Read Online Lucky Break by Kelley Vitollo - Free Book Online Page B

handsome with his blond hair and cocky smile. He’d eat Betsy for lunch.
    “Freckles! Come help me for a second!” Kade’s deep voice came from the bar area, startling her. She glanced behind her and saw him peek his head into the room. Not once did he look at her.
    Rowan pushed to her feet but glanced down at Sidney. Even Betsy looked at her as though she got what was going on. Before it had always been her he called on. Maybe even a couple of hours ago, it would have been. When Freckles joined him, Kade disappeared around the corner again.
    The near-kiss had been a mistake. One she’d craved much more than she should’ve because she definitely hadn’t been feeling friendly with him, but it hadn’t been smart. It was making Kade pull away. Yes, asking Rowan to help was something simple, but she knew him, and pulling away was exactly what he was doing.
    Sidney’s hands moved to her lips. She didn’t know how far back the almost-kiss put them, but she really didn’t want things to be more awkward than they already had been, especially since she and Kade had just started to get back to normal. God, she hoped they didn’t have to start over again.
    But she couldn’t quiet that part of herself that wished Shakes had never banged on that window, either. The thought made her want to get out of there as fast as she could.
    Instead, she turned to the wall, determined to paint the hell out of it.

    Sidney walked up and down the aisles of the grocery store. She had a cart full of food and probably wouldn’t eat half of it. She’d needed something to do and this was all she could think of. Rowan was busy and Betsy’d said she had to go visit her mom.
    Lucky’s didn’t have much more to work on that day—basically just some upgrading and cleaning because the building had sat for so long. Mae had told her Lucky passed away not long after Sidney left, and she couldn’t imagine Shamrock Falls without him and his bowling alley. She hadn’t been old enough to go into the bar that was attached, but everyone had always spent time there.
    Funny…the second Aunt Mae had told her of Lucky passing, she’d thought of Kade.
    They’d exchanged a few words after what happened in his truck, so it wasn’t as though he was angry at her like he had been before, but there was definitely a distance there now.
    Which was smart of him. She needed to keep that distance, too. Kissing him would lead to entanglements she didn’t want or need, but it gave her a dull pain in her chest at the same time.
    It sucked. She knew he still didn’t understand her leaving and that even though he forgave her, it still weighed on him.
    How could she make him understand that even though Rowan, Mae, and Kade were the most important people in her world, she couldn’t have let herself stay with them? She would have always felt like she failed if she had stayed here. She knew Kade hadn’t really wanted to go with her and she honestly knew she couldn’t have let him, either. Sidney was torn between pleading with him to understand and letting it go altogether.
    And then there were the child-secure doors. Was there a little Kade out there somewhere? Did he have a son or daughter with someone? She pictured him moving in to kiss someone else the way he’d moved in to kiss her. The thought actually made her sick. No it doesn’t , she told herself. Those thoughts had no business in her head.
    Sidney’s body ached from the work they’d done today, yet here she was looking for solace in the dairy section. She even took the hour drive into Seattle instead of shopping in Shamrock Falls. She’d gotten that habit from Mae.
    A few minutes later she’d purchased everything and climbed back in Mae’s truck to head home. The drive took an extra twenty minutes because of traffic, so by the time she got home, even though it was only nine p.m., it felt more like eleven.
    Her heart sank when she noticed Kade’s truck wasn’t in the driveway. No, no, no. Don’t keep