Free Shine (Kentucky Outlaw Book 1) by Rayna Bishop

anyone else.”

    “Not like me, you mean.”

    “Jesus H. Christ, I’m not talking about you.   You’re not really a kept woman if your fiancé won’t marry you.”  

    Tears formed in Madison’s eyes.   Julie had crossed a line.   Madison had been engaged to Brennan Pike for three years, but there was always some excuse why the wedding had to be delayed.   Julie knew it wasn’t Madison’s fault, but it didn’t matter she couldn’t take back what she said, but she still tried to apologize.

    “Save it,” said Madison in a hard voice.   “I just wanted to spend some time with you.   I’ve barely seen you since Nick died, but the truth is we never spent any time together before that happened.   We were so close when were we kids.   We were sisters, but now we’re just two people that share a roof.”

    Madison walked away from Julie and headed into the grandstand.   Julie went below the concourse to claim her winnings.   She sat at a small table to finish her pretzel and beer.   She felt lousy.   Madison wasn’t wrong, not a word of it.   Julie had been purposefully pulling back from her family for a long time.   She had always considered it an act of self-preservation.   In her family, especially with her Daddy, there were expectations of her, like getting married, having children, and settling the hell down.   She wasn’t going to do that.   At least, she wasn’t going to do that just because they wanted her to.   So she drew back from all of them, but she never thought about the effect it might have on everyone else.

    Julie found Madison sitting in a plastic seat a few rows up from the main level, watching the horses being corralled into the starting gates.   She sat next to her sister and said, “I made a bet for you.   He’s name’s Unbridled Regret.   I bet him to win.”

    Madison took a long time before saying, “That’s an odd name.”

    “Yeah, well, there’s no horse in this race named Your Sister’s an Ass.”  

    Madison barely laughed and the small smile left her face quickly.  

    Julie said, “Let’s get out of here.   There’s some place I want to take you.”

    “Don’t you want to see if the horse wins?”

    “Let’s just assume he does.”

    They left the track, and Julie insisted on driving, so she took the keys from Madison and got behind the wheel.   Madison wanted to know where they were going, but Julie didn’t give in.   Finally she parked the car across the street from a gray brick building with dirty windows called The Casino Grill.   Julie got out of the car.

    Madison called out to her, “Julie, where are you going?   You could get shot in this neighborhood.”

    Julie was halfway across the street and turned back to see her sister still in the car.   “Come on.   I’m buying you lunch.”

    “Here?” said Madison, but got out of the SUV.   She hurried across the street.   “Is the reason they call this place Casino Grill is because eating here is a gamble?”

    With her hand on the door Julie turned to Madison.   “Like I said, I’m buying you lunch as an apology.   Don’t embarrass me, OK.”

    As they walked in, Madison stared at the plastic chairs and scarred wooden tables, but said nothing.   A tall, balding black man wearing an apron came over to them, smiling at Julie.

    “Alvin,” Julie said, greeting him

    He stood next to her and put his arm around her.   “How you been, girl?”

    “I been good.”

    “Haven’t seen you in here much since…”   He trailed off not know what to say, the look on his face showing that he had made a poor choice of words and couldn’t get out of it.

    “It’s OK,” Julie said.   “I haven’t been around much.   This here’s my sister.”

    Alvin shook her and Madison politely said hello.

    Julie told Alvin she wanted two of her usual and Alvin said they’d be out in just a few.   The sisters took a seat.
    “So you eat here enough that they miss you when