Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

hole and you looked so….”
    “What?”
    Good. Handsome. Masculine. Sexy. But she didn’t say that. Instead, she offered, “Would you like to sit down?”
    He glanced at the couch. He could sit there. She might sit beside him. And then he would reach out at some point and put his arm across the back of the sofa. She would lean back a little, and then he would slip his arm around her shoulders. Little by little, he would pull her closer, until her sweet mouth would be so close, nothing would keep him from….
    Okay, that was a bad idea. Coming here was a bad idea to begin with. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head.  
    “No thanks,” he said, rejecting the offer to sit. “I really don’t want to get in the way here. Maybe I ought to….”
    “Would you like some lemonade?” she shot at him before he could say he was leaving.  
    He scrunched up his face. Lemonade. That made sense. She was a lemonade and sunshine sort of girl. And how exactly did that fit in with his life? No way he could figure.
    “No thanks.”
    She nodded as if she’d expected that. Then she looked at him sideways. They were still standing in the entryway, as though they couldn’t decide what was coming next. “Then what do you want, Cody? What could you possibly be doing here?”
    He looked at her. He had no answer for that. He listened to the music she had playing in the background.  
    “You’re playing sad songs tonight,” he noted.  
    She nodded.  
    He wanted to touch her soft skin, touch her face. The more he looked at her, the more something inside him seemed to melt, but he held it back.  
    “So your husband….?”
    He left a space for her to fill but she took her time doing it.
    “He died,” she said, looking away. “He’s not here anymore.”
    Okay, so that cleared that question up . But there were others.  
    “Why are you still here?” he asked her. “You don’t like gambling, you don’t like Las Vegas. Why not go back where you came from?” He raised one dark eyebrow. “Where did you come from?”
    “California. Destiny Bay, on the coast.”
    “Ah.” His sister was married to a guy from Destiny Bay. “Why not go back?”
    She hesitated, looking conflicted, her eyes a bit stormy. “It’s not that easy,” she said, looking up at him. “I have a child and a job. We built a life here. It’s hard to pull up those roots and replant them somewhere else.”
    He nodded. He could understand that. “Destiny Bay’s a nice place,” he noted.  
    She sighed, shaking her head. “I would love to take my daughter back to Destiny Bay. That would be the best thing for her.”
    “You think so?”
    She nodded.  
    “Then why not do it?”
    She frowned, looking away. She hadn’t paid as much attention to her family on the coast as she should have recently. But they still were her family. That still was home, and a wonderful place to grow up. Suddenly she felt tears stinging her eyes. If only she could take Tammy back to Destiny Bay. That would make all the difference.  
    Blinking the tears away, she looked up at him again. Enough with his questions—time he answered a few.  
      “What did you do wrong with your life that you ended up a gambler?” she asked, out of the blue.
    His head went back. He hadn’t expected that. “I love gambling."  
    “But isn’t it like… a disease?”
    “No.” Now he was starting to get mad. “Sure, there are people who have an addiction to it. That’s not good. But that’s not me.”
    She nodded, but her face had a skeptical look.  
    “I enjoy it because I’m good at it,” he explained. “You know how it is with life. There are so many things you’re just not good at. So when you find something that suits you, that fits your personality and gives you a chance to shine—you tend to go toward that lifestyle. Whatever it may be.”
    “A gambler,” she said softly, as though to herself. “A real born gambler.” A worried line appeared above her eyebrows.