Lucky in Love

by Kelly Elliott

  Okay, well, it appears my family is happy about this.

  “Y’all be careful,” I said as I watched Ryan and Truitt walk out of the kitchen. “Your cane, Truitt!” I called out and quickly brought it to him.

  He snarled his lip as he looked at it. “Do I really have to?”

  “Yes, you really have to.”

  Reluctantly, he took the cane, even with Ryan chuckling.

  “Shut up or I’ll hit you over the head with it!” Truitt said in a low voice so that Liliana couldn’t hear him.

  “Please don’t do anything that will hurt you even more,” I said.

  Ryan lost it laughing. “If you’re going to date this man, you better get that thought out of your head, sis.”

  Truitt glanced over his shoulder at me and smiled once more. It was the type of smile that little girls dream of. The one that says a million different things all at once.

  I love you. I’ll miss you. I want you. You’re mine.

  Truitt Carter had officially made me fall in love with him because of pancakes, winks, and smiles.

  “See you soon, sweetheart.”

  I let out a sigh and whispered to myself, “And by calling me sweetheart.”

  Liliana came up and took my hand in hers.

  “I wuv Twuitt, Mommy.”

  And there ya go. That clinched it.

  “Me, too, pumpkin. Me, too.”

  Truitt

  RYAN AND I drove to Imaginations Unlimited first. Even though I didn’t want to use the cane, I did it. I didn’t really want to be laid up even longer simply because I was too proud to use a fucking cane.

  “Well, if it isn’t boss man,” Jack said with a huge grin on his face. “Did you get my flowers?”

  I shot him a dirty look. “Fuck off. How is everything going? All the finishing work getting done?”

  He sighed and shook his head. “Seriously, you trust me so little that you came down here to check up on things? Yes, we are ahead of schedule and will be ready for the delivery on Christmas Eve. Stop worrying.”

  “I trust you, it’s just that I want this to go smoothly. The fact that we’re having to use a new trucking company makes me nervous. So, where are we on everything?”

  Jack started toward the shop. When we walked into the large room, I took a quick look around. The playhouse was broken up into five large pieces that would be assembled together once we got it delivered. Each piece had to be carefully loaded onto the trucks, then tethered down.

  “All the exterior painting is finished, same for the interior. Lee has finished doing all the stenciling Mrs. Night wanted to do on the inside. A few last-minute additions, and then we’ll be ready to start loading up the pieces.”

  “Good, I’m glad we’re on track. I’ll be back in tomorrow if I can.”

  Jack rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Ryan, then back to me. “Roger told me that unless it was an absolute emergency, you were not to be bothered. And not to expect you back for at least a week. He said you needed…to heal.”

  “I needed to heal? My brother said that?”

  Jack cleared his throat. “Something along those lines.”

  This time I looked at Ryan who wore a smug expression. I couldn’t figure out why in the hell my brother would interfere in my job. I would have never told his staff not to bother him. I made a note to myself to talk to him later today.

  Ryan lifted his hands up in defense. “Listen, I’m staying out of this. It’s bad enough I have a mother who is…”

  “Scheming,” Jack quickly added.

  I rolled my eyes. “It was never lost on me what your mother was up to, Ryan. But, she also wants a playhouse for her granddaughter, and I would really like to finish this job, so…” I looked at Jack. “Can we please get back to the subject at hand?”

  He nodded, then cleared his throat. “Right, it’s all good to go, Truitt. I’ve checked and rechecked everything. We will be ready for the move.”

  “Christmas Eve is in two weeks,” I said more to myself than anyone else.

  “It’s all going to be fine,” Ryan said this time. “I’m pretty sure my mother’s main objective with this playhouse was to get you and Saryn together. Mission accomplished.”

  I smiled. “She had me fooled in the beginning, until your sister stormed into my office ready to fire me.”

  Ryan and Jack both laughed.

  “I’m just glad your mother had already signed the contract and put a deposit down,” I mused.

  With a smirk, Ryan said, “The woman is smart, I’m telling you.”

  I looked back over the pieces. “I just want Liliana to love this playhouse and for it to be a good Christmas for both of them back home in Boerne.”

  Ryan placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. “Liliana is going to be over the moon, but I’m pretty sure that’s not going to be her best gift.”

  Facing, him, I lifted a brow. “What will be?”

  He let out a soft chuckle. “You, Truitt.”

  “Me?” I asked in a surprised voice.

  “Dude, if you can’t see the way my niece and sister look at you, then you aren’t paying enough attention.”

  A loud bang had the three of us turning and looking at the last playhouse piece.

  “Shit!” Jack and I said at the same time as we made our way over to the piece.

  “Well, that can’t be good,” Ryan mumbled from behind us.

  “It’s okay! It’s just a piece of wood that was leaning against the wall. It dropped!” Jack said.

  I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Truitt, we need to take off if you don’t want to miss your opportunity,” Ryan quietly said when he walked up next to me.

  “Right, let’s do this. Jack, you’re in charge.”

  He rolled his eyes and then saluted me. “Just get out of here and take it easy, will you?”

  “I have one more thing to take care of, and then I plan to take it easy the rest of the day.”

  Ryan and I barely spoke two words as we drove to the Bevy Hotel to pay a visit to Tim. I finally broke the silence.

  “Why is he staying at a hotel and not his folks’ place?” I asked.

  With a shrug, Ryan replied, “Probably because he’s been keeping late hours, getting drunk out of his mind, and spending a lot of that newfound money he came into.”

  I shook my head in disgust. “Asshole.”

  “Always thought he was.”

  “What in the hell did your sister see in him?”

  When Ryan didn’t answer for a while, I looked at him and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  He gripped the steering wheel. “It’s my fault she ended up with him.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If I had just been open with you and told you I knew you liked her and that I was okay with you asking her out, she would have never ended up with him. It’s just, I wasn’t sure at the time if I really was okay with you asking her out. She’s my sister and I worried that she’d get hurt when you left for college, or that she’d follow you and not do her own thing. It turns out she ended up following an asshole who lied to her from day one.”

  “The past is the past, Ryan. If she hadn’t married him, Liliana wouldn’t be here.”

  He let out an exasperated sigh. “I know and I’m thankful for her. I am.”

  We pulled up to the hotel and parked. “I hate this motherfucker; I’m going to be upfront with you. It’s not good enough that he cheated on my sister, gave up his daughter, and is trying to make Saryn’s life miserable, but now he won’t go the fuck away.”

  “I’m not a fan of him either. What room is he in?”

  “Third floor, Room 2020.”

  I opened the door to the truck and got out. I left the cane behind, even though my knee had started to ache pretty good. But I wasn’t about to show any signs of weakness.

  Ryan knocked on the door. When it opened and Tim saw us, he went to shut it again. Ryan’s boot kept him from doing that. I grabbed Tim by
the shirt and pushed him back into his room.

  “What in the hell are you two doing? Get out of my room,” Tim shouted.

  I gave him a good push that caused him to stumble back and then sit on the end of his bed.

  “You’re telling stories, Tim,” I said as I pulled the desk chair out, spun it around, and sat down.

  He looked down at my knees.

  “Aww, don’t worry about me, I’m healing up just fine. I’ve got a personal nurse looking after me.”

  Tim looked over to Ryan, almost expecting him to go after me for my comment.

  “Listen, I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” Tim said, “but you don’t scare me, Truitt. You never have.”

  I raised a brow. “I didn’t realize you thought I was trying to scare you. I’m not trying to do anything. I’m simply here to tell you that if you don’t stop spreading rumors around about Saryn and Liliana, I will hurt you so bad that you won’t be able to walk or talk for weeks.”

  He let out a humorless laugh. “You realize you’re threatening me bodily harm, don’t you?”

  With a shrug, I replied, “I have a good lawyer if I need one. And I have a lot of money to pay for legal help if needed.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “You know that’s the only reason she’s with you. Money.”

  My jaw clenched. “She would have been with me a long time ago if you hadn’t fed her a bunch of lies.”

  He scoffed. “You could have had any girl in school, yet you had your eyes on her. It’s not my fault you were too afraid of Ryan to make a move.”

  I glared at him.

  “We both know you would have had sex with her and then moved on. I beat you to it. And Saryn being Saryn thought she owed something to me. You know, the guy who took her virginity and all.”

  Ryan moved across the room.

  “Ryan,” I called out. “Don’t.”

  He stopped and flexed his hands into fists as he said, “You little prick. You never deserved her. You lied to get her to even go out with you.”

  Tim shrugged and then looked back at me. “The only good thing that came out of my stupid marriage to her was that I had something you wanted.”

  Heat flared over my skin. “What is your fucking deal with me?”

  He growled. “Oh, please, like you don’t know.”

  “Dude, I honestly don’t. The only thing I know for sure is it’s taking every ounce of energy I have not to beat the living shit out of you.”

  Tim gave me a look that was filled with nothing but hatred. “Don’t act like you don’t know what we are to each other. You got everything, and I was forgotten like yesterday’s leftovers.”

  I gave him a questioning look.

  “You got the family, the fancy house, the ranch to run that both you and your brother fucking walked away from. You’re the town football hero, the guy who every girl in high school wanted to be with. And then you had to catch her eye. The one and only girl who actually was kind to me and talked to me. No, you couldn’t stand that, could you? So you plotted to take her away from me.”

  Ryan and I exchanged a quick look. What in the hell was this guy talking about?

  “I heard you that day. You and Nolan were talking in the study room in the library.”

  I stilled, the memory of that very day coming back at me in flash. It was the day I told Nolan how much I liked Saryn. How I was going to ask her out. I was a senior and she was a junior and I worried about leaving for college without telling her how I felt about her. Nolan had told me I needed to tell her how I felt first, then deal with Ryan.

  Tim laughed. “Don’t look so surprised. I was in the study room next to yours, and I heard every single word the two of you said. How you had always liked Saryn but never wanted to tell Ryan. How you fell hard for her your sophomore year. How you were worried that Ryan would be upset, but that you couldn’t stop thinking about her. There was no fucking way I was going to let that happen. I left the library and waited for Saryn after school that day. I told her how you were bragging about how you were going to ask her out and then sleep with her. That you wanted to be the one to punch the hole in her V-card. Needless to say, she was pissed, upset, hurt. I was there for her, though. Don’t worry, I took care of her.”

  I had to force myself to stay calm. That night I had gone over to Ryan and Saryn’s house with the intent of asking her out. She answered the door and I will never forget the look she gave me. My mind drifted back to the moment.

  The door opened and Saryn stood there. At first, she smiled when she saw me, then the smile slowly faded.

  “Ryan isn’t here, I’m not sure where he is.”

  I grinned. “I didn’t come to see Ryan. I was hoping to talk to you.”

  Her entire body went rigid. “Why?”

  I felt my heart pound rapidly in my chest, and before I could answer, she spoke again.

  “Unless it’s something important, do you think we can talk tomorrow, maybe? I’m actually getting ready to go out on a date.”

  “A date?” I asked, confused.

  Her smile looked forced. “Yeah, I’m going out with Tim.”

  “Tim?”

  “Ackerman. Tim Ackerman.”

  “So does that mean…I mean…I was going to see if you might want to go out, but…”

  My voice trailed off and something I couldn’t read passed over her face. It looked like a mix of regret and anger. She straightened her shoulders and swallowed hard. Neither of us said a word. I wanted to tell her all the reasons she shouldn’t go out with a dirtbag like Tim Ackerman.

  But the way she looked at me said I was the last person she would even think of going out with. Had I misread all the looks between us? The way she smiled at me or how her cheeks turned pink when I talked to her? I had it all wrong. In that moment I felt the walls go up around my heart.

  The sound of Ryan’s old pickup came up the gravel drive. I shook my head and took a step back.

  “Sorry to bother you, Saryn.” I turned and walked toward the truck. I never looked back at her; I was too afraid to see the look in her eyes or, worse yet, for her to see the pain in mine.

  I rubbed the back of my neck as the memory faded away. “That explains why she treated me so coldly that night when I went to ask her out.”

  “Is that why you were there?” Ryan asked.

  I simply nodded. Ryan glared at Tim and looked ready to pounce on him.

  “Listen, Tim, so you liked Saryn, fine. Why did you have to play a game, why not just let her pick who she wanted to be with?” I asked.

  “Are you listening to anything I’m saying, Carter? Are you that stupid? Do you really not get it?”

  I stood, pushed the chair out of my way, and grabbed Tim so fast he didn’t even have time to react. I pushed him against the wall, all the while ignoring the throbbing in my knee.

  “I’m sick of playing this fucking game with you. You took her away from me once, you’re not doing it again. And Liliana is not some sort of toy you get to toss around and tell stories about. You signed your parental rights away, and you know damn well there’s no way I could be her father.”

  An evil look passed over his face. “You don’t know. Holy shit. I hate to break this to you, Truitt, but you are indeed related to Liliana.”

  I frowned and then pushed him harder against the wall. “Stop talking bullshit. Have you lost your damn mind?”

  He laughed, and the pure coldness of it made my skin crawl.

  “You are related to her. You’re her uncle.”

  My grip on him eased up.

  “What?” Ryan and I both said at the same time.

  “God, this gives me such great pleasure to tell you this. Your father is also my daddy. Turns out he wasn’t so happy in his marriage with your momma and he slept with my mother. My father didn’t find out until a few years later. When he found out, he beat my mother and me. Told me I would never be his son. I was five at the time.”

  I let him go and took a few s
teps back. Nothing would come out of my mouth.

  “Before you ask, your daddy knew. So did your momma. They knew, and they let me stay in that toxic fucking house all those years. Beaten by a man who couldn’t even stand to look at me because I wasn’t his flesh and blood.”

  “And you never thought to ask Roger and me if we knew? If we had known we would have—”

  “You wouldn’t have done a damn thing. The two of you acted like the princes of Boerne. The sons of the great Nick Carter. The man everyone in town loved, and still fucking does. If people found out he had a bastard son, his whole life would have changed. He couldn’t have people thinking ill about him or his homecoming queen wife.”

  I grabbed him by the shirt again. “That’s enough.”

  “Fuck you, Truitt.”

  Before I could stop myself, I punched him. He dropped down to the floor and grabbed his jaw.

  “I’m telling you right now, take your fucking money you got from your little inheritance and crawl back to Dallas. Saryn and Liliana are no longer your concern, and no one wants you here.”

  “You gonna take care of them now?” he asked.

  “Yes. Because I happen to love them both.”

  He let out a roar of laughter. “You love them both? How sweet is that. The forbidden lovers have finally found their way to each other. The two of you deserve one another. As far as Liliana goes, I plan on getting a lawyer to recant my…”

  I stepped closer to him, causing his words to fade away.

  “You gave up your daughter, Tim. Listen to that closely. You. Gave. Her. Up. I will stop at nothing to make sure she never sees you again. And that little bit of money you came into, I can promise you this, I’ve got a lot more of it and can afford better lawyers.”

  His eyes flared.

  “If you spread one more rumor or even attempt to go near either one of my girls, you will regret it until the day you die.”

  “Your girls?” he repeated, venom dripping from each word.

  “That’s right. Mine. Since you brought him up, I’m sure you remember Nolan. He has ways of making people…pay for things.”

  I gave Tim’s chest a good push, causing his back to hit the door of his hotel room.