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“Lisa, have you heard a word that I’ve said?” Amanda Marsh looked at her co-worker with an exasperated look that she usually saved for students texting in class.
“Fine, no. I haven’t.” Lisa scooped up a handful of curly hair and twisted it around, securing it with several bobby pins. She leaned forward toward the makeup mirror and plucked a few curls out of the twist to fall softly around her face. “I just don’t want to go.”
“You’re singing show tunes tonight. You can’t get out of it.” Amanda rifled through a drawer of stage makeup and pulled out a bright red lipstick, then handed it to Lisa.
“I could break my leg.”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “That’s an expression, Fleming. No one actually expects a performer to come to grievous bodily harm. It’s been two months since Spring Break. You can let yourself have a little fun, you know?”
Lisa traced the lipstick around her mouth. Just the mere mention of Spring Break made her want to go into her office and shut the door. “It’s not that, Amanda.”
“Then what is it? You haven’t been the same all semester. Tonight is supposed to be fun and supporting the STEM Academy.”
“I forgot about this one—that’ll teach me to not write things in my planner. It’s fine. I just had plans tonight.” Sure, those plans involved chocolate ice cream and a few episodes of true crime shows, but Amanda didn’t need to know the details—best friend or not.
“Plans? You have ducked out of plans regularly since Spring Break. Now that the spring show is over, you can’t use that as an excuse anymore.” Amanda sat in the chair next to Lisa and picked up a tube of mascara. “Have you heard anything from Ryan lately? Wasn’t Nana supposed to go in for some tests this week?”
Lisa slowly began to clean up the makeup she’d pulled from the drawer. “She did. She’s going to call me next week with the results.”
“But Ryan hasn’t called?” Amanda put down the mascara and started digging through the many shades of lipstick.
“No. And why would he?” Lisa threaded a gold hoop earring through her ear.
“I don’t know. Because he thinks about you as much as you think about him?”
Lisa turned and stared straight at Amanda, who had pulled her lips into the perfect pout for lipstick application. “He does not. And I don’t either.”
Amanda raised an eyebrow as she stared into the oversized mirror. “Didn’t your Nana teach you not to lie? Speaking of poker night, you do not have a poker face, Lisa. It’s a good thing you’re singing tonight and not playing.”
“I miss him,” Lisa said simply, not knowing how her best friend would react to the declaration.
“Of course you do. I see it every day on your face.” Amanda replaced the cap on the lipstick. “What did you say he said to you as he left the suite that night?”
“He’d look after Nana and Pops like I asked.” She had never been so sad about someone doing exactly what she asked them to do.
Amanda pushed the chair back from the makeup table and stood up, reaching over to the switch to turn off the lights that framed the mirror. “Not that. The last part.”
“I was wrong.” There was no sense in embellishing or trying to provide further explanation. At this point, it was all water under the bridge. Two months had gone by. They’d barely talked—and certainly hadn’t spoken of anything beyond Nana’s basic care.
“You were, you know.”
Lisa flipped the switch on the set of lights closest to her. “So what if I was? It doesn’t change anything. I have a life here. He has a life there. Someone has to look out for Nana and Pops.”
“School’s almost out for the summer.” Amanda’s voice took on a sing-song quality that grated on Lisa’s nerves.
“I’m teaching drama camp in summer school. I have medical bills to pay off from Nana’s doctor appointments before she left town. I need the money.”
Amanda picked up her thin black clutch handbag. “You need to call Ryan.”
“Look, Amanda. I’m really glad that everything is working out so well for you and Luke. But it’s just going to be like that for me. Let’s just go on and go to the event. The sooner I get there, the sooner I can sing and then go home.”
Amanda started to hum a tune under her breath as they walked out of the backstage area at the Port Provident High School theater. “I wanna go home with the armadillo...”
Lisa couldn’t even hear the rest of the refrain. Her heart squeezed tight. She remembered that night under the stars by the pool at the Renaissance Grand. She told Ryan she wasn’t his fiancée. She told him she wanted to go home. She told him she didn’t want to be there.
Now, there was no place else in the world that she wanted to be than in his arms again, under the stars, like the last words between them in the penthouse had never been said.
She no longer wanted to be home with the armadillo.
She wanted to be home with Ryan. With Nana and Pops. With her family. But they all seemed to be doing fine without her in Las Vegas.
Her students still needed her, though.
And so here she would stay.
With the armadillos of Texas instead of the Lucky Charm of Las Vegas.
Ryan liked the setup for tonight’s event, a little local B&B called Provident Hill. He’d been asked to step in at the last minute for this STEM Academy fundraiser with the Cutting Edge Students charity. But Jim Palmer had come down with the flu, so Ryan hopped on a plane this morning.
It felt strange to be in Port Provident, knowing Lisa was somewhere on this island. Ryan had thrown himself into his new role as Director of Development for Cutting Edge, going around the country trying to help schools fundraise for science, math, and technology education. He loved the new job. It was creative, filled with purpose and meeting new people, and still kept him connected to the Shamrocks for Students tournament.
Now, it brought him to Lisa Fleming’s backyard.
He should have called her on the drive to the airport to let her know about today’s plans. But then he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from asking her to pull that little black dress with the feathers out of her closet and to be his date for the night.
And he wouldn’t let himself do that. She’d made it clear that last night in Vegas where things stood. She wasn’t comfortable with gambling her future on him and the lightning-quick sparks they’d found together.
He didn’t like it, but as he walked alone with his thoughts around every square inch of the Renaissance Grand that night, he came to accept it. In fact, without that walk, he wouldn’t have run into Jim Palmer and he wouldn’t have this new direction in his life.
So, he had Lisa to thank for that. The least he could do was respect that she just didn’t want any more changes in her life. She simply wanted her Nana taken care of. He admired her loyalty, even if it meant that was as far as the daydreams in his mind about what might have been could ever go.
“Thanks for coming out tonight, Ryan.” A man in a sport coat put out his hand. “I’m Luke Baker, head of the new science department for the new STEM Academy. And this is Philip Bell—he is the architect on the new campus.”
“It’s nice to meet you both. The Foundation is looking forward to a continued partnership to make this new high school an asset to the community and the students. Have you started working on your wish list for the labs? I know that’s what we’re raising money here for tonight.”
Luke nodded. “My list gets longer by the day. I’m a former research chemist-turned-teacher, so there are so many tools I want to get in the hands of these curious kids.”
“So teaching is a career change for you?” Ryan felt like he’d met a kindred spirit—someone else who had recently made a job shift.
Luke explained how he’d made his way to Port Provident High School and would be moving next year to the new science-and-technology-focused campus when it opened. “And how about you? Have you been with the Foundation long?”
“Only about two months. Before that, I was on the professional poker circuit.”
Luke tilted his head slightly. “Lucky Charm?”
Ryan felt a bit taken aback. “I haven’t heard that one since March. How’d you know?”
Luke hesitated. It was enough to set Ryan’s radar off in a way he hadn’t felt since leaving the table at Shamrocks for Students.
“You know Lisa Fleming.” Ryan laid it out there.
“We work together.” Luke’s face lost the relaxed smile he’d had when introducing himself and Philip only moments before.
Ryan needed to know. “Is she planning on being here tonight?”
Luke pointed at a sign near the front of the room. Lisa’s headshot took up half the poster. “She’s the entertainment.”
Ryan couldn’t stop staring at the poster. He’d never been sent down the river this swiftly. He’d missed those honey-gold eyes so much. And that smile.
His mouth went dry, just looking at the oversized photograph. What would he do when he called her tomorrow?
He heard footsteps and chatter all around, but none of it broke through.
“Ryan? I’d like to introduce Amanda Marsh, English teacher at Port Provident High. And you already know Lisa Fleming.”
“I do.” He turned his head away from the photo and toward the reality. “Lisa...it’s good to see you.”
She had on the black feather dress. He’d seen it almost every night in his dreams for the last two months. Even in a B&B, Lisa looked just as stunning in it as she did under the lights of Vegas. There was nowhere that Lisa wouldn’t shine.
“It’s surprising to see you, Ryan. Why are you in Port Provident?” Lisa’s eyebrows pinched together tightly. She looked fiercely beautiful.
“Work.” He gestured around the room.
“But you retired.”
“I am now in education, in a manner of speaking.”
Lisa stood tall on her shiny, towering heels. “How so?”
“A friend of mine once told me I could make a difference for kids. Tonight’s event in partnership with the Cutting Edge Students foundation—they’re the ones who run a little St. Patrick’s Day poker tournament you attended once upon a time.”
She looked around the room. “So you’re still playing poker?”
“No, I’m the Director of Development. I’m the bridge between donors and the charity. I’m specifically here tonight to talk with Jake Peoples from the Peoples Family Foundation. Jake and his family have agreed to give the lead gift for the STEM Academy. The building will be named for them.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice dropped to a whisper. It reminded him of bumping into her on the sidewalk beside the pool area at the Renaissance Grand. She’d been scared and angry then.
And he didn’t blame her one bit for feeling both of those emotions right now.
“It was a last-minute trip. My boss got sick this morning and needed someone to hop on a plane. I should have called you.”
“Yes, you should have.”
He heard her loud and clear that time.
He felt some fear of his own as he replied. “I didn’t think you wanted to hear from me.”
“I never intended for us to not be friends, Ryan. That wasn’t what I meant that night in your suite.” Lisa picked up a mini quiche from a tray being passed around the room.
Ryan couldn’t take his eyes off her. He drank in the sight of her curves in that short black dress like he was still out in the Nevada desert, parched and needing an oasis.
“You were the biggest hand I ever played. I had never met anyone like you. And I didn’t want to be just friends. I wanted to give you the fairy tale. We happened in Vegas. And I’d hoped you would stay in Vegas.”
Her neck tucked slightly, taking her line of sight away from Ryan’s face.
“I couldn’t. I’d made commitments. And I couldn’t break them. Even if...”
“Even if?” Ryan wanted—no, he needed—her to finish the sentence.
“Even if it broke my heart.” She raised her head once again. “But you were right.”
“I was?”
“I was wrong. There could have been another way. I should have trusted you enough to talk about it, to find a solution.”
Ryan smiled. He had an ace to play. “You want to talk now?”
Lisa’s golden eyes darted around the room. “Here? Like this?”
“Why not?” Ryan shrugged. He couldn’t keep his smile from growing bigger.
“Because it’s a charity fundraiser, not a counseling session?” Skepticism settled across her face.
Ryan put his hands on her shoulders. Feeling the silk of her skin was just as electrifying to him as his days at the top of his game had once been. “A charity fundraiser for your students. The ones you’ve made a commitment to. Seems like the perfect place to me.”
Lisa shook her head, but made no move to shake off his touch. So at least he had that going for him, Ryan thought.
“I have to sing in a moment.”
He tugged her a little closer.
“That’s okay. This won’t take long.” Ryan leaned toward Lisa, stopping so his lips were just over her left ear. “I want to go home with the armadillo.”
He half expected her to tell him he’d gone crazy. And she’d be right. Crazy for her.
“There’s that song again. Amanda was humming it earlier.”
“Remember when you told me you weren’t going to be my fiancée in Vegas because you wanted to go home?” Ryan stood up straight. He wanted to see Lisa’s face clearly in the glow of the candles and twinkle lights that decorated the main event room at the B&B.
She nodded. “Very clearly.”
“Well, would you be my fiancée if you could stay home?”
The tiniest of smiles tugged upwards on the corner of her lips. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re home. I’m here. I can now work from anywhere. I could base myself here. With you. What do you think about that?”
Lisa’s smile grew. “But what about Nana and Pops?”
Ryan couldn’t keep a small laugh from escaping. “Nana’s on a beach house kick. She told her doctor she needs to be bi-coastal. She’d move back. And Pops loves to fish.”
“If they would come...and you would come...” Lisa trailed off. “Is there anything we’ve forgotten?”
Ryan nodded and pulled Lisa against him. “Only this.”
Leaning down, he kissed her. The regret of the last two months, the one thing that had held him back from throwing himself fully into his new job and his new life melted like snow when confronted with sunshine.
Lisa was his queen, his ace, his biggest jackpot ever.
As he lifted his head, Ryan looked into Lisa’s eyes. There was one more thing missing.
“We forgot something else,” he said low enough that no one else would hear him.
She didn’t move, lingering in the embrace. “What’s that?”
“A real proposal. I’ve asked you to marry me a few times, but those were all practice. This time I mean it.” He took both her hands in his. “I don’t have a ring—and if I go down on one knee, everyone in here will stare—so I’m going to have to ask you again. But I want to make sure this time you actually give me an answer.”
Lisa nodded. “I think that can be arranged.”
“Lisa Marie Fleming, will you marry me?”
“Yes.” The smile that crossed her face shone brighter than the stars. She snuggled back into his arms, drawing close and lifting her face for another kiss.
“I spent years being the Lucky Charm at the tables, but the day you came into my life, I became lucky in love—and spending forever with you is the greatest jackpot of all.”
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