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Empathy
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Getting Lucky Stood Up
EMBERMy mother always told us to respect other people by being on time. As flaky as I could be, I always tried to heed that advice. Glancing down at my rose-gold knockoff watch for the fifth time in as many minutes, I realized I was the only one of my mother’s children who had paid attention during that particular lesson.I was sitting at a small round table in the center of the bistro Ryan and I had agreed to meet at. It smelled like melted cheese and pastries, vegetable soup and a hundred other mouthwatering aromas I couldn’t quite put my finger on.My stomach growled, and I took another sip of my water, utterly dissatisfied with the taste given how delicious everything else in the room looked and smelled. When the server came by earlier, I told her I would wait before placing my order.She kept giving me sympathetic looks now, almost thirty minutes after I had told her I was waiting for someone to arrive. Obviously, she thought I had been stood up and that I was still holding out
Getting Lucky Protecting You
EmberIt stung to hear him say it out loud, but it wasn’t like it came as much of a surprise that he felt that way about me. Ryan’s eyes dropped to the soda when the server delivered it. He stuck a straw into it and sucked some of the fizzy orange liquid down before continuing.He looked so much like the boy I once knew that it made my heart ache with longing to change our past so I could’ve grown up close to that boy. But since we couldn’t, I hoped the conversation we were having would pave the way for a better relationship in the future.Ryan lifted his gaze back to mine, carrying on once he swallowed down the pop. “Kaden and I were older. We were always getting up to stuff I knew you wouldn’t approve of. Nothing major, but I was afraid you would tattle to Mom and Dad, and I’d get in trouble.”I considered what he said. Before I started becoming who I was now, there was every chance I would have done exactly what he said. “Fair enough.”“Maybe, but it’s not an excuse. Anyway, I was
Getting Lucky Big Fish
KADEN“Run, fucker!” I yelled at my television screen, wishing I had some popcorn I could throw at it. The guy in the blue uniform carrying the ball on a field hundreds of miles away promptly ignored my advice, the briefest of pauses resulting in him taking a shoulder to the stomach.“Serves you right,” I muttered, swigging my beer. I was well into my Sunday afternoon ritual, the smell of a steak from the grill on my balcony drifting to my nostrils on a light breeze to where I sat on the couch and watched the game. “I told you to run, not to stop.”The player accepted the hand a teammate stretched out to help him up, not having been seriously injured. That was a good thing, since they played on the team I was cheering for this game. I stretched out on the couch, slinging my arm across the leather while I waited for the game to resume.Football hadn’t really been a very important part of my life until we moved to Texas. The game was a religion down there, and at some stage as a prepube
Getting Lucky Landing Him
KadenI liked seeing her like this, comfortable and casual. The pencil skirts and fitted tops she wore to the office were sexy too, but something about her looking like this got to me. It made me feel more like it was just me and her and less like there were all the complications surrounding who we were.“Ready to get started?” I asked as I let her in, pushing away the dirty thoughts about what I would’ve liked to do to her first if this was a booty call and the strangely sentimental thoughts about getting to see her when we could just be us.She followed me into my living room, leaving her wheelie bag just inside my front door. “I’m here, aren’t I? Of course I’m ready to get started.”“Snippy because you have to work on a Sunday?” I joked before walking to my kitchen to retrieve two more beers from the fridge and handing one to her.Ember sighed and shook her head, a ghost of a teasing smile touching her lips. “Snippy because I was having a fabulous time with my vibr—”“Don’t finish
Getting Lucky On a Plane
EMBER“I’ve never flown first class before,” I admitted to Kaden while boarding the plane. Awed at the cabin, I gaped as I took it all in. “Please tell me we’ll need to go on a much longer flight sometime soon.”When people around me used to talk about flying first class, I never thought I would ever actually get to experience it myself. It always seemed like a bit of a waste to me, paying that much more to reach the same destination at the same time as the people in coach class.I told Kaden that when I saw our flight tickets and noticed he had booked our seats in first, but he smirked and replied that I would understand soon enough. Besides, he had said he liked to travel in style, and there was no reason for us to be crammed into tiny seats and wait in long lines. “What if I like cramming myself in up close and personal to my neighbor and chatting in the lines?” I had joked.Kaden had rolled his eyes. “You can get up close and personal with me in first class anytime you like.”Our
Getting Lucky Fighting Words
EmberMy heart picked up its pace at his words, a smile I absolutely did not give my permission for spreading on my lips. I was going to melt into a puddle of goo if he kept saying things like that with his blue eyes so intense and sincere on mine.Shrugging off the whirlwind of emotions wreaking havoc inside, I fought to keep calm on the outside and changed the topic to something safer. “Are you excited about going home?”Kaden took the subject change in his stride, seemingly unaware of the effect his words had had on me. The guy was way too cool for his own good, or for mine. “I hadn’t really thought about it, but yeah, it will be good to be back. Even if it’s just for a couple of days. You?”“Same.” I envisioned the airport we would be landing at in a couple of hours, a little rush of pleasure zapping through me. “Have you missed it much?”Kaden tilted his head from side to side. “Sometimes I do. It was a great place to grow up. Plus, it was where I met you and Ryan. Those memories
Getting Lucky No Notes Needed
KADENIt was another blistering, hot, humid day in Houston as we made our way to the client’s address. In the sweltering heat, there was a highway mirage on the road that made it look like the surface was wet.Ember fidgeted with her fingers in the car, taking deep breath after deep breath. If I hadn’t known her as well as I did, I wouldn’t have been able to tell she was nervous, though. I was on the lookout for the signs after her confession last night, and even though her breaths were deeper than usual, they weren’t obvious.“You’re going to be fine,” I assured her, reaching over to squeeze her knee. The skin beneath my hand was bare and warm, the simple white dress she was wearing having ridden up when she got in the car.She looked gorgeous and professional in her capped-sleeve dress, the neckline demure and the hem brushing the tops of her knees when she stood. She had paired it with what she had informed me this morning were red “power heels” and had pinned her dark hair up in s
Getting Lucky Celebrate
Kaden“We were founded over three decades ago by my dad, Hank Marx. He’s still the CEO and personally reviews client profiles on an annual basis. What he built is a company that is pioneering and employs only intellectually rigorous fund managers with a results-driven client orientation.”We had agreed that I take this part of the meeting because the client was a family-owned company just like ours. Jack Junior would take over someday, just like I had been supposed to. I ignored the pit forming in my stomach and focused on selling Jack Senior and his minions on us.When I was done with my song and dance about how Dad was still there, still involved, and still put his personal seal of approval on every client’s portfolio at least once a year, Ember was going to explain the services we could offer and take it from there.“Our team, the team who will work for you, uses data collected over thirty-plus years and technology to gain the highest levels of financial insight. We have identified
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