Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (18 page)

“Deliriously. Her son from her first marriage,
Patrick, is in college now. And she and Cord have the twins, so she’s got people to keep her busy bossing.”

Strange how relieved his answer made her. If he’d told her his sister was unhappy, having married a man
unlike the type she’d thought she needed, it would
have been devastating. Kelly didn’t yet want to think
through the reasons for that. “Why do you call her bossy?”

He turned onto his stomach and she began to rub his back. “Because she is. She likes to run every
body’s life. She always thinks she knows just what’s going to make everyone else happy. It’s just because she loves them so much. But you’ve got to fight back
every now and then, like I did.”

She let her fingers trail down his spine. “Does she
still hold it against you?”

He grinned. “Sure. Now she’s trying to get Patrick
interested in being a lawyer, and all he wants to do is
be a jet pilot.”

Kelly liked the way he seemed to love his sister. In
fact, for a man who made his living among some of the toughest hombres around, Cody seemed to have
more than his share of an affectionate nature. She felt a wave of feeling for him. With her hand, she gently
pushed back the hair on his forehead.

“Is Cody your real name?”

She could feel him stiffen beneath her touch. He turned to look into her eyes, his own wary once again.
“My full name’s Brian Cody Marin,” he said
shortly. “Why all the questions? You work for the FBI
or something?”

His tone stung her. “Why, do you have something
to hide from them?” she shot back, pulling away from
him.

His face hardened, then slowly relaxed. “Hey!” He touched her cheek. “I’m sorry. Ask me anything you
like. My life is an open book. For you, anyway.”

It only took that much to erase the flare-up and
bring back the easy laziness they’d been sharing, but Kelly knew she’d been warned. Cody lived close to the
edge. He had to be careful of how much he revealed to others who could use that information against him. She was going to have to keep that in mind and give him some space. Just one more rule for the road.

Chapter Eight

Was it just her imagination, or was the sun really
shining brighter today? Kelly took a deep breath,
drawing in all the fresh air she could get. The grass had been cut recently enough to leave a lingering scent. The
mountains looked redder and blacker. Everything was
great.

She set about opening the canvas bag and getting
out the mitts and balls. It was Saturday and time to
play the Blue Meanies. People were just beginning to arrive in the parking lot. It was going to be a glorious
day.

She and Cody had been together almost constantly
for the last two days. She was moving in a dream
world and she knew it, but it was oh, so sweet. She was
in love.

There. She’d actually said it to herself.

“What are you grinning about?” Tammy had come
up behind her, holding the bats. She stared suspi
ciously at her mother.

“Oh, nothing,” Kelly said, but before she could stop herself, she was humming.

“Mother! It’s bad luck to be too happy before a
game.”

Tammy turned away to greet Heather, who was com
ing in from the parking lot. Kelly hummed more loudly, just for fun.

“Excuse me.” A young man suddenly appeared
near the bench carrying a large brown box. “Are you
Ms. Carrington?”

“Yes.” Kelly nodded. “What can I do for you?”

He dropped the box on the ground and pulled out a
clipboard. “Sign here, please.” He held out a pen for
her.

“What is it?” Kelly pushed at the big box with the
toe of her shoe. “Who’s it from?”

“No return address,” the deliveryman said impa
tiently. “Sign here, please.”

Kelly signed and he ran back toward his truck. “What is it?” The girls were crowding around.

“It’s addressed to the Rockin’ Robins, care of me,”
Kelly said. “You might as well go ahead and open it.”

They did, tearing paper and throwing cardboard all
over the place. As they got down to the contents, squeals of delight began to emanate from the box.

“Look, Mom!” Tammy held up a white uniform
with red pinstriping. “We got uniforms! There’s one for each of us! They have our names on them!”

“What?” Kelly stared, bewildered. She hadn’t or
dered any uniforms. And she couldn’t imagine any of
the parents being magnanimous enough to make a
gesture like this. “Let me see those.”

By now each girl had one and most were dancing up
and down, holding the uniforms up against their
fronts. Tammy held hers up and looked at the back.
“Mom,” she said, a warning note in her voice.
“Look.” Suddenly a hush fell on the group as each girl glanced over and saw what was printed on the back.

The letters were huge, gaudy, sparkling red and silver, and they spelled out Marquis Casino in no uncer
tain terms.

“Cody,” Kelly breathed. “Oh, no!”

“Look, Mom,” Tammy said, holding up a shirt that
said Coach over the pocket and had the same casino
name on the back. “There’s even something for you.”

She could feel the rumble of the impending storm
from the beginning. At first it was just whispers as the
parents began to get a look at the uniforms. There
were louder comments, then a buzz of excited talk be
gan to fill the air.

“I’ve never seen such an outrage in my life. I won’t have my daughter wearing any such thing. Why, it’s a walking advertisement for gambling and debauchery.
My little girl wouldn’t be caught dead in something
like that.”

Kelly pretended to be making out her batting lineup,
but in reality, she was listening to the buzz and won
dering what she was going to do. They had a point.
How could she let the girls wear the uniforms with the
casino’s logo on the back? What had Cody been thinking?

The girls were milling about, the uniforms hanging
limply in their hands. They were looking from their
angry parents to the uniforms and back again, not sure what to think themselves. They wanted the uniforms
so badly.

Kelly looked up and saw Cody coming from the parking lot.
Oh no
, she thought desperately.
Go back.
Don’t come now
. She needed time to decide how to
satisfy the parents, how to deal with the uniforms, and
how not to hurt Cody all at the same time. It was too
much.

“Hello.” He stopped near her, his eyes smiling and the urge to kiss her evident but restrained. “Good day
for a game.”

Kelly swallowed hard and tried to smile back natu
rally. “Yes,” she said. “Seems like a good one.”

She could see the question come into his eyes. He
glanced around and noticed the uniforms, but he
didn’t say anything. Glancing up into the bleachers, he
caught on right away to what was happening.

“Why don’t you girls go into the rest room and put
on the uniforms?” he suggested, making his voice
loud and clear enough for the people in the stands to
hear. “Then we can get going on some drills before the
game starts.”

Glenn was coming down out of the stands. Kelly
took one look at his face and knew he’d appointed
himself spokesman for the complainers.

“Those girls are staying right here! I don’t know if this is your idea of a joke, Kelly,” he exclaimed as he
came up. His face was flushed with outrage. “We don’t think it’s very funny.” He held up his daughter’s uniform, pointing at the gaudy logo. “I won’t have Suzy wearing this.”

Kelly wished with all her heart she could shield Cody
somehow, keep him from hearing the hurtful things that were going to be said. She glanced at him, then
back to Glenn. “Could you keep your voice down... ?” she began, but Cody had already heard.

“You’ve got a problem with the uniforms?” he asked pleasantly.

Glenn glared at him. “That’s right. They’re trash.”

Cody’s eyebrows rose. “Really? Let me see. I or
dered top quality. Let’s take a look.” He held his hand
out for the uniform, but Glenn snatched it back.

“Who is this guy?” Glenn asked Kelly.

She opened her mouth to answer, but Cody was on
a roll. “The Marquis Casino is the place where I work,” he said, still pleasant, but talking loudly
enough for everyone to hear. “I got them to put up the
money for the uniforms as a community service. I
thought you’d be pleased.”

He was speaking to them all, but he wasn’t looking at them. He was looking right at Kelly. She wavered.
Her instincts to calm the situation were strong. Com
promise, she thought wildly. But how did you com
promise here? Cody was asking for a sign of where she
stood, and she knew it. She couldn’t give him one yet.
She just wasn’t sure.

“Pleased!” Glenn was saying, looking back at the other parents for support. “We’re outraged! We don’t
want your damn gambling casino on our children’s backs.”

Cody shrugged, turning to face Glenn. “You accept their tax money into the city coffers without one
whimper of protest. You accept the business they draw
to the city every year. You accept the jobs they pro
vide. Why not softball uniforms?”

He had a very good point, Kelly realized. Why
hadn’t she thought of those things? Because she’d still been mired in her preconceptions and prejudices, she
decided. She’d still been thinking of gamblers as the
enemy. It was time to stop.

Glenn looked from Kelly to Cody, frowning his
displeasure. “Who are you, anyway?” he demanded.

“My name’s Cody Marin. I’ve been the assistant
coach for the last couple of weeks. If you paid any at
tention to what your child did, you’d know that.”

“I’ll bet he’s a gambler,” somebody said. “Throw
him out. We don’t need him here.”

Kelly felt dizzy. Just weeks before she might not
have turned a hair hearing talk like this. She’d had her
own scathing opinion of gamblers. But now it was Cody they were talking about. She wanted to find
whoever had said that and slap him.

But Cody didn’t need defending. He was doing a good job on his own. “I’ll take the uniforms back if
you like,” he was saying coolly to the crowd. “But I
just want to say one thing. All you parents haven’t
been able to get together to buy the girls uniforms.
Most of the other teams have them and the girls have been feeling at a definite disadvantage. Maybe you
don’t realize how important it is to them. You must
know they’d tried going door to door, offering to wash
cars in order to make money for uniforms. But they didn’t make nearly enough and the season is already
half over. I wanted to give them a chance to go out on that field feeling good about how they look, feeling
official and right.”

The crowd was buzzing, responding to what he’d said. He turned to Kelly, his dark eyes searching hers.
“Well, what do you think? You want me to wrap them
up and take them back?”

Kelly stared at him, then looked at each parent in
turn, meeting each pair of eyes and ending with Glenn. “No,” she said firmly. Reaching into the box, she pulled out the shirt with Coach emblazoned on it and
slipped it over her jersey top. “I’m going to wear
mine. And anyone who still wants me as coach can
have the girls wear theirs. Everyone else can go form
a new team. Without us.” She tilted her head to the side and smiled. “I hope one of you is ready to take
over as coach for the new team.” She looked from one
to another. “How about you?” she asked Glenn pointedly. “Do you have every afternoon free to
practice with these girls, to get them ready for games?
Someone’s going to have to do it.”

Glenn stepped closer to her. “Why would you quit over something like this?” he asked her, honestly be
wildered by her attitude. It was obvious she hadn’t turned out to be the woman he thought she was.

Her eyes narrowed. “I think you’re insulting some
one who’s done a lot more for your children lately
than you think,” she said firmly. “Why don’t you all
huddle and take a vote? I’ll wait here for your deci
sion.”

They moved away, muttering among themselves, and Kelly felt Cody’s arm slide around her shoulders. She leaned back into his embrace, sighing.

“What is the matter with people?” she grumbled.

Cody laughed and pulled her closer. “People are al
ways like that with things they don’t understand, things that threaten their status quo. I don’t hold it
against them. I’ve reacted that way myself on occasion.” He looked down at her, thinking of how he’d scorned her neat little house when he’d first seen it.