’ll understand. You rolled the dice. And you lost. I don’t want to kiss you, you cocky jerk. I want to get my Nana on a plane and get her out of this city before she makes the biggest mistake of her life.” The fire sizzled in her eyes again. “And I’m not your doll, your lucky charm, or your fiancée.”
He’d been enjoying getting the excess adrenaline from tonight’s game out of his system so much that he almost retorted back without truly listening to what Lisa had said. He caught himself hard, like the jerk at the end of a bungee jump when the cord engages to stop the free fall.
“What did you say?”
Lisa spoke slowly, drawing out each syllable for emphasis. “I’m. Not. Your. Fiancée. Pretend or otherwise.”
“I know that. The first part—what did you say first?”
“I want to go home.” She broke into a song. He heard her mutter something about being home with armadillos in Amarillo...or something like that. He’d never heard the tune before.
Her voice was clear and self-assured. And although he had no idea why she was singing about an armadillo, he’d heard enough singers here in Las Vegas—megastars and lounge acts alike—to know that Lisa Fleming’s voice was special, classically-trained and true.
“You live with armadillos?”
“No. It’s a song called London Homesick Blues. It’s about a guy who misses Texas. I know how he feels. I don’t want to be here.”
Ryan felt all the tension and frustration in his body let down. First, his shoulders relaxed, then a wave took over his body, down to his toes. The only thing that didn’t let down was a keen awareness of Lisa Fleming’s fiery eyes and black lace-wrapped body.
“So why are you here?”
She took a deep breath. “Because I’m trying to save Nana from herself. I’m a teacher—you know that. Anyway, today was the last day before Spring Break. I live with Nana, taking care of her, and when I walked through the door of the house today, Nana informed me that we were going on a Spring Break trip to Vegas. As I pressed her on why, she tells me this story of meeting her long-lost love again on Facebook. All I wanted to do this week was work in my garden. But I think something’s wrong with Nana. This is so out of character for her. And if I don’t stop her...”
Lisa’s voice trailed off. She looked up at the stars shining in the clear Nevada night. A faint sparkle glinted in the corner of her eye. She blinked several times in rapid succession and the tear flicked away.
“So you didn’t know about this?” Ryan couldn’t believe that she might have been caught by surprise, just like he’d been when driving to the airport with Pops.
She shook her head. “Not a bit. I didn’t even know she knew the password for the laptop. She can barely figure out the remote to work the TV. You said earlier you’d just found out today too, right?”
“Yeah. I had no idea. I bought Pops a new computer last year. He told me he was playing solitaire on it. Clearly, he’s moved on to something a little less solitary.”
They stood in silence for a moment. Ryan tried to process what Lisa had said. “I assumed you had to know. I figured you and your grandmother were both in it together.”
Lisa pivoted on the toe of one high-heeled shoe. “You thought I was some kind of Vegas gold digger?”
He felt pretty confident that he could dispel the indignation in her voice by saying no. He could cloak it in the bland, plastic face he used when he was closing in on a pile of chips. The best poker sharks in the world rarely figured out what he was hiding. He felt pretty confident about being able to conceal his real thoughts from the theatre teacher.
But he didn’t want to lie to her.
He didn’t exactly know why, except that there’d been enough suspicion and mixed signals between them for one day. Now that he realized they were on the same side, he began to wonder if maybe they could work as a team to achieve their goals.
Then she could go home to the armadillos, and he could go home to whatever he was going to do after he’d cashed in his last chip.
“Yeah, I pretty much did. Why else would Pops be planning something like this without telling me? And why would his bride-to-be bring along a granddaughter, except to try and pick up the single grandson. The truth is, I’ve made a lot of money out here in Las Vegas. You wouldn’t be the first woman who’s tried to trap me.”
“Well, trust me, I’m not.” She looked around nervously. “I don’t even like thinking about it, but I’m worried about Nana. This isn’t like her. It’s like she has...”
“Alzheimer’s or something?” Ryan completed her sentence as though it were his own.
“Yes. Exactly. How did you know?” The breathless relief in her voice drove Ryan’s pulse up a few notches. He couldn’t believe how fast his mind started down a different track now that the money-grubbing path had officially been shut down. It was like all bets were off and he couldn’t stop himself from mentally exploring how he’d noticed her dress and the feel of the curve of her hip when he’d cupped his hand around it earlier.
And she may not have given anything to the kiss, but that didn’t stop Ryan from thinking about a do-over.
He cleared his throat. He wished he could clear his mind as easily.
“I’d been thinking the same thing about Pops.”
That wasn’t all he’d been thinking about. But he wasn’t about to tell her that, even if it took every last bit of professional skill to keep it to himself. He’d be honest with her about the gold digger thoughts.
But not these.
“Well, so what do we do?” Lisa shivered as a breeze blew across the sidewalk. Her slim arms flared with goose flesh.
“I’m not sure what we do about our two lovebirds right now.” Ryan took off his jacket and with a smooth motion, laid it over Lisa’s shoulders. “But I do know we’re going to get you inside and get you warm.”
“That’s okay. I should probably be getting back to Nana.”
Ryan smiled. “I wouldn’t if I were you. Pops texted me just a few minutes ago and told me they were listening to music clips to decide what they wanted to play at the ceremony.”
“It’s close to midnight. Nana’s never awake this late.”
“No one sleeps in Vegas, Lisa. Come on, let’s get you inside.”
No fewer than ten people stopped Ryan as they walked back into the hotel. Lisa couldn’t believe how everyone seemed to know him. Everyone wanted to talk to “Lucky Charm.” And most of them congratulated her, too.
Ryan handled them all deftly. He thanked them for their well-wishes and made practiced small talk as they walked the broad, gilded hallways of the Renaissance Grand.
During her time in New York, a few people recognized her from plays and would stop her on the streets to say something, but Lisa figured the total number of random admirers from her all of her acting days combined came in far fewer than the number of people who stopped Ryan McBride in the last ten minutes.
He was a rock star in this town.
And by being with him, she suddenly became one too. If she’d ever been lucky enough to walk a bonafide red carpet in her brief career as an actress, Lisa imagined it might have felt something like this—hot date and everything.
Lisa did a mental double-take. She needed to focus on the end goal—getting back home with Nana as soon as possible, and keeping her great-grandmother unmarried. Now that she knew she and Ryan felt similarly about their grandparents’ plans, Lisa thought it would be easier to achieve her goals. She had someone on her side.
But that was it.
Ryan McBride was just a man in a similar situation. He was also taciturn, impulsive—as evidenced by his little stunt with the TV reporter—and used to getting his own way. It didn’t matter if she found him attractive or not because the rest of those qualities added up to trouble in her book.
She tried to stay away from people who kept secrets or didn’t think through their actions. She’d seen enough of both during her time in New York. And as a teacher, she always tried to teach her students to act responsibly, and she tried to model that behavior for them.
Which was why she was in Las Vegas—trying to keep Nana from making a decision she clearly hadn’t thought through. Or maybe it was, as Lisa suspected, more that Nana couldn’t clearly think through the implications of such a complex decision any longer.
And to do what she’d set out to do, Lisa herself would have to keep thinking clearly.
Which meant no more daydreams about Mr. Ryan “Lucky Charm” McBride. Or his dark blue eyes. Or that slightly-more-than-five-o’-clock shadow that gave his face a magnetic edge.
“Lisa?”
He’d caught her staring. So much for that resolution to not notice or care.
“Hmm?” Maybe if she played it cool, he wouldn’t pick up on her train of thought.
Oh, who was she kidding? The man played poker for a living. He was trained to pick up on the signals of others and not give away anything in return.
“I thought we could just duck in here and get away from everyone.” He nodded at a black lacquered set of double doors. A large man in a black T-shirt tucked into black pants stood in front of the door handles.
Maybe he hadn’t noticed anything. “Sure. Lead the way.”
“Lucky Charm. Everyone’s talking about your big announcement.” The man at the door held one open for Lisa and Ryan. “You’re not moving away too, are you?”
Ryan put a hand lightly on the small of Lisa’s back, guiding her through the entry. She could feel the press of his fingertips and remembered back a few hours to when he’d pulled her close and kissed her twice.
“I don’t think so, Mathias. But I honestly don’t know. I haven’t made any plans yet. Just needed a change.”
Ryan talked quietly to a buxom bright redhead just inside the door. “Right this way, Lucky Charm.”
She led them around the perimeter of the club and to an area partitioned off on the left side. She pointed at a high-walled booth of quilted leather that had a great view of the two baby grand pianos on a polished stage.
“I’ll be right back with your usual, Lucky Charm. What about for your fiancée?”
Word traveled fast. They’d even heard in the clubs. “Um, I don’t know. Maybe a Cosmopolitan?”
The waitress adjusted her stick-straight waterfall of hair over her shoulder. “Sure thing. Be right back with your order.”
Lisa slid into the well-appointed booth and scooted halfway around. Ryan followed and sat about a foot away, close enough that no one would question the distance between him and his “fiancée,” but still far enough to give them both their personal space.
The low sounds of conversation in the nightclub buzzed all around them. Lisa didn’t know exactly where they were, but she was always comfortable at the sight of a piano on a stage.
They sat for a second, content to let the sounds of others’ conversation fill in the spaces around them. Finally, they both spoke at once.
“Go ahead,” Ryan said. A smile tugged at the edge of his lips and Lisa could see the gleam of bright white teeth in the glow of the low, red candle on the table in front of them.
Lisa laid her hands on the table in front of her and clasped them together. “You said you didn’t know what you were doing next. Is that true?”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, it is. Sounds a little crazy, doesn’t it? Quitting a job without having another.”
“I’d say yes, but I did something similar when I left New York, so I’m probably one of the few people who won’t question your plan.”
“Or lack thereof.” His smile blossomed into a full grin. “Last year, after I won the ring, it just didn’t do anything for me. I mean, it was this huge professional accomplishment, but I didn’t care. And I started to wonder why. Eventually, as I thought about it, I realized the challenge was gone.”
He looked away from Lisa and watched the flame over the candle shimmer.
“Why did you leave New York, Lisa?”
She let out a long sigh. “It’s hard to explain. I wasn’t like you—I’d gotten some decent roles in some smaller productions and a couple of parts on Broadway, even—including two pretty big understudy roles—you’d know the shows. But I hadn’t ‘made it.’ I wasn’t anywhere close. And somewhere along the way, the constant pursuit of success—whatever that was—got tiring. One day, I realized that getting a leading role on a big stage wasn’t going to make me somebody. I wasn’t going to be somebody unless I was invested in someone’s life. And New York is a lonely place for making real connections like that.”
The VIP hostess placed a short, slightly curved glass in front of Ryan. The two perfectly square ice cubes clinked as she sat the glass on the table. “Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban. Your favorite.” She sat a full bottle in front of the glass and opened it.
She turned to Lisa and took the Cosmopolitan off the tray and placed it delicately on the table. One solitary strip of corkscrew-shaped orange rind floated atop the pink liquid in the distinct, funnel-shaped glass. “And this is for you. Is there anything else I can bring you right now?”
“I don’t think so, Anya.” Ryan reached for the bottle, then poured a scant amount over the ice.
“I tended bar for a bit in New York to make ends meet, but I’m not sure I’ve heard of that particular scotch.”
“The Quinta Ruban is a limited edition. They keep it here for me. It’s aged traditionally, then transferred to Portuguese Madeira pipes. It has a very unique flavor—hints of chocolate and mint, along with some orange, in the finish.”
“Oh, so it’s like dessert?”
Ryan’s eyebrow rose slightly, making him look equal parts rugged and dangerous. “You could say that. If you like your desserts potent.”
Lisa’s mouth went as dry as if she, herself, had indulged in a glass of whisky, neat. She grabbed the stem of the martini glass and took a long sip of the Cosmo as she counted to herself.
One hippopotamus.
Two hippopotamus.
Three hippopotamus.
Slowly, the potami helped her remember to breathe and her equilibrium righted itself. She put the glass back on the napkin.
“So, back to the earlier conversation. You decided to leave New York because you were lonely?”
She looked away for a second, seeing in her mind’s eye the subway ride and the moment it all clicked for her.
“No, not lonely. Just unfulfilled. A friend had gone back to school to get her teaching certificate and was loving working with kids. I thought back on the biggest influences in my life, and aside from Nana, they’d been my teachers. They’d taught me to dream and they’d helped prepare me for the world. I knew I wanted to be that kind of influence on someone.” She paused and took another sip of her drink. “So, I bought a one-way ticket home.”
“And have you ever regretted it?” Ryan’s blue eyes focused on Lisa with laser-like precision.
She could feel the weight of his stare. It was as though he was challenging her to drop all the games they’d played since the moment they’d met and to be completely honest with him. She felt like this was an answer he’d been searching his own heart and mind for.
“Not for one second,” Lisa answered honestly. “Well, not until I realized today I couldn’t buy a dress in that boutique. Teaching does have some drawbacks.”
She tried to smile and make the words seem like more of a joke. She didn’t want to be too serious.
“I don’t need money. I just need to find something that has a purpose. You’ve found that. I’d like to do the same.”
He sounded sincere. However, Lisa had already learned one thing—Ryan McBride was a professional gambler. He could conceal his real thoughts and move situations to his advantage. He’d kiss a near-stranger on TV and pass her off as his fiancée if it gave him an edge.
But something in the tone of his voice made Lisa turn and look at him more closely, to see if this was just another game to him, or something more.
“Why don’t you?”
“Teach?” She could hear the laugh behind his words over the buzz of the crowd.
Clearly, she’d judged him correctly the first time. She kicked herself for not keeping her mouth shut.
She almost didn’t know how to respond. She decided to do what she thought Ryan would do in this situation—deflect and move on. “Never mind.”
He picked up the cut crystal and swirled the brown liquid around the melting ice cubes. “It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t know what I’d teach or where I’d go. It’s not like Mensa is recruiting me.”
“I teach theatre, remember, not nuclear physics. Kids have all types of interests, and they need all types of teachers.”
Ryan took a neat sip from the glass. “True. But I doubt there are many parents wanting their kids to learn from a card shark.”
“Do you have a college degree?”
“Of course I do. Do you think Pops would have it any other way?” His blue eyes sparkled in a way similar to his grandfather’s. “It’s in accounting, actually. Math is easy for me. I think it’s what’s made me a good card player. People think it’s all about luck, but really, that’s just short-term variance. It comes down to statistics. There are pot odds and implied odds, and you need to know your expected value. If I’m staring someone down during a game, I’m really not looking at them. I’m running all the numbers and scenarios in my head. The best competitive advantage I have isn’t that I can read people or keep them from reading me. It’s that I’m good at math and I can do fairly detailed calculations in my head during the downtime.”
Lisa finished off her Cosmopolitan with a dainty sip. “So, could you teach kids about statistics?”
He shrugged. “I suppose I could.”
“I have a co-worker who is one of the curriculum leads for our district’s new STEM Academy. It’s a school dedicated to teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. There are ways for you to get a teaching certificate without having an education degree. That’s how I did it. You might even qualify for an emergency certificate, depending on how pressed they are for the right skill set. Good math teachers are really hard to find.”
“You’re serious?” His eyebrow cocked gently again, as though he couldn’t quite believe what Lisa was saying.
She nodded. “Of course I am.”
Two men walked out on the stage at the front of the room. As they took their places beside their respective pianos, the crowd broke out in wild applause.
Lisa couldn’t quite hear what Ryan said in reply, and as the performers began to speak and explain how the dueling piano show worked, there wasn’t really a way for her to ask him to repeat himself.
So, she settled back in the tufted booth and tried to focus on the show and not Ryan McBride. It only took a few minutes to realize she wasn’t making good on that goal.
She’d thought they’d had nothing in common—the underpaid teacher and the man who tossed the exclusive credit card around without hesitation. But she knew the struggle he was going through, felt it in her veins. She’d lived coming face-to-face with the realization that your life-long dream wasn’t enough to make it in real life. She’d walked away from the lights and the stage in search of fulfillment and life’s work that would make a difference—without losing the passion she’d loved since childhood.
Ryan was trying to navigate his way through that reality now, staring the unknown in the face and trying to make sense of it. Beyond that, they were both obviously devoted to their respective grandparents and wanted to protect them and care for them.
She tried to turn her head as unobtrusively as possible and look at Ryan’s profile. Rich brown hair that was almost raven-black in most light, perfectly styled with just a little bit of bad-boy tousle. Straight nose, strong jawline covered in short stubble that would have been perfect on a motorcycle-riding hero on the big screen.
She let her gaze trace back up. And those eyes. A shred of light from the candle in front of them reflected the deep blue back at her.
She didn’t know the full history of that Lucky Charm nickname, but to say that he was charming to look at was probably a solid understatement.
The player on the left piano finished the rendition of “Crocodile Rock” with a resounding crash and a zip of fingers down the full length of the keyboard and back.
“It’s always fun to play for a crowd like this, but part of the way we keep the show fun is to bring up people from the audience to join us,” the player, who’d earlier introduced himself as Einstein, said to the full house.
His co-performer, a woman who’d introduced herself as Marie, nodded. “Sometimes we take volunteers. Sometimes we pick on people. Tonight, we’re picking on people.”
Einstein pounded out the theme from Jaws. The overhead spotlights began to swirl around the crowd.
“And tonight...we’re picking on a man who’s creating a little bit of a buzz around town. Ryan McBride, the most decorated winner in Global Poker Challenge history, announced tonight that he’s retiring from the tour.” Marie’s smile was more of a leer. She pointed at Ryan with both fingers in a pow-pow motion. “Come on, Lucky Charm, it’s time to do your swan song.”
Ryan sat up a little straighter and Lisa noticed the tension coming back in his shoulders. He waved his hands in a crossing fashion. “No, no, that’s okay. I’m just here to enjoy the show.”
Even sitting next to him, Lisa had a hard time hearing his denial, so she was certain Marie hadn’t heard it up on the elevated stage area. But clearly, she’d picked up the gist of the message.
She slid off her bench and walked with determination in sky-high black patent heels down the center stairs. The bright lights overhead swept down the path between the tables and landed squarely on the curved booth where Lisa and Ryan had both been comfortably incognito only moments before.
“Every single time,” Ryan muttered, and this time, Lisa heard the words clearly as he spat them out under his breath.
Marie stretched out her hand. “I think we also all owe you congratulations on your upcoming wedding. When’s the big day?”
Lisa kept her eyes on Ryan, studying his reaction. He looked...exhausted wasn’t quite the right word, but it was close. There was a hollowness that crept over his features with every step closer of Marie’s.
“We haven’t decided.” Lisa jumped in. Ryan had brought her here as a nice gesture to her, to keep her out of the way of the real engaged couple in both their lives. Deflecting some of the spotlight’s glare was the least she could do.
He reached over, protected from Marie’s eyes by the overhang of the table, and gave Lisa’s hand a small squeeze. The simple gesture surprised Lisa. When he didn’t pull his hand away, it surprised Lisa even more that the lingering contact didn’t bother her.
“Well, it’s Vegas! No planning necessary. There’s a chapel on every corner.” Marie turned and looked at the audience knowingly. “Raise your hand, folks. Who’s gotten married in Vegas?”
A number of hands raised. Einstein played an up-tempo version of the traditional bridal chorus.
“How many of you are still married to that person?” Marie chuckled as she asked. A few of the hands lowered.
“See? It’s not that hard, Lucky Charm. Einstein’s even got a copy of the marriage license form over there. We keep them for special occasions. The Bureau is still open. You could make an honest woman of her tonight. All you need is sixty dollars in cash to get this processed.”
Einstein picked up a form out of a basket on the table next to him and waved it to emphasize the point, then went back to playing Mendelssohn’s best-known tune.
“Marie.” Ryan bit out the words, not wanting to play along any further. “I don’t carry cash.”
The dueling piano diva was undeterred. She’d hooked herself a prize and wanted to continue riding this as long as she could. The audience was eating her banter up, much to Lisa’s chagrin. She hoped her cheeks weren’t starting to flush.
“Pass the bucket, Einstein!” Marie waved in her partner’s direction and shouted. “We do this all the time. No worries at all, Lucky Charm. We’ve got you covered.”
Ryan leaned forward, his posture clearly becoming more defensive as people began tossing dollars in the cheap plastic bucket Einstein had tossed into the crowd. “Marie, I’m sure these people came here for a musical show, not a matrimonial one. Let’s get back to the music, shall we?”
He spoke with a razor-sharp edge that left little room for contradicting him. Marie shrugged.
“Well, there is one way to get me to stop being your wedding planner.”
“Name it.” There was steel in each syllable.
“Come on stage and sing.” Marie turned back to the crowd and waved her handheld microphone.
“I don’t sing.” Ryan tugged on Lisa’s hand and moved out of the booth. “Come on, Lisa. It’s time to find something else to do.”
Marie paused, apparently thinking of some retort. Lisa cringed. She didn’t want this comedy routine at Ryan’s expense to continue. But she also didn’t think leaving was the right answer. If he walked out now, he’d look like a bad sport. And he was well-known enough around here that word would spread like wildfire. Look how many people thought he was engaged.
She figured that Ryan probably wouldn’t care if people talked about him. But tomorrow started the last tournament of his career. She remembered leaving New York abruptly and hearing the rumors others started about her.
Lisa had never regretted leaving the bright lights and the big city, but she had regretted how people in her circle reacted to her decision.
Ryan deserved to end his poker days on his terms at the table. Not with everyone whispering behind his back about what a bad sport he was and how he couldn’t take a joke.
The words leaped out of her mouth almost as soon as she realized she could take some of the pressure off him. “I can sing.”
“What?” Ryan’s voice sounded harsh as gravel and his eyes narrowed as they locked on hers.
“I can sing. I’m classically trained. I was in the cast of several large musicals on Broadway. This is my thing.”
“Lisa, we can just go.” Ryan lowered his voice and the rough sound smoothed out.
He’d bought her this dress so she could go to her beloved great-grandmother’s engagement dinner. He’d set up that engagement dinner and picked up the tab even when he suspected that she and Nana were just here to take advantage of the grandfather that he loved dearly. And he’d done it all, in spite of believing the wedding shouldn’t even happen.
When he spoke, he was blunt. When he was silent, he had an uncanny ability to conceal his thoughts. When he thought someone was being a fool, he didn’t suffer them lightly.
And when she’d seen a glimpse of the passions that drove him and the heart he had for his family, they’d been as limitless as that high-end credit card in his back pocket.
As soon as she met him, Lisa Fleming had figured out that Ryan McBride was infuriating.
But she’d also seen that he had a heart of gold. And because of that, she wanted to do something in return for him.
“Come on.” She put out her hand and waited, holding her breath, until Ryan laid his hand across her palm. “It’ll be fun.”
