Page 2 of My Lucky Charm

“Don’t worry about me, Mare,” I tell her, reapplying my smile like it’s part of my make-up routine. “I’m so good.” I give my shoulders a little shimmy. “So good.” Then, because I’m over being scrutinized, I say, “You and Seth are cute.” I nod across the room, where Seth is standing with a small group. He glances our way, his gaze catching on Meredith, and it’s like for a moment, he can’t look away.

I’ve never been privy to this silent language only lovers seem to share. For whatever reason, my soul simply doesn’t seem to connect with anyone else’s this way. And it’s not for lack of trying. I’m the queen of trying.

After all, this is all I really want in the world.

“Seth’s cousin is in from out of town,” Meredith tells me, with a bit of a lilt in her voice. “He could keep you company . . . ?”

I glance over at Seth’s cousin, currently close-talking to a woman who looks like a rabbit contemplating gnawing off one of her own limbs to make a three-legged run for it.

“I think he’s hit on just about every woman in this place,” I say.

Meredith winces.

“I’m really fine,” I say. “I swear.”

“I know, El,” she says. “You’re always fine. I just worry that one of these days you’ll wake up and all these upsetting things are going to bury you at once.”

I frown. “You’re such a downer!”

“I’m sorry!” She laughs. “You’re right. Enough of that!”

The door to the pub opens, letting in a rush of cold Chicago air. The entire bar lets out a raucous cheer, a tradition here every time someone walks in. But this “someone” isn’t just a random person off the street.

My heart races, and I turn away, helplessly searching for a place to hide.

“What’s wrong?” Meredith asks, following my gaze. “You look like you’re going to throw up.”

Why don’t Irish pubs come equipped with better hiding places? “It’s Jay,” I whisper-yell at her.

Meredith looks back at the door. “That’s Jay?”

“Don’t look!”

She whips her head back around at me, eyebrows raised in a question.

I frown my silent answer back at her.

“The guy who cheated on you?”

I slowly close my eyes, trying not to relive it.

“And then fired you?”

I snap open my eyes and wince a harried smile at her, shaking my head slightly. “Hey! How about we don’t rehash all the fantastic details?”

I look over. I can’t help it.

Tall. Wiry. Good-looking. Totally unfair.

Jay is preppy and put together. And smart. Smart enough to convince me to date him even though he was my boss, which goes against pretty much everything every woman stands for these days. I made it clear I thought it was a bad idea because I needed the job. And he knew that.

He knew that. That explains everything anyone needs to know about this stain of a human being.

He was not smart enough, however, to hide his cheating. In that department, he was reckless, though it seems the brunette now attached to him doesn’t care.

Meredith’s eyes go stony, like a bull eyeing a red cape, and I have to reach out and stop her before she marches straight across the room and throat punches him with a beer stein.

“Don’t,” I say. “I’m playing this one cool.”

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