Getting Lucky Read Online Free PDF

“I’ve had enough of your attitude. I want you to leave my room.”
    He looked down at her and didn’t move until she poked him in the chest. Then he took a slow, indolent step backward and didn’t take another until she poked him again. He stepped over the threshold out into the hall.
    Lily stared up at him. “You want to know what Glynnis and I have in common, soldier boy?”
    He raised an eyebrow.
    “We both marvel at what absolute cretins some men can be,” she said and recited the complaints of every woman she’d ever known who’d been on the dating circuit for a while. “It seems they either want to change you, take you for a ride, or run your life. You oughtta be able to identify with that.” With a sharp little click, she closed the door in his face.
    There was silence from the other side for a moment. Then Zach said, “I want to know where my sister is.”
    “And I want an end to world hunger. Looks like we’re both going to be disappointed.”
    “No, ma’am. Maybe you’ve got your work cut out to meet your goal, but I don’t intend to fail in mine. You will tell me. Count on it.”
    Not blooming likely , she thought, staring at the closed portal. There was no way on earth she intended to be the one to break the news to Control Freak Taylor that the sister he apparently thought was too clueless to be left to her own devices was on her way to Washington state to meet her new fiancé’s family.

3
    “W HY DON ’ T YOU JUST TELL THE BIG JERK WHAT YOU do for a living and be done with it?”
    Lily looked at her friend Mimi across the restaurant table and smiled ruefully. “That would be the reasonable thing to do, I’m sure. But he makes me so darn mad that reason just flies right out the window whenever I’m anywhere near him.”
    “Which is exactly why you should let me guide you back to the smart side of the street.” Mimi moved aside her leopard-skin handbag to make room for her elbows on the ecru linen tablecloth and leaned forward earnestly. “Show him one of your pay stubs, Lil, and enjoy yourself when he’s forced to eat his words. Seeing all those zeros is bound to make him feel like an idiot.”
    “If I had my way, they’d make him choke ,” Lily muttered. Then taken aback by her own savagery, she said, “Okay, maybe not literally.” She shook her head in confusion. “Good Grief. Until I met Zach Taylor, I always considered myself to be a live-and-let-live sort of person. But he just makes me so…so darn…”
    “Passionate?”
    “Furious!” Amid the clink of silverware, the muted conversations, and the classical music purling out of hidden speakers, she sat ramrod straight on her tapestry upholstered chair. “And you know what? I don’t owe him any explanations. He’s the one who jumped to the idiotic conclusion I’m some sort of larcenous bimbo. Why should I knock myself out providing him proof that I’m not?”
    “Because it’d make life easier?” Then Mimi shook her head. “Okay. I recognize that mulish look. For someone usually so mellow, you sure can dig your heels in once you’ve got your back up.”
    “I know, it’s stupid and no doubt adolescent as well; but that’s the way I feel. Maybe after a nice relaxing luncheon with you, my outlook will be more mature.”
    “Then just let me ask you this and I’ll drop it: don’t you think there’s an elegant sort of irony at work here? I mean, if there’s one thing you’re particularly good at, it’s money management.”
    “It’s what comes from having grown up poor,” Lily agreed. “I was probably only eight when I swore I’d find a way to make myself financially secure when I grew up.”
    “And you’ve achieved that,” Mimi said gently. “You’ve met every one of your short-term goals and you’re well on your way to realizing most of your long-term ones as well.”
    Lily’s spine unbent a little. It was true. The career she’d forged for herself netted her very good money, and the