Read The Heart's Game (The Kelly Brothers, Book 4) for Free Online

echoed through the house, and her father rose from the table with a heavy sigh. “I’ll go talk to her. Once she realizes she’ll finally be a grandmother, she’ll be happy.”
    Jenny remained at the table, waiting for her parents to reappear, but her mother’s angry shouts continued to come from the bedroom. After ten minutes passed, she decided it was time to leave. “I’m going home.”
    Jason and Mike nodded, holding hands as they stood, and followed her. “Just give Mom time,” her brother said quietly. “Like Dad said, once it sinks in that she’ll have a grandchild, she’ll come around.”
    “I hope so.”
    But the sinking feeling in her gut warned her it would be a long time before her mother let her forget about this. She’d managed to make her brother and Mike happy, but she’d never felt more miserable in her life.

Chapter Three
     
    Dan pulled his BMW into the empty driveway of a lakeside house and double checked the address. It matched the one his former college roommate had given him. Whatever Paul was doing, it was paying well, judging by the size and location of the Craftsman-style home. Dan grabbed his bag of dice and jogged to the front door, his step lighter than usual despite the busy week at his new practice. For the first time in years, he was going to enjoy a good afternoon of gaming.
    His friend opened the door before Dan had a chance to knock and greeted him with the special combination handshake/high five/chest bump they’d created their freshman year at Northwestern. “Good to see you again.”
    “Same here.” He made a quick perusal of the entryway of the house. “Impressive, man.”
    “Please.” Paul waved him off. “I saw the house you grew up in. This is a shack compared to that.”
    “It’s better than the place I’m renting.” The surgery group he’d joined wanted him to start as soon as he was credentialed, leaving him very little time to find a place and settle in after finishing his residency. He’d started seeing patients the day after he returned from Comic-Con two weeks ago, and his apartment still was lined with boxes.
    “For now, Dr. Kelly.” Paul laughed and motioned for him to come upstairs. “The game room is this way.”
    He climbed two flights of stairs to an open loft space that had breathtaking views of the early afternoon sun glittering off Lake Sammamish. A large table dominated the center of the room, and at the end of it stood a full-scale replica of the Iron Throne from the Game of Thrones TV series.
    Dan let out a low whistle and ran his hand over back, noting how it was made of fiberglass and not real metal. “Impressive.”
    “Yeah, you wouldn’t believe how much my bank account whined when I ordered it.” Paul settled into his throne. “But it suits me, right?”
    Dan laughed. “Indeed. I suppose I should start calling you Joffrey now, huh?”
    Paul wrinkled his nose. “Only if you want to lose your head.”
    The door opened downstairs, and three more people filed into the room, all in costume. Paul introduced them as friends and co-workers, but Dan immediately began sizing them up. A stocky guy and his wife were both wearing studded leather jerkins over green shirts, which he suspected made them more of a ranger or druid type. The other member of the game wore a long cloak and was as long and lanky as the wizard’s staff he carried.
    Dan rubbed his palms on his button-down shirt. “I didn’t know I was supposed to dress up for this.”
    The jolly ranger, Derek, chuckled. “You’re still new.”
    “Besides,” his wife, Jessie, added, “we love getting dressed up for gaming. It’s one of the things we look forward to every weekend.”
    And on the weekends he wasn’t on call, he’d be looking forward to them too. Thankfully, he had several boxes of costumes to choose from.
    Two more gamers arrived—a woman in a flowing medieval style gown and a guy in chainmail—but it wasn’t until the sixth player arrived that his