Gambling on Love (Stories of Serendipity #6) Read Online Free PDF Page A

remodel on the old house that Connor had bought to turn into a restaurant, as well as the carriage house behind it. He wasn’t staying in town, and Kathy regretted that. It meant she couldn’t really have a future with him, but she might be able to have a little fun in the meantime.
    Besides, she knew good and well, if it weren’t for Luke, she wouldn’t have the job with Connor. The job that eventually turned into Connor’s right-hand girl and manager. A job she loved, and was good at.
    And then Luke had ruined that too. How could she continue working with Connor, knowing that he had probably put his brother up to the entire proposal fiasco.
    Noises from the street outside pulled her attention away from her own maudlin thoughts. She really had picked a winner of a hotel. She walked over to the chair by the window and sat, pulling the curtains aside enough to look outside.
    She was across the street from a nudie bar. Nice. Most of the hollering she could hear was from a man outside, hawking the dancers inside like slabs of beef.
    “Come on in brothers and look at what we got! We got titties, real or fake! Big ones and little ones! We got some serious ass! Check it out, man!” He used the appropriate hand gestures to go with the merits of his dancers.
    A couple of blocks away, a small cluster of women stood in the dimly lit alcove of a business. With a shocked step backward, Kathy realized they were prostitutes. Not sure why she was shocked, except she’d never really seen a prostitute before, and she was fascinated. Watching carefully, she took in their clothing: short skirts, halter tops, knee-high boots. Weren’t they cold? They wore jackets, but they didn’t look very substantial at all. She saw a car pull up close to the curb in front of them, and one strutted over to the window and leaned over, before getting inside and riding off with whoever had just acquired her services.
    She saw people walking up and down the street, some with drinks in hand, others holding their bags tightly across their bodies. She saw a couple of young men swaggering down the sidewalk, wearing impossibly baggy pants, along with matching baseball hats. When they got to the prostitutes, one of them blew a kiss and grabbed his crotch, making Kathy giggle, before continuing on his way. The woman he’d made the gesture to returned the sentiment with her middle finger.
    Kathy was fascinated by the interplay and continued people-watching for a few more minutes. Before long, the car that had picked up the prostitute dropped her off in the same place, and she walked back up to her cohorts.
    “That was fast work.” She wondered how long the deed would take, when she picked a prospective man to impregnate her. She liked the idea of a night of seduction, but the truth of the matter was, she didn’t want an attachment. She didn’t like the idea of becoming friends with some man that would impregnate her and then want to include himself in all sorts of aspects of the child’s life. She didn’t want that.
    Not unless it was Luke.
    Now that he was suddenly willing, Kathy didn’t know what to do. She was so mad at him, she still saw red every time she thought about him. And she’d already placed the ad. At eleven o’clock tomorrow, there would be a bunch of guys here, ready to be interviewed. She couldn’t leave them hanging, could she?
    Amy was right. This was a dumb idea. But it wouldn’t be the first dumb idea she’d had, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

Chapter 5
    T he next morning, Kathy took a deep breath before venturing into the lobby.
    She cleared her throat for the attention of the thirty-odd men standing around. “Excuse me.” She looked at the desk agent sheepishly. He just nodded at her with a smirk on his mouth. “If you are here for the interview to be my prospective sperm donor, please follow me to room 528.” She turned and led the way to the bank of elevators.
    “Since we won’t all fit on one elevator,