Page 84 of Lady Luck

Answers that I now understood hadn’t been what had hurt Cody the most about my cagey behavior over the last year.

We put in our tokens and the fans mounted above the screens coming to life, blowing our hair backward as the seats vibrated. The screens counted down and then the race started.

Our snowmobiles cleared the first big hill just as Cody did the same.

“You ghosted me, Cher. And acted like I wouldn’t notice. Or worse, care.”

I took my eyes off the screen long enough that my snowmobile crashed into a ditch, and I took a moment to correct it before I responded.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

We started our second lap, and I regained the lead.

“That’s not why I’m mad.”

I jerked off course again, darting my eyes from him back to the screen.

“You ghosted yourself too.”

I’d been so lost in thought that—for the first time in living memory—he’d won the match, resulting in a smug smile before he threw his leg over the snowmobile and faced me.

Then he’d told me that my behavior hadn’t not been a factor in his deciding to leave to work on the cruise ship.

That had hurt.

But apparently it’d also been what I’d needed too because I had plugged into the world around me more in the past few weeks than I had all year.

If only I could unplug us from the reality of crossing paths with public enemy number one right now, but unfortunately Cody caught on to my attempts to change directions and instead brought us to a halt and scanned the rows of slot machines, hunting with his gaze. And the moment he spotted his prey couldn’t have been more obvious—his entire being tensed and coiled.

Unused to being on the wrong side of anyone’s ire, he didn’t read the danger in the room as he approached us and smiled broadly. “Cody, my man! I heard you were back in town.”

Cody smirked at him mockingly. “Ace,” he greeted. “Unfortunately, I heard you were too.”

Oh boy.

AJ’s smile didn’t falter as he leaned in, his dark blue eyes twinkling as if he were sharing a secret with Cody. “I know. I really didn’t want to leave the Titan. The acts I was developing there were truly incredible. Really next-level stuff. But I heard that our girl here—” AJ jerked his head toward me. “—was apparently on some sort of strike, so they asked me back to see if I could get our Lady Luck back on track.”

“Why are you here, AJ?”

“It’s Alexander. We’re not kids anymore. And you know why I’m here. For you.”

I huffed a dry laugh. So that’s what he’d meant when he initially said he was here for me.

Cody’s jaw flexed. “How lovely. And have you done that? Gotten her back on track?” He reached down and took my hand. “Because it seems to me, Ace, that you’re the reason she got entirely off track,” he continued, and with one more reassuring squeeze, he flicked his free hand in AJ’s direction and added, “like an unfortunate, unworthy detour.”

I sucked in a breath, my nerves at this semi-public spectacle at war with the euphoria of having someone—not just someone, I mentally corrected, but my person—defending me so fiercely, especially to someone Cody had also considered a friend.

AJ scoffed, “It’s Alexander, and I’m really not sure what you mean.”

“Oh, you don’t? Bless your heart,” Cody shot back sassily, over-enunciating the jibe as if AJ really wasn’t bright enough to understand it.

I reveled in the slight color that rose on his cheeks as AJ opened and then closed his mouth at Cody’s sass. He wasn’t caught off guard for too long, though, and apprehension coiled my insides when his eyes lit with triumph.

“Oh, last Christmas, you mean?” AJ raked his eyes over me with a knowing smirk. “Didn’t you know? She came on to me.”

A whoosh of air blew my hair back as Cody tackled AJ to the ground.

I gasped, my eyes widening in shock as a full-out brawl unfolded on the patterned carpet between two rows of 5¢slot machines. Once the shock wore off enough for me to function, I hobbled out of the way and got my cell phone out to dial the only person I could think of who could help.

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