Lady Luck (Colorado Mountain #3)(166)

I nodded to Poppy again and asked, “Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure,” she replied.

“Can you change my order from takeaway and serve it at Detective Keaton’s table?”

She blinked. Then her mouth dropped open. Then her eyes darted back and forth between me and Chace’s table. I came in relatively frequently but never chitchatted with her because she was always busy. Still, she knew me. She knew Chace. She knew Misty. She knew Ty. And she knew our intermingling history.

This wasn’t a surprise. Everyone did.

Then hesitantly she repeated, “Uh… sure.”

“Thanks,” I whispered, sucked in air, turned from the counter and walked on my high heels through the diner toward Chace’s table.

His eyes were on me when I was ten feet away.

I didn’t stop until my ass was planted across from him.

He held my eyes a moment and then said low, “Lexie.”

“Hi,” I replied softly.

“Somethin’ I can do for you?”

“Yeah, sit there and listen to me say thank you for helping me and Ty.”

He said nothing, just held my eyes.

So I said, “Thank you.”

“My job,” he replied.

“No it wasn’t,” I whispered. “What you did was beyond the call of duty and we both know it.”

He again said nothing but his gaze never left mine.

“So, thank you.”

He jerked up his chin then muttered, “Don’t mention it.”

I smiled and reminded him, “I just did, like three times.”

Chace Keaton did not smile.

So I stopped smiling then started quietly to say, “I think you now that I know –”

Chace interrupted me. “Do me a favor, Lexie, and don’t talk about it.”

I shut my mouth.

“Move on,” he stated. “It’s a small town but big enough that you and Walker can go your way, I’ll go mine.”

“I can’t do that.”

He dropped his pen, sat back and lost what I suspected was one of his many cop faces, this one was carefully composed to look polite, mildly interested but mostly detached and communicating the minute you were done with him, he’d move on and not think about you again. What came up was impatient and annoyed which I suspected was not a cop face.

“Why?” he asked.

I leaned forward and explained, “Because I have a husband whose power was stripped from him and I lived a life that offered limited choices and the ones it offered weren’t very good so I kinda know what you’re going through.”

“You have no clue.”

“I do.”

He leaned forward too. “All right, Lexie, then how’s this? No offense, but I don’t give a f**k if you do.”

To that, I informed him, “She was staring at you.”

He did a slow blink at the change in subject, the anger that had edged into his annoyed impatience changed to mystification and he asked, “What?”

“Faye Goodknight,” I answered and then I got surprise then more than an edge of anger.

“Don’t even –” he began but I cut him off.

“My guess? Romance novels. My guess? She started reading them early. My guess? She started them at a time where they made a huge impression on her and changed her perceptions. She isn’t cocooned, she pays attention and she knows there are no men out there like the men in those books she reads so she prefers being with them than trying to find someone like them which, she thinks, is a fruitless endeavor. That fantasy is far better than any reality and, you know what? She’s right. Men are a pain in the ass and a lot of them are dicks who cause heartbreak. And her, a girl life Faye? Well, she knows she’s the kind of girl men like that will chew up and spit out. So she’s smart and she’s not going to go there. But you know something else? Lady Luck can sometimes be generous to people who deserve it and right in her hometown is a man who she doesn’t know but he gave up everything to look after his father but what she does know is he was brave enough to put his ass out there to save an entire… f*cking… town. And, bonus, he’s hot, dresses nice and has a great body. So don’t piss away your life, Detective Keaton, because I learned, no matter how shitty it is, no matter how many times you got slapped back, no matter how much that shit stings, you have to keep reaching for what you want. Never give up. If you don’t, you’ll find happiness. I know. I got slapped back so many times it isn’t funny. Now I’m in love and pregnant and the sun shines on me all the time. Even when I’m asleep. If you don’t give up and keep reaching, you can feel that sunshine too. But better than that, you ask her out and find out she’s the one, you can give her that sunshine and she’ll make sure you’ll never regret you did it.”

He stared at me without a word.

Well, there you go. I didn’t get through but at least I tried.

It was time to cut my losses.

I turned my head and shouted, “Poppy!” which got her attention as anyone would, shouting across a diner so I shouted again, “Take that back, it’s going to be takeaway.”

“No it isn’t, Poppy,” Chace called after me and my head shot around to look at him. “Serve Lexie’s lunch here.”