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

Kelly smiled again, relaxing against the windowsill
and watching for a few choice moments. Tammy was
determined to be the first female ball player drafted by
the Dodgers, and Kelly wasn’t about to stifle her dreams with warnings of reality.

“At least she has dreams,” she thought wistfully, then stiffened as she caught sight of her own reflection in the windowpane. The faint, misty mirror image reminded her of a younger Kelly, the girl she’d
once been. She’d had dreams then, too. The world had
been an open opportunity just waiting for her to explore it. Where had that young girl gone? she wondered, her melancholy mood growing. The dreams were dust now. She had no time for them. She had a living to make and a daughter to raise. She did what she had to do. Dreams were a luxury out in the real
world.

“Not quite true,” she corrected herself. Tammy was
still her dream. Tammy was all she had left. Looking
back out, she smiled again as she watched her daugh
ter catch a high ball she’d thrown for herself. When
she was ten years of age, Kelly remembered playing
with dolls and setting up lemonade stands with teddy
bears in chairs as the prime customers. But Tammy took
after her father. He would have been so proud.

She closed her eyes for just a moment. Sometimes
it felt like they were so alone, she and Tammy. All alone.

She opened her eyes again and sighed, leaning on her elbows to watch Tammy chase an errant throw into the street. Alone was actually how she liked it. Most of the time.
 

Of course, they had Glenn. But he was
just a friend and could never be anything more, no
matter how much he wanted to. Still, she felt the need
for someone else to share the burdens, to put an arm
around her when the days seemed to last forever.

There hadn’t been anyone, not since Tim had died.
Tim. She hated thinking of him. The pain always flashed for just a moment, and for fragments of a second a picture of the crash appeared before her mind’s eye. No matter how well she thought she’d
gotten used to the image, it surprised her every time, making her gasp again and her heart beat just a little faster. She clenched her fists, forcing the memories away and looked outside—just in time to see a red
Porsche stop in the nursery parking lot.

She didn’t doubt for a moment that it was Cody
Marin. Mesmerized, she stared as he emerged
from the little car. He was dressed like a model from the pages of a men’s magazine, his suit light but
elegant, his shirt the color of a Nevada sky at dusk.

The only thing that set the image slightly askew was the length of his hair. Its black fullness was a little too
long, a little too shaggy to go with the rest of his ap
pearance. And something about its cut set off his high
cheekbones and emphasized the obvious strain of Native
American in his blood.

Kelly wasn’t surprised to see him. Something in her
had known that he would show up eventually. But that
didn’t mean that she was happy about it.

She watched as he called out a greeting to Tammy.

Tammy stopped what she was doing and ran over to greet him, surprising Kelly and reminding her that this man was a force to be reckoned with.
 
She began to back away from the window, her mind racing. Her first instinct was to run and hide, but she stopped herself. That would be silly. After all, Cody Marin was nothing to be afraid
of.

He'd
stopped by the night before, and that had been a surprise. The sexual pull between the two of them was obvious. It gave her a delightful buzz, but scared her at the same time. That way lay madness, and she knew it. He knew it too, from the way he’d left, fast as a scalded cat.
 

Now he was here and she wondered what had changed. Had he decided to risk it all? Well, she hadn’t. She didn’t want to talk to the man anymore.
He represented trouble. “But trouble is better faced
than run from,” she reminded herself with one of her
grandmother’s favorite sayings.

She sighed and started for the door, then caught
herself reaching for her hair. So what if it was a tangled mess? Nursery work was hard and physical and
there was certainly no reason to pretend any differ
ently. She would go and find out what he wanted, then
get back to work.

Chin high, she walked into the retail section of the
nursery. Cody looked even taller than she remembered. There was a slow, lazy grace to the man that
belied the leashed danger she felt. She wasn’t sure
what the danger was exactly, she only knew she’d
sensed it from the moment she’d met him. Even after being beaten up, his gaze had been wry and sardonic
rather than angry or hurt. He was an observer. He
didn’t let life get in close where it could hurt him. And
that made him one of the most dangerous men around.

It was obvious he’d been asking Sadie about her.
They both turned as she walked in. She stifled an in
voluntary shudder and smiled at them both.

Chapter Three

“Friend to see you,” Sadie called.
 

Kelly scowled. Sa
die didn’t think much of visiting during working
hours, and since she was so tolerant of Tammy hanging around, Kelly hated to push it. Still, she could hardly
tell Cody to get lost right off the bat.

She nodded, forcing another smile. “Well, hello,”
she said, going behind the counter while he sauntered
over to lean on it from the other side. “What brings you to Sadie’s Nursery and Florist Shop?”

All in all, she was quite proud of her casual tone. This wasn’t going to be so difficult, after all. They
would exchange a few pleasantries and he would soon
be on his way.

He’d disturbed her the night before. It had been al
most four years since Tim had died, and no man had stirred her in all that time. She’d vaguely thought that
she was beyond that sort of thing—that she was too
busy, too worried, too tired. She’d never felt more
than a sisterly affection for Glenn, regardless of how perfect he would be to marry. Yet one glance into this
gambler’s dark gaze and she’d felt a curious quiver
inside, an aching, a longing. It wasn’t something she
wanted to feel again. It was too tempting to sample the sensations he promised, even if covertly.
 

So she kept her gaze cool, her tone light, and she busied her hands with some papers on the counter, cleaning up after the notoriously messy Sadie.

He waited just a beat too long before answering her
question. “I came to see you,” he said at last, and as
she met his dark gaze, all her confidence fell away.

Kelly fought it hard, making herself smile once more. Funny how brave she’d been facing physical harm in that alley, and what a coward she was about
emotional pain. Talk, she told herself. And don’t look
into his eyes again. Instead, she looked at his face. “You seem to have repaired nicely,” she said.

The only evidence of the beating that she could see was a slight swelling of one corner of his lower lip. He
had a gorgeous mouth, she thought irrelevantly, then
looked away.

“The body’s doing okay,” he agreed. “The suit was
a goner, though.”

“That’s too bad.” She picked up some stray paper clips and slipped them back into their box in the top drawer. Then she started wiping up stray bits of dirt with a damp cloth. If Sadie looked over she’d be gratified, but Cody must know she was merely doing
anything she could to avoid his eyes.

She hated that—his knowing. And darn it all! She was too strong a woman, had come too far to let this
happen. Slowly, deliberately, she put down the cloth,
leaned her hips against the counter and met his gaze
fully.

“But this suit looks even better on you,” Kelly said
evenly. “I’m sure you’ll get over the loss.”

He smiled slightly and his dark eyes sent a mes
sage, “
So you want it that way, do you
?” Aloud, he said,
“I don’t know about that. It was one of a kind. And
I’m partial to the unique in life.” Cody paused, ex
amining the side of her face, and she was sure there
was a dirt smudge on her cheek. It took all her strength
to stop from reaching to wipe it away. “Unique items,
unique people,” he murmured at last.

There was a queasy feeling in the pit of her stom
ach. She’d had enough. He’d come by to pay his re
spects one more time, and it was over. Time he got on his way. “Well, it’s been nice seeing you,” she said coolly, then waited
for him to take the hint she’d presented as his exit cue.

He let it lie right there on the counter between them,
though he recognized it for what it was. He knew—as if he could read her mind-—how she felt. She’d made it pretty clear the night before, and he’d taken it to heart at the time. After a night of reflection, he’d changed his mind. He knew she wanted
him gone. She didn’t like gamblers, probably didn’t
much like most men who were slightly threatening to
her peace of mind.
 

So he threatened her. He liked that.
Better to arouse unease than no emotion at all. The more he’d thought about it, the more he’d realized she might be worth the effort. She was certainly a class above any woman he’d ever dated in his life. It might be worth the effort to see how far he could take this.
 

Looking her up and down now, Cody swore softly
to himself.
Well, this was what you wanted,
he told himself grimly.
You wanted to see her one more time,
and here she is. Now what?

She was kicking him out, that was what. Only he didn’t want to go. Funny how she’d stuck in the back of his mind all week. He’d told himself to forget about
her and for the most part, he had. He’d hardly given her a full thought for over a week, until last night, and then he’d seen
Monty and been reminded of the things he was supposed to forget. Suddenly Kelly’s face was in his thoughts constantly, always with a frown of disapproval at his easy ability to turn a blind eye to crime
that was going on right under his nose.

“
What you don’t understand
,” he’d kept saying to
Kelly’s frowning specter, “
is that there’s nothing I can
really do about it. I’m a gambler. Not a creditable
witness. They could accuse me of spite and vindictiveness and I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. Be
sides, nobody cares. It’s business as usual around here
.”

The specter didn’t listen to his arguments, so he’d
come to see the original-the real thing. Like a visit to his conscience.

“You didn’t ever report what happened to the cops,
did you?” he asked, just to make further conversa
tion.

Not realizing how casual the question was, Kelly stopped in her tracks. Was that it? Had he come by to
check up on her, to see if she’d snitched? Was he really
worried about that?

“Of course not,” she said indignantly. “And I don’t suppose you have either, have you?”

His lazy grin infuriated her. “I’m not suicidal,” Cody told her.

She stared at him for a moment, then turned away. “It’s getting late,” she muttered.
“You must have places to go, people to see.”

“I thought I’d stick around for a while,” he
drawled, leaning on one elbow. “I’ve got all the time
in the world.”

“But I don’t.” She moved from behind the counter, starting back toward the greenhouse. “I’ve got work to do.”

“That’s all right.” He was following her. “We can
talk while you work.”

Kelly spun and frowned at him. “If you’ve got something to say, say it,” she retorted. “I have no idea why
you’re here.”

“I told you why.” He stood easily before her, the
picture of cool confidence. “I wanted to see how you were doing. Make sure you hadn’t been visited by our
friends from the alley—‘’

“Your friends from the alley,” she corrected him.
“They haven’t been by. But I’ll be sure to say hello for
you if they show up.”

His grin spread slowly over his dark, handsome face. “You do that,” Cody said. “In the meantime, how about lunch?”

She forced herself not to look away. “What about
it?”

He made a formal bow, bending at the waist with
effortless grace. “Would you, fair lady, care to accompany me to the dining room at the Marquis for a
noontime repast?”

Kelly stared at him. He was actually asking her out.
Didn’t he realize what he was doing here? Talk about
the twain that never met.

She had a quick, tempting picture of how he would look across a linen-covered table. What was it about this man that pulled at her this way? Best not to think
about it. That was an invitation to madness.