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

 
    He groaned. This was his cue to leave, wasn’t it? He was crazy if he thought he was going to get anywhere with this one. But still, like a toothache, he couldn't leave it alone.  
    "Hey, I've got other talents," he said. "I'm…I'm good with horses."
    And deep down inside, he groaned. What the hell was he doing? He never talked to anyone about his ranch, about what he was doing out there, what he was dreaming of. And he damn sure never took any of his girl friends out there. His ranch was something apart. It wasn't meant to be folded into this life he had in town. It was precious to him and he wanted to leave it that way.  
    But she didn't know all of that.  
    At the mention of horses, her face had gone thoughtful and her eyes had taken on a dreamy quality. "I like horses," she said, staring off and away from him. "I used to ride when I was a girl, in Destiny Bay. Maybe if I took Tammy back there…" She gave a start as though she'd just realized what she was saying and who she was saying it to. "Never mind," she said quickly, looking at him with a challenge in her eyes. "It's getting late."
    "Uh huh."  
    She might as well have said, " Time to go home, Cody ."
    “You win some, you lose some,” he muttered as he made his way back to his car. No, she wasn’t for him. He had to find a way to get her out of his mind.  

                                     ***         ***       ***

    “Orchids! The man wants to grow vanda orchids in his backyard in the middle of the desert!” Sadie glared at the tall, eerily beautiful plants in the special order she was preparing as though it were all their fault. Her long, capable hands rested on slender hips, her care fully coiffured curls quivered.
    Kelly laughed affectionately. Sadie had run nurseries for years and she took her plants very personally. They were like little armies of soldiers she sent out into the world to create peace and beauty. She didn’t like it when a mission failed, no matter what the reason.
    “Who’s your customer?” Kelly asked.
    “Monty Cross. He runs one of those casinos downtown and thinks he can order nature around like he does his employees. ‘Just get them for me,’ he says. ‘I don’t care what the experts say. I’ll grow ‘em beside my tomato plants.’” Sadie made a sound that came across suspiciously like a growl of frustrated anger. In her forties, she was still careful of the appearance that must have been strikingly beautiful in her younger years. There weren’t many women who could have pulled off the feat of keeping an elegant manicure intact while working with plants and soil every day.
    With the back of a gloved hand, Kelly pushed her hair back from her eyes. Resting her trowel on its ledge beside the potting bench she advised, “Let him try to grow them. Who knows? Maybe he’ll discover some new way to make them thrive where the days blister and the nights freeze.” She rose, casting off her gloves, and went on to her next chore, preparing the new shipment of cut flowers that had just arrived for sale.
    Sadie shook her head, not ready to concede an inch to the hated Monty Cross. Wiping her hands on her brightly colored coveralls, she turned away from the delicate purple flowers in disgust. “They’ll die in a week,” she proclaimed, shaking her scarlet-nailed fist at an uncaring world. “Then he’ll be back in here, wanting a refund.”
    Kelly chuckled as she watched Sadie march away bristling with indignation. Once she was alone in the greenhouse, she returned to work, clipping the ends off the stems of tall carnations and sticking them deep into buckets of specially prepared water. The sugar and spice scent of the flowers filled her head and she breathed it in deeply. She loved working with growing things.
    The greenhouse was attached to the main building of the nursery. Another wing housed the retail shop and florist center, but the greenhouse was Kelly’s favorite. Filled to the rafters