My Lucky Stars Read Free

toward her. Her carefully teased and perfected hairstyle blew out of place, but that didn’t really matter now. She wasn’t going to be seeing her friends in Boulder today—wasn’t going to be seeing anyone she knew.
    The important thing was surviving until she could get off this plane and then finding someplace to go and some way to travel so she wouldn’t have to get right back on another one.

Two
    Benjamin Whitmore pulled his duffel from the luggage carousel.
    “Uncle Ben, Uncle Ben!”
    He turned in time to hold his hands out for the six-year-old girl running straight for him.
    “Cadie.” Ben leaned over, allowing her to throw her arms around his neck, so he could lift her. “Umph.” He staggered backward exaggeratedly. “Wow. You’ve grown a foot or two at least.”
    “You should visit more,” his sister Ellen chided.
    “I’m here, aren’t I?” Ben set Cadie down.
    “You are.”
    He noticed the moisture in Ellen’s eyes and stepped forward to give her a hug. “Hey, Sis.”
    Her arms tightened around him. “I’ve missed you, Benji.”
    “I know.” He stepped back, a sheepish look on his face. “At least you’re moving a little closer.”
    Ellen rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Denver is so much closer to Ohio. You’re the one who needs to move.”
    “Nah. When your kids are older, you’ll be glad I live in the middle of nowhere. You can send them to me for the summer so they get that whole outdoor, farm-type experience.”
    A wistful look crossed Ellen’s face. “Like we did.”
    “I want to go to the farm,” Cadie said. She tugged on Ben’s hand. “How many horses do you have?”
    Ben looked down at her. “None. I’ve got something even better.”
    Her eyes grew wide. “ Unicorns ?”
    “Uh—no. I’ve got—”
    Someone bumped him from behind, and Ben lurched forward, nearly stepping on Cadie’s foot.
    “Sorry,” he said, glancing over his shoulder toward the offender—a woman pushing her way toward the baggage claim, with a man wearing a shirt with an airline logo not far behind.
    “I waited here over forty minutes,” she said, pointing a long, polished nail toward the belt where luggage emerged. “I stood here right in front, and my suitcase never arrived.”
    “If you’ll go to that office over there—” The man pointed to a window on the far side of the carousels. “They can help you locate—”
    “I already did,” the woman said. “And they wanted me to fill out a form. Paperwork isn’t going to do any good. What I need is someone to actually do something to find my suitcase. It’s got to be here somewhere. It didn’t just vanish.”
    “I don’t really—” The airline employee broke off as the woman’s expression grew fierce. He ran his fingers through thinning hair. “What flight did you say?”
    “Seven-sixty-nine from Los Angeles.”
    “Looks like you’ve got the wrong carousel, ma’am.” He nodded toward the board listing flights. “There aren’t any arrivals from California on this one.”
    “Of course not,” she huffed. “My plane landed over an hour ago. Haven’t you heard anything I’ve said?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “I need my suitcase. And I expect a night’s hotel to be covered, since I’m supposed to be in Denver instead of stuck in—”
    “Well, that’s where it is.” The man smiled. “Your luggage must have gone on to Denver. Happens all the time when people miss their connecting flights.”
    “I—didn’t—miss—my—flight,” the woman said, clearly enunciating each word.
    Ben turned his body slightly so he had a better view of the unfolding drama. The redhead’s face was brighter than her hair, and her hazel eyes flashed angrily. He was glad he wasn’t the recipient of her wrath.
    “The Denver airport is closed ,” she said, drawing even more attention to the scene. “I’m stuck here, and I need my luggage!”
    The employee stepped away from her, hands held out, palms toward the woman, as if to