Gettin' Lucky (Love and Laughter) by Kimberly Raye Read Free Book Online Page B

have hired her in the first place, but to actually be lusting after her as though he’d never seen a woman in a tight skirt before.
    He’d never seen this woman in a tight skirt before, or a silk blouse, for that matter. And she was good, he told himself. It was positively ingenious how she thought to play the innocent virgin. What man could resist such a challenge?
    He could. It wasn’t as if she had anything that other women didn’t, and he didn’t have time for games. Lucky was his nanny and Helen was coming.
    “We’d better go. We’ve got a lot to do.”
    “Yeah,” she said, glancing at the mirror one last time before slanting an irresistible grin at him. “You know, I could get used to this.”
    So could I, his rebellious libido whispered as he left her to go in search of Mabel. So could I.
    And that was the damned trouble of it all.

4
    “W E’RE ALMOST DONE with your hair, sugar. Just hold your head up straight.”
    Lucky’s head bobbed and something bumped her forehead.
    “Sorry ’bout that, sugar.”
    Lucky glanced up as Earline, the owner of Ulysses’s only beauty salon, parted bright pink lips and smiled. “They’re a work hazard.” They referred to a pair of double D ’s squashed beneath a pink knit top. “There,” Earline declared, plopping her comb and scissors down to reach for a bottle of styling spritz.
    “I don’t usually put anything in my hair,” Lucky said.
    Earline gave her a serious look. “We need height, sugar. To frame your face and bring out those beautiful eyes of yours.”
    Beautiful eyes. Lucky gave the idea some thought, then smiled. “I’ve never had height before.”
    Or breadth, for that matter, she added silently when one of Earline’s work hazards bopped her upside the head again.
    Ah, breasts... Pointy pyramids to liven up her flat-as-an-Arizona-desert landscape. Breast men would come from all over the world to view in hushed awe. They’d snap pictures to display alongside photos of all the great wonders of the world—the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal... She’d be a universal sex symbol. Yeah, right.
    Earline leaned in, her chest bumping the back of Lucky’s head again. “Oops, there I go again. Like I said, job hazard.”
    “Yeah, when it’s really cold,” came a slightly amused southern drawl, “Earline can put out an eye with one of those.” Doris, Earline’s assistant, stood squeezing perm solution on a fifty-something-year-old customer.
    Earline glared at the younger woman then turned back to Lucky. “Are you married, sugar?”
    “No, but I intend to work on that when I get back to Houston.”
    “Well, remember one thing when you start hunting for a man. The eyes are everything. My Roger wasn’t the best-looking boy back in high school, but he sure knew how to look at a woman. Why, I nearly passed out the first time he looked at me.”
    “The whole town nearly passed out the first time you looked back,” Doris offered. “You were Miss Hickory Honey, for heaven’s sake, and he was the class geek.”
    “Hickory Honey?” Lucky asked.
    “The town’s yearly beauty pageant. It’s the kickoff for the pecan festival that starts in two weeks.” Doris pointed to a neon pink flier taped on the wall. “Despite all the ranch land around here, we’ve got acres and acres of pecan trees. We’re the hickory capital of Texas.”
    Earline sighed. “Being Miss Hickory Honey was the second biggest thrill of my life.”
    “What was the first?” Lucky asked.
    “The first time Roger and I... Well, you know, sugar.”
    No, she didn’t know. That was the trouble.
    After Earline had blown and spritzed and brushed until Lucky felt dizzy, the woman reached for what looked like a tackle box.
    “Now on to the makeup,” she declared. “We’ll just widen your eyes a little.” She leaned in, wielding a mascara brush the way a Samurai did his sword.
    “I think my eyes are wide enough,” Lucky said, blinking frantically as the brush came at