My Lucky Stars Read Free Page A

hold her back. “Lady, I haven’t heard that. I just barely started my shift when you caught me, but I’ll check it out. Yelling isn’t going to help anyone, though. It’s Christmastime. We all gotta be patient. And there’s a lot of kids around—” His gaze slid sideways toward Cadie, eyes large as she stared at the woman. “So let’s be nice.”
    “It would be nice to have my belongings.” Her voice was like acid, and Ben noticed her flexing her fingers with those dagger nails.
    Yikes. Weirdos all over—even here in good old Utah. He felt a sudden longing to get on the next plane and head back home to the peace he’d found on his own green acres in the rolling hills of Ohio.
    “Let’s see what we can find out.” Without inviting her to come along or waiting to see if she did, the employee turned and walked away, flashing an apologetic look toward Ben as he passed by.
    “Do you have any other suitcases?” Ellen asked, eyeing the duffel near Ben’s feet.
    “Nope.” He took a step back as the woman strode past once more. He watched a second longer than he should have, noticing she wore one of the tightest, ugliest skirts—a fuchsia leopard print—he’d ever seen in his life.
    Ellen noticed too—or at least where his gaze ended up. “Thought you’d sworn off women,” she said, a slight smirk on her face.
    “I did. And that is exactly why.”
    * * *
    Twenty minutes later they finally made their way toward the central elevator. Cadie had needed to use the bathroom. Then she’d wanted a drink. Ben bought her an orange soda and was sorry three minutes later when she spilled it all down the front of her dress—the new dress, Ellen informed him, that she’d worn especially to greet him. It had taken another five minutes for Ellen to clean Cadie up in the bathroom and dry her tears.
    “I left the difficult kids at home,” Ellen reminded him as they skirted the large floor map beneath the security entrance. Cadie lagged behind, dodging beneath the ropes into the mostly vacant lanes, hopping from country to country.
    “You’re telling me we’re in for a long trip.”
    Ellen nodded. “Though if you’ll trade off taking Cadie and Sam with you in the moving truck, I’ll keep Chloe with me. She’s going to be the hard one.”
    “How big’s the U-Haul you rented?” Ben asked.
    Ellen gave him a blank look. “No clue. Dallin took care of that his last trip home. That was his job, whereas I’ve had the minuscule task of getting the house sold and packing all our worldly goods into boxes—while being a single parent to three of the most active kids on the planet.”
    “Hasn’t been a lot of fun?” Ben guessed.
    “None at all.” Ellen sighed. “Though I’ve sure gained a new appreciation for parents who really are single. I cannot wait for Dallin to be around for dinners, tuck-ins, middle-of-the-night episodes, church—”
    “I get the idea,” Ben said, grinning at his sister.
    “South America. North America,” Cadie called, running from one to the other on the floor map. “Want to hear my song about continents and oceans?”
    “At home,” Ellen said. “We’re going out to eat now and to see the lights, remember?”
    Cadie frowned, and Ben was afraid she’d start to cry again. He knelt beside her, intending to listen before any tears could appear, but another sound interrupted them. He turned around and was surprised to see the woman from the luggage carousel. She sat at one of a few scattered tables near the elevator, her elbow on the table, head held in one hand as she spoke into her cell phone—much louder than necessary, Ben thought.
    “No. I don’t have the fraud protection plan.” Her lips pressed together in an angry line as she listened to the person on the other end of the call. “I see it would have been a good idea, but now I just need to cancel the card .” The nails of her free hand drummed impatiently on the table. “Twenty-four hours? Do you have any idea the