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through the rest of eternity. And she had eternity left to feel horrible about it.

    “Wait.” She dug through her purse and found the original ten-dollar chip. She held it up, giving him a shaky smile. “We still have this.”

    “You’re kidding, right?”

    “No. If we did it once, we can do it again. Only this time—”

    “Forget it, sweetheart. I’m done.”

    And this time, she knew he meant it.

    The sick, sinking sensation in Heather’s stomach was more than she could bear. She hated that she’d been the one to steal that smile right off Tony’s face, to dangle his dream in front of him only to yank it away again.

    He turned and headed for the elevator lobby, leaving her standing there feeling worse than she ever had in her life. Somewhere in this town tonight, somebody was going home a big winner.

    She’d give anything right now if that somebody could be Tony.

    She turned and looked out at the gaming floor. Bright lights. People laughing. People
winning.
Okay, maybe not twenty thousand dollars all at once, but . . .

    Then something caught her eye. A slot machine sitting less than an arm’s length away. Her gaze panned up, and when she saw the maximum payout, she couldn’t believe it.

    Twenty thousand dollars?

    As she stared at the machine, her heart skipped crazily, then settled into a heavy, thudding rhythm.

    Maybe fate wasn’t through with them yet.

    Tony punched the button for the elevator, then turned around and leaned against the wall. Hadn’t he been here only a few hours ago feeling just like this?

    No. He hadn’t felt like this at all. He hadn’t felt as if an elephant were sitting on his chest, squeezing the breath out of him. Everything he’d ever wanted had been within his grasp. He’d been so close to it, so
close . . .

    And then he’d trusted his future to a crazy woman.

    All he wanted to do was go upstairs, climb into bed, and pretend this day had never been. And then Monday, he’d go back to stealing cars for a living and wondering if he’d be old and gray before the next opportunity like this one came along.

    He punched the button again. Where was the damned elevator?

    Suddenly he heard a commotion coming from the gaming floor, with a noise level even greater than usual. Wild
pinging
and people cheering. He knew those sounds. Somebody had won, and won big.
Damn it.
Why couldn’t it have been him?

    Finally the elevator came. He drained his beer, tossed the bottle in a nearby trash can, and got on.

    “Tony! Wait!”

    He looked between the closing elevator doors to see Heather hurrying toward him. He jammed his hand between the doors until they opened again. She stepped into the elevator, grabbed his hands, and pulled him out.

    “Heather? What are you doing?”

    “You’ll never guess what happened!”

    “What?”

    “I did it, Tony. I did it!”

    “Did what?”

    “I won twenty thousand dollars!”

    He blinked dumbly. If this was a joke, it was a really bad one.

    “You couldn’t have,” he said. “It would have taken you hours to win that much money.”

    “Not when I plug a ten-dollar slot machine that has a payoff of twenty thousand!”

    She was right. Those could have big payoffs. They happened only once in a blue moon, but the possibility was there. But the likelihood . . .

    “Tony?” she said, jiggling his hands. “Did you hear me? I
won!
”

    “Come on, Heather. Nobody walks right up to a slot machine and wins twenty thousand dollars.”

    Her face fell. “But I did! Look at this!”

    She showed him the receipt. She was right. Twenty thousand dollars.

    When he finally realized she wasn’t delusional, that maybe she really did win all that money, envy shot through him so sharply he nearly doubled over from the pain. She’d been reckless at the craps table when she was playing for him, leaving him with nothing. Then as soon as he left the gaming floor, she’d won big. Yeah, she was lucky, all right. At all the wrong