Chapter 1 #8
“Then I’ll be at the games,” he said emphatically and touched a finger to those lips as she started to argue. “You’re good at spotting trouble and so am I. Two of us at the table increases our odds.” It was a good argument, and he was glad when he saw her accept it.
“Fine. But I can’t have you fleecing my guests.”
He gave her an offended look. “You set the rules. I’ll abide by them.” Unless someone tried to kill her, then he would do whatever he had to do—no holds barred. “When’s the first game?”
“As soon as possible.” She grinned at him. “When backed in a corner, I always asked myself, What would Aunt Clara do?”
He groaned. “Sometimes I question your choice in role models.”
She laughed, making a light glow in her brown eyes for a moment before she asked, “What are really doing out here, Jack?”
He hated that the light in her eyes had dimmed. “After seeing that article and then coming here and finding a man watching the shop, isn’t it possible I’m worried about you for good reason?”
“That’s all it is?” she asked quietly.
Jack chuckled. “You think I’m trying to win you back?”
“That would be funny since you never had me to begin with,” she said and started to turn away.
He caught her arm and swung her back and into his embrace and kissed her, knowing it could be a mistake.
She didn’t participate, instead stood rigid in his arms, but as the tip of his tongue began to tease her lips open, he felt her begin to weaken.
Her body softened slowly until it molded against his, her lips parting to let him enter.
For a few minutes of bliss, he felt as if there might be hope.
Her cell rang like a wake-up alarm. She quickly stepped back, shaking her head at him as if he’d tricked her into something she hadn’t wanted to do. He could still taste her as he watched her check her phone.
“Maybe some other time then,” he said as she answered the call. That had been some kiss.
“My gambling equipment is on the way,” she said sounding as breathless as he felt as she disconnected. “You should probably go.”
“You sure you don’t want me to wait around and help you with the furniture?”
He saw her hesitate but only for a second.
“I thought you were going to find the Armstrongs and make sure they aren’t a threat,” she said.
He grinned. “It’s almost as if you don’t trust yourself if I stay.”
“It was a kiss. A…nice kiss. But don’t push your luck.”
Jack held up his hands as he backed out of the shop, but he couldn’t help grinning. She couldn’t fool him. That had been one hell of a kiss.
Unfortunately, she was right. He needed to find the Armstrongs and decide for himself just how dangerous the two might be.
Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t who Josephine really had to fear.
* * * * * * * * * *
CHAPTER 7
After the door closed behind Jack, Josephine touched her tongue to her upper lip and smiled. The cowboy could kiss! That one had been extraordinary. Being in his arms again had been heaven. And hell.
She mentally shook herself. What was she thinking?
She knew Jack. She’d be a fool to fall for his sweet talk.
Wants to win her back? She laughed. Wants to get her into one of those wedding dresses in the back of the shop?
She shook her head and laughed at her own foolishness.
She imagined what would happen if he walked into the shop and she was wearing one.
Jack would run so fast she’d never see him again.
The thought sobered. She had more important things to think about than Jack and that kiss. She brushed a hand over her lips, wiping away even the thought of Jack Rawlins.
Poker. She concentrated on her first poker party.
She knew it was risky what she was planning, especially with the Armstrongs in town and whoever else might show up.
She found herself watching the street outside Seaside Vows after Jack left.
Mist blew in from the Pacific, moving through the small town ghostlike.
She felt antsy, impatient to get her equipment from the casino supply store, but also on the lookout for the Armstrongs.
She hadn’t seen either of them since last night.
Maybe they’d heard Jack was looking for them and had left town.
She wanted to believe that her inheritance hadn’t been some kind of plot to get her to Wild Rose Point.
Wasn’t it possible her aunt had really won the shop in a poker game?
Clara wouldn’t have wanted a bridal shop and wouldn’t want to call attention to herself by trying to sell it, so she made sure her niece got it should something happen to her.
It was a stretch, but Josephine lived her life playing against the odds. Isn’t that why she’d originally gotten involved with Jack Rawlins?
The thought made her laugh. The first time he’d crossed her path—that summer when he’d shown up at her great Aunt Clara’s—it had been love at first sight. Her twelve-year-old heart had beaten like a war drum, stealing her breath and what good sense she had.
Seventeen-year-old Jack had been nothing short of perfection with his broad shoulders, slim hips, long legs, cowboy swagger, and, oh my word, that handsome face of his. And boy did he charm her.
Jack Rawlins, she realized later, was why her aunt had warned her about charming men.
Growing up in Montana, she’d been around cowboys, but none that looked, or smelled, or knew how to talk to women like Jack.
Even at her young age, she’d seen the change in her anything-but-sweet aunt when Jack turned on his charm.
It wasn’t like Clara couldn’t see through the cowboy.
Clara recognized bull when she heard it.
But even she let him enchant her, enjoying Jack’s magnetism—at least until the poker game began. Then her aunt was all business.
Ten years later Jack Rawlins walked into one of Josephine’s poker games.
He recognized her right away and she him.
The years had only made everything about him even better.
He’d grown into his handsomeness, filling out that body in all the right places with muscles, and he’d even finetuned his earlier charm into something irresistible, yet almost believable.
For Josephine, it had always been the way the cocky cowboy had looked at her.
He made her feel beautiful, valued, desired, and special.
Jack could put more into a glance than most men could into a marriage proposal.
She’d seen her reflection in his eyes and she’d wanted whatever he was selling—no questions asked.
She’d often wondered if their wild fling would have lasted longer—had the poker party they’d attended in Utah not been raided. With Jack’s help, Josephine had gotten away, but he hadn’t been as lucky.
His absence had given her time to come to her senses. Where had she thought this love affair had been going? Aunt Clara had warned her about Jack, and while she hadn’t regretted it, she didn’t wait around for him to get out of jail.
She returned to Montana, where she felt safer running her business.
Poker parties weren’t exactly legal, but weren’t prohibited under the law.
She moved her parties around for that very reason—that and finding new gamblers and higher stakes.
She became a semi-professional gambler waiting for Jack Rawlins to walk back into her life.
And he had. Until that morning she’d awakened to find him long gone—along with her money. Now he’d come all the way to Oregon saying he had been worried about her. It was probably a line, but a part of her had wanted it to be true.
At the knock at the front door of Seaside Vows, she quickly hurried to open it to the deliverymen.
Within minutes, they had brought in everything she needed for her first poker party.
She stood staring at how the reception area of the bridal shop had been turned into a comfortable gambling establishment.
Now all she had to do was go down to the pub for lunch and finish setting her plan in motion—if Shane hadn’t already done it for her. She made sure the front door of the shop was locked, then grabbed her coat and headed for the back door.
She had just slid the deadbolt open and turned the knob, when the door swung open. Suddenly face-to-face with Darwin Armstrong, she had no time to react before he grabbed her. He shoved her against the wall, one hand going to her throat as he slammed the door behind him.
The scar on his face was still red and swollen. It clearly hadn’t had time to heal since their last encounter. “Is anyone else here?” he demanded in a low growl so close she could smell his sour breath.
No reason to lie, she said, “No, just us.” As she’d hoped, his iron grip on her throat loosened. Still, she made no attempt to get away. She’d already had to fight this man off once, so she knew how strong he was and how dirty he fought.
-#-
After checking yet another motel on the outskirts of town, Jack wished he could believe the Armstrongs had left. Unfortunately, he couldn’t take that chance.
He was headed back to Josephine’s when he saw a small crowd gathered on a cliff overlooking the ocean—and three cop cars. “What the hell?”
Fighting a bad feeling, he pulled out his phone and tried to call Josephine. It went straight to voicemail. With a curse, he climbed out and headed toward the crowd gathered behind the barrier the police had put up some distance from the edge of the cliff.
“What’s going on?” he asked no one in particular in the crowd.
“Some woman fell from the cliff,” a middle-aged woman standing next to him said.
“Fell, my eye, I heard she was pushed by the man she’d been arguing with right before that,” an older woman said, speaking up.
“I heard he pushed her,” a man nearby agreed.