Lucky Break (Lucky 3)

“Haute Couture Fashion Week. I’d think you would have that on your radar, considering how much you love clothes and shoes,” Sharon said, laughing. “Lauren Perkins is an up-and-coming dress designer.”

Clara saw Gabrielle’s astute mind start to work. The woman loved fashion and anything related to style. “I don’t recognize the name Lauren Perkins…Wait!” She snapped her fingers. “LP Designs, right? She’s with Galliano now.”

Sharon looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think that’s the name of her company. I’m not sure.”

“How could you not know? Oh, never mind.” Gabrielle rolled her eyes at her friend. “I’ll have to get over to the house and reintroduce myself.”

“So you don’t hold it against her?” Sharon asked, obviously relieved. “That her sister and grandmother tried to destroy your husband’s family? That they perpetuated the curse?”

“No, why would I?” Gabrielle said. “She didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Clara smiled, so pleased at the friends she’d made, their wisdom and openmindedness.

“So if she and Jason got together, a Corwin and a Perkins,” Sharon pushed, spelling things out, “you really wouldn’t care?”

“If she made Jason happy, I’d be all for it!” Gabrielle announced.

Sharon nodded. “Good, because I really want her to be accepted while she’s here. I didn’t want anyone to hold what her family did against her.”

“Well, she won’t get that kind of treatment from us,” Gabrielle promised.

“I agree,” Amber said. “Of all people, I know what it’s like to try and outrun past mistakes.”

Clara smiled. Yes, Amber would understand. She’d met Mike Corwin in Vegas, married him on a whim and abandoned him before he even woke up the next day. She’d had her reasons, but she’d spent a long time making up for her choices and still hadn’t forgiven herself completely, even though her husband had.

“As long as Jason is happy, that’s all we care about,” Amber said. “So does she make him happy?”

Clara, who’d been content to let the other women speak, decided it was time she added her two cents. “She makes him more than happy. I think she’s his destiny.” Finally she’d admitted aloud what she’d been keeping inside since the day of the tarot reading.

“Now that’s a mouthful,” Amber said, her eyes wide.

“Tell me about it.” Clara’s biggest problem was that Jason’s chance for happiness reinforced Edward’s greatest fear.

“What do you mean you think she’s his destiny?” Gabrielle asked.

Clara didn’t want to push for this relationship when it would only hurt the man she loved. It wasn’t that Clara was worried about whether or not Edward would eventually accept her love. If they were meant to be, then they’d have a future together. But she knew that revealing her sense of inevitability regarding Lauren and Jason might trigger something in Edward that would lead to further regression or even breakdown.

Still, Clara believed in following the clues of the tarot to wherever they led. She couldn’t keep this to herself. Not if the family could help.

“I did a reading for Jason before the festival and I saw her,” Clara said.

“Saw who? Lauren?” Sharon asked.

Clara nodded. “In a sense. I saw a woman of mystery wearing a red mask-the ultimate expression of undying love.”

She’d also seen the white picket fence and the potential for happily ever after. “A Corwin and a Perkins union would undo the past,” Clara said softly.

“I love it!” Amber said, her blond curls bouncing around her face as she practically jumped up in her seat.

Clara had expected Amber’s enthusiastic reaction, but she glanced warily at Gabrielle. An author who debunked the paranormal, Gabrielle had forged a mutual respect with Clara despite their differing beliefs. Gabrielle’s last work, written in the months following the fire, refuted the Corwin Curse and put forth other more logical explanations for all the tragedies that had befallen the family over the generations.

What

Clara had just suggested was contrary to Gabrielle’s commonsense beliefs.

Gabrielle glanced down, then met Clara’s gaze. “I love the notion of Jason’s happiness even if I don’t believe there’s a past to undo,” she said at last.

Clara smiled. “Fair enough.” She admired the other woman greatly. “Sharon?”