Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (14 page)

Kelly shook her head in exasperation. “Are you
going to tell me what the heck is going on here?”

Sadie looked at her and winced. “Oh, rats!” was all
she would say.

Kelly stared at her friend, growing frustrated.
“What is the matter with you? Why can’t you just face
the man and tell him that his orchids can’t grow in this
desert climate?”

Sadie threw up her hands. “But that’s just it, honey.
His orchids are doing fine.” She tossed her head. “Not
that he really gives a darn. It’s me he’s trying to cul
tivate.”

Kelly blinked. “What? You mean...he likes you?”
Kelly was confused. It wasn’t that she didn’t think
Sadie attractive. She obviously was, very much so. But Sadie had never seemed to have any interest in men for
herself. And to think of a man like Monty being after
her!

“Oh, never mind!” Sadie cried, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “You think your life is messed up?
Just be glad you’re not living mine!”

She heaved a tremulous sigh and hurried out of the room, and that was the last Kelly saw of her for another hour and a half. When Sadie did come back she was completely uncommunicative. Kelly was left to
figure this one out on her own.

Not that she had much time for mulling it over. Her
mind was full of Cody. There was hardly room for
anything else. The way he was acting was like a
Chinese puzzle—no matter what conclusion she came to, some little tag still hung out, invalidating the whole
thing.

Did she want a relationship with this man? The answer to that was crystal clear now. Yes, she most certainly did. Was it right? Was it smart? Of course not. But it was something she wanted, needed. Something
she’d never had before.

She’d been so young when she’d married Tim she’d
hardly known what she was doing. He’d been handsome, exciting. But in marrying him, she’d buried herself in him. Everything they’d done had been for Tim and his career. Her role in life had been to stand on the sidelines and cheer, to pose for pictures as the smiling wife, to hold his trophies while he kissed the beauty queens. Sometimes she’d wondered if Tim
really ever saw her.

He’d married her, but she’d never felt beloved.
They’d slept together, but she’d never felt loved. He’d
taken her with him, but she’d never felt cherished or
even important. Any willing female could have per
formed the job as wife to Tim Stanton just as well
as she had. And Tim might not even have noticed the
difference.

At first she hadn’t realized how hollow their mar
riage was. She had very little to compare it to. But af
ter Tammy was born, she began to notice how little attention Tom paid to his new daughter. Then she’d
seen how little attention he paid to her, as well.

A feeling had grown in her. It wasn’t resentment
exactly—it felt more like bewilderment. Was there
something wrong with her that he couldn’t love her the
way she felt she should be loved? Dissatisfaction had grown stronger, but before she’d had a chance to con
front it, and him, there had been the tragic boating
accident. Tammy had lost her father. But what had Kelly
lost? She was never sure, and the mixed feelings of
rage, loneliness, guilt and regret had all boiled inside
her for so long.

She needed to cleanse herself of them. Maybe Cody
was the way. He was completely wrong for her, and yet
in some paradoxical way maybe that was what would
make him right.

The question was, how to get him to cooperate? Kelly had never gone after a man before. What did other women do? What did the women that he usu
ally went out with do to attract him?

True, that was a hopeless tack to take, she decided, viewing herself critically in the mirror the next after
noon. Her reflection told the sad truth. If you didn’t
have the equipment available, you just didn’t, and
there was no use trying to fake it. He’d seen enough to know the truth and padding wasn’t going to fool him.

Maybe, though, just a little push-up bra... She tried
the effect, adjusting the ordinary bra she had on, pushing hard from underneath and taking a deep
breath to help things along, but one look and the air
burst back out in a gasp of laughter. It was no use. She
was what she was.

She settled on applying a little extra eye makeup,
just a slightly thicker line at the eyelids, a second coat
of mascara on the lashes, a little more eye shadow. She
got out the curling iron and coaxed feathery curls around her face. And then she looked through her
perfume collection for something special.

One by one she checked through the little used bot
tles, all of them gifts she’d garnered at one time or another. “Daisies” sounded too girl-next-door.
“N’est-ce pas” sounded irrelevant. She hesitated over
“SpringStorm,” but then her gaze fell on “Naked Lust.”

“Naked Lust.”
 

She let the words curl around her tongue, then grinned. If that didn’t get him, nothing
would. Twisting off the jeweled top, she took a deep
sniff, then choked. It was strong medicine all right. That was exactly what she needed. Pressing her lips
together, she dabbed it on liberally and turned to con
sider her wardrobe.

She usually wore jeans and jersey tops or sweat
shirts, but today it would be tiny white shorts and a
snug plaid blouse unbuttoned one more button than
she’d ever dared before.

The blouse was going to take a lot of nerve on her part. Leaving off her bra, she put on the blouse and practiced in front of the mirror, turning and bending over and dipping, examining every angle and how
much unsunned skin was revealed. A lot more showed
than she was comfortable with. She put the bra back
on. There were only so many concessions she could
force herself to make toward this manhunt.

Finally she was ready to go. Tammy was calling from
the front porch. Kelly stopped for one last long look in
the mirror. “Is this obvious, or what?” she whis
pered despairingly. But she steeled herself, closing her
eyes and refusing to think about it. After all, she’d
been unobtrusive for days now, and where had it got
ten her?

She tried to ignore the startled looks on the girls’
faces when they saw her, but she couldn’t avoid over
hearing the comments.

“Gee, Tammy, look at your mother!”

“She’s so pretty!”

And from the precocious Mandy. “I don’t know. If my mother looked like that, I sure wouldn’t bring any
guys home to meet her.”

It was too obvious. She hesitated, wondering if she
had time to run home and change back into her usual clothes, but then it was too late. Cody had arrived.

Kelly saw his car drive up and hurriedly busied her
self handing out mitts and balls and shouting orders
to the girls. Out of the corner of her eye she could see
him coming toward them. She grabbed the water
bucket and trotted off to fill it at the faucet on the edge
of the bleachers. By the time she got back, she figured, Cody would be out on the field with the girls.

She figured wrong.
 

He was standing by the bench,
waiting for her.

“Hi,” he said, and finally she had to raise her face
and meet his eyes.

“Hi,” she responded, meeting his gaze. He was
standing casually before her, his sunglasses in his
hand. His eyes were laughing at her. She turned scarlet and barely restrained the impulse to throw the water over his head. Instead, she glared at him, silently daring him to say anything about the way she looked.

He read the message and took the coward’s way out.
“Nice day,” he said, trying to sound sincere as he re
placed his sunglasses.

“Looks like rain to me,” she snapped, pointing out
the dark clouds rumbling over the mountains.

“Oh.” He squinted. “I guess you’re right.”

She put the bucket down and looked out at the field.
 

“We should be able to put in an hour or so before the
rain gets here,” she noted evenly. “Did you want to run a batting drill or something else useful?” She stressed the last word to make sure he got the point.

“No.” Cody stood right where he was, his thumbs
hooked into the pockets of his crisp blue jeans. His
mint-green polo shirt was open at the neck. The aviator glasses hid the expression in his eyes from her. “I thought I’d just stay here with you and watch them
today,” he said quietly. “Get the big picture, for a
change.”

“Fine.” She cringed at the sarcastic tone she heard
in her own voice, but couldn’t seem to help it. “Why
don’t I just go home and leave you to... ?”

She turned away but he caught hold of her shoulder. “Don’t you dare,” he said softly. “What do you
think I came here for?”

She looked up at him, wide-eyed. “To train the
girls,” she said breathlessly.

His smile was slow and mysterious. “Is that what
you think?” he asked. “Think again, Kelly Stanton.”

Thinking was something that was hard to do when he was so close. She waited, heart pounding, for him
to go on, but before he could get another word out, a
shout came from the field.

“Cody, come and show Penny how to hold her
glove. She can’t get her fingers in the right slots.”

“Coming,” he called, but his glance lingered on
Kelly. He touched her chin. “I’ll be back.” Throwing
her a regretful smile he started out toward the girls.
 

Kelly watched him go. He’d been about to say more. She could feel it. But she had another feeling that he was just as glad not to. Could it mean that he felt just
like she did—that he was attracted to her, but didn’t
want to be?

For the next half hour she watched while Cody worked out on the field, then they all came in for an
orange break. She’d cut the oranges into quarters and they made a refreshing snack. The girls grabbed at the sections, throwing peel around, laughing and joking.
The loudest talker and the biggest joker of them all
was Cody. He seemed to be having an awfully good
time, for all he’d implied he didn’t come because of
the girls. Kelly found herself moving with short, jerky
motions, acting out the resentment that seemed to be
smoldering deep inside her. She didn’t put into words
exactly what was making her angry, because she
wouldn’t have been proud of her own thoughts. So she
kept it suppressed and acted grumpy.

“What’s the game for Saturday?” Cody asked as
they began to gather themselves together to go back
out.

“The Blue Meanies,” Kelly said shortly. “It’s right
there on the schedule. All you have to do is read it.”
She opened a plastic trash bag and began collecting orange peel and paper cups, glaring at the girls who’d
dropped them.

“Oh good,” Heather cried, completely ignoring Kelly’s mood. “We have a chance with the Blue
Meanies.”

“Yeah. And their uniforms are at least two years
old,” Tammy added.

“I wish we didn’t have to play the Golden Uni
corns again,” Heather sighed, leaning against a sad
but handy ironwood tree.

Cody looked up from where he’d been wetting his handkerchief in the water bucket. “Why do you let the Unicorns intimidate you?” He rose and pulled off his sunglasses, then touched the wet cloth to his temple.
“They aren’t any better than you are.”

Tammy stared at him, dumbfounded at his igno
rance. “Are you kidding? Look at the clothes they
wear!”

Despite his own impeccable sense of grooming, Cody didn’t understand. He was, after all, a male.
“Clothes?” he muttered, bewildered. “What do clothes have to do with it?”

“Everything!” the girls cried in unison.

“You’re not a girl,” Tammy added with kind conde
scension. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I guess not.” His eyes met Kelly’s and suddenly
they were laughing together while the girls began to straggle out onto the field. Kelly averted her gaze and
shivered, wrapping her arms around her. Suddenly,
there was a cool wind blowing air their way.

“Put on jackets, girls,” she called to them, but
when she turned to retrieve her own, Cody was just stepping toward where the bats were stacked, and the
two of them collided.

“Whoops!” Cody’s hands steadied Kelly. She
looked into his eyes again and felt as though she were
melting. His hand went to her hair, touching softly. Kelly’s breath stopped in her throat. She closed her eyes. “New perfume?” he asked softly, his hand still
tangled in her hair.

The pulse was beating hard and heavy. She smiled
up at him, wishing her lips wouldn’t tremble. Maybe
all her plans were working, after all. “Do you like it?”
she asked shyly.