Cook County: Lucky in Love (2 page)

“I’m not worried about her.” Cammie waved off Flo’s concern. “The entire town can know Jim cheated on me. I have no shame over the fact he chose to go to a slut who’d give him what he wanted instead of being true to me. That’s his shame, not mine.”

“Good for you, girl.” Flo squeezed her shoulder. “I wish more of these young women nowadays held on to their values and didn’t fall apart over worthless men.” She frowned as she tilted her head. “But something is bothering you. You’ve been pretty glum since Delia left and nothing else happened except…”

Flo turned her head toward the corner booth where Lucky had been sitting. “Now, girl, we’ve had this talk.”

“I know.”

“Some people can’t be changed. That man is definitely in the Can Not Change category.” Flo punctuated her statement with a high-browed look of warning. “Any woman with a pulse would be tempted by those Masters men, but they should have a No Trespassing sign all over them.”

“Even Chance?” Cammie’s heart did a little flip as hope sparked inside it.

The upcoming wedding between Kenzie and Chance had awakened a dream she thought long lost. If Kenzie could get Chance to walk down the aisle with her after having sent the man fleeing town just to get away from her ten years earlier… Well, it gave her some hope that Lucky Masters might actually look at her as a woman, and not just the bratty little girl he knew from his high school days.

“Now, that I don’t know what to say about. Chance… Well, he was trouble growing up, but always had a measure of responsibility about him. Lucky is a loose cannon. The man gambles and drinks like it’s an Olympic sport, and goes through women like toilet tissue. And after what happened to that last one…”

“That was not Lucky’s fault!” Cammie quickly pressed her lips together, realizing the statement had come out sharper and louder than intended. “Sorry. I’m just so tired of hearing everyone dog the man when anyone with eyes can see how much it hurts him. He didn’t kill that woman. What happened in that room was
her
own doing.”

“Were you in the room?” Flo raised an eyebrow.

“No, but it doesn’t matter.” Cammie took a deep breath and watched as a man entered the diner and took the closest seat to the door. It was no use getting angry. “I know Lucky though. He would never willingly hurt a woman.”

“Ask the dozens of them he’s left behind,” Flo said as she stood and checked her apron pocket for a note pad. “I’m sure they’d have something else to say about that.”

Cammie lowered her head into her hands as Flo went to take the man’s order. First, she’d walked in on her boyfriend having sex with Stacy Cove, the town slut, in
her
bed, and then she’d gotten the voicemail from her doctor, urging her to call as soon as she could. She hadn’t bothered yet. News from the doctor delivered over the phone was never good.

The last thing she’d needed today was the run-in with Delia. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the barb that Delia directed toward her that had hurt. It was the one she’d slung Lucky’s way. To be exact, it was the reminder that Lucky was a real person that could be wounded, not the rough, hard as steel cowboy everyone made him out to be. It was the reminder that no matter how badly she wanted to wrap her arms around him and chase his demons away, she couldn’t…because Lucky Masters would never let her.

Chapter Two

“Be my best man.”

It wasn’t a question, it was an order. Lucky grinned. “Anyone ever tell you that you have a delicate touch, bro?”

Chance’s lips twitched, giving Lucky a pretty good idea just who had told him that he did, and what they’d been doing when she told him. “TMI, Chance.”

His brother only laughed.

“When’s the wedding gonna be anyway?”

“ASAP. We haven’t exactly been careful, so Kenz could already be pregnant, and you know how folks in this town like to talk about that.”

“Wow.” Lucky shook his head as he leaned against the railing with his older brother, observing the herd of cattle Kenzie owned, and soon Chance would as well. “This coming from the man who still to this day harps on me about never leaving home without a condom in my wallet?”

“I want kids. So does Kenzie, and we’re already engaged. Not much sense being careful.” Chance looked over at him. “So?”

“Do I have to wear a monkey suit?”

His dark-haired brother grinned ruefully at that. “Kenzie’s picked them out already. You have an appointment to be fitted at Bernie’s Boutique.”

“Fitted? Sounds like torture.”

“It is.” He chuckled as he straightened from the fence. “But you know how women are. They want everything to look just so. It’s just for a few hours one day, and then I get her for the rest of my life. I can’t say no to that.”

Lucky rolled his eyes. “Twitterpated.”

Chance barked out a laugh, recognizing the
Bambi
reference. They’d watched that movie a billion times as kids—not that they’d dare admit it to anyone else. “It’ll get you too one of these days, just like it got Thumper and Flower.”

“So, I guess you’re Bambi, the deer with the chick name?”

“Bambi was tough. King of the forest, if you recall.” Chance slapped a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, Thumper. There’s something I want you to see.”

“Thumper?” He followed his brother as he started to round the cattle pen.

“You could be Flower if you want.”

“Lord have mercy. That woman’s done stole your man card
and
fried your brain—what little of it you had to begin with.”

Chance only smiled as they continued walking around the pen toward the direction of the bunkhouse. The building, which housed the ranch hands who worked the property, had been empty for the past few years after Mark Calhoun had married a money-grubbing wench who’d taken him for nearly every last dollar. Left to his daughter, Kenzie, the ranch had suffered over the past two years since his death, but now Chance was taking control of operations, rebuilding the ranch to its former glory.

One of the newly hired hands nodded at them as he stepped out of the bunkhouse and ran off to do whatever task he’d been assigned.

“Didn’t you say you were buying some more cattle?” Lucky asked as they continued past the bunkhouse.

“Yeah, at the auction this weekend. We have to get the size of the herd up, so I’m going to buy another bull and some cows. Once they breed, we should be in good shape. Come the next couple of years, we’ll be doing excellent.”

“Kenzie already has a bull. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind servicing the ladies,” he commented. He knew Chance wanted to use the money he’d originally saved for a small ranch of his own to help bring the Calhoun ranch back to what it used to be, but good bulls were costly, and one really could do the job.

“Old Henry is getting up in years. This might just be his last round at breeding. I figure it’s best to get a younger one now.” Chance stopped and spread his hands. “What do you see, Luck?”

He looked around, seeing green. Lots of green. “Uh, I see grass.”

“Is that all?”

Lucky swiveled his head left to right, trying to pinpoint whatever it was his brother was trying to show him, but all he saw was a big stretch of land between the bunkhouse and the old cabin he knew was farther back on the property. “Pretty much. What am I supposed to be seeing?”

Chance’s mouth curved up at the corner. “A stable and a big paddock.”

“You’re moving Kenzie’s horses out of the old barn?”

“Well, yeah, I guess I could so they have more room to maneuver, but this particular area will mostly be used for breeding cutting horses.”

“Breeding…” Lucky narrowed his eyes at his brother. “What do
you
know about breeding horses, cattleman?”

“Not much.” He continued looking forward. “Good thing I have a brother who does.”

Lucky didn’t miss the glint in his eye. “This ranch has always been about cattle. Why add horses now?”

Chance shrugged. “Why not? There’s plenty of land to allow breeding of both, and it makes good business sense.”

“Kenzie knows of your idea?”

“Yes. She’s fine with it.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “She’s pretty much just turned management of the ranch over to me.”

Lucky turned away and started toward the direction of the old cabin. “The love shack still back here?”

“Yeah, but it needs some work to be livable.”

“I don’t recall it being used for a home.” He grinned. He’d worked the Calhoun ranch for a short stretch during his youth and had used the love shack himself. The cabin served as a nice little place to take a date for a little fun between the sheets. A red bandanna on the door warned other ranch hands it was in use. “I still can’t believe Kenzie never torched the place. She must have never known what went on in the cabin, or that you often used it.”

“I told her there were snakes out this way. Big, nasty ones full of poison.”

Lucky chuckled, recalling the young girl’s crush on his older brother. She’d been head over heels from the start, but with a ten year age difference, the little girl had been forced to suffer as Chance dated women of his own age. She won out in the end though, having grown into a beautiful woman and finally snagging her man.

“Does she know about the love shack now?”

“Hell no.”

Lucky laughed out loud. “Whipped.”

“If I’m whipped, I’m not complaining.”

They reached the cabin, and he was surprised to see a window pane busted out and the roof sagging under the weight of a huge branch that had fallen on it some time ago. “I guess no one’s going to be getting lucky in there anytime soon.”

“I don’t know about that. Shouldn’t take you long to fix it and move in.”

He whirled around. “Move in?”

“Yep. It makes sense to live on the ranch if you’re going to be here breeding horses.”

“You just have everything figured out, don’t you?” Lucky’s tone came out sharp, and from the look in Chance’s eyes, he knew his brother had picked up on it.

“Do you have a problem with the idea? I thought you’d be glad to be offered such an opportunity.”

“Why, because I couldn’t earn it on my own?” He turned away from the love shack and barreled back the way they’d come. “I’m thirty-four years old, Chance. It’s time to quit babying me.”

“How am I doing that?” his brother asked as he caught up to him. “I want to breed horses, and I just happen to have a brother who’d be a great man for the job. Of course I’m going to offer you the opportunity before I’d even think of anyone else.”

“You’ve created the job as a way to watch over me,” Lucky challenged as they reached the area he planned to use for his horse breeding venture. “Poor Lucky, he gambles away all his money and he’s getting too old. He can’t ride the circuit much longer. He’ll never get out of that trailer park.”

“I’ve never thought that.”

He stopped and raised an eyebrow at his older brother. “Never?”

Chance had the grace to look away. “You gotta admit, you’ve had some rotten luck, bro.”

Yeah, he’d found two dead women in the space of three months, the second one being his mother. “Skill beats out luck,” he said calmly despite the anger roiling in his gut. “It’s skill that’ll get me some fat purses this season. I can get myself out of the trailer park,
if
I want to leave it.”

“Don’t you?” Chance eyed him, his gaze full of incredulity. “The place isn’t exactly a happy part of memory lane. There’s not a single inch of it that doesn’t have some awful memory etched into it, whether it be a beating by the hand of one of Mom’s boyfriends, or a place she passed out after too much booze. Not to mention…”

His voice trailed off, but Lucky knew what he’d been about to refer to. “The bedroom where Mom shot up her last set of drugs. You don’t need to remind me. I’m the one who was there to find her.”

“And you’re never going to let me forget it, are you?” Chance lifted his Stetson long enough to thrust a hand through his dark hair. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when Mom died. Okay? I’ve said it a hundred times. I don’t know what else I can do.”

“Buying me a job and home isn’t the solution,” Lucky snapped, then heaved out a calming sigh. Now he felt bad. It wasn’t his brother’s fault their mother was a drug addict or that she’d killed herself. And it definitely wasn’t his fault Lucky had picked up a wacko who also offed herself three months earlier. “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve this attitude. I’m just… I’ve got some stuff to work through. In the meantime, I don’t know about this horse breeding idea.”

Chance nodded, jaw set. He definitely wasn’t happy.

“Fine, but at least think about it. I really want to do this, but I don’t know enough about breeding quality horses, and my hands will be full with the cattle. I’d rather have someone I can trust to do a great job than just anyone off the street.”

“I can understand that.” Lucky glanced back over the land. “When are you going to start building?”

“Today. That’s why I went ahead and hired in a full crew of ranch hands despite the herd not being very large. I have quite a bit of improvements planned, and I want them done as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll think about the offer, but don’t get your hopes up.” Lucky turned away and they walked together toward the main house. “When is this fitting Kenzie scheduled for me?”