Betting Hearts by Dee Tenorio Read Free Book Online

collar of the dark green polo. She stole it from Hayne ages ago. Was it a boosters shirt from one of his sports? Maybe he got it for a school event—
    “It’s a rag.” May Belle settled into the bench seat on the opposite side of the booth, jarring Cass from her unimportant mental rambling. May tapped the table with her manicured nail, red lips curled at one corner. “Are you serious about going to Luke’s wedding or were you just trying to get Burke’s goat?”
    Cass pushed her plate to the side.
    May Belle’s penciled brows rose in surprise. “You are serious.”
    She laughed. “Burke’s got very small goats. Not a lot of challenge there.”
    The older woman nodded. Few things were as well documented as Burke’s incapacity for change. “You know he’s not going to like this, right?”
    “Burke or Luke?” Cass felt her grin start to form at the left corner of her mouth. The right side caught up, leaving her smiling like an idiot. Hate would be a better word, in either case.
    “Doesn’t look like it matters. How much time do we have ?”
    “Two weeks.” Fifteen days, to be precise.
    “Speedy little sucker, ain’t he?” May tsked.
    “Not where I was concerned.”
    May Belle ceased clicking her tongue to eye Cass again. “You sure you’re doing this for the right reasons, honey? I’d hate for you to expect this to change anything between you and Luke.”
    Cass had to shake her head. Someday, people might realize she wasn’t hung up on Luke Hansen the way they all seemed to think. If she pulled this off, that day might be sooner than anyone could have expected. “I hope it does, I truly do. But don’t worry, May, I don’t want Luke back. I’m thinking of this thing as finally washing that man out of my life.”
    “If that’s how you feel, free this afternoon?” May pulled her ordering pad from her apron and started scribbling a list. Cass watched a flurry of words form under the pencil.
    “I guess I could—”
    “Good. I want you to meet me in an hour at Lola’s.”
    Lola Velasquez was Rancho Del Cielo’s sole beauty parlor owner. She had three girls there to do manicures, pedicures and styling, but most people went to see her. She was fifty or sixty—no one knew for sure—but nothing stopped her from wearing three-inch heels, perfect make-up or revolving shades of hair color. Her chair was also rumored to have the sanctity of a confessional, which caused droves of women to schedule for romantic advice alone. Cass never needed Lola’s talents in either situation.
    Until now.
    “Lola’s, an hour.”
    “And honey?”
    Cass looked up from the plate she was sliding toward herself.
    May Belle gestured to it. “No more of those.”
    Cass stared down in surprise. The sesame-bunned, double-pattied, half-pound burger weeping tomato juice and guacamole onto her fingers stared back. With longing. “Why?”
    “First rule of being a woman is dieting.”
    “But I don’t need a diet!” Hell, she had to eat all the time as it was just to keep up with what she burned on the job.
    “Neither do most other women. From now on it’s salads and water. No more eating like a man.”
    That stung. “I work like a man.”
    “Second rule of being a woman: work harder than men so you can be even with them, and do it with less than them.”
    Starve and work harder. That didn’t sound like femininity. It sounded like torture. “How many of these so-called rules are there?”
    May Belle slid out of the booth and headed back toward the bar. “You better buy a notebook. See you in an hour!”
     
     
    “That was just mean!”
    “It was wax, chulita , and trust me, it’s better.”
    “It hurt like hell!”
    “Beauty hurts.” It had to be the tenth time Lola got to say that and smile. Cass was ready to rip out Lola’s dark burgundy hair and she’d only been there for two hours. So far, her eyebrows were waxed, her hands soaked for her manicure as were her feet. Unfortunately, they were long done with