Tall Tales and Wedding Veils Read Online Free PDF Page B

couldn’t help herself. She liked the feeling of having the attention of the most handsome man in the room. Still, she knew the truth. She had his attention only because he was winning.

    So make sure he keeps winning.

    The cocktail waitress came by, and because Heather’s usual good judgment was seriously slipping, she asked for another martini. Anything to settle her jangled nerves. Tony, on the other hand, didn’t seemed jangled at all. With every addition to their pile of chips, he seemed more relaxed, more animated, more hopeful.

    When the waitress brought their drinks, Tony took a few sips of his beer. Heather downed half of her martini in one gulp. Okay. Now she felt better. Not quite so shaky. A little more optimistic. Only slightly more woozy. She told herself that people showed up in Vegas all the time with pocket change and left millionaires. She and Tony didn’t need a million dollars. They needed only twenty thousand.

    When she thought about it that way, it didn’t seem so insurmountable. In fact, it seemed downright probable. That made her feel even luckier than before, so she played a bit of a long shot. Tony’s smile slipped a little as he realized what she was doing, which made her nervous, but she held her breath and rolled the dice.

    And won.

    Tony let out a little whoop. Then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a big, smacking kiss on the cheek. “My good luck charm,” he said, and flashed that broad, beautiful smile. “Thank God I ran into you.”

    Heather’s heart went wild, her cheek on fire from that single touch of his lips. Tony was handsome and exciting and fun, and being with him made her feel as if she were glowing from the inside out. Suddenly it was as if another woman had taken over her body, a dice-throwing, risk-taking alter ego who was going to get that twenty grand for him no matter what.

    Over the next few hours, she lost some, but she won more, and their winnings grew. The loud voices in the casino and the steady
pinging
and
shuffling
of the slot machines and the effect of the three martinis she’d had lulled her mind, and soon the nervousness she’d felt earlier had transformed into an edge of excitement that blasted away any thoughts of losing. Rationally, she knew that that was how all Vegas losers felt before the bottom fell out, but then Tony smiled at her again, and that thought floated right out of her mind.

    When they were approaching the eight-thousand mark, Tony leaned over and whispered, “We’d better watch our step. This kind of luck can’t hold forever.”

    “Nope. We’re on a roll. It’s time to ramp things up.”

    “Ramp things up?”

    “Bigger bets.”

    Tony looked at her in surprise. Then his eyes brightened, and his lips edged into a smile. “I like your style.”

    Heather felt as if she were hovering a few inches above the ground, buoyed by the exhilaration he made her feel. She could do this. She could get to that twenty grand. After all, they’d won eight thousand dollars in a matter of a few hours. What was a few thousand more?

    Pretty soon, eight thousand became ten.

    “Sweetheart, you are
hot,
” Tony said, resting his hand on her shoulder. Then he leaned closer and murmured in her ear, “Can you bring it home for me?”

    Heather felt a delightful little shiver run from her neck all the way to her toes. He was right. She was hot. She couldn’t lose. Sometimes everything in the universe lined up behind a person and pushed them in the right direction, and that was exactly what was happening tonight.

    “Yeah,” she said. “I can do it.” She took a deep breath. “As a matter of fact, it’s time to go for broke.”

    Tony froze. “What?”

    “All of it on the next roll,” Heather said. “The whole pot.”

    “Are you sure?”

    She knew it was a crazy thing to do, but conviction filled her mind like a lion’s roar, silencing that whiny little pip-squeak that usually ran her day-to-day activities,