Free Betting on Hope by Kay Keppler Page A

book. He looked up “McNaughton,” and there were a few of those, but no Hope, and no “H.” Faith lived in Mesquite Springs, Kenji had said, but the Las Vegas phone book didn’t cover small towns forty miles away. Maybe the sisters lived together.
    “What are you looking for?” Troy came into the kitchen, looking so fresh and young that his heart ached.
    “Oh, nothing, really.”
    Troy just stood there, her head tilted to one side, watching him.
    “Okay, then, smartypants,” Tanner said, sighing in mock resignation. “I met a card player today, and she’s got the same last name as another card player from Vegas, and she denies knowing him. And that seems weird. I mean, what are the odds? So I wondered if she was in the phone book.”
    “Do you want to ask her out on a date?”
    “What did I tell you?” Tanner asked, picking up his keys. “No dating for anybody until they’re twenty-five. Now, if you’re ready, let’s go.”

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
    After Tanner and Troy finished dinner, he dropped her at her best friend Lizbeth’s house. The two girls planned to go to a movie, and if Tanner knew anything about teenagers, flirt with boys. At least he hoped that’s all they’d do.
    “Remember that I’ll know everything you do,” he said. “So be careful.”
    “I will. Jeez, Dad. Lighten up! I’m going to college next week.”
    “It’s not too late to rethink that plan.”
    Troy grinned as she got out of the car. “Lizbeth will drive me home. We won’t drink, do drugs, or have sex. I’ll be careful.”
    “Okay. Have fun.”
    “If that’s even possible if you know everything I do.” She laughed, tossing him a saucy glance, her ponytail bouncing, as she turned and ran up the lawn of her friend’s house.
    He watched her go, remembering how his own parents had given him the same warnings. And just like Troy, he hadn’t really listened, never thinking that anything could happen to him . And as a consequence, he’d become a father at nineteen, his whole world turned upside down.
    Not that he would alter anything if he could. He’d wanted his daughter with a fierce protectiveness ever since the day she was born, when she’d wailed and clutched his finger as the only safe haven in a cold, cruel world. He’d been surprised at the depth of his emotions then, but never doubted them—not when his girlfriend’s parents came to put the baby up for adoption, not when, in desperation, he’d asked Jack’s father, a corporate attorney, to represent him when he asked for permanent custody. The court case had seemed to drag on forever, but in the end, Troy was his.
    And that’s when the work had really started. He’d moved back home, finished college at night when his folks could watch his baby daughter, and he watched her in the daytime when they worked. His parents had really come through for him.
    Those first few years were tough for all of them, but it had been more than worth it. Raising Troy had been incredible, the hardest, most fun, best thing he’d ever done. Troy had made him the man he was. A better man than he’d started out to be.
    He drove home, believing, hoping, that Troy was smarter at eighteen than he’d been, and let himself into the house. He checked his messages. One. From agent Frelly.
    “Call me when you get in,” Frelly growled.
    Tanner sighed. What were the odds? Frelly would want him to go back to the casino. Maybe he’d found a way for Tanner to get in Big Julie’s game tonight.
    He called the number the agent had left and Frelly picked up on the first ring.
    “You gotta get over to the casino,” Frelly said. “We can fit you into Big Julie’s game tonight.”
    “So soon?” Tanner asked. He tried to keep the doubt out of his voice. He’d only talked to the agents this morning. Surely replacing one of Big Julie’s regular card players with a total stranger couldn’t be that easy. Big Julie would be suspicious of substitutions.
    “Yeah,” Frelly