Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (11 page)

Squaring his shoulders, he landed the punch in the palm of his left hand instead, muttering an oath. The
trouble was, the little weasel had a damn good point.

“What’s the matter?”

Kelly was back. Cody turned and looked down at
her and his tension drained away.
 

“Nothing.”
 

She was
like a sunbeam breaking through on a cloudy day.
Suddenly the elaborate casino seemed faded and
worn—tacky and soiled. His slow smile enveloped her
and he held out his arm.
 

“Shall we go?”

She nodded, suppressing the doubts that had as
sailed her. When she looked into his handsome face, she felt breathless. There were a million reasons why she shouldn’t be leaving with him, but he would make
that all right. He would do something to drive the
reasons away. She didn’t know how he would do it. But he had to. She was going on blind faith.

Despite the closeness they’d shared when they were
dancing, there was still a barrier between them. All the
way home in Cody’s car, they both felt it.

“I’ll have one of the boys who work at valet park
ing take your van back for you,” Cody said as they
drove along.

“Thank you,” she responded, glancing at his pro
file in the light of the oncoming traffic. She wanted to submerge all thought and ride on feeling again, but it
was getting more difficult.

On impulse, she reached out and touched the sleeve of his suit coat. He glanced at her, surprised, his eye
brows raised in question, and she pulled her hand away again.

“What is it?” he asked, not understanding the need
that had compelled her to touch him.

“Nothing, I... nothing.” She looked out the win
dow at the passing neon signs. Maybe she was getting
carried away. Her thoughts were so jumbled, she
wasn’t sure where reality lay. If he would only hold her
again. She drew her arms in around herself as though
she were cold, but he didn’t seem to notice.

He found her house without instructions, pulling into the driveway and turning off the engine. Glancing up, he studied the darkened windows. “Where’s
your daughter?” he asked, not moving toward the door.

Kelly flattened her hands against the cotton fabric of her skirt. “Tammy is staying with a girlfriend for the
night.”

“Oh.” He turned back to her, his eyes jet black in the night. “You going to invite me in?”

“Of course.”

She led him up the front steps to the door, fumbled
for her key, and opened it. The light came on with blinding brilliance and they both blinked in it for a
moment.

“Come on in.” She closed the door behind him,
then looked around the room as though she weren’t
quite sure what to do with him now that she’d got him
home.

“Nice place,” he murmured. He turned slowly,
taking it all in. The sofa with its floral print and bolsters, the overstuffed chairs, the coffee table with a large book of French Impressionist paintings sitting
casually on it, the Seurat reproductions on the wall.

Everything screamed of a normalcy that set his teeth
on edge. What was he doing here?

“Would you like something to drink?”

She sounded forlorn. He looked up quickly and
smiled as reassuringly as he was able. “Sure,” he said.
Whiskey, straight, he thought. “How about coffee?”
he heard himself saying instead. “If it’s not too much
trouble.”

“Oh no, no trouble at all.” She sounded relieved to have something to do. “I’ll be right back. Go ahead
and sit down.”

She disappeared into the kitchen and he turned to
look at the sofa, but he was too restless to sit just yet.
He began to roam the room instead, looking at the
books on the bookshelves, handling her knickknacks,
then stopping short in front of an eight by ten photo
graph of a handsome, smiling man.

The face looked slightly familiar. Perhaps that was because he’d met Tammy, for surely this was Tammy’s fa
ther.

Kelly came back into the room. “I’ll be just a mo
ment,” she said. Cody turned and her glance went
from him to the picture and back again. He waited,
the question in his eyes.

“That’s Tim,” she said brightly. “Tammy’s father.”

“Deceased. Right?”

“Yes.” She turned away. “Tim died four years ago.”

“Oh.” He yanked at the knot of his tie, loosening
it a bit. The room was beginning to give him a claus
trophobic feeling.

Kelly walked past him and picked up the photo
graph, staring down at Tim’s smiling face. She hesi
tated. Should she tell him about Tim? Did she have the
right to tell him?

“You may have heard of him,” she went on wood
enly. “Tim Stanton, the jet boat racer.”

“Oh sure. I remember.” And with lightning speed
he recalled the ugly accident on Lake Mead that had
taken the racer’s life. He looked at Kelly. Was she
there when it happened? He couldn’t ask such a question. But the room was feeling smaller.

“We were married for seven years,” she went on,
setting the picture down carefully. “Seven long years.”

Cody turned away. Not only was she clean and unspoiled, she was mourning a dead husband. He'd known that, but now it hit him with a hard reality it hadn't had before. What the hell was he doing here? He had to get out.

“Listen,” he said, avoiding her eyes. “I think I’d
better get going.”

She stood very still. “Don’t you want any coffee?”

He glanced at her and regretted it. She looked
angelic standing there, the light from a big brass lamp
shining in her hair. He had to leave before he did
something stupid.

“Thanks, but I can’t stay any longer.” He turned
toward the door, then looked back once he’d reached
it. “Listen, thanks for keeping me company tonight. I enjoyed it.”

Kelly stared at him, her eyes huge and unhappy.
She’d depended on him to make everything all right, and he’d failed her.
 

“I enjoyed it too,” she said stiffly.
“Goodnight.”

He nodded, then pulled open the door and stepped
out. “Good night,” he called, just before the door shut behind him.

Kelly stood very still. “The hell with him,” she whispered to herself as she listened to his car backing down the driveway. Moisture filled her eyes, blurring her vision, but she refused to wipe away the tears. To
do that, she would have to admit she was crying.

***
                     
***
                         
***
                     
***

The afternoon sun was a burning circle in the flat,
cloudless blue sky. The wind off the desert was playfully sporadic, kicking up just when least expected.
Girls in pastel baseball uniforms were spread out
across the dusty field, some bent forward in anticipation, others leaning back in dreamy disinterest. Kel
ly’s daughter Tammy was at bat.

“Steeeerike,” the umpire droned, holding up two
fingers. Tammy bit her lip and reached up to pull her hat
farther over her eyes.

Sitting on the bench, Kelly tensed, hands clenched
together, trying to hide her butterflies from the other
girls. Her team, the Rockin’ Robins, was in the midst
of a game with its archrival, the Golden Unicorns,
girls from the wealthy side of town. The Robins wore
jeans and faded T-shirts while the Unicorns had aqua uniforms that some mother must have had made up specially on her last trip to Rodeo Drive. The con
trasts were half the battle as far as the girls were concerned. Just looking at the Robins made the Unicorns
smile like Cheshire cats.

Another pitch left the pitcher’s hand. Seconds later a solid crack split the air, and then Tammy was running
for first and Kelly was jumping up and down, cheering her on. But it was all in vain. Second base caught the ball on a bounce and sent it zinging to first, arriv
ing just ahead of Tammy. She was out, and her out was
the third one of that half of the inning. Kelly groaned,
sagging along with her girls, then straightened and tried to keep the spirit up.
 

“Get out there!” she called to her team. “Make it three outs in a row, girls. Let’s
go!”

“You could be one of them, you know.”

Kelly turned and smiled fleetingly. She’d been aware
of Glenn watching her through most of the game.
Now he’d come down from the bleachers and was
standing beside the bench.
 

“What’s that?” she asked
absently, wishing he’d stayed in his seat. It seemed he was popping up everywhere these days. She hated to
be rude, but the man almost made her do it. She’d
been friends with him for months now. He had a
daughter Tammy’s age and the two of them were on the team together. She’d dated him off and on, but every
time he’d hinted that he’d like to remarry, she’d backed away very quickly.

“When you get out there on the field, you look as
young as any of our girls,” he told her now, smiling.

He was only being nice. It wasn’t fair of her to feel annoyed. She forced an answering smile.
 

“I sure don’t feel as young, not when a game is this close and still
not in the bag. Excuse me, Glenn. I want to make sure Penny’s in position.”

She moved away from him, put a hand out to shade
her eyes and scanned the field. Sure enough, long-
legged Penny Mayfair was stretching her gangly body
on the sidelines. Tammy was ready to throw her first pitch and Penny hadn’t taken the field yet.

Kelly called to the girl who looked around blankly, then seemed to get the idea and trotted out where she belonged. Kelly sighed. Penny was a problem. If only
she would keep her mind on the game. Just putting her
in at all involved making all the other girls angry at
Kelly.

“Mom, do you really have to put Penny in?” Tammy
had whispered a few minutes before. “I mean, we have
a chance to win, and you know she’s no good.”

Kelly had managed a stern, mother-will-lecture-now
look. “Tammy, we said from the very beginning that
everyone would have a turn to play. Penny is a member of the team, just like you are. Martha played cen
ter field all through the first six innings. It’s Penny’s
turn. She plays.”

Kelly herself had cringed when she’d watched Penny
drop the easy fly ball that should have given the Uni
corns their third out of the last inning. She ached to
see the superior smile wiped from the face of Marge Deveraux, the Unicorns’ coach and general manager. And Penny did seem half asleep most of the time.
But fair was fair. It was hard and lonely to make decisions some
times.

One of the Unicorns hit a bouncer past the pitcher. Kelly watched, lips compressed, while Penny missed
it and the batter took an extra base. The groans from the other Robins were becoming audible. She was going to have to speak to them about that.

“You should take that girl out,” Glenn was say
ing, turning up beside her again. “She’s the worst
player on the team. I doubt she can walk and blink at
the same time.”

“She’ll never get any better unless she gets a chance to play,” Kelly said, then bit her tongue to keep from snapping at him.
 
She was feeling her own twinges of anger at Penny. Glenn
gave a heavy sigh and she tried not to wince.
 

“Listen, could you pass these papers out to the par
ents in the stands?” she asked, knowing that doing her
a favor would bring a smile back to his face. “It’s the new schedule and a list of who’s bringing
drinks to the games.”

“Sure.” Just as she’d thought, he took the papers
gladly. “You know I like to help you. I wish you’d
think of more things for me to do.”

He walked away happily and Kelly watched him go, wondering ruefully what she was going to do. She was
almost certain she didn’t want him in her life. The chemistry just wasn’t there. But he
didn’t take hints very well. With a sense of dread, she knew she was going to have to come right out and tell him how she felt—and pretty soon.
 

She started to look back at the field again, but
something caught her eye. As she turned, before she’d even really seen it, a chill skittered down her spine.

It was Cody. He stood near the parking lot, his suit
coat slung over his shoulder, the long sleeves of his
white shirt rolled up to his elbows, a brush of silky
black hair falling down over his forehead. Her heart
seemed to stop. She stared, meeting his gaze, and
waited for him to make some sign.