Fast & Loose Read Free Page A

every year? That was just…wrong.
    “—will clear out of their houses,” Melissa continued, “and rent them out to people who can’t find hotel rooms or who just want the comfort of a house instead. A few of the houses that go up for grabs are pretty nice, too. Six and seven bedrooms, some of them. Stately old manors. Or new McMansions in gated communities. With country club memberships. Access to pools and golf courses. We’re talking massive luxury for some of these places.”
    Cole perked up considerably. Now that was the way to spend time at the Derby.
    “Unfortunately, those are all gone,” Melissa said.
    Of course.
    “Besides,” she continued, “the houses that go up for grabs are only available for the two or three days surrounding the race, and I know you and Susannah are planning to be in Louisville for a couple of weeks. So I did some calling around after you called me, and I found a guy who specializes in Derby rentals. He said he could guarantee me a house for the two weeks preceding the race in an area called the Highlands, which, according to him, is a very nice neighborhood, parts of which are very upscale. And lucky for you, Mr. Real-Men-Don’t-Cook, he said there are lots of restaurants within walking distance of just about every street.”
    “Walking distance,” Cole repeated distastefully. She called that lucky? Nobody in southern California ever walked anywhere. That was even more wrong than not wanting to be in Louisville during the Kentucky Derby.
    “Anyway, I’ve got the house on hold if you want it,” Melissa said, “and I think you should grab it. I sincerely doubt you’re going to find anything else. Certainly not for two weeks. You really came down to the wire on this, Cole.”
    “Very funny,” he replied, though he had to admit that the racing metaphor was apt. He really should have booked a hotel the minute he realized Silk Purse had even a tiny chance of winning Santa Anita. He just hadn’t wanted to jinx it, that was all. Booking a room before having the win in their pocket had just seemed like the perfect way to ensure Silk didn’t win.
    “I’ll take it,” he said.
    “Don’t you want to know how much it’s going to cost or hear about the amenities?” Melissa asked.
    “It doesn’t matter,” he told her. “I need a place to stay. Whatever you have to do to get this house for me, do it. At this point, I’ll take what I can get.”

Two
    LULU FLANNERY SCRIBBLED ANOTHER INSTRUCTION ON a hot pink Post-it note and slapped it onto her cable remote control, trying again to recall the precise moment when she’d lost her mind. Oh, right. Now she remembered. It had been the second her friend Eddie told her she could get five thousand dollars for renting out her house the two weeks before Derby. It had been bad enough that she’d succumbed so quickly—and easily—a few months ago when he told her she could get fifteen hundred renting her place out for three days. Now she was agreeing to do it for two weeks.
    Greed. It was a heinous little bugger.
    However, at some point during the frenzy of housecleaning she’d performed over the last two days to leave the place spotless for whoever would be staying here for the next two weeks, she’d begun to have second thoughts. And then third thoughts. And then tenth thoughts. And then one hundred and fifty-seventh thoughts.
    Everything she owned was in her little Highlands bungalow. All her personal, intimate…stuff. Sure, she’d locked up what few valuable items she had— valuable being a relative term, anyway, since they were mostly relative to the term worthless. The actual cash value of Lulu’s valuable possessions probably only totaled around four hundred dollars. But the sentimental value she carried for things like her grandmother’s pearl choker and earrings and her mother’s autographed photo of Dean Martin—even though, alas, it was autographed to someone named Buddy—far outweighed any monetary value that