In another minute, he reached his mother and handed Riley off to her. “Keep an eye on her. She drank Mr. Travers’s drink, and I need to find out what he put in it.”
“Oh dear,” his mother said, all maternal concern now. “Riley, do you feel sick?”
As Lucas walked away, he heard Riley answer in a suddenly weepy voice, “I’m not sick. I’m just sad I’m losing Olivia. I’ve already lost the rest of you.”
The sentence probably shouldn’t have struck him so hard, but it was a revelation all in itself. Riley still felt the pain of losing his family.
It took Lucas a few minutes to find Mr. Travers. He was in a corner talking to Olivia’s brother, Matt. Lucas marched up to them, glaring at Mr. Travers. “What did you put in the juice Riley drank?” He charged over so forcefully that he nearly pushed the man into the corner.
Mr. Travers raised his hands in alarm. “Nothing. I didn’t do anything.”
Lucas grabbed him by the lapel. “Try again. This time, tell the truth.”
Matt put his hand on Lucas’s shoulder to stop him, “Hey, hey, relax. No need for police brutality.”
Mr. Travers gulped. “You’re a policeman?”
Matt apparently hadn’t heard that Lucas had left the force. That was fine. Sometimes it paid to have issued DUIs to people in years past. They remembered you after that.
Lucas didn’t bother answering. He just patted down Mr. Travers’s suit coat until he found the flask. He pulled it from his pocket. “What’s this?”
Mr. Travers’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “It was just some vodka that I brought to spruce up my own drinks. It’s not my fault she couldn’t keep her hands off my glasses.”
Vodka. Now Lucas knew what he was dealing with.
“Dad,” Matt said in exasperation. “We told you no drinking. You knew the rules.”
Mr. Travers coughed, offended. “A man ought to be able to celebrate at his daughter’s wedding. That’s all I was doing.”
Lucas wasn’t going to be drawn into that argument. “How much vodka did you give her?” A man like Mr. Travers who drank heavily probably hadn’t put the vodka in sparingly.
Mr. Travers drew himself up, still offended. “You mean how much did she take? She knew what she was doing after she downed my first drink. Oh, she’ll tell you she drank the second because she was choking, but she took it because she wasn’t any happier than I was that this is a dry reception.” He shook off Lucas’s grasp. “These things happen if you don’t serve your guests decent drinks at your wedding.”
Lucas barely restrained himself from knocking Mr. Travers against the wall. It was bad enough that the man had inadvertently gotten Riley drunk, the fact that he blamed her for it made rage snap through him.
He took a deep breath that wasn’t nearly as calming as he hoped. His family had been so worried about Olivia’s dad making a scene. Lucas would never live it down if all the wedding guests were suddenly gawking at this corner of the room because the brother of the groom was roughing up the father of the bride.
“How much vodka?” Lucas demanded.
Mr. Travers sniffed. “Don’t know for sure. Maybe three ounces.”
“Total?”
“Per glass. Maybe a little more or less.”
Lucas swore and fixed him with a hard stare. “She doesn’t even know what alcohol tastes like. If anything bad happens to her because of you, I’ll make sure you pay for it.” He turned to Matt. “Watch your father. If he pulls anything else, I’ll haul him down to the station myself, regardless of whose wedding I ruin.”
He left the two and stalked across the room to the refreshment table. The best thing for Riley now would be to get some food in her. Lucas threw a croissant sandwich onto the plate along with some cheese slices and a bunch of grapes. This was all stuff she liked.
When he reached the kitchen, he found his mother hovering over Riley. She was sitting on a chair, drinking a glass of water and muttering something unintelligible.
He gave Riley the plate and told them both what he’d learned from Mr. Travers.
Riley didn’t touch the food, so he handed her a cheese slice. “You’ll feel better after you eat something. Then I’ll take you home so you can sleep it off.”
She looked back at him with an unblinking stare. Her eyes had been trained on him the entire time he spoke, but she had no reaction. Had she understood anything he’d said?
“I can’t eat this,” she said. “I’ll break my dress.”