next to Terri.
Lucas smiled broadly. “Thank you all for coming. I wasn’t really expecting this much interest in my personal life.”
A few people laughed. Terri felt as if there were hundreds of cameras trained on her as she watched Lucas.
“I’m going to tell you all a story,” he said. “I promise it has a happy ending.”
Thomas reached over and took her hand. “This is weird,” he whispered.
She nodded. “Very.”
“Five, no, six, six?” Lucas turned and looked at Terri. He winked at her as she mouthed “six” back at him.
“Six years ago I went to a party. It was a fundraiser and it was held at some art gallery somewhere. The details don’t matter. I go to a lot of events and they’re all much the same. That night was just a little bit different, though. That night, I met a woman who, well, she caught my interest. She was smart and funny and beautiful and I found myself intrigued by her. She was also very happily married and completely unattainable.”
A murmur went through the crowd. Thomas squeezed Terri’s hand.
“I found some excuse to befriend her on social media. We messaged one another now and again and I admired her from afar with no real expectation that anything would ever come of it. She moved away from New York City and I didn’t really pay attention to where she’d gone. I stayed in sporadic touch with her on social media, and I assumed that was as far as our relationship would ever go.”
“And you dated other women,” someone from the crowd shouted.
Lucas laughed. “I dated a lot of other women, yes,” he agreed.
Terri realized she was frowning. No doubt there were now hundreds of pictures of her looking unhappy when Lucas mentioned other women.
“A few weeks ago, I happened to notice that the woman in question was now living in Ramsey, New York. I’d been planning a visit here anyway. I’d never been here and I needed to see how Douglas was doing. He’s doing great, by the way.”
A few people, local reporters probably, clapped and Douglas waved.
“Ramsey is a small town,” Lucas continued. “I asked Douglas if he knew the woman. Of course, he did, and he mentioned, just casually, that she’d gotten divorced a few years ago. I booked my flight for the next day. On Monday, the woman in question, without knowing I was in town, had dinner at the Riverside. Douglas called me and let me know that she was there and I rushed over. We talked and I remembered why she’d intrigued me so much the first time we’d met.”
He turned and looked over at Terri. “She’s amazing,” he said softly. “Beautiful and sweet and much smarter than I am.”
Unexpected tears threatened Terri’s composure. She blinked hard and then looked over at Thomas.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
“Fine. It’s all very touching, really,” she whispered back.
“I almost believe him,” Thomas replied.
She nodded. Lucas was a very accomplished liar. She needed to remember that.
“I’m not going to bore you with the details, but I’ve been doing my best to spend every possible moment with the woman since Monday. Last night I asked her to be my wife, and even though she thinks it’s far too soon for us to get engaged, she said yes.”
Several people shouted questions all at once. Lucas shook his head.
“Questions at the end,” he told them. “I want to introduce you all to my amazing fiancée, Terri Briggs, and to her son, Thomas.”
Douglas gestured for them to get up. Terri struggled to her feet, feeling overwhelmed. Thomas seemed unwilling to move.
Lucas switched off the microphone and set it down before walking back to them.
“Okay?” he asked.
“It’s just weird,” she replied.
He slid an arm around her and then held out a hand to Thomas. “You don’t have to move if you don’t want to,” he told the boy.
After a moment, Thomas took his hand and let Lucas pull him to his feet. His arm still tight around her, Lucas ushered Terri and Thomas to the front of the platform. For what felt like hours to Terri, reporters took pictures and shouted questions at them. Eventually, Lucas held up a hand.
“Okay, enough,” he said loudly. He grabbed the microphone and turned it back on. “Terri and Thomas aren’t going to answer questions, so don’t bother asking them any. They’re ordinary people who aren’t used to living in the spotlight the way that I do. I would really appreciate it if you’d leave them alone to