Lady Luck (Lucky You Book 2 1) (5 page)

     “Hmm.” He contemplates

     “Deal. Now lets get to it. I’m ready for a cold beer.”

     “It’s 10am and we have work to do, so no.” Geez, I wonder if he realizes he’s becoming an alcoholic. He depends on it more than I thought.

We knock out the rest of the kitchen. Finding rats nests all behind the cabinets and in the walls. We had to use a shop vacuum to clean up the mess. Lucky for him I came prepared with everything needed for this overhaul, including the vacuum. I swept up the rest of the Sheetrock and glanced in his direction. I catch him staring at me, as I’m bent over in front of him, and he’s clearly checking me out, judging by the smile on his face at least. Honestly it catches me off gurard. I’ve never felt this way from a guys reaction to me wearing my working jeans, with cowgirl boots and my signature red flannel. No one ever gives me a second glance and here he is checking me out and I haven’t a clue has to how to handle him.

     “Catching flies Jeremiah?” He closes his mouth and he appears confused? Yeah buddy I caught you. “See something that caught your eye? “I go on teasing him.

“Lets get to our designated rooms and get this overhaul started.” He snaps back into his commanding tone. “Ladies first, take your pick.”

     “Hmm. I chose the bedroom above the front room.”

     “Good choice, my lady”

     “And which one do you choose?” I ask him, curious which room he will claim.

    “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

Jeremiah

My plan was to let her win. No guy ever would let the girl suffer defeat, when what he really wanted was to win her over.

Wait is that what I’m trying to do here? Even I may need to be checked out in the brain. As I think about it more though, yes that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m joking around and being playful. I want her play with me too. It’s kind of fun. It’s making me feel free of all the baggage I carry around. I’m reaching out on a limb, even if it’s all in my head. It’s my own personal sign that life goes on, after heartbreak.
      

I waited until she carried her sweet little behind upstairs to the room she decided need the destruction the most. My plan was to sneak out the back and feed Charlie, maybe clear off the back porch a little bit, then I could head back to demolish something.

Taking her advice I reach the butcher pantry and try to imagine what I could make it into.

I can see a center island complete with cookbooks, and shelves upon shelves of dishes and food and pantry items lining the walls. I wonder what the designer upstairs would say about my vision.

I begun by demolishing the shelves and cabinets toward the back and now I’ve moved on to work on the island in the middle of the space.

She finds me after being dormant upstairs for four hours.

“Hey, so what have you been up to? In a room this small how could you only have half the space cleared so far?”

“I’ve been around doing other things too. How did it go up there?”

“Jeremiah, I feel like you just used me. Anyway, it’s done, the room is cleared, as is the bathroom that attaches. I do believe I won the bet. So I will choose the kitchen which will also include this room.”

“I’d love to see what you have in store for in here. I was just imagining an island with bar stools in here with shelves and pull out drawers for better organization.”

“How about we talk about it at the poker game later?” She says. “I will bring my designs to show what I had mapped out, and you get ideas from there. You’re still going to come?”

“Yeah, I’m coming. I mean I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to hang out with my best friend and my designer at the same poker table.”

“This will be interesting.” She says.
 

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“I’d like to place a wager on this game, since we’re heads up, If you win, I will let you design my entire house however you want, and if I win, I get to take you out for dinner and dancing. What ya say?”

    “You’re on, I already have the plans, I’ll show them to you later. Good luck Jere.”

    “You too. Lady Luck.”

    We’ve passed our chips back and forth, hand after hand for more than an hour. We both play for keeps. She really knows how to play me, but I wonder if I can fool her.

    My hand shows I have suited king, jack diamonds. The board reads King of hearts, two of diamonds, and King of spades. I immediately know I have three of a kind. Shifting in my seat, and then fidgeting with my chips, I try to stack them, and then proceed to shuffle them, but they end up colliding with each other and fly in all different directions.

    I glance up to her, forgetting to sit and stare at her, because that’s what you do in poker, you stare them down. You try to make them scared to play with you, you want them to call, to take them out, but you don’t want them to end up taking you out instead.

She hit the nail, dead on, it’s really all a game of skill and luck. There’s really not a right or wrong way to play, as long as you’re smart enough to win. Tricks wont always hold out in your favor either.

Addie announces, “I’m all in.”

     I have three of kind, kings with two on the board and one in my hand. I know I’ve got her. I can’t imagine what set she’s playing. She’s got me covered in chips, so if I call, and she wins, I’m done. She wins it all. Game Over.

     “I call. What you do have there Lady Luck?”

     “I have a full house.
Ladies over kings. Looks like I just took you down.” Oh shit, she’s an even better poker player than me. Her name suits her well. Lady Luck.

     “You sure did. Damn. You played me well. Did you know what I had this whole time?”

     “Yep it’s not hard to read you. You were squirming in your seat and I saw your eyes flash across the board. You were a dead giveaway.”

     “You may have to teach me a thing or two about playing. I thought you had a pair, but not a boat. Damn.”

Jax and Ryan crowd around me, joining me in the loser’s circle. I lose track of Addie, not knowing where she ran off to. I have unfinished business with her. I’m not backing down now. I still want to take her out, win or lose.

After the guys move along, I search for her inside and turn up with no such luck I wander outside and find her in the barn checking on the animals.

     “Hey you played a good game in there, maybe someday you could sit down and teach me how this reading people thing works.”

     “It’s not hard. You pay attention to their gestures, and the hands they play, how they’re betting. Its not all that hard to do.”

     “Well you should play pro. Your tourney name could be Lady Luck.”

     “I wouldn’t want to waste my time on trying to win at playing cards, I’d rather be winning at life.
My career, my family, my home. Those are the things that make me a winner.”

     “No you’re right. I just see you playing at a pro table, as part of the November nine.”

     “Jeremiah, do you really want to take me out on a date sometime? You’ve hinted a few times and I was curious.” She says shyly, I tuck her hair behind her ear leaning into her a little closer.

     “I was hoping you’d catch on. Yes, I would love to take you out sometime. We both need a little more fun and laughter in our lives. How about Saturday night? “I ask.” I’ll pick you up at six?”

     “Where are you taking me?”

     “A night out on the town.
Dinner and dancing. Wear something sweet and girly for me.”

     “You don’t like the way I dress?” She says looking down at her jeans and red flannel shirt, its unbuttoned giving me a peek at her luscious cleavage. What I wouldn’t do to be her tank top underneath hugging her frame.

     “I could look at you wearing scrubs and still think you’re cute. But I’ve never seen you in a dress before. A proper date deserves proper attire.”

     “Okay. I’ll raid Jessa’s closet.” This girl. She’s so sweet and innocent. I love the cute things she says, and the fact that it feels like I’m hanging out with a friend and not a girl. She’s quirky and cool, calm and active. I never know what her response will be, and I always get side tracked while eyeing her down. She’s got a sexy body, with curves in all the right places. Her ass... 
ahh I could squeeze perfectly in the palm of my hand. Her hobbies and interest are similar to mine and we compliment each other. We come from very different backgrounds, but our values are the same. When I look at her sometimes, I feel my whole world come into view. I feel like the earth has moved to bring us together. It’s a weird feeling when you don’t understand that your head and heart can feel so differently about some one. I want her in my future but I’m scared to give my heart over again. I also can’t believe that it’s taken me theses past few months to really put the effort out there to get on with my life. I kind of regret turning her away all those times she offered to help me. I could’ve been getting to know her. I could’ve been starting my life sooner than now.

Now, I’ve got homework to do. Where do you go for good food and dancing?

CHAPTER 6

Jeremiah

I’ve thought of her so much lately. She’s the opposite of Cam and maybe that’s what surprised me. She’s so different than what I thought I wanted. I told myself to be careful and not give my heart away so easily. But I’m finding it harder than I thought to just let myself walk away. I’m afraid of letting her go and regret knowing there could have been something worth fighting for. There’s not one single thing about her that doesn’t drive me wild. It’s nearly everything!

She mirrors me. We are very alike and also very different. We mesh. And when I look at what my future would be like with her, having her by my side always, it makes me wonder if turning my back on her is the smart thing to do. She may frustrate me sometimes, but I’m finding that it’s actually a turn on, with her attitude and sassy mouth. I can’t help but get hard when she back mouths me, or has some crazy remark. Sometimes It’s the surprise of her responses, and that shocking tongue. It’s so funny to hear some of the sexual innuendos she gives me knowing she’s never actually been in that situation. I’m hoping our date this weekend goes great. From what Jax told me, or rather warned me, was that she’s never dated. This will be her first everything. He told me if my intentions weren’t honorable he’d come after me, he knows where I sleep.

I reassured him that I’m not looking to score and walk away. I’m not interested in just sleeping with her and turning my back on her. I told him my heart is healing, but she’s the one healing it. I need her around. She may not know it, but she’s helping me get through this hell I’ve been in. And when she’s around the gloom in my life disappears. She adds sunlight and happiness. I’m not a man to take and take, she’s given me a lot and now I’m ready to give back to her. She deserves all the happiness in the world, I’m going to show her what its like to have a man give her everything she needs and wants. I’m willing to let her set the pace, I’m not going to force her into anything she’s not ready for. If she wants to wait till marriage to give her body away I will respect her, and hope that one day I will be that man.

“As long as you don’t break her heart, I’m okay with it. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long ass time. She needs that extra spark that only a man can give a woman. She’s seen it in Jessa and I’ve talked to her about it.”

    “When you met Jessa, did you feel anything, like from the start, or did it gradually progress over time?”

    “The second I laid eyes on her, it was a connection unlike any other. I still get these chills when she looks at me.”

    “When Addie and I met, I was with Cam as you know. And we hated each other. I know I took something away from
her, I didn’t do it to knowingly to hurt her. And now when I look at her, she’s all I see. Everything and everyone is nonexistent.”

    “Then I’d have to say you have it bad.
And that your life is just beginning. You’re meant to be together, but take things slow, I’m glad that she’s finally found someone willing to see beyond her demons.

Huh. She has troubles? I would have never guessed. She’s always so confident, yet she is shy. And reserves her problems to herself. I wonder what it is that she keeps bottled inside.

     “That first time I met her, my first thought was she’s hot tempered with an ugly attitude. I couldn’t understand her hate. Now that I know who she is and why she’s Addie, I literally cannot move away from her. It scares me that I’m falling so hard so fast, but there’s this underlining feeling deep inside me, that’s begging for her. It’s a yearning that I’ve never experienced before. When she’s near, I feel this electric
spark, it’s a wild and crazy zing coursing through my veins. My body only knows her, it only wants her, needs her. It scares me to think that I will never be the same if she were to turn her back on me. I survived Cam leaving, but I wont survive Addie. “