Way to Her Heart - By Melanie Schuster Page 0,60

He took his time while he was handling the dishes because he was afraid he might break something; he was that angry. It was obvious that this Trevor dude was crazy as a damned road lizard and as far as he was concerned, he needed to be behind bars. Better yet, he needed to be under the building with the bars. It suddenly occurred to him that Alexis wouldn’t appreciate getting the news secondhand, so he reached for his cell phone to call her. While waiting for Alexis to answer her phone, the doorbell rang. When he opened the door, there she was with Jared.

He raised both his eyebrows in surprise and said, “I was just calling you,” but he said it into the phone instead of directly to Alexis. When he realized his mistake he scowled and clicked the phone off, shoving it into his pocket.

Alexis looked at him with concern. “Are you okay, Lucas? You look a little stressed. What’s wrong?”

Sherri came downstairs with Sydney, forestalling his need to answer. She was smiling, but it looked forced to anyone who knew her well, and these people knew her very well.

“Come on in,” she invited. “Sit down, everyone, and I’ll get you something to drink. Iced tea, lemonade, something stronger? Whatever you want, I probably have.”

Now Alexis looked at Sherri with worry in her eyes. “Something is up and you’re not telling me. What’s going on?”

“Just give me about two minutes and you’ll know. Please, just have a seat. Sydney wanted to come down to say good-night to everyone before she goes to bed.”

Sydney was the only person behaving normally as she gave big kisses to Jared and Alexis, saving the biggest one for Lucas. Before she could get tucked in, however, the doorbell rang again. It was Royce.

“Hello, Royce. You’re right on time. Just let me put Sydney to bed and I’ll be right with you,” Sherri ushered him in.

Sydney, never one to miss an opportunity to meet a good-looking fellow, introduced herself. She held out her hand and said, “Hello, I’m Sydney. What’s your name?”

Obviously charmed by her winsome smile, her pink-striped pajamas and her pink robe, Royce smiled broadly as he shook her tiny hand. “I’m Royce Griffin. It’s very nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too. I have to go to bed now. Good night, everybody!”

Alexis stopped Sherri from going upstairs. “I’ll take care of her. You go handle your business and I’ll be right back.”

So Sherri was able to introduce Jared and Lucas to Royce. She sat on the love seat next to Lucas, while Royce took the big armchair.

He addressed his first remark to Sherri. “Is everyone up to speed on the situation?”

She shook her head. “Lucas is, but Jared and Alexis don’t know everything yet. You can go ahead, and I’ll fill them in later on whatever they don’t pick up from your comments. Is that okay?”

“Works for me. First and foremost, I think that Trevor is in a fairly fragile mental state right now, so by no means does he need to be anywhere around you or Sydney. She’s a little doll, by the way,” he added with a grin. “I know grown women who don’t have that much poise.” Sherri smiled her thanks.

Royce continued, “I’m going to be filing a restraining order against him first thing in the morning so if you see him or hear of him within one hundred feet of either of you we’ll have a legal means to keep him away, so that’s that.”

Sherri made a sound of relief and Lucas gave her a squeeze with the arm that was around her shoulders.

“I used the words fragile mental state because of information I received this afternoon. As I told you, we were classmates and fraternity brothers. I’ve stayed close to my frat brothers. I made a few phone calls and I think I got to the root cause of him showing up in Columbia talking about marrying you. It all has to do with money.”

Sherri protested, “But I don’t have any money except for what I earn, and it’s not like I’m rolling in the big bucks. I do okay, but I’m no Oprah or close to her in terms of money.”

Royce smiled grimly. “It’s not your money he’s after, Sherri. It’s the family money. His grandfather changed his will and instead of the lion’s share going to the oldest son, which Trevor is, or even being divided evenly between his grandchildren, the old