"A meaningful relationship? With a woman? My brother?" Laughing, Chase rolled onto his back.
Tanya propped herself up on one elbow. "You think the notion is that ridiculous?"
"As long as there's more than one living, breathing female alive on planet Earth, Lucky will never be faithful to just one."
"I think you're doing him an injustice. He's more sensitive than you think. And he can be very loyal."
"Oh, I agree. He can be very loyal to several women at one time." Laughter lurked beneath his serious words. "Did I ever tell you how Lucky got his nickname?"
"Come to think of it, no."
"You never wondered why a James Lawrence would be nicknamed Lucky?"
"I took it for granted. For as long as I've known you, that's what you and everyone else has called him."
Stacking both hands behind his head, Chase laughed softly. "I was in tenth grade. He was in ninth, about fourteen, I guess. There was this girl, a woman really, about twenty, who lived in Kilgore. To put it bluntly, she was a tramp. She worked at being a tramp. Real hot-looking. Dressed to display her endowments. She kept all the boys in several counties in a constant state of arousal, but never came across with the goods.
"So one night, me and some of my friends decided to take a car—we couldn't legally drive yet—and go to Kilgore for a look-see at this gal. Lucky begged to come along. We finally agreed after he threatened to squeal our plans to our parents.
"Off we went. After driving around Kilgore for an hour, we found her. She was strutting her stuff at one of the local bowling alleys. All of us ogled until our eyes were bugging out and our tongues were lolling. But Lucky was the only one who worked up the courage to speak to her. Damned if the rascal didn't end up smooth-talking his way into her car, then into her house.
"Positively awestruck, we followed them there. He stayed inside for two hours. The kid who'd sneaked out the family car was in a panic to get back to Milton Point before his folks discovered it missing. He finally started honking the horn. When Lucky came out from around back, he was pulling on his shirt and wearing this very smug grin on his face.
"It made me mad as hell that my little brother had succeeded in doing what so many others had tried to do and failed. I said, 'Quit grinning, you little bastard. You just lucked out, is all.' 'Call me Lucky,' he said, still wearing that complacent grin."
Tanya was trying to look horrified while suppressing a giggle. "You're both incorrigible. How did you explain his new nickname to your parents?"
"I forget now what explanation we came up with. Anyway, from that night forward, the name stuck. He's been Lucky to everybody."
Tanya sighed, resting her head on Chase's hairy chest and sadly recalling what had prompted the story. "I don't think he's feeling very lucky these days."
"No," Chase agreed. Folding his arms around her, he held her close. "But I am."
* * *
Devon had reams of research material to read, dozens of periodicals to peruse, and thousands of words to compose, but she couldn't concentrate on anything except her encounter with Lucky the evening before.
In her mind she continued to see his face as it had looked when she told him she was married. His expression had been a mix of incredulity and outrage. His eyes, initially blank with stupefaction, had grown frigid by degrees, until they achieved that hard, cold glare that she shivered beneath even in recollection.
Feeling restless, she left the enclosure of her office and took the long route through the city room to the alcove of vending machines. Desultorily she inserted the required coinage into the refrigerated box. The coins dropped into the concealed bin with a metallic echo that sounded as hollow as she felt. Coworkers spoke to her as she passed their desks on her way back. She pretended not to hear.
"Hey, Devon, what happened with the blond hunk yesterday?"
Ignoring that question, she closed her office door behind her to discourage interruption and returned to her desk, setting aside the cold drink. She hadn't really been thirsty. Getting the drink had merely been a diversion from her haunting thoughts.
"I'm married."
Bending her head over her desk and holding it between her hands, she repeated the words. "I'm married. I'm married."
And yet she wasn't. The license was signed. The judge had pronounced her wed. It was official. As far as the sovereign state of Texas was concerned, she was married.
"But I'm not," she whispered with frustration. It was a marriage she could easily get out of. She certainly had the grounds to seek an annulment. Anyone who heard her case would sympathize. No one acquainted with the facts would condemn her.
She, Devon Haines alone, was standing in the way of her own freedom from a marriage that amounted to no more than a piece of paper. But it was the right thing to do. She had walked into it with both eyes open.
Whether or not it was a bad decision, she had to live with it.
Lucky Tyler didn't know the conditions of her marital status. He probably wouldn't care. He condemned her for being an unfaithful married woman who had duped him into sharing a night of sin and was now unwilling to pay the price. There was no way she could help him without jeopardizing herself and her husband.