Gambling on Love (Stories of Serendipity #6) by Anne Conley

badly.”
    They were laying in the enormous bed, empty room service dishes at their feet, Kathy wrapped in Luke’s embrace. Night had fallen, hours ago, and as she looked out the window the lights of the strip twinkled. It fairly illustrated her previous dilemma. Without Luke, her view was titty bars and street-walkers. With Luke, it was a fairy tale of roller coasters and theme hotels.
    “What would you have done if I’d followed through with my plan?” She asked, quietly. Kathy honestly wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer, but at the same time, she did want to know.
    He sighed, heavily, turning her body to face his. “I really don’t know. I love you, Kathy. I probably still would want to be with you.” His fingers played with a tendril of her hair. “I would be pissed that you slept with some other guy, a random stranger, but I wouldn’t be able to blame you. I drove you to it.” He rolled over and looked at the ceiling. “I would like to think that I would still want to marry you and raise his child as our first one.” The words gritted out from between his teeth, as if they were difficult for him to say.

Epilogue
Six week later
    “K athy, you didn’t! Seriously?” Allyssa’s eyes were wide and her mouth was a barely contained grin. Kathy didn’t know Allyssa well, but she was friends with Jessie and apparently hadn’t heard the whole story.
    “Honestly, I thought it was a great idea at the time.” Kathy would prefer to not have to re-live her stupidity every time her friends came around, but it was their official wedding celebration, and of all the times to tell the story, now was appropriate. Maybe she wouldn’t have to tell it again.
    “Tell her about Darrin,” Amy prodded, a wicked gleam in her eye. Of course, her sister loved hearing about the ultimate stupid. Kathy supposed it made her feel better about her own sheltered, perfect life. Amy married her high school sweetheart and never did anything stupid. Ever. Well, maybe that one time, but even that had turned out perfectly for Amy.
    Their parents had just left, along with most everybody else and it was just the girls now: Kathy, Amy, Jessie, Allyssa, Renae, and Claire. Their respective husbands and boyfriends, along with a few other guy friends were in the backyard, around a small bonfire, talking about guy stuff.
    Luke had bought some property that adjoined Jessie’s goat farm, in addition to a couple of acres of her small farm. Kathy suspected Jessie was going to get rid of the goats completely, as it was getting tedious to go out and tend to them every day, now that she was married to Connor and living in town. She had hired a couple of high school kids to help her out, but Kathy could still see the writing on the wall. Selling a small portion of it to Luke was just the first step.
    Luke had spent the first month of their married life fixing up the old house for their wedding soiree. Kathy loved watching him work on their home, just like she always knew she would. Strength radiated off him, as he replaced sheetrock, shingles, and gutters.
    Her eyes trailed to where she had last seen him, out the kitchen window, and saw he was looking at her with a sexy smirk on his face. With the windows open to the early Spring air, he could probably hear them.
    “Honestly, I don’t know the whole story, ‘cuz Luke won’t tell me how it ended, but there was this guy, Darrin, the only normal-seeming one of the bunch that I interviewed…” Kathy sincerely hoped this was the last time she would ever tell this story.

    Luke was standing a little ways away from the rest of the guys: Connor, Bryan, Dalton, Max, Les, and Brent were all talking quietly around the fire. An occasional laugh would rise over the low murmur of conversation, but for the most part, they were all staring into the flames, lost in their own thoughts. Les had brought his guitar over and was strumming it absently, pausing from time to time to drink from his beer bottle.
    Luke