Getting Lucky (A Nugget Romance Book 5) by Stacy Finz

suspected it couldn’t be good. When it came to Raylene Rosser, it never was.
    “Anyway,” he went on to say, “I’m sure there’s a man in your life. Katie probably knows him better than she knows me.” Since his daughter didn’t know him at all.
    Tawny didn’t respond. The truth was she didn’t want Lucky to know that there was no one in her life. There hadn’t been in some time.
    “Mommy?” Katie came into the studio. “Can I have a bowl of ice cream?”
    Tawny looked at one of the clocks on the wall. “Not before dinner, baby.”
    “But we just had lunch.”
    “No ice cream between meals.”
    “But—”
    “No buts, Katie. If you want a snack there’s fruit or carrots in the refrigerator.”
    “Is Daddy staying for dinner?”
    Both of them looked at Lucky. Katie more expectantly than Tawny, who could use a little space from Lucky and all his testosterone.
    “Nah,” Lucky said. “I’ve got to get back to the ranch, honey. But I’ll be back tomorrow.”
    Fantastic , Tawny thought. Now he’s a permanent fixture .
    “Okay,” Katie said, and wandered back to the house.
    “Boy, no ice cream. What a hard-ass.”
    She started to berate him for not knowing anything about good parenting, but saw him grinning and stopped herself.
    “I’d like us to go to my mother’s tomorrow for dinner.” When Tawny didn’t respond, he said, “Come on, Tawny. You can’t keep putting it off.”
    “All right. As long as Katie is feeling okay.”
    “I’ll call you in the morning. You ever talk to your customer about those boots?”
    At first Tawny didn’t know what he was talking about. Then it came back to her. Yeah, those boots. “Not yet. Things have been a little crazy.”
    “Okay. Just don’t forget. I want ’em.”
    Time to change the subject. “How’s the cowboy camp coming?”
    He hitched his shoulders. “Slow. Everything seems to take twice as long as it should. And I’m going to the world finals in December.”
    Making it to the world finals for a bull rider was like making it to the Super Bowl. Only the best of the best qualified. The winner was awarded a million-dollar bonus. Although Lucky had won three years in a row, this would be his chance to be the longest-reigning world champ in the history of the PBR. The whole town was talking about it.
    “I’m sorry it’s taking so long,” she said. “But it’ll happen.”
    “I’d just like to get out of that goddamned trailer. Instead of the apartment, now I’m thinking I need a house.”
    Yeah , Tawny thought, for Katie and Raylene Rosser. Wouldn’t that be cozy?

Chapter 6
    C ecilia checked her roast and Lucky checked his watch.
    “They should be here any minute, Ma.”
    “I know. I hope Katie likes rosemary potatoes.” She bustled around the kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off. “Make sure the table looks nice, mijo. ”
    “She’s nine, Mama. She doesn’t care about place settings.”
    “Of course not, but I want everything to look nice for her first dinner with her abuela .”
    “Be nice to Tawny, okay?” Lucky said, and went off to check the silly place settings.
    He’d been at his mother’s for about an hour, and so far no mention of Raylene’s drunken outburst at the Gas and Go and how Lucky had been the one to bail her out. That either meant Jake hadn’t told his mother or Cecilia was too caught up in her first dinner with Katie to bring it up. Lucky bet that topic would eventually raise its ugly head. Half of Nugget probably knew, since Griffin Parks had witnessed the whole thing.
    At least Raylene had been in a good mood today. She’d come over this morning, looking sweet and repentant, wanting sex and coffee, and he’d been more than happy to give her both. After weeks of sneaking around like schoolkids, she’d finally decided it was time to take their relationship public. Apparently she didn’t want to be upstaged by a nine-year-old. It looked like Lucky would be front-page Nugget news for the