Lucky – Chapter 1
“Oh, Georgette Harris just waved to me.” Ever lifted her free hand and wiggled her fingers as Chloe giggled on the other end of the line. Then she lamented, “They think I’m one of them.”
“Don’t worry,” Chloe soothed her. “You’ll never be one of them. However …” The word trailed off and Ever’s ears perked up. “I’m hoping you’ll be one of mine.”
Ever took the bait. “One of your what?”
“One of my bridesmaids! Specifically, my maid of honor.”
With an excited squeal of glee, Ever stomped her feet inside her large black SUV. Grinning and dancing, she punched a fist into the air. “Yes. I knew it. Orlando is a smart man. Tell him I said so.”
“I will,” Chloe replied. “But I need an answer from you.”
“Oh, please, you know—” But she was cut off as her heart jolted at the sudden knock on her window.
Her head snapped to the left where a police officer rapped his dark-skinned knuckles against the glass as he bent down a little to peer in.
“Shit,” Ever muttered.
“What?” Chloe asked from the other end of the line.
But there wasn’t time to answer. Pulling the phone away from her head but not turning it off, Ever rolled down the window to the disturbingly good looking face of one Jackson Mayfair. “Can I help you, officer?”
His eyes darted around the car, and she wondered what in the hell she could possibly get pulled over for in the middle of the damn carpool line. As if it wasn’t the chore she already hated the most.
“No, ma’am,” he said. At least he was somewhat grinning, still bent at the waist to look in her window the way officers do when they’re about to tell you that you’re getting a ticket. Or worse. “I was curious if you needed help.”
Ever felt her eyes dart one way then another. Did he have his thumbs hooked into his belt? Was this one of those questions? She knew she had her own concerns painted across her face. Her expressions had always given her away. She worked at hiding them when she could. If she tried, she sometimes managed a straight face, but that only worked if she could think about it ahead of time.
She had not been prepared for the Crown Prince of Mayfair to knock on her window.
“No?” she asked it with a question mark.
“It just looked like …” He made a rolling motion with one hand as if he didn’t know how to say it.
“Oh!” Well, that was beyond embarrassing. “Sorry. Not having a seizure. It was just really great news for my friend.”
“She’s going to be my maid of honor!” Chloe yelled through the phone line, clearly having heard every last bit of this mortifying conversation. Even though it didn’t appear that Jackson Mayfair had.
“Alright,” he said. “Sorry I bothered you.” Something about his expression seemed off, though.
With a forced half smile that said, Gee, thanks officer without being too rude about it, she waved him away. She did not want a ticket. It was bad enough she was getting singled out in the carpool line while Georgette Harris watched.
Offering another half wave as he looked back one more time, she rolled her window back up and watched as he walked away.
“Thank you, officer,” Chloe mocked her, the words candy-sweet as they rolled off of her tongue.
“Nice, Chloe. Nice. Good thing I already put the window up!”
“Hey,” her friend said, “there’s worse people to get pulled over by.”
“I’m sitting stopped. The engine is off!” Ever protested. Leave it to her to get pulled over when she wasn’t even moving.
She glanced back at his fine form as he walked away, arm swinging at his side. Was he patrolling the pickup line? Ever tried to focus on Chloe’s excited discussion, but she missed the next few things as Jackson Mayfair turned around and beelined back to her car.
“Oh, dear God. He’s coming back.”
“Then I will let you go,” Chloe said. “You just deal with Officer Gorgeous.”
“Oh, please,” Ever replied. “The last thing I need is the son of the most prominent Mayfair family writing me a damn ticket.”
Ever hung up and rolled down the window again. Jackson was shaking his head. Had he finally figured out what he could ticket her for?
“Can I ask your name?” He said it a little softly.
Wasn’t that rich? Did she have to answer? She looked him up and down—he was in full navy blue uniform with his badge pinned to his chest. She probably did. “Ever Halifax.”
She said it with no emotion. She wasn’t guilty of anything—at least not anything he could arrest her for. She needed him to leave. She did not want Tiger and Seven coming out of their elementary school to find a cop at her window. There was too much going on in her life for a police officer to take an interest. Nothing was illegal … but nothing was as shiny as her second-hand SUV either.
Unfortunately, Royal had figured a lot of it out already. Her oldest wasn’t a fan, but he understood. Ever wasn’t really a fan either, but she’d come to accept it and it wasn’t the worst life ever. It wouldn’t be forever, but the last thing she needed was a cop on her tail—a cop for whom she knew his entire pedigree, and he had no idea what her name was.
“Do I know you from somewhere?”
Oh, shit. He wasn’t being a cop. How many times a night has she heard this one at the club? And the fact of the matter was she had seen him there. So the real answer was yes. “No. You don’t.”
She was damn good with faces. Right now, she was grateful he wasn’t. She thought of the colorful wigs and glittery breakaway costumes sitting in her trunk. He’d seen her in about three inches of makeup. Her hair had been pastel pink. And, well … he’d seen a hell of a lot more of her than her face. In fact, a couple of the bills in her wallet had passed through his fingers about a week ago.
Keeping her innocuous smile plastered in place, she waited while Jackson Mayfair—well-known good guy rumored to be on his way to captain—didn’t catch on.
“Oh, I could swear I know you from somewhere.”
“Well, it is Breathless after all. We do both live here.” Ever waved an open palm, hostess style. Clearly, he had kids at the same school as her boys.
He started to walk away, but then once again turned around.
Oh dear Lord, she thought. Now what? Georgette Harris was still watching. That woman had nothing better to do.
“Can I interest you in getting coffee sometime?”
Ever Halifax almost swallowed her tongue.
