Lottery Read Online Free Page A

always been cautious about letting a man into her life. Maybe it was because she wanted to hold out for the kind of marriage that her parents had. To date, she had yet to find a man who was like her father—strong, yet with a heart of gold.
    Although many of the women she knew didn’t have the desire to have a traditional marriage with children, Ling did. She wanted to teach her children the Chinese customs like her mother had taught her.
    She was lucky and didn’t need a mate because of money. Graduating at the top of her class had landed a position with one of the top brokerage companies in the U.S. She made more than enough money to support herself and could still put away more than she spent.
    Had she really gone to a strange place to meet a man she knew nothing about tonight? Ling had felt immediately comfortable with him; there was something about Caleb O’Toole that she trusted. Maybe her mother was right, and a woman knew the first time they met someone if there was a possibility they could be with them forever.
    She brought her legs up underneath her and pulled the quilt that her grandmother had stitched by hand over her.
    The only thing Ling knew was that when her eyes had locked with Caleb’s sky-blue eyes, she’d felt something she’d never felt before.

he crowds, the noise, and the ongoing commotion of tourists all disappeared when Caleb spotted her flying down the street on her bike.
    A flashback blazed through Caleb’s mind. Caleb was ten when his old man made him watch as he destroyed Caleb’s new Huffy bike. Tears streaming down his freckled face, Caleb had been helpless to intervene. Running over the bike, backing up and running over it again and again, when the truck stopped abruptly, his father stepped out, slamming the door, his face a burnished red. “That’ll teach you to do what you’re told,” his dad spat angrily, pointing at the demolished bicycle, his meaty jowls shaking with anger. He bent over toward Caleb, a sickening smile on his face. “Are you crying, sissy boy?” Caleb’s father asked with a sarcastic smile. “Cry baby sissy boy, you’ll never amount to a tinker’s damn.”
    God, Caleb hated his father. He’d hated him for as far back as he could remember. It was apparent that his father detested him just as much. Caleb couldn’t remember his old man ever tellinghim he was proud of him—not for one damn thing. Caleb’s mother had tried to explain that Caleb was the oldest and fathers were always harder on their first born. Caleb had almost accepted her answer until he’d overheard his aunt talking to his mother, asking if Caleb’s father still believed Caleb wasn’t his.
    “Hey,” Ling said out-of-breath and hopped off her bike next to him.
    The sunlight washed over her flawless skin; her eyes were hidden by sunglasses. She took off the black plastic helmet embellished with a hot pink stripe, and shook out her hair.
    “I thought you were a kid,” he said, admiring her.
    “Only took me like twenty minutes to get here.”
    He nodded at her city bike and then his eyes fell on the oversized, heavy-belted wheels that helped to shrug off city hazards such as broken glass and deep potholes. “You have a lock for that?” Caleb asked.
    She reached inside the backpack on the back of the bike and pulled out a flexible tube. “Well … yeah.” She smiled. “Us biker girls have to take precautions.” She bent over, wrapped the snake-like coil around the bike, and snapped the lock closed. Wearing a black racer-back tank, her spandex shorts hugged her petite, yet muscular thighs.
    Caleb pushed a thumb back over his shoulder. “Everyone’s starting to board.”
    “Wait.” Ling flashed a mischievous grin. “I have to do something.”
    Puzzled, he followed her through the crowded pier. The cloudless sky, the endless trail of boats trolling the bay, and the variety of street entertainers garbed in flamboyant attire all made for a picture-perfect San Francisco day. She