Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (3 page)

“Come on.” He jumped out and walked quickly to the other side, opening the car for her before she’d finished fumbling to find the handle. “Let’s go.”

She took his hand as he helped her out of the car, but she let it go quickly once she’d stood up. “You
don’t need to walk me to the door.”

“Oh, but I do.” He didn’t try to touch her again,
but he walked alongside her up to the front porch. “I
like to see a job through to completion.”

She mounted the few steps quickly. “Look.” Slap
ping the flat of her hand on the varnished wood of her
doorway, she gazed up at him earnestly. “The door.
You’ve done it. Goodbye, now.”

“Goodbye.” He said the words, but didn’t move.
He was looking down into her crystal green eyes and
he couldn’t look away. A bird sang out from a yard tree. Children called at one another down the street, and a telephone rang nearby. Still he stared at her.

He just couldn’t stop looking at her. She was
so... clean and wholesome.
Oh my Lord
, he groaned
to himself.
Clean and wholesome
. The very things he’d
come to Las Vegas to get away from. What was this, deja vu? Or maybe he was homesick. He’d better get over it quickly, or he’d make a damn fool of himself.

“I guess I’ll get going,” he said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He finally pulled his gaze away from hers, but it wandered rebelliously down across her body, taking in the way her small breasts
pressed against the plaid cloth of her shirt, the way her
rounded hips fit into the denim of her jeans. Suddenly
he felt like a teenage boy just discovering what women
were all about. Things stirred and feelings flowed and he was deeply embarrassed.

“Damn,” he muttered, turning away and looking
back at his red car as though it were an escape vehicle he couldn’t quite reach. “Listen, thanks for what you
did back there. I really appreciate it—“

Another voice interrupted his rambling attempt to break away. He swung around and found a young girl
in a cap and baseball jersey coming up the walk to
ward the house.

“Hi, Mom,” she was calling. “Can you practice
with me? Or maybe—“ she gestured toward Cody and
lowered her voice “—he could?”

Cody looked around quickly, sure she had to be referring to someone else he hadn’t noticed. But no. The only “he” in sight was himself. He frowned at the girl,
baffled. How anyone could take one look at him in his designer suit and think he might be up for baseball was
a puzzle he didn’t have time to figure out.

“Sorry, Tammy,” Kelly responded before he could
think of a proper answer for a ten-year-old girl. “Mr.
Marin was just leaving.”

Tammy was crestfallen, kicking her foot into the grass.
“Nobody will play catch with me. I’ve been all over
the neighborhood. Mitch is too busy waxing his truck. Mr. Iver is watching a game on TV. How am I going
to make the All-Stars if I can’t get anyone to practice
with?”

Kelly’s smile was amused as well as compassionate.
“You’ve got me,” she said. “I’ll practice with you later.”

Tammy nodded and looked shyly at Cody again from under her blond lashes. “Wouldn’t he like to throw me
the ball just a little? I mean, you’re okay, Mom, but
maybe he could throw a little harder.”

Kelly looked indignant. “Listen, young lady, I vol
unteered to coach your softball team and you were
happy enough about that.”

Tammy’s lower lip threatened to quiver. “Yeah, be
cause no one else would do it, and without a coach we
couldn’t be in the Girls’ Softball League.”

“Right. If I’m good enough to coach, I ought to be
good enough to play catch with.”

Tammy gave Cody a look that told him eloquently just
how she rated her mother’s ball-playing talents. But
Kelly had an ace up her sleeve. “Look what I got for
you.” With a flourish, she brought out the new bat.

Tammy’s anguish fell away. “Oh, great!” She took it and made an experimental swing. “I love it! Thanks, Mom.” Turning, she eyed Cody, then looked away. “Now I need someone to pitch to me.”

Cody grinned at her, realizing at the same time that
he was tempted to stay and throw a few pitches for
her—tempted to stay and try to wrangle an invitation
to dinner.
 

Tempted to stay here in suburbia. Good
Lord! He’d better get out while he could.

And then it hit him. Hey, there had to be a dad around her somewhere. Who was Tammy’s father and why couldn’t he pitch for her?

“Maybe when you’re dad gets home,” he ventured in Tammy’s direction.
 

She made a face at him. “My dad’s gone,” she said. “All I need is some
body to pitch for me,” Tammy
added, pulling her cap down over eyes that were replicas of her mother’s. She tossed the hide-
covered ball up and caught it again. “You know what?” she said, braving another quick glance at
Cody. “You look like a pitcher to me.”

Cody shrugged, then winced as he was reminded of
what he’d gone through only an hour before. “Sorry, Tammy. My pitching ‘stuff’ has been folded, bent and
mutilated today.”

There was just a pause before Tammy’s mother added,
“And you wouldn’t want to jeopardize your dealing
hand, would you?”

He swung around in surprise. He hadn’t expected an
attack of sarcasm from Kelly. From the look on her face, he could see that she was just as surprised
herself. But she didn’t back down.

“Mr. Marin isn’t a ball player, Tammy. He’s a gam
bler,” she said evenly, avoiding his eyes. “Let’s let him
get back to where he belongs.”

“A gambler.” There was evidence of a consistent
family antipathy toward games of chance in Tammy’s disgusted tone. She stood back to let him pass, her
bright green eyes examining him coolly.

Cody took the steps slowly, retaining his dignity. He
couldn’t remember a time when he’d been so sum
marily dismissed by females before. But what the hell!
He was definitely out of his league here.

“Thanks again,” he said, looking back at Kelly.

The late afternoon sunlight shimmered in her gold
en hair. “You’re welcome.”

She didn’t smile. Neither did her daughter. He
shook his head and turned toward his car. As he made his way down the walk, an SUV pulled up in
front of the house and a thin, harried-looking man of about forty stepped out, frowning worriedly.
 

“Hey Kelly, you okay?” he called, glancing at Cody.

Cody paused, eyes narrowed. “Why wouldn’t she
be?” he asked softly.

The man looked like someone who hadn’t been out
in the sun enough. “No offense, mister,” he said evenly, surveying Cody’s torn suit, the bruises and
cuts. “You just don’t look like you belong in this
neighborhood.”

Cody’s irrepressible smile broke through. “You got
that right,” he said. He turned away and went on,
while the man strode toward the house.

“Hi, Glenn,” he heard Tammy say with a singular
lack of enthusiasm as Cody was getting into his car.
“Could you maybe throw some pitches for me?”

“Sure, kiddo,” Glenn answered, stopping on the porch to watch Cody. “But first I want to talk to your
mother for a minute.”

The lady’s suitor
, Cody thought as he peeled away from the curb. And a jealous one, at that. “Well, you can have her, buddy,” he whispered to himself, eas
ing back into highway traffic, where he felt more at
home. “Believe me, she’s all yours.”

Still, he had to force himself not to look back.

It wasn’t until the next morning that he found the cell phone on the floor of the passenger’s seat in his car. He knew right away it was hers.
 
So how was he going to get it back to her without risking entanglements?

Easy.
 
He’d take it over to her house mid-afternoon when she’d likely be at work.
 

He drove up to her house a few hours later, planning to leave the phone on her front porch or in her mailbox. But the first thing he saw was her daughter Tammy, throwing a ball against the garage door and catching it. He debated driving on, but that was no good. With a sigh, he pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine.
 

“Hey, slugger,” he said as he unfolded his body from the low sports car seat. “Still looking
for someone to play catch with?”

Tammy pushed her cap back and tilted her head to the
side. “You’re that gambler guy, aren’t you?”

Cody nodded solemnly.

Tammy held the ball up. “Wanna play?” She sounded
more grudging than hopeful.

He shook his head. “Sorry, Tammy. I’m looking for
your mother. Is she inside?”

 
“Nope,” she said back. “She’s not home yet.”

“Aw.” He brightened. “Too bad.”

She took a step in his direction and looked at him curiously. “Are you going to ask her out on a date?”

His eyes widened. “Uh…do you think I should?”

She nodded solemnly and asked, quite confidentially, “Do you have any kids?”

That startled him. “No. No I don’t.”

She looked pleased. “Good.”

He frowned, bemused by her matter-of-fact attitude. “Let me get this straight. Are you trying to set me up with your mom?”

“Maybe.” She sighed and her shoulders drooped. “She needs somebody. Once I go away to softball camp, she’ll be all alone.” She made a face. “And I’m scared that Suzy’s dad, Mr. Waxman, will try to marry her.”

Cody put on a wise look. “And you don’t want that.”

“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “He’s a creep.”

He raised an eyebrow, holding back a smile. “How do you know I’m not a creep?”

She made a choking sound and rolled her eyes.

He grinned. “But maybe I’m not good enough for your mom. She’s pretty special, isn’t she?”

She nodded. “She likes you, though. I could tell.”

“Uh huh. That puts you one up on me,” he muttered.
 

“So are you gonna?”

“Ask her out?” He hesitated, grimacing. See, this was just what he’d been afraid of.
 
Entanglements. “Maybe.” It didn’t pay to raise expectations. And once he’d said the word, he realized it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibilities.

Her eyes narrowed as she gazed at him speculatively. “I don’t go to softball camp until July. You have a few months.”

“Do I?” He grinned. “Gee, thanks.”

She shrugged. “No problem.”

He had to admire her moxie. She seemed to take after her mother all the way. But that reminded him—he wanted to get out of here before her mother arrived.

“So, listen, I’ve got to get going. I just dropped by to give you this.” He pulled the cell phone out. “It was in my car. I think you’re mother must have dropped it yesterday.”

“Oh yeah. She said she couldn’t find her phone this morning.” Tammy took the item as he handed it over and slipped it into her own pocket. “I’ll give it to her.” She looked at him quizzically. “You don’t want to wait for her? She should be home any minute now.”

He shook his head and began to turn toward his car. “Got no time. See you around, kid.”

Tammy watched him go, her pretty young face expressionless, and he felt the guilt building as he backed the car out of the drive. He had plenty of time. He could stick it out and see her again. But he’d decided he wasn’t going to do that. Hadn’t he? Better to get out while the getting was good.
 

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Kelly knew it was crazy to hope to see Cody again. She wasn’t sure if she even liked him and she knew darn well he would never fit into her life in any way. So why couldn’t she stop thinking about him?
 

She was grateful that he’d brought her cell phone back to her. In fact, she was trying to find his number so that she could call him with her thanks when she gave that a second thought and realized how dumb it was to do anything to prolong the acquaintance. He was an alien being from another world and he’d certainly taken one look at how she lived and run like a rabbit.
 

No, it was best to forget about the man. Leave well enough alone. Don’t make waves. Let sleeping dogs lie. And all those other cautionary sayings.
 

So she fixed some spaghetti for dinner and now she and Tammy were doing dishes.
 

“Mom,” Tammy said brightly. “Are you ever going to get married again?”

That was a shocker. Kelly put down the cloth she was using and stared at her daughter. Inside, she was suddenly shaky. This was something they had never discussed before. What should she say? How could a child like Tammy ever understand the complexities of a decision like that?