Luck of the Draw (A Betting on Romance Novel Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

poking at the edges of her sanity for days. She’d buried herself in preparations for Liam’s birthday, Nana’s visit, contacting the admissions office at the school, hoping against hope she would be saved from having to acknowledge the truth. But she couldn’t hide from it any longer.
    Randy had been gone for seven weeks .
    And she hadn’t gotten her period since.
    She could barely breathe as her eyes fell on the small pile of clothes on the dryer. Randy’s clothes. She’d washed them and set them aside, had meant to return them to him. Now it was too late.
    Her lips twisted as she picked up a T-shirt and rubbed the soft, faded fabric between her fingers. She concentrated on the sensation, trying to picture Randy in it, trying to remember how it felt with him beneath it, trying to remember how life felt before everything fell apart, but all she felt was... T-shirt.
    Kate let her head sink to the washer, the metal cool and hard beneath her forehead as tears seeped through her lashes. She fumbled in her pocket for a tissue, her fingers instead finding a folded piece of paper that had already gone through the wash.
    She peeled it open, recognizing the raised letterhead at the top, and her hands shook as she smoothed it out on top of the washer.
     
    Dear Ms. Mitchell,
    It is our pleasure to inform you that your application for admission to the Fine Arts Program has been accepted…
     
    The words blurred. She’d carried the letter around in her pocket for days, rereading it, not quite believing how neatly life was working out. And then she’d gone to drop off some things at Randy’s apartment. She hadn’t meant to say anything, but she had.
    I’m happy for you, he’d said. I know you’ll do great. I always loved how you could do anything you set your mind to.
    She’d hugged him then, her spirits buoyed by his unexpected support. She never intended to kiss him. Never intended to let it go further. But as he’d pulled her tight against him, all she’d been able to hear were the words … I’m happy … and … I always loved you… even though neither was true.
    “Katie, you still in there?” Nana knocked on the laundry room door, and Kate straightened and wiped her eyes. “Liam wants to know if he can watch Bob the Builder, your mother’s left and I think Sandy needs to pee.”
    Kate cleared her throat. “Just a minute.”
    She picked up the letter, running her fingers over the softened folds, rereading it one last time. It seemed like yesterday she’d opened the envelope, her heart fluttering with excitement, her future unfolding like sweet promises and fresh starts.
    She let out a long, shaky breath… then tore the letter into tiny, confetti-like pieces.
    Sweeping it into the trash, she started the washer and opened the door.

     
    CHAPTER THREE
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    F OR THREE YEARS THE SAME HORRID poppies and sunflowers had blinded her. If cataracts didn’t ruin her eyesight, those god-awful flowers would. June sipped her gin and tonic, held her cards close to her chest and squinted against the blinding riot of flowers on the vinyl tablecloth that Lydia insisted they use whenever poker night was at her house.  At least the woman made good brownies. It was worth the stop in Sugar Falls before she left for the Quilt Show in Portland the next morning, just to have these brownies. June reached across and snagged another as her friend, Ruth Pearson, placed an edge-weary photograph on the growing pile in the middle of the table.
    “All right, June,” Ruth said. “I’ll see your granddaughter with that darling great grandchild and raise you one eligible grandson who owns his own business.”
    June waited for Ruth to bite her cheek—it was one of her tells.
    Ruth reached for a brownie instead.
    Sugar . Ruth must have a good hand. She always reached for sweets when she was feeling victorious. June dropped her cards to the table. “I’m out of luck and relatives. I fold. What do you have,