Getting Lucky Read Online Free Page B

a singles' bar and Julie met Griffin. Only that night they weren't Julie and Griffin; they were Lucky and Red and they were both drunk by the time they staggered into her hotel room.
       He had been sitting at a table with a dozen other freshly recruited military men, all looking very hand some in BDUs, shined boots, and shaved heads. She had stumbled over his boots when she was returning from the bathroom and he caught her before she fell. She'd looked up into the bluest eyes she'd ever seen.
       "Well, they don't call me Lucky for nothing," he had smiled.
       "I'm so sorry. I was clumsy and not looking where I was going," she had apologized.
       "Don't be. I saw you come in. I'm a sucker for red hair. Care to dance?"
       And so it began. An evening with too many drinks, too much laughter, and two people hailing a cab back to her motel room. She wouldn't even have known his name if she hadn't noticed it stenciled into the neck of his shirt: G. Luckadeau. What the hell kind of name was Luckadeau anyway? French? Cajun?
       "So what does the "G" stand for?" she'd asked.
       "I'm off to Iraq tomorrow morning bright and early. Just call me Lucky because that's what I am. You're my red-haired good luck charm who's going to make sure I come back in one piece. I'm calling you Red."
       What had been funny that night was awkward the next morning.
       "Good-bye, Lucky," she'd said from the bed when he left.
       "Good-bye, Red," he grinned.
       The grin hadn't changed in six years but the look in his eyes sure had. At school that morning Julie had recognized nothing but shock. His hair had grown back out and she had seen for absolute sure what gene pool Annie had dipped her head in to get her white streak, but six years had been good to Griffin Luckadeau. He was just as handsome as he'd been back then.

    When he had left that morning it was with a backward glance that said he liked what he saw and if he wasn't going to Iraq he might call her again.
       "Come home in one piece," she'd said as he had walked out the motel door.
       "I promise, I will. How can I not? I just slept with the most beautiful redhead in the whole state of Texas." He shut the door gently behind him.
       "That line is so damn corny it's funny. Besides, darlin', we didn't sleep," she had said before she'd pulled the covers over her face and gone back to sleep.
       Julie had been rudely awakened by her sister pounding on the door at fifteen minutes until eleven, rushing her around so they could make the checkout time.
       The next week Derrick called. Honey dripped from his words. He missed her. He was sorry. They shouldn't throw away a six-year marriage because of his mistake. He was willing to take full blame and it would never happen again. Please give him another chance. A dose of guilty syndrome had caused her to set aside the divorce. To celebrate, Derrick took a week off work and they'd flown to Cancun.

    "There's a sucker born every second," Julie said aloud as she kept packing Edna's clothes.
       Her thoughts went back to six weeks after she and Derrick went to Cancun. She had found out she was pregnant and although he was reserved about the news she was ecstatic. The day Julie gave birth to Annie he took one look at his daughter and ordered a DNA test.
       "I'm willing to wait for the proof, Julie, and if the child is mine I will admit I'm wrong, but she's not. I see now why you were so agreeable to take me back. I won't be home until the DNA test results come back. That will give you time to move out. I'll be filing for divorce on grounds of adultery as soon as I know for sure."
       Julie had nodded numbly. One look at the baby they pulled from her and she knew immediately who the father was: G. Luckadeau. She'd even bet dollars to donuts that had his head not been shaven slick as a baby's butt, he would have had a white streak in his dark hair. Her new baby daughter had one in the front of all that