Free Fortune Found by Victoria Pade Page A

because he had some convincing to do and he knew the time had come. Butit took effort to instead make the most pained face he could muster and lie through his teeth.
    â€œThe date was not good,” he complained.
    â€œBut Kelsey said she got up with Anthony at one this morning and you were still out—how does a bad date go on past one in the morning?”
    â€œYeah, well, I had to make it look good, didn’t I? Jessie is Kelsey’s sister after all.”
    â€œBut you had a lousy time?” Cooper asked, sounding confused.
    â€œThere’s just nothing there, Coop. You know how it is.”
    â€œWith Jessie? There’s nothing there with Jessie?”
    â€œWho else are we talking about?” Flint said, taking the offensive because his brother seemed completely confounded by the notion that there wasn’t any attraction between Flint and Jessie.
    â€œBut every time the two of you are together—”
    â€œRight. Again, making it look good,” Flint insisted as he plopped another bundle of shingles into the wheelbarrow. “I’m not saying that she isn’t nice and pretty and what have you. I’m just saying that she doesn’t do anything for me. And I don’t do anything for her. We don’t…click.”
    Liar.
    â€œIs it the kids?” Coop asked, apparently unable to believe that it was as simple as Flint was making it out to be.
    â€œWell, come on, four kids, Coop,” Flint said. “That’s—”
    â€œI know, it’s a lot. And you and I and Frannie and Ross, with our background…there’s nothing to recommend family life in that. I mean, I love my son and Iwouldn’t trade him for anything, but coming to grips with the fact that I have a son? That was something. If it wasn’t for Kelsey I’d have been lost.” Coop shook his head. “So I get it. Taking on someone else’s four kids would be huge to sign on for, no matter how great Jessie is.” And Jessie was great, Flint thought. Beautiful and fun and smart and sweet—and wow could she move on a dance floor when she got into it!
    But he liked to keep things light and breezy with women, and light and breezy with a woman with four kids just wasn’t going to happen.
    Or if it did happen, to him it would mean that the woman was the kind of mother his own mother had been. And carelessly letting a man come between her and her kids was something he could never respect.
    â€œIt’s just better if Jessie and I are nothing but friends,” Flint said then, even though he’d really chafed at that word when Jessie had said it last night. Because for a moment he’d lost sight of everything but the beauty standing in front of him—the woman he’d had a terrific time with, the woman he’d been wanting so badly to kiss the desire had been eating him alive. And there she was, saying they needed to just be friends. The ultimate rejection.
    Not that he’d been feeling rejected when she’d said it with that little smile that put the damned cutest dimple just above the left corner of her mouth…
    â€œSo you’re going to the woods with her and the kids today as friends?” Coop asked then.
    Just before Flint had come out to the garage with his brother he’d told Kelsey not to expect him for dinner tonight and why.
    Flint shrugged. “Jessie is nice and so are her kids. It’s not as if I don’t like them all.”
    â€œYou just don’t want to get into anything serious.”
    â€œExactly,” Flint answered honestly. “And if you can get Kelsey to see that it’s nothing against her sister, but that there just can’t be more to it than Jessie and I knowing each other, maybe hanging out a little, being friendly, I’d really appreciate it.”
    â€œI’ll do what I can,” Coop promised. “But I’ll leave the kids out of it. Kelsey has been so good about