Stroke of Fortune by Christine Rimmer Read Free Book Online Page B

bet.”
    He followed the other two waitresses out. Josie sipped from her Coke and sank to the ladderback chair Margie had vacated. The paper was still open on the Formica-topped table. Josie read the ad again.
    And thought of Flynt.
    Of the stricken look in his eyes when she told him that the baby he’d found wasn’t hers.
    Oh, he had wanted that. Wanted it bad, for the baby named Lena to be theirs.
    Loving, experienced nanny sought. Live-in position…
    Josie set down her Coke and stared into the distance, thinking things she knew very well she shouldn’t be letting herself think.
    Things like how it was high time Flynt Carson got over what had happened in the past and learned to love again. Things like how he so clearly wanted to do that. That look in his eyes the other night had said it all. He was just about desperate for another chance—a chance to do things right, to know true love. To have a family of his own at last.
    He was a rich man, but fortune had never smiled on him. Not in the most important sense. He didn’t have the things that really mattered. He didn’t—
    â€œStop,” Josie whispered under her breath. “No. Don’t go there.”
    She slapped that paper shut, so she couldn’t see the ad. Then she grabbed her Coke and she took a long sip, thinking that once again she was listening to her silly heart when she ought to be using her head.
    The Coke had left a wet ring on the battered surface of the table. She rubbed it away, scrubbing hard with the heel of her hand at first, then more gently. And then, idly, tracing the crude shape of a heart that someone had scratched there Lord knew how long ago.
    It’s been almost a year, a soft voice whispered in the back of her mind as her finger followed the rough outline of that heart.
    Almost a year—and she hadn’t gotten over that man yet.
    From the way he’d looked at her Sunday night, he hadn’t gotten over her, either.
    They did have something, together, the two of them. Something powerful. Something true.
    Maybe that lost little baby he’d found on the golf course could show them the way to each other.
    Maybe it was high time that good fortune—real, true good fortune, which Josie knew very well was a matter of the heart—finally smiled on them both.
    Maybe, she thought, she should help that good fortune along by taking a drive out to Carson Ranch.

Five
    T he new housekeeper’s name was Anita. She led Josie to a small room off the kitchen and took her single letter of reference.
    â€œHere’s an application,” Anita said in a pleasant tone. “Go ahead and fill it out. Then Mrs. Carson will speak with you.”
    Mrs. Carson.
    Grace would be handling the interview? When Josie hatched the plan earlier that day she hadn’t expected that.
    Apprehension knotted her stomach. Flynt’s mother was a kind, warmhearted soul, but she couldn’t have been pleased with the way Josie had vanished last year.
    â€œSomething wrong?” asked the housekeeper.
    â€œOh, no. Nothing.”
    â€œHave a seat, then.”
    â€œThanks.”
    The housekeeper left. Josie stared after her, wondering how long the woman had been working for the Carsons. Had they hired her right after Josie left—orhad there been others before they found someone who worked out?
    Well, whatever. Anita had the job now and she seemed pleasant and efficient. The Carsons were managing just fine without Josie Lavender to run their house for them.
    Josie picked up one of the pens that waited in a mug on the table. It didn’t take long to fill in all the blanks. A few minutes after she’d finished, Anita returned. She picked up the application. “This way, Ms. Lavender.”
    They went to the sitting room in Flynt’s wing of the house. Grace was waiting by one of the high windows that looked out over a lush section of the garden. She turned as Josie and the housekeeper