A Billion Reasons Why (30 page)

The Monteleone itself stood at the edge of the Quarter, and its locale on Royal Street freed it from some of the darker aspects of the city. It always bugged her that New Orleans took the rap for so many drunks in the streets, when most of them were tourists from other places who descended on the city for their dark reveries. Although only a block from the infamous Bourbon Street, the hotel embodied the sophistication worthy of its nickname, the Grand Dame of the French Quarter. It was a natural locale for a DeForges wedding. The reception, where she would sing after the rooftop ceremony, would be inside the Queen’s Ballroom.

The golden glow from the hotel lights shimmered off her gown as if she wore her own spotlight. She felt like a star in the Mardi Gras parade, compelled to do the princess wave as people passed her and commented on her gown.

“Beautiful dress.”

“Thank you, it was Ginger Rogers’!”

“I knew it looked familiar.”

She fell into character, just as she’d done all those nights at the Barrelhouse.

The magnificent lobby opened before her like a sparkling secret world that the gown had given her access to. A lobby of enormous proportions with towering ceilings, marble floors, and climbing columns in differing shades of gold and crème gave her the oddest thought. “I’ll bet there are absolutely no salmon walls in this hotel,” she said.

“Don’t be so sure,” Mam said. “My, my. Imagine what it must cost to have a wedding here. We were just going to boil some crawfish in the backyard when you married Dexter.”

“We were not,” Rusty said. “Don’t tease her, Irene. She’s nervous as it is.”

Her gaze focused on a lone figure in the middle of the lobby’s vast floor. Luc stood in a tuxedo, his hands crossed in front of him. His expression told her nothing, and under the light, his small, cross-shaped scar beneath his eye became more evident as she walked to the center of the room.

“What’s with Luc?” Eileen asked. “He looks like the bachelor at the end of the show, when you don’t know if he’s going to dump the girl or propose to her.”

Katie wheeled around. “Thank you, Eileen.”

“He does,” Eileen said.

“So you’ve watched that show enough, which is it? Is he proposing or dumping me?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see if you were first to get out of the car or not. Plus, they edit, you know.”

“I’ll meet you guys upstairs. The elevators are that way.” She dismissed her group and they tottered off, unfazed.

Katie pranced toward Luc and twirled about in her dress, letting the weighted hem take flight. She lifted her skirt and curtseyed. “Your Majesty. Is this what you had in mind?”

He raised one brow but said nothing. She turned again and gave him the view of her exposed back embraced by the glittering straps.

“Luc? Will you rob me of my compliment?”

He didn’t move. Instead he crossed his arms in front of him.

She stepped closer to him. “Is this a wax figure? Or is the magnificent Luc DeForges present?” She got close enough to snap her fingers in his face.

He twitched, but like an English Royal Guard, he didn’t move.

“You’re not going to ruin my evening, Luc DeForges.”

“I should hope not. By the way, you throwing my BlackBerry at the Barrelclub? Cost me a pretty penny.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Was I worth it?”

Despite himself, he grinned. “You were. That’s my problem.”

“There are easy couples out there. They meet. They fall in love. They get married and have 2.5 children.” She spun around just to feel her dress take flight. “We, Luc DeForges, are not those people.”

“No, we aren’t, but I am in desperate need of your help this evening.”

“My help?”

“To redeem the DeForges family name and rescue it from the public humiliation hall of fame.”

She put a hand to her chest. “But that’s my specialty. Not the redemption part. The dragging your name through the mud part.”

He grinned. “After you.”

Her heels tapped along the marble floor when the dress overtook her. She stuck out her arms like an airplane and lifted them up to the sky as she spun away again and smiled. “Well, if it’s of any interest to you, I love you, Luc DeForges.”

She looked back to see Luc sprinting toward her. He swooped her up into his arms, and she squealed like a child. He headed toward the elevator, and she traced her finger along his scar as they bounced.

“Have you told anyone else how you really got that scar?”

He grinned. “It’s so unmanly to say my little brother wielding a switch gave it to me. I prefer the mystery. It makes me more Bond-like. Have you told anyone else how you got the nickname Katie-bug?”

“No reason to tell anyone. I’m not the snuggly type any longer.”

“We should fix that.”

The elevator doors opened and swallowed them into its gold entrance.

Luc put her down and gazed at her menacingly. She stepped back until she felt the wall at her back. Luc leaned over her, his forehead on hers. “Listen to me, Katie McKenna. This mission is very important, should you choose to accept it. You have been asked to redeem the DeForges family name.

Should you undertake this mission, you will receive my family’s undying love and me as a consolation prize.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Don’t think you’ll accept the mission?”

“That you’re a consolation prize.”

“Not if you believe the tabloids.” He chuckled.

“Good thing I don’t. Do I make a good Ginger?”

He shrugged. “You know I never cared for blondes. I was more of a Rita Hayworth man myself. Maureen O’Hara. Let’s see, who is another redhead? Wait a minute, wait a minute. I got this . . . Oh yeah, you!” He pressed the button.

“This is the wrong floor,” she said when the doors opened.

“Already correcting me. We’re like an old married couple.”

“You did that on purpose.”

He shrugged. “Maybe.” He led her down a hallway until they came to a set of double doors, where he slid a card key and opened the door to a luxury suite.

“What is going on?”

“Wait here.” He left her in the foyer and walked to an elegant French chair covered in gold tapestry. He lifted a shirt box from a marble-topped table and handed it to her. “Open it.”

She pulled the lid and saw the cape to her gown. “You had it all along!”

“Actually, it’s a new one I had made. The dress is original, but I wanted to make some changes to the cape, so I had it fashioned.”

“You’re turning into quite the designer. It’s kind of creeping me out, actually.”

He shook out the cape. It reached to the floor and had French seams like a bat wing, encrusted with hand-sewn sequins that matched the dress.

“That’s not a cape.”

He shook his head. “It’s a veil. See?” He showed her the crystallized combs that would attach to the crown of her head.

“Luc.”

He placed it on her head, then knelt before her. “Katie McKenna, before you send me to an early grave, would you marry me already?”

“That’s not romantic!”

“I beg your pardon? You are in a luxury suite, wearing Ginger Rogers’ gown and a handmade veil. What is it you want from me, Katie? I’m a guy, for crying out loud. Give me a break, will ya?”

She felt her eyes tearing and wanted to strike herself for ruining the moment. “That was it. That’s all I wanted. A proposal. A proposal from you, Luc, the man I love. The only man I’ve ever loved.”

His eyes met the floor. “Should I mention that this is actually your third proposal? Or that you are wearing on my nerves?”

“No, that definitely takes the romance down a notch.” She snuggled into the crook of his neck, then stepped back to see his reaction. “You’re pouting. I said yes! Let’s forget I said anything else, okay? Do you have my ring? You have my ring, right?”

“Katie, if this is going to work, you have to trust me and give me the benefit of the doubt that I only want the best for you. Do you believe that? If I don’t do what’s best for you, you can tell me afterward, all right?”

“Absolutely!” She nodded. “But I still want a ring. I mean you say you asked three times, but there’s something missing.”

“Naturally, you noticed. In return for you giving me the benefit of the doubt, I will understand that my life will never be absent of drama. Agreed?”

“Would you want it to be? I mean, really? If you did, wouldn’t you have just married one of the Barbies in LA?”

Luc laughed. “The thought never crossed my mind. And how about you give me a break on the Barbies? The press loves a good story, but you know my heart and my fondness for a certain redhead.”

She nodded. “I do know your heart, Luc, and it’s the most beautiful heart I’ve ever seen.”

Luc held her barren hand, and she felt the need to fill the silence.

“The stock price go back up? I never asked you after your trip. Because you know, realistically, you could eventually be a billionaire.”

He shook his head. “Does that matter to you?”

“No, it was simply quiet, and I thought I needed to fill the air. Sorry. You were saying?”

He lifted a brow in that lovely cocky way she relished. “Our honeymoon.”

“Honeymoon? Aren’t you forgetting something? The stock price? I mean, do you really expect me to settle for a multimillionaire when the potential for billionaire is there?”

He chuckled. “You may just have to set that dream aside. I imagine my marriage is going to require some time off. Jem’s going to take over the company for a while.”

“Jem?”

“He’s on my board of directors.”

“Jem is? Your brother Jem?”

“He doesn’t want anyone knowing he’s wealthy, but Forages has made a bundle for him. Jem says it attracts the wrong sort of people, so he’s a silent member.”

She pondered that chewy piece of gossip and wondered if she could keep it from Eileen, who’d taken quite an interest in Jem the jeweler.

“No, you can’t tell her,” Luc said.

“How did you know what I was thinking?”

“You wear your heart on your sleeve, Katie. All anyone has to do is look. How do you think I knew there was nothing between you and Poindexter?”

“I just assumed you thought no one would like Poin—I mean Dexter. And you do think very highly of yourself. I’m sure you thought he was no competition.”

“There is that. I’m getting up now, my legs are cramping.” He stood to his full six foot three.

Her heart raced. “Gosh, I love your height. I mean, I know you are way too tall for the likes of an average girl like me, but I love your height and you rock that tuxedo and I cannot believe that this ring makes you mine, and it’s going to be legal and then, there will be nothing you can do about it. You will be stuck with me for life.”

He grinned. “I already was.”

“Luc,” she purred and rested her head against the crook of his neck.

“Now for the particulars. Your mission.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gray velvet box. “Katie McKenna, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, officially?”

“Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes!”

He placed a strange ring on her ring finger.

“What’s this?”

“It’s your engagement ring. Jem made it for you so that it goes with your nana’s wedding ring.”

“It’s incredible! But where is my nana’s ring?”

“I’m holding it hostage until I know for sure you’ll go through with this.” The ring, made of antiqued gold and an emerald-cut diamond turned on its side, seemed almost transparent in its perfection. “There is a catch.”

“I knew it. A prenup? I figured.”

He laughed. “Not a prenup. If you want half my money, all you ever have to do is ask, Katie McKenna. If you ever need anything, I’ll find a way to get it for you.”

She let her head fall against him again.

“No,” he said into her ear. “The condition is that you marry me tonight and rescue the DeForges family from another bomb of a social function.”

“What?” She pulled away. “Tonight? You mean after Ryan and Olivia’s wedding? Like go to Vegas or something?” She tried to veil her disappointment.

“Katie, we’re in our hometown. Do you really think I’d drag you to Vegas to get married when everyone we love is here?”

She shrugged. “I really have no idea what you’d do, and that is one of the many things I love about you.”

“We’re getting married here, at the hotel. Tonight. Olivia and Ryan have run off and eloped. But rather than let my mother suffer yet another humiliation at the hands of her impetuous sons, I say we stand in and let the tabloids believe it was our ruse all along to keep the paparazzi away.”

“What, you’ve arranged for the pastor to stay? What about my singing? Do you still want me to sing? Or is that why you hired Harry Connick?”

He put his forefinger in front of his mouth. “I should have told you the truth that I knew years ago. No vow is more important than the one I made to you—that I’d love you forever. Than the one I’ll make to you in front of God and his witnesses tonight.” He straightened the veil and brought it around her shoulders. “I promised to love you all those years ago, and it hasn’t waned. Not one bit. Let’s do this. We’re not getting any younger.”

“Did Olivia and Ryan really elope?”

“Olivia had enough. She wanted to marry Ryan in a small ceremony in a roller rink. Between me pulling this forties bit and the two mothers-in-law bickering, they decided they’d have their own wedding and do it their way. If you didn’t notice, Olivia calls the shots in that pair, and she called this one last night after the rehearsal dinner. That’s where I ran off to. To get the marriage license.”

“For us? You did paperwork for us?” She didn’t know why she found that so endearing, but she did. “But where could you do that at night?”

“I went to a friend’s house. A judge who had this prepared for me.” He pulled out a marriage certificate. “All I needed was your social security number and the judge’s signature to bypass the three-day waiting period, and it was mine. Your mother was gracious enough to give me your social security number.”

“Mam? Mam knew about this?”

“She had an idea, but I didn’t confirm anything. I didn’t know what you’d say.”

Katie grinned. “Did you know Ryan and Olivia would run like this?”