Chapter 55

"Who was that?" Lucky asked, looking up from his task of arranging place
settings.

"Emily called," Liz answered, coming out of the kitchen. "Apparently she and
Nikolas aren't going to be able to make it tonight...Emily feels like she's
coming down with something."

Lucky silently cursed. He had been banking on Emily and Nikolas to keep him
company. He couldn't believe that he dreaded having to be alone with his
wife...what was his world coming to?

It was against Lucky's nature to lie, and the last few days were beginning to
take their toll on him. He couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, and now that
Elizabeth was home for the weekend things had gotton even worse. He was
constantly doing battle with his own mind. One minute, he was on the verge of
telling her everything, and the next minute all he wanted to do was wisk her
off to some deserted island where neither of them would have to see or hear
from anyone ever again. That included Sam. She had definitely made her
presence felt during the last few days, constantly making silent threats with
her eyes, willing him to try and throw her out of Kelly's...to even raise his
voice to her. Everytime he saw her he wanted to hit her. Lucky Spencer
actually wanted to hit a woman.

"Well I guess we oughtta reopen the place then, huh?" Lucky asked, putting
the knives and forks down on the table. "No sense in closing up early if
we're not having a party..."

Suddenly he felt her small hands clasp around his waist, as she placed a
small kiss on the back of his shoulder. "I don't think so," she wispered.
"I'm thinkin' that we can still have our own little private party."

Liz looked around at her empty surroundings. "Why waste a good thing?" she
continued, sautering in front of him and hopping up on the table. She reached
for his top button, slowly working her way down. "Remember when you told me
about that little fantasy of yours...about you and me - alone here in
Kelly's...well we've got the whole place to ourselves Lucky...why don't we
try and make some dreams come true..."

Suddenly, Lucky grasped her hands, stilling their movement. "Not tonight
baby. I'm kinda tired," he said, grinning slightly. It was a constant battle.
He kept telling himself he couldn't touch her, that it wasn't right...yet it
was all he could think about.

He'd spent the entire week missing her, yet dreading her return. Friday night
he'd survived by conviently falling asleep while she was in the shower.

Liz leaned back on the table, taking her hands away from Lucky's shirt.
Never, in their 5 months of marriage ahd she ever heard those words come out
of his mouth. She decided to try a different approach. She slowly ran her
foot against the outside of his leg. "Well how 'bout we go upstairs...and you
just lie back and let me do all the work?" She added the last with a kiss
that she knew was a surefire way to rid all signs of fatigue.

Lucky wanted her more than anything, but this time he would not give in. He
circled her wrists, and withdrew her hands from his face. "Not tonight ok?"
he asked, placing a kiss on the palm of her hand. That kiss nearly caused his
undoing.

He saw her eyes dart towards the floor as she wispered "ok," in response and
his heart nearly broke. He was doing this completely wrong and he knew it. He
was only succeeding in hurting her even more because she didn't understand
what was happening, why he was rejecting her advances. He slowly brought her
chin up with his finger. "I love you," he said, staring deeply into her eyes.
"I love you so much...you know that right?"

"Lucky what's wrong?" she asked, tears beginning to brim in her eyes.

Lucky blinked back his own. "Nothing - "

"'Cause you would tell me right?...I mean, if I did something to upset
you...to make you angry with me..."

"No, no...I love you. I love you Elizabeth...It's me. Not you. It's me. I
just get moody sometimes you know...I'm just wierd sometimes."

"Yeah," she wispered, looking down at the floor again. She then looked up. "I
love you."

She slid off the table then and started for the stairs, desperate to get in
bed, turn off the lights, and cry before Lucky came up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh Sam," said Laura as she walked through the door hanging up her coat. "I
wanna thank you so much for doing this for Luke and I...it's been so long
since we've gotton to be alone. I hope LuLu wasn't too much of a problem."

Sam rose from the couch, grabbing her purse. "No, Mrs. Spencer, I
mean...Laura. She was the perfect little angel."

"Well," said Luke, hanging up his own coat."I'm gonna go up and say goodnight
to my little darlin' and then turn in...thank you Sam."

"Anytime Mr. Spencer, anytime."

Chapter 56

"Liz, honey...you just gotta sit the man down and talk to him. Tell him how
you're feeling." Reese said, patting her friend's hand comfortingly.

Liz nodded her head slowly in agreement. The weekend had come and gone and
for the first time since they'd been married Liz and Lucky had barely spoken
to each other. He always seemed to be either "busy" with Kelly's, tired, or
sick, and the few instances where they did talk, Lucky didn't speak until
spoken to. He was withdrawn. He was distant, and Liz felt rejected. She felt
lonlier this weekend, with him lieing right beside her in bed everynight,
then she ever had in her small little dorm room at school. So many thoughts
ran through her mind all at once that it was all she could do not to cry
everytime they were in the same room.

She'd left for awhile on Sunday to go in her "mini studio." The room over the
bikeshop that had once been Lucky's. She'd gone there to clear her head, try
and think of what could have gone wrong, but all she wound up thinking about
were all the good times they'd had in that room.

"I just don't understand it Reese," Liz said finally. "He's never acted like
this with me. I mean, I've seen him distant and withdrawn like this with his
parents, when he was mad at them for so long...but he swears up and down he's
not angry with me."

"Well, he's probably not Liz...maybe...he really was sick."

Liz sighed. "Reese, Lucky could have the Flu and still wanna make love...the
man broke his arm a little while after we were married...do you think that
stopped us?"

Reese laughed out loud. "Well...maybe...I don't know..." she tried not to
have the thoughts she was having, but Liz read her mind too quickly.

"You think he's having an affair?" she asked, her eyes wide and her voice
soft.

"No," Reese stated immediately. "I didn't say that. And everything you've
ever told me about Lucky, tells me that he would never cheat on you."

"But if he - "

"No. Don't even think it Liz...Besides, you've only been married for
what?...5 months now? He couldn't possibly be that tired of you yet," she
added, trying to bring some levity to the situation. It succeeded in doing
the opposite, as Liz burst into tears.

"Oh gosh," Reese said, hugging her friend. "Lizzie...hun..it was a joke.
Honey, you know Lucky would never ever cheat on you. Come on Liz...all the
stories you've told me about you two...he would never...look at me," she said
pulling away from Liz. "You know your husband is crazy in love with
you...Kyle's got the stitches to prove it...so just dry those tears and go
back to making the rest of the female population insanely jealous of you, ok?"

Liz giggled and nodded through her tears. "Ok," she said, sniffling. "Thank
you Reese."

She thanked her lucky stars everyday for getting Reese as a roomate. The girl
could always make her laugh and her slight southern twang made her that much
more endearing.

"You're welcome," Reese said smiling. "Jeez, girl what would you do without
me?...Don't answer that...Ok, so what are you going to do tomorrow?" She
asked, quizzing Liz.

"I'm going to sit Lucky down and MAKE him tell me what's wrong...although
that maybe a little tough Reese, it's Thanksgiving weekend. We're probalby
going to be at his parent's house the whole time."

"Well then, do it as soon as you get home...BEFORE you go to his parent's
house. That way, you guys will get to be all lovey dovey at the dinner
table...Girl I can hear you now, 'Sweetums, will you please pass the mashed
potatoes?...Only if you pass the sugarplums my Sugarplum.' "

Liz didn't say anything, she simply threw her pillow at Reese's head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lucky stumbled through the darkness, feeling his hand along the wall for the
light switch as he neared the door. "Who is it?" he asked groggily.

"It's me," she said breathily through the door.

Lucky looked up at the clock, it was two in the morning. "What the Hell do
you want Sam?!" he yelled, yanking the door open.

Sam let her eyes devour Lucky's body as he stood before her in only his boxer
shorts. "I could name a few things," she sighed.

Suddenly Lucky began to close the door, but Sam quickly leaned against it,
keeping it from closing. She brushed past him and walked inside, plopping
down on his sofa. She looked around, surveying the state of the room. There
were clothes strewn about, a few soda cans on the coffee table. "Wow, I like
what you've done with the place Lucky,"she laughed. "The place sure does get
messy without Miss Lizzie around huh?"

"Don't you mention my wifes' name again," Lucky said, pointing a finger at
her.

"Oooh...somebody's touchy. Did I wake you up on the wrong side of the bed
sweetie?" she asked, sauntering over to where Lucky stood. She trailed a
finger down his chest. "If so...we can go back to bed and fix that."

Lucky grabbed her hands roughly, causing Sam to wince a bit. "Oh,
Lucky...how'd you know I liked it rough...you were pretty wild last time,
but..."

"Shut up!" Lucky shouted, close to her face and still holding on to her
wrists. "Shut up! I don't wanna hear another word out of your mouth ok?
Complete silence..."

"Well Lucky...talking isn't exactly what I had in mind anyways..."

Lucky took a step back then, realeasing her hands swiftly. "Get out," he said
flattly.

With those words, Sam's flirty attitude went straight out the window. "You
know Lucky...if I were you I wouldn't be giving me any orders. In fact, Lucky
if I were you...I would be very, very nice to me. And do you know why Lucky?
I'll give you a hint: It's because I hold all the cards. I have the power to
change your life...Did you know that Luck'? I'm sure you did. I mean, you
have been walking around here in quite the sullen mood, and it's all because
you won't tell that little wife of yours that we slept together...Lucky just
do it. Just tell that little bitch that you want me, and then we'll be free
to be together."

Lucky stood there for a long moment after she was finished, biting his lip.
He absorped her words. The shear insanity of the girl that stood before him
was finally beginning to sink in. When he finally spoke, his voice was eerily
calm.

"Sam, I want you to know, that if you were a man standing in front of me
right now...I'd hit you."

Sam narrowed the gap between them and stared into his deep blue eyes. "Well
Lucky...I'm not a man, I'm just a little ol' girl, who for some reason seems
to threaten the Hell out of you. Why is that Lucky? I didn't force you to
sleep with me, Hell I didn't even have to beg. So stop acting like the victim
in this."

Lucky sighed and shook his head. "You know what Sam...whatever bout with
insanity I had that night...you can rest assured it's over. It was over the
second I saw you lieing next to me in that bed."

Lucky burried his face in his hands and brought it back up swiflty as if he
had suddenly decided something. "I'm telling my wife....I'm telling her as
soon as I see her again...she's everything to me and she has to know. I may
lose her...I may very well lose her, but I have to do this."

Sam grinned and folded her arms. "Do whatever you have to do Lucky...I will,"
she said, as she walked out of the door.