Stepbrother Dearest(43)

“Is he married?”

“No.”

“Then, you have twenty-four hours.” She looked at her watch and leaned on her walker to stand herself up. She gave me her hand. “I’m Evelyn.”

“Hi, Evelyn. I’m Greta.”

“Greta…fate gave you an opportunity. Don’t f*ck it up,” she said before she scooted away on the walker.

Over the next several minutes, I kept thinking about what she said while mindlessly pulling the lever on the penny slot machine. Even if Elec weren’t with Chelsea, the fact remained that he never felt we could be together because of Pilar. I didn’t know if things had changed in that regard now.

My phone buzzed. It was Elec.



I know I’m not supposed to care. But when it comes to you, what I’m supposed to be feeling has never seemed to matter.



In that moment, I’d made a decision. I wasn’t going to be the one to initiate anything between Elec and me, but I would keep an open mind. I wouldn’t rule anything out. I would have hope. Because before I knew it, I’d be 90 and waiting for the dinner buffet. When that time came, I didn’t want to have any regrets.





CHAPTER 15



The lights started flashing on my machine, and it was dinging like crazy. A bunch of number sevens were lined up in a nice neat row. The number of credits displayed kept going and going.

I looked around to find all eyes in the nearby vicinity were on me.

People started clapping.

My heart was racing.

Holy crap. I won.

I won!

What did I win?

I still didn’t know. I couldn’t figure the machine out. It gave the number of credits but no dollar amount. When everything finally stopped, I ejected my ticket and took it to the cashier’s booth. “I think I won, but I couldn’t figure out how much?”

“Do you want to cash out?”

“Uh…yeah.”

The person seemed less than enthused to assist me.

“How much did I win?”

“One-thousand.”

“One-thousand pennies?”

“No, one-thousand dollars.”

I covered my mouth and spoke into my palm. “Oh my God!”

“Do you want it in fifties or hundreds?”

“Um…hundreds.”

She handed me a wad of cash, and I smelled it before running off to find Elec.

As I made my way through the bright lights and chaos with the money burning a hole in my purse, I finally located him at one of the poker tables. He was deep in thought, scratching his chin and didn’t know I was watching him. His shirt was loosened even further, and his sleeves were rolled up. His hair looked like he’d been running his hands through it in frustration. His tongue slid back and forth across the lip ring as he concentrated. There was something so painfully sexy about the contrast between his new bespectacled look and the tattoos all over his arms.

Finally, he smacked his cards down and mouthed, “Fuck.” He checked his phone and got up from the table. He walked toward me and finally noticed me smiling at him from the corner.

“I lost my shirt—200 dollars. I was up for a while then that last game f*cked me over. How did you make out?”

I stuck my hand in my bag and lifted out the cash. “Oh—you know—the lame penny machine.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“A thousand dollars!” I said, waving it in his face and jumping up and down.

“Shit, Greta! Congratulations!”

When he pulled me into a quick but firm hug, I quickly closed my eyes because it felt so good to be in his arms again. Every nerve in my body came alive in that brief moment.

I kept hearing Evelyn’s voice in my head.

You have twenty-four hours.

It was less than that now. A funny visual of Evelyn with a gun to my head entered my mind.

I put the money back in my purse. “Let’s go out to dinner to celebrate.”

As we walked the corridors looking for a restaurant, his phone rang. We stopped in our tracks.

“Hey, baby.” He quickly glanced over at me when he’d said it, and I instinctively turned away.

With my heart in my mouth, I walked a few feet away, still listening to every word.

“I’m glad you made it okay.”

“I had a little bit of a freak out at the burial, actually. Greta drove me around for a while until I calmed down. We ended up at a casino in Connecticut. That’s where we are.”

“I will.”

“Me too.”

“Have fun. Tell everyone I said ‘hi.’”


“Love you, too.”

Love you, too.

Well, that was a reality check. And why was I upset that he told her the truth as if this trip were supposed to be some secret rendezvous? In that moment, I realized I was delusional. Sure, his feelings after seeing me may have been a little conflicted, but he loved her, not me. Plain and simple. His heart was in a different place than mine was, and I needed to accept that.

He walked over to me. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“That was Chelsea. She says hello and to thank you for helping me out today.”

I flashed a fake smile. “Hello and you’re welcome.”