| |
Lisa studied the pedicure menu as her toes splashed in the warm water in the foot box. Should she go with the cappuccino package or something soothing, like cucumber mint?
Definitely cucumber mint. She was still licking her wounds from last night.
And this pre-wedding spa time presented the last real opportunity for her to talk Nana out of walking down the aisle with Bill.
Maybe, Lisa thought, she needed a Valium pedicure. Cucumber might not be soothing enough to get her in the right frame of mind.
She still couldn’t believe how Ryan turned on her in the limo last night. Yes, she’d agreed to move forward and not spoil Nana and Pops’ happiness for the sake of all involved, but would it have killed the man to have told Nana the wedding rumor wasn’t true?
Why wouldn’t he have just told Nana no? Surely his plan of keeping everyone happy didn’t extend to flat-out lying. Lisa couldn’t go along with that.
“I think I want pineapple mango.” Nana tapped the laminated plastic spa menu with her pointer finger. “What are you going to get, Lisa Marie?”
“I’m leaning toward cucumber mint.”
“Oh, that sounds nice too. But I think I want something tropical,” Nana said. “Should Bill and I go to Hawaii for our honeymoon? I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii.”
It was now or never.
“Nana, can I ask you something?”
Nana smiled, that same gentle look of grace and concern that had provided Lisa reassurance her entire life. Lisa tried to focus on that. And hoped against hope that she wouldn’t wipe the smile off Nana’s face with her words.
“Of course, Lisa Marie. What is it?”
The nail technicians came and sat at the foot of each pedicure chair and started the first part of the pedicure, mixing scented salts into the foot-sizes boxes of warm, bubbling water with the LED lights which alternated purple and blue.
Lisa sucked in a fortifying breath. “Do you really think you should be doing this?”
“I don’t see why not. I don’t think a pedicure will upset my blood pressure medication. Do you?”
“Not the pedicure, Nana. The wedding. Do you think you should be marrying Bill?”
There. She said it.
She wished she felt any kind of relief at getting that question off her chest, but instead. All she felt was cold dread as the seconds ticked by, waiting on Nana’s answer.
“Of course. You don’t?”
The technician clipped Nana’s toenails, then began to scrub at her heels. Lisa’s technician followed suit.
“Well, no. I don’t.”
The scraping motion kept brushing the most ticklish spot at the base of Lisa’s arch. She began to giggle.
“Why are you laughing about it? What’s so funny?”
“Feet, Nana.” Lisa tried clenching her jaw—maybe that would hold the laugh inside as the technician continued to scrub a pumice stone over the tickle zone.
“You don’t like Bill’s feet, Lisa? What an odd reason.”
Nana’s nail technician moved easily to the right foot. Nana hadn’t so much as flinched while the rough skin at the edge of her heel was polished off.
On the other hand, Lisa couldn’t stop laughing. Acting like she was sitting in the front row at a comedy club was not helping the seriousness she needed to convey.
“Bill’s feet are fine,” Lisa spoke quickly as the technician switched to the other foot.
Nana swirled her feet back in the water. “Then what’s the problem with him?”
“It’s not him, Nana. It’s you.”
The look Nana gave Lisa could have started a lightning storm. Full of crackle and crash, her entire being showed that she didn’t like the direction this conversation began to turn.
“My feet are fine, Lisa Marie,” she said sternly. “And if you’re trying to imply that other parts of me are not, then you are welcome to stay in the room this evening.”
Finally, the pumice scrubbing torture ended. But Lisa was far from leaning back in the chair massager and relaxing. “Wait, what?”
“You heard me.” Nana looked first to Lisa with a narrowed gaze. She then turned to the petite woman rubbing lotion on her feet. “Can you just skip everything and just polish my toes?”
The nail technician nodded, clearly keeping herself out of the conversation which kept increasing in heat every minute.
“You don’t want me at your wedding, Nana?”
Nana pushed her shoulders back and sat up as tall as she could. “No.”
Lisa never thought this would have been an easy conversation. She expected it to be difficult. She expected it to be direct.
She never expected Nana to cut her off.
“That’ll do,” Nana said to her nail technician. She swiveled out of the chair, away from Lisa, and slid her feet in a pair of orange disposable flip-flops. “Just charge this to my room, please. I need to leave.”
“Nana, you do not need to leave. Please can we talk about this?” Lisa started to hop out of her chair, then realized she was covered from pinky toe to knee-joint in a bright green crystallized exfoliating rub. If she chased after Nana, she’d just fall flat on her face on the polished granite tile.
Not that it could hurt more than Nana’s rejection.
“There’s nothing to talk about. You didn’t like the idea on Friday when I surprised you with coming out here. But now, even after meeting Bill, you still can only talk about how you think something’s wrong with me. I know something’s different, Lisa. Why do you think I want to enjoy life while I can? I don’t need to go see Dr. Reynolds. I saw him two months ago. You’re right. I’m in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. I don’t have much to look forward to. But I am looking forward to my wedding. And if you can’t be happy for me while I try to live out the good days I still have, then, no, you’re not welcome. I’m sorry, Lisa Marie, but that’s the way it is.”
Nana turned around and padded out of the Grand Florence Spa, a little unsteady. Lisa would normally blame the disposable flip-flops and their ill-fit, but she saw Nana’s shoulders shake as she neared the door, and she knew her grandmother was trying to hold back her tears.
Lisa struggled to hold back her own.
When one slipped out, Lisa didn’t care.
“She’ll still want you there,” the nail technician said quietly over the sounds of the bubbling water and massaging chair.
“I don’t think so. I think this is one memory Alzheimer’s will never take away from her.”
Lisa knew that the day she made her Nana cry was one she’d never forget, either.
And she cursed her inability to have just kept her mouth shut and gone with the flow like Ryan told her to do. For a teacher, Lisa realized, she certainly had a hard time learning lessons.
After the lonely pedicure session ended, Lisa walked around the sprawling campus of the Renaissance Grand. She strolled through the casino, filled with bright lights and bells, as people of all ages and backgrounds staked out their favorite games, pulled levers, and watched dice tumble and waited on a flash of white, red, or black to change their fortune.
Her fortune, it seemed, had been decided. She’d been uninvited from Nana’s wedding, and she’d never felt so low in her life. Not even all the times waiting at the window for a mother who never showed added up to the heartbreak she felt right now.
She’d let Nana down.
They used to be two-against-the-world. And now Nana had someone else in her life to laugh with, confide in, and live life with.
Lisa meandered to the main hallway of shops and sat heavily on a velvet-covered bench across from the boutique where Ryan had taken her on her first night in the hotel.
Slumping over, she placed her head in her hands and struggled against the bitter truth. She couldn’t let go of the relationship she and Nana had always had. And in trying to keep her close, Lisa had pushed her away.
What if she’d pushed her away forever?
What if Nana stayed here in Las Vegas, leading her new life, and never came home to Port Provident again?
What if Nana never let Lisa back in her life again?
What if her Alzheimer’s took a dramatic turn and Nana never even had the chance to allow Lisa back into her life?
Because, Lisa realized, the facts were simple. Nana already had a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. One she’d been hiding, apparently for months. With Alzheimer’s, Lisa knew the outcome of the game before it had even been played.
She would lose Nana.
She would lose the support she’d had her whole life. She’d lose the one person who knew all her memories—her first steps, her first words, her first day of school.
The tears began to flow from the corners of Lisa’s eyes and down her cheeks before she even realized they’d slipped out. Thoughts of her life with Nana, the good times, the bad times, and everything in between, continued to come, gaining speed like a race car on a track. Lisa couldn’t keep up with all the memories, and she couldn’t keep up with all the tears.
As the sobs choked her throat, Lisa felt thankful that her head was buried in her hands and covered by her hair. At least no one could see her.
Not that she cared. They were all relaxing on their Spring Break vacations. She was losing everything that had ever mattered to her.
She’d pushed Ryan away last night after getting caught in the limo last night.
She’d pushed Nana away, by focusing on what she wanted. She’d treated Nana, her greatest teacher in life, like nothing more than a student who needed to be told what to do.
She’d told Ryan she needed to know if she could trust him.
But now, Lisa couldn’t even be trusted by the person who counted on her most.
A light hand laid on Lisa’s right shoulder.
“Cara Mia, are you all right?”
Lisa lifted her head and wiped her eyes. Mariela, the manager of the boutique, sat on the tufted bench next to her.
“No. I’m not. I think I’ve lost everything.” The words squeezed painfully through Lisa’s choked throat, rasping as they clawed their way out.
Mariela patted Lisa’s shoulder gently. “I’ve seen it before. You aren’t the only one, Cara Mia.”
Lisa shook her head. “You don’t understand. It’s not money. I haven’t lost a dime of my money. I’ve lost my Nana.”
“Come with me.” Mariela put her hand under Lisa’s elbow and helped her to her feet. “Let’s get you out of this busy area. You can come with me to the boutique, get yourself back together in private, and we’ll get someone to help with your Nana.”
Lisa shuffled across the wide hallway, leaning heavily on Mariela’s steadying arm. “I don’t think anyone can help.”
They walked through the door of the boutique, and quiet enveloped Lisa—such a contrast from the frantic to-and-fro and babble of voices in the hallway.
“There’s a chair by the dressing room if you need it, or just feel free to walk around and browse. Whatever makes you the most comfortable, Lisa. I will make some calls.” The gentle Italian lilt that touched Mariela’s words calmed Lisa a little more. Her voice sounded soothing.
“I...I think I’ll just walk around.” Maybe doing something mindless like looking at dresses on the racks would take her mind off the soul-crushing feeling that continued to bore into her heart like a drill bit.
Lisa weaved her way through the racks, generally oblivious of the finery hanging on them. The whirl of thoughts wouldn’t allow her to focus on anything for long.
Finally, in the back corner of the store, she looked up. A beautiful ivory wedding dress with an embroidered lace bodice and an A-line satin skirt hung in a place of honor. Lisa fingered the dress delicately, holding it out slightly so she could see it better. She twisted it slightly on the hanger so she could look at the detail on the back. A line of satin ribbon crisscrossed down the center, laced like a corset.
Her breath caught in her throat. The dress reminded her of a princess in a fairytale.
Then a sob caught in her throat as she remembered that today was Nana’s wedding day—and she would not be there.
“You’d look beautiful in that, you know.”
Lisa jumped at the sound of Ryan’s voice.
“You scared me. What are you doing here?”
Ryan gave a hint of a smile. “Mariela called me. She said she saw you crying out in the main hallway. She was worried about you. What’s wrong?”
“It’s Nana. I’ve lost her.”
“What do you mean, ‘lost her’?” Ryan reached out and placed his hand around Lisa’s forearm.
“We were getting a pedicure this morning and I decided to tell her how I felt. I was running out of time. She got up and left.” Lisa felt her throat begin to clog with tears and memories. “And she told me not to come to the wedding.”
The thick bile of regret choked her and Lisa struggled momentarily to get a breath.
“Where is she now?” Ryan’s words sounded as rough as sandpaper.
Lisa could barely summon a whisper. “I don’t know.”
“We’ll find her, Lisa.”
At the sound of his declaration, Lisa felt a small ray of sunshine in the gray clouds that had chased her this morning. She’d prided herself for so long on her street-smarts: weathering the abandonment of her mother, surviving New York, building a new career for herself as a teacher. But the panic she’d felt this morning revealed all those accomplishments for what they truly were: a master class, the performance of her life.
Literally and figuratively. Her life had been a big performance and her lines had been lies she’d told herself for years to make up for the fact that she didn’t trust anyone except Nana.
And now Nana had cut herself off from Lisa.
Thinking about it again, admitting the frailty of her own situation, stung like a blade skimming lightning-quick across the surface of her skin. It stung. And it bled.
And she knew it would bleed for a long time to come.
Ryan put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. The solid, toned muscle of his bicep pressed against the crest of her shoulder blades and his forearm braced the curve of her joint and he touched the edge of her collarbone with his fingers.
No tourniquet had stopped the loss of heart’s blood any more efficiently than the bracing touch of Ryan McBride.
“Ryan?” Before they left in search of Nana, Lisa urgently needed to make her peace with the other piece of the puzzle that had been troubling her.
“Yes?” He looked down but kept his arm cemented firmly around her shoulder.
“I’m sorry.” She wasn’t brave enough to speak it loudly, but she hoped he could sense her sincerity.
She turned her head at an upward angle and tried to search the expression on his face. All she could see was the same even, polished look he’d kept on his face both times she’d seen him in the main room at the tournament.
His game face.
She needed to make him understand this wasn’t a game any longer to her. She wanted to play for keeps.
“For pushing you away last night. I’ve been nothing but hot and cold to you. And yet you still came when Mariela called.”
“I told you, Lisa. I want you to trust me.”
She could have said she didn’t have any other choice. But that wouldn’t have done justice to how she felt when she’d heard the sound of his voice just now, when she knew he’d come, when she knew if he was with her, everything would be all right.
“I do.”
He led her out of the boutique with a quick wave to Mariela as they passed. “Save those words for later, my dear. I promise you’re going to need them.”
Ryan couldn’t pinpoint what exactly prompted him to say that to Lisa, but he couldn’t dwell on it for too long. The first order of business was to get up to the honeymoon suite, find Nana, and get this misunderstanding sorted out between her and Lisa.
Seeing Lisa there in front of that wedding dress, locked on it with the full concentration of her being, made him wish the wedding occurring today would be theirs.
He’d read Lisa the moment he’d met her. She was running scared. Fear chased her like an opponent in a marathon. It dogged her every step. He’d been trained to scrutinize his opponents, to analyze their movements, and to study physical cues. As an actress, Lisa played the role of loving granddaughter and enthusiastic teacher well. But when she let her guard down—which he’d gotten her to do in the private moments they’d spent together—she stepped out of character.
Ryan had seen her for who she was—someone who loved fiercely, dreamed grandly, and fought hard to do what she perceived to be the right thing.
And he loved that fighting, dreaming streak. All of it.
Even the fact that she held herself back, but yet kissed with passion, then stepped back to analyze—or over-analyze, more accurately—the situation fascinated him. In a city full of flash and faux, it proved to him that Lisa was a real person who contemplated the consequences of her actions. She wasn’t willing to risk it all on a roll of the dice.
Could he convince her to risk her heart—before it was all too late?
“I bet she’s back in her suite, Lisa. You don’t need to be so nervous.” Ryan watched Lisa chew the tip of her fingernail into oblivion as they rode up the elevator to the suite.
She shook her head. “You didn’t see her. I’ve never seen her that agitated.”
“I’ve never seen you this agitated.”
The doors opened and Lisa’s body language replied wordlessly as she walked through the double doors. Although her hands still fidgeted, now her head bowed and her shoulders rounded forward, aging her by at least ten additional years.
In his mind’s eye, Ryan saw the sassy, confident Lisa of just two days ago, strutting across the honeymoon suite in black lace and marabou feathers like she had all of Las Vegas in her hand.
That had been the walk of an accomplished actress, playing a role. In front of him now was a broken woman, a real woman, mourning what she saw as lost forever.
Both of them tore at his heart as he remembered the true Lisa—the passionate and compassionate woman who kissed like a firework and protected those she loved like a guard dog.
Lisa swiped the key card in the lock of the door and pressed down on the handle, swinging the polished wooden door open slowly and fearfully.
Once they were out of the entry, Ryan pushed gently around her right side. He could be Lisa’s voice and take that burden away from her.
“Gina Mae? Are you here? It’s Ryan.”
His voice echoed off the marble and glass of the suite. Only silence answered back.
Lisa didn’t say anything, just headed toward the bedroom, opening every door in her path and giving a cursory look inside.
“Ryan, she’s not here.”
Ryan’s own adrenaline pulsed a little more quickly. He’d been certain Gina Mae would be back in her suite getting ready for this evening’s ceremony and awaiting an olive branch from her granddaughter. But instead of Gina Mae, they were greeted only by silence.
“Ok. Let me call Pops. If she’s not here, she’s with him.”
Ryan pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Pops. When his grandfather answered, he cut straight to the chase.
“Hey, Pops. Is Gina Mae with you?”
“No, I just woke up from a nap.” The older man punctuated his sentence with a shallow yawn. "Isn’t she with Lisa at the spa?”
“No.” He didn’t want his grandfather to worry, but he couldn’t sugarcoat what was going on. “They had an argument and Gina Mae left. Lisa and I are in the suite now. She’s not here.”
Lisa stood at the expanse of glass at the back of the room, looking out. Her shoulders began to tremble and Ryan knew she’d begun to cry.
“Pops, just stay put and don’t worry. I’ll call the hotel staff. I’ll take care of it. They’ll find her.”
“You’ll call me as soon as you hear, right, Ryan?” Worry had overtaken the sleepiness in Pops’ voice.
He could reassure Pops, he could reassure Lisa. He hoped he could reassure himself. “Of course, Pops. You know I will.”
Ryan disconnected the call and started to dial the concierge desk like he had the other night. He hesitated, wanting to wrap Lisa in his arms first and dry her tears.
But her tears would stop for good when she knew where Nana was, and the sooner he made the call, the faster that could happen.
As soon as the attendant at the desk answered, Ryan cut off her formal answering speech. “Winter, it’s Ryan McBride. I need your help again, this time to look for Gina Mae Fleming, my grandfather’s fiancée. She’s gone missing. Can you talk to security?”
“Certainly, Mr. McBride. Give me ten minutes and I’ll call you back.”
“Thanks, Winter. I appreciate it.”
Ryan put the phone back in his pocket. He started to reach for Lisa, then hesitated. “They’re going to find her, Lisa. Remember what I told you last time? There are a thousand eyes in this hotel. Security knows everything. No one just disappears in a Las Vegas casino.”
The glassy topaz sparkle had fled from her eyes, chased away by the dull gray haze of worry. He’d lost himself in her eyes before. Now Lisa was the one who was lost. And so was Gina Mae.
Ryan knew he had to do everything in his power to rescue the older woman.
The two most important people in his life—Pops and Lisa—were counting on him.
“Ryan, what if she doesn’t come back?” Lisa’s shoulders shook briefly with the stifled hiccup that signaled a lingering desire to cry.
“Lisa, why wouldn’t she come back? People have disagreements. They get angry. Then they work it out. Gina Mae does not seem like the kind to hold a grudge. Especially not against you.”
Lisa continued to stare straight ahead, focusing her emotion on the to-and-fro so many floors below where they stood.
“Because she has Alzheimer’s. I’ve seen stories on the news about Alzheimer’s patients who get lost and can’t get home. They put things like Amber Alerts out for them.” Her voice wavered slightly as she talked about the idea of a warning being issued across cell phone texts, TV alerts, and highway signs.
Ryan tried to will his phone to ring with an update, but it stayed silent.
“You don’t know that for sure. You won’t know until you get her into a doctor. She’s probably just out buying a new pair of shoes or earrings for tonight. You know, something borrowed, something blue...and all that.”
Lisa turned around to face him. Fresh tear tracks snaked down her cheeks, bordered by the thinnest thread of mascara on the edges. “No, she told me this morning as she was walking away. She went to Dr. Reynolds herself months ago and kept it from me. That’s why she wants to marry Bill. She wants to be happy and enjoy herself while she still can.”
Ryan touched the pad of his thumb to one of Lisa’s trails of tears, wiping them gently away. He wished he could wipe away her sorrow and fear as easily.
She leaned forward, falling into his chest, and he collected her in his arms, cradling her as gently as a kitten. He pulled her tight with one arm and stroked her hair rhythmically with the other, providing her a safe place to sob as her fears pushed to the surface and refused to be contained.
“We’re going to find her, Lisa.”
Her tears soaked circles in the front of his shirt. “We have to, Ryan. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.”
“Let’s go downstairs. I know the chief of security. We’ll talk to him directly. We’ll find her, Lisa. Whatever it takes.”
Ryan felt his heart crack with each haltingly choked sob that came from Lisa.
And that’s when he knew his whole world had changed.
He didn’t want to marry Lisa, like he’d half-joked yesterday, because it would make their grandparents happy and would solve some problems. He didn’t want a marriage of convenience just to check some boxes.
He realized he wanted a marriage of inconvenience.
Because he’d fallen in love with Lisa Fleming when he’d least expected to. And that was seriously inconvenient for a man who’d just quit his job and didn’t know where he was heading with his life.
All he knew was he loved this honey-eyed woman who completely loved her Nana and her students and her belief in happily ever after.
He wanted her to love him too. She deserved her own happily ever after, and he was going to make it happen.
Neither of them grew up with a traditional family. But they had the chance to come together and create their own, with Nana and Pops too. Ryan knew whatever his next steps were, he needed to use his time and energy to make a difference.
And right now, he needed to be that difference for Lisa. He needed to be her rock. And he needed to make sure that he left no stone unturned to find Nana.
Lisa pulled back and wiped her eyes with her fingers, wiping mascara toward the side of her face. She looked like a raccoon.
But as long as she was his raccoon, Ryan didn’t care.
“What are you smiling at?” Lisa sniffled as she tried to get the words out.
Ryan hesitated slightly, not knowing if this was the right time to say what was on his mind. He’d made a living taking calculated risks. And saying the right thing to Lisa right now was probably the highest-stakes event he’d ever been in.
Lisa deserved the best he could give right now, though, and that was honesty. So he decided to reply simply.
“You.”
“Me?” Her shoulders squared slightly.
“You’re just beautiful, that’s all.” He decided to deny Lisa the opportunity to protest. They had work to do. “Let’s go downstairs and find Nana.”
The elevator was not descending to the lobby fast enough.
The doors were not opening fast enough.
The path down the large hallway was not clear enough.
The butterflies in her stomach were not flying away enough.
Lisa could not keep the nervous energy from shaking every fiber of her being. Her hands felt as though she’d had a cappuccino with a double shot of espresso, followed by a mochaccino chaser. Her heart raced like one belonging to a sprinter at the finish line. Her thoughts flitted around, as mixed and jumbled as a toddler’s toy box.
“Ryan, I’ve got some information for you.” An imposingly tall man in a midnight black suit waved them over as soon as they came near the concierge desk.
“Have you spotted her, McGivern?”
“Well, yes and no. Come over here to the security desk and I’ll show you some of our CCTV footage.”
“Lisa, this is Blake McGivern, the Renaissance’s head of security.” Ryan held Lisa’s hand and gently directed her toward a desk near the back of the expansive lobby. As they stopped at the desk, Ryan gestured back toward Lisa with his free hand. “This is Lisa Fleming, Mrs. Fleming’s granddaughter.”
“Miss Fleming, we’re doing everything we can to locate your grandmother. Can you tell me if the woman in this footage is her?”
Lisa leaned in toward the small TV and tried to decipher the figures on the black and white image. “That one, back there by the lounge chair on the right. That’s her.”
At least she thought it was. The image was small and a little grainy, and she couldn’t say with one hundred percent certainty.
She knew only two things for certain right now. One, she had to find Nana—and quickly—before her heart burst from nervous adrenaline overload. And two, she didn’t know how she could ever repay Ryan for his cool, yet compassionate, handling of the situation.
He’d taken control, made phone calls, directed her movements. When they found Nana, it would be largely due to Ryan’s quick thinking, seemingly endless contacts and resources, and unflappable presence under pressure.
As he spoke in deliberate undertones with McGivern, Lisa forced her mind to slow enough to think about the situation from a different angle. Not the Nana angle. The Ryan angle.
In so many ways, Ryan McBride was Lisa’s polar opposite. She was a drama nerd, driven by emotions and grand gestures, and a sense of scene and moment.
Ryan was deeply analytical, kept his emotions in check, and never made a move without considering the consequences.
And while her first priority was finding Nana, as Lisa watched Ryan take control of the situation with a practiced authority, she wondered what her life would be like if she lost Ryan’s presence in her life too.
“Lisa? Did you hear me?” Ryan tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.
“No, I’m sorry. My mind is wandering.”
Ryan let his hand linger on her shoulder. The simple gesture gave her some grounding, some strength.
“I know. It’s ok. If that woman you identified by the pool is Nana, they also have footage of her leaving the hotel.”
Fear closed her throat with the breath-robbing choke of a roundhouse kick to the throat.
“Oh, dear God, please, no.” The short, ineloquent prayer escaped Lisa’s lips with the last bit of air she had left. Tears brimmed along the edge of her eyelids. “She doesn’t know her way around Las Vegas. Where would she go? How will we find her, Ryan?”
“We’ve already called the police, Miss Fleming.” The Renaissance Grand’s head of security nodded at the officer behind the desk. “And I’m alerting the security teams at the other hotels in our immediate area. We will find her.”
“He means it, Lisa. They’ll find her.” Ryan placed a hand on each shoulder and squared up her posture. He looked her straight in the eye.
A parade of worst-case scenarios started a relentless march through her mind. A dreamer’s imagination could be a wonderful tool, or the script for an outlandish made-for-TV-style movie, full of twists and turns and fictional implausibilities that seemed real.
“Ryan, they have to.”
“They will. Do you want to go back to your room and wait?”
Lisa locked her gaze straight on him. She needed him like a life preserver in a cold, battering ocean. She couldn’t process all the emotions in her veins and all the thoughts that continued to whirl.
“No. Please don’t leave me by myself. I just keep thinking of all these things that could happen to Nana, alone on the streets of a strange city.”
“Okay. Come with me. I need to drop by the Shamrocks for Students tournament and tell NCN that I need to reschedule my interview.”
Ryan’s voice sounded calm and gentle. The syllables reassured Lisa. Ryan knew so many people all over this town. Lisa knew he’d use every contact he had, every string he could pull to make sure Nana returned safely.
Lisa knew she just needed to trust him.
Except for Nana, Lisa had trusted lots of people in her life, and they’d always let her down. A playboy bachelor gambler in the middle of Las Vegas didn’t seem like someone to break that streak, even though she had to admit, Ryan was not the stereotype.
Still, trust didn’t always come easy to Lisa, and she knew it. But Nana was alone on the streets of Las Vegas. Lisa didn’t have any choice. She had to put all the faith and trust she had in Ryan’s hands.
Lisa had to bet it all on Ryan.
They wound around the hotel and through the casino area before coming to an area roped off near the main auditorium where the Shamrocks for Students tournament was being held. Posters of schoolchildren lined the walls in the immediate area, larger-than-life-sized black and white images of kids working with technology, studying, and finding the spark ignited by learning. Each photograph was accented with details that had been shaded in primary colors. The pop of color drew in the eyes and Lisa found herself studying each child’s face closely.
It was a welcome respite from the worry about Nana that had gnawed at the corners of her mind since she first woke up this morning and decided to use their trip to the spa to cover contentious territory.
She knew then that she’d have kicked herself for not talking to Nana about calling off the wedding.
She just didn’t know how much harder she’d kick herself for the consequences of that conversation.
“This won’t take long, I promise. Then we’ll go check back in at the security desk and see what they’ve found out, and make our plan from there.”
Every security team in this part of Las Vegas had been alerted to look for Nana, as had the police department.
“I know. I don’t know the city or the hotels around here. There’s not much I can do right now.”
“It’s going to be okay, Lisa.” He gave her hand a light squeeze. The significance of the gentle touch felt heavy—they were in this together, a team.
Holding Ryan’s hand served as a tangible reminder that she wasn’t alone.
Even if she felt completely alone without Nana.
Ryan spoke quickly with an NCN producer. “All right, I’ll see you back in a few hours. Thanks for understanding.”
“Everything settled?” Lisa hadn’t been able to keep her wandering mind focused on anything Ryan had said to the TV crew.
“They’ll have to rearrange a little bit, but Tony assured me he could do it. They want an interview with me, so they may not like my terms, but they’ll agree to them because it gets them ten exclusive minutes with the guy who walked away from the table. I’m the hottest story in their beat right now.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Lisa looked at a white-haired woman sitting down in front of a flamingo pink slot machine. It could have been Nana, but it wasn’t.
“The hottest story in my beat right now, though, is finding Nana.” Ryan stopped in the middle of the room. “Look at me.”
Flashing lights blinked and digital music snippets played all around them. He placed one hand under Lisa’s chin and turned her head slightly.
Lisa forced the fog from her mind and pulled the muscles in her eyelids up.
“I told them I had a family crisis to take care of.”
“A family crisis?” Lisa pushed the words out on a shaky breath. Why had he described it that way to the TV crew?
Ryan nodded and held her hand tightly. She could feel herself trying to pull his strength through where their palms touched, so she could use it as her own.
“A family crisis. Today is the day our grandparents are getting married. We’re going to find Gina Mae and she’s going to marry Pops and achieve her goal of having the best life she can in the time she has left to enjoy it. And you and I are going to enjoy life right alongside them. We are all in this together, Lisa.”
Lisa’s throat tightened like the grip of a Venus flytrap on an unsuspecting insect. She swallowed hard, trying to open up the passage so she could breathe.
The only words strong enough to battle through to the surface were those of her deepest fear.
“What happens when she fades away and no longer knows who I am, Ryan?”
“The heart never forgets, Lisa.” The blue of his eyes was as open as the sea where it meets the sky to form the horizon. She looked closely and saw the edge of forever in them. “And when the mind does, I’ll be there with you.”
Ryan leaned over and touched his lips to hers, a gentle kiss that punctuated his statement with a language her heart would understand long after her own mind had forgotten most of what had happened today. Lisa allowed herself to fold into Ryan to pull even more of his strength to her, to give her the support she so desperately needed. As she did, she felt the weight that had dragged behind her since childhood fall away.
Ryan met her wordless invitation, deepening the kiss, and as Lisa opened her mouth slightly, she felt a gentle river of emotion push through her veins and open her heart as well.
She’d spent far too long being lonely. But her heart told her that if she’d just believe in Ryan, she wouldn’t be alone, no matter what lay ahead.
“She’s been found.” Blake McGivern waved Ryan down as soon as he and Lisa stepped into the lobby.
Lisa felt relief wash over her like the downpour of the waterfall at the back of the Renaissance Grand’s resort-style pool.
Only two things mattered to Lisa right now...that Nana was safe, and that she would be happy.
“Oh, thank you, God. And thank you, Mr. McGivern.” Lisa’s prayers had been answered. And she had Ryan’s quick thinking and connections to thank for the early intervention that brought Nana back quickly and without incident.
“Where was she, Blake?” Ryan cupped a hand around Lisa’s shoulder, a side hug full of happy emotions.
“Next door at the Palazzo. She’d gone to the spa over there to finish her pedicure.”
Of course, she had. Because while Lisa had held misgivings about the wedding, there had never been any doubt in Nana’s mind that she would marry Bill today. Nana had always been one for quiet determination. Once she set herself on a path, nothing caused her to waver.
Once it had become clear that Lisa’s father’s medical issues would prevent him from being an engaged parent, and once it had become clear that Lisa’s mother wasn’t coming back, Nana had never wavered. She stepped in and acted in the role of father, mother, and great-grandmother. Unconditional love and a backbone of steel. Nana had always possessed both in bushels.
Lisa knew she needed to repay her grandmother with nothing less than the same.
“Let’s go get her, Ryan. We have a wedding to prepare for.”
McGivern listened to something coming through his clear earpiece. “No need. The Palazzo security staff is escorting her back here. She should be back shortly.”
“Thanks again, man.” Ryan reached his hand out toward McGivern and shook the security officer’s hand heartily. “I appreciate it. Lisa, do you want to go back to the suite and wait for her, and I’ll call Pops?”
She shook her head, nervous energy fueling her movements. “No. I’m going to wait right here. I have something to say to her, and I don’t want to wait.”
“Ok, well, let’s go over to the couches by the door, then.”
Ryan led Lisa over to a grouping of red leather couches just off to the left of the main entrance area. Lisa tapped her left foot in a random pattern, ticking off the seconds.
Ryan rested a hand lightly on her knee. The arch of his palm curved over her kneecap and Lisa couldn’t help but notice how it seemed to fit perfectly.
Finally, after a few minutes, the oversized sliding glass doors opened and a black-uniformed man guided Nana inside and turned toward the security desk.
“Nana!”
Lisa leaped up and covered the distance between them in mere seconds. She gathered Nana in her arms as though she were a child’s prized teddy bear and squeezed. She never wanted to let go.
Tears began to trickle over the paper-thin skin of Nana’s cheeks.
“Don’t cry, Nana. This is all my fault.”
“I shouldn’t have gotten so angry, sweetheart.”
Lisa jumped in before Nana could speak any further. This was her apology and she wanted to fully own it. The responsibility fell squarely on her shoulders.
“It’s okay, Nana. I was wrong and I’m sorry. I felt like what I was doing was right. I promise I’ve only tried to do what I felt was right for you. But I need to trust you and respect your decisions. And I respect why you want to marry Bill. I was scared, and I felt you weren’t thinking through your decision. I was scared that I was going to lose you—both mentally and physically, too, if you stayed out here.”
Nana gave a powerful sniff to stop the parade of saltwater droplets. “Then I raised you right. I raised a girl who loves mightily and cares enough to do what she feels is right, even when it’s tough.”
Lisa didn’t quite know what to say. Nana’s approval felt better than any critic’s review or any red carpet she could walk or any gold statue for which she could give an acceptance speech.
“I wish I’d told you about all this weeks ago so we could have worked this out before things ever came to this. I accept your apology, Lisa Marie. Will you accept mine?”
She buried her head in Nana’s shoulder and tightened the bear hug. “Always, Nana. I love you.”
“I love you too, Lisa Marie. Now, can I ask you something one more time?”
“Sure.” Lisa pulled back and looked at Nana, wondering just what she was getting at.
“I asked you the other day and you didn’t answer. You said you were going to get me a dementia test. Now that we know that test is out of the way, I still need a maid of honor. Will you stand up with me when I marry Bill?”
Lisa couldn’t keep the tears from welling up. She nodded her assent, momentarily unable to speak. “Of course, Nana. There’s nothing I’d like more.”
After they’d gotten everything sorted out with the security team, Lisa and Nana left Ryan and went to the Renaissance Grand’s wedding chapel, where the wedding ceremony would take place later this evening.
Nana gave one last signature on the checklist she’d been handed by the hotel’s wedding coordinator, confirming all the details. She handed it back to the coordinator with a smile.
“I think everything’s settled. Except for one thing.” Nana looked at Lisa with a sideways glance.
Lisa couldn’t think of any more burdens that needed to be lifted. “What?”
“Well, you and Ryan, of course.”
Nana laid her words out with a matter-of-fact finality, forcing Lisa to realize she wasn’t sweet-talking her way out of answering.
Except that she didn’t know what the answer was.
In fact, she wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure even what the question was.
“What about me and Ryan, Nana?” Lisa held her breath slightly while waiting for Nana’s clarification.
“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Lisa Marie.”
Lisa shook her head at the admonishment. “But I really don’t know what you’re talking about, Nana.”
“I’ve seen you through a few relationships. Some good. Some bad. And then there was that two-faced jerk you were engaged to for a while. But I’ve never seen you let your guard down so quickly with someone.”
“Well, you know what they say, Nana. What happens in Vegas...”
“They say it stays in Vegas. So, are you going to go back to Port Provident and let Ryan stay in Vegas?” Nana sat on the front pew in the chapel.
“Well, I can’t stay here. I’ve got a few more days of Spring Break, but that’s it until summer. I have a teaching contract. I can’t just quit and never go back.”
“What strings does Ryan have tying him down? He quit his job. Why don’t you ask him to come with you?”
“You want me to ask him to leave the lights of Las Vegas for Port Provident? I just can’t see anyone trading all this for humidity and seagull poop on your car.”
Besides, she needed Ryan close to Nana and Bill. Lisa needed to know someone was there to take care of them since she would be hundreds of miles away.
She wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if Ryan wasn’t in the same place as Nana and Pops.
Of course, she’d be doing plenty of tossing and turning thinking about this Spring Break to remember—and the man she’d never forget, the one who had taught her to be more spontaneous, to trust in her instincts, and to not be afraid to take a gamble on life every now and then.
“You never know until you ask, Lisa Marie. Remember where you got with not asking me about my plans with Bill and your suspicions about how my brain was—or wasn’t—working.”
Lisa frowned at the recent, biting memory. That shoe fit. And it was way too tight.
“But what would I say, Nana? Hey, I’ve known you for less than a week...wanna run off with me to the paradise of Port Provident, Texas?”
“That doesn’t sound appealing at all.” Nana tsk-tsked with her tone of voice.
“Exactly. It sounds crazy. Which is what it is.”
Nana reached up and took Lisa’s hand in her own, the swirls of her fingertips softened and worn down by more than nine decades of living. It felt like the touch of a velvet teddy bear, holding on tightly to a dream.
“No. What’s crazy is not listening to your heart and watching someone walk out of your life, possibly forever. You don’t have to deal with World War II, but this is one lesson you need to make sure you learn from me.”
Lisa paused, conflicted by Nana’s words. “But Nana, I still don’t understand something. If you hadn’t gone your separate ways back then, you wouldn’t have me. Bill wouldn’t have Ryan. If you erase the mistakes of your past, then you erase me.”
Nana’s fingers squeezed the edges of Lisa’s palm tightly. “That’s when it all comes down to faith. Knowing that God works out our lives the way they’re supposed to. But that doesn’t mean we abdicate responsibility for making thoughtful decisions, or just throw our lives to the wind like a boomerang and hope it comes back to us.”
Something about Nana’s words slowed the whirling thoughts in Lisa’s mind. She’d been guilty of not always making the most thoughtful decisions.
“But what should I do, Nana?”
She remembered being a child, sitting at the window at the front of her house, waiting on her mother to come home, and asking Nana the same question. What should I do?
Lisa didn’t want to waste her life waiting and wishing and hoping. She’d done that as a child because that was the only course of action she knew to take. This time, she knew better.
Nana patted Lisa on the hand, always a steady presence in her life.
“Follow your heart.”
