A moment later she returned. “Ah, there we go. My battery was about to go, and I didn’t want to lose you. Everything okay there?”

“Everything’s fine. I just called with some news.” He gulped, ambled across the room, and leaned on the armoire. “It might be a little, uh, surprising. Are you sitting down?” It didn’t matter if she was. When she heard the news, all the miles between them wouldn’t seem like enough.

“I’m in the car, Lucas. What’s wrong?”

“Well, you won’t believe it, but I—” Just say it. “I got married last night.”

The silence betrayed her shock. Three seconds dragged by. He heard the clock on the wall ticking them off. Then . . .

“Mar-ried!” His dad said something in the background before his mom spoke again. “Who in the world to? I didn’t even know you were dating.”

Neither had he. “Well. We kind of kept it under wraps. Low-key.” Nonexistent key. I have to tell her; there’s no way to soften the blow. “It’s Kate, Mom. Kate Lawrence.”

It sounded like his mom sucked the air from the hotel room through the phone line. But he didn’t have to wait long for her to recover. “Kate Lawrence. Kate Lawrence?” She jabbed each syllable at him. “Lucas, how could you?”

“I know. I know, Mom. I knew you’d be upset. That’s why I didn’t tell you until now.”

“You mean until it was too late to do anything about it!”

“There’s nothing you could’ve done about it anyway. I’m a grown man, and I make my own decisions. Especially about whom I marry.”

“You didn’t even invite us to the wedding.” She sucked in another breath. “The wedding! She was supposed to have some big production with the media!” His dad mumbled in the background again. “For heaven’s sakes, how did it look that we weren’t there? The whole country is going to know we missed our son’s wedding!”

“It was actually a small, intimate affair, Mom, and I’m sure—”

“This is awful!”

“I know you’re shocked, and I don’t expect you to be happy about Kate. But I want you to remember one thing.” He waited until she stopped huffing. Then waited two beats beyond that. He needed her to hear what he said, take it to heart.

“I love her, Mom. Regardless of the past—which, incidentally, she’s not responsible for—Kate makes me happy.”

He could almost hear his mom’s frustration, her emotions torn between her unresolved anger and her son’s happiness.

The shower in the bathroom kicked off. He wanted to be off the phone before Kate returned.

“Were Brody and Jamie there, at least?” His mom’s words sounded as though they’d been squeezed from a lemon.