With Luck

Copyright © 2023 by Rebecca Quincy All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Cover Design: Maria @ Steamy Designs Editor: Sara Burgess @ Telltail Editing WITH LUCK a With Love novel REBECCA QUINCY For Danni, my first friend (who is still the best friend) Contents 1. Ronnie 2. Ronnie 3. TJ 4. Ronnie 5. TJ 6. Ronnie 7. TJ 8. Ronnie 9. TJ 10. Ronnie 11. TJ 12. Ronnie 13. Ronnie 14. TJ 15. TJ 16. Ronnie 17. Ronnie 18. TJ 19. Ronnie 20. Ronnie 21. TJ 22. TJ 23. Ronnie 24. Ronnie 25. TJ 26. Ronnie Epilogue: TJ Sneak Peek: WITH ABANDON Acknowledgments Also by Rebecca Quincy About the Author ONE Ronnie JUNE 18 “Oh, hey, I forgot.” Celia settled back into her armchair and pointed a sharp finger in Ronnie’s direction. “I’m mad at you.” The wine Ronnie was swallowing caught in her throat, threatening to go down the wrong pipe. She coughed to clear it, feeling the burn of the alcohol clear up to the top of her head. “Me?” “Yes, you. Bethany told me you were seeing a new guy, and you haven’t told me anything about him.” From her perch on the arm of the sofa, Ronnie glared down at Bethany beside her. “You told her?” Bethany shrugged. “I didn’t know it was a secret!” Annika, the fourth woman in their circle, spoke up from the far end of the couch. “I thought you guys didn’t keep secrets from each other.” No, they didn’t. But sometimes Ronnie wished she could. Bethany and Celia were Ronnie’s cousins—stepcousins, technically—but in reality they’d all grown up as best friends, nearly as sisters. And Annika, who had been Celia’s roommate in college, had been dating Ronnie’s brother Hunter for over a year now. So as far as Ronnie was concerned, these three women were her family, as well as the best friends she could ask for. That didn’t mean she wanted to relive every one of her misadventures in dating with them. Or hear them ask yet again why she’d chosen a tool like Ewan to go out with in the first place. Luckily, she was saved from answering when her brother approached their group. His best friend Christian, who was also Celia’s husband, was close on his heels. Good. Not even Celia would pressure Ronnie for details on her love life with her brother standing just over her shoulder. Right? “Ladies,” Hunter greeted them. “Boys,” Celia answered tartly. Christian came to sit on the arm of her chair, and she tucked her legs under her and snuggled into the arm he wrapped around her shoulder. “Tired of your sing-along?” They’d been out on the patio with a group of Hunter’s music major classmates, passing around an acoustic guitar. It was Hunter and Annika’s housewarming party—well, condowarming, since the little place they were renting in Long Beach wasn’t really a house, but no one was getting hung up on the semantics. Hunter had moved down from San Francisco a year before to go to Cal State Long Beach and be with Annika; now he was moving off campus, and he and Annika had finally gotten their own place together. Ronnie was thrilled for them. She’d never seen her brother so happy as he was when he was with Annika. She’d never seen him so motivated either. Her whole family had been waiting with bated breath for him to decide to finish college, and now, at twenty-five and with his girlfriend’s support, he’d found something he was passionate about and was a year away from getting his degree. Ronnie was proud of him. She resented him a little too—after all, he was three years younger than her, so why should he get to have his life figured out when so much of hers was still a question mark? But she kept that to herself. “Needed new beers.” Hunter, who’d come to a stop just behind Annika with his hand resting on her shoulder, lifted his bottle at the group in a salute. “Well, you’re just in time.” Celia’s lips curved into one of her crafty smiles. “Ronnie was just about to tell us about the guy she’s been seeing.” Shit. So much for Celia backing off just because the boys were here. “I’m not seeing anyone,” Ronnie said. “That’s not what Bethany told me. She said you’d been going out with some guy named Ian or something.” “Ewan.” Ronnie didn’t realize she’d fallen into Celia’s trap until she heard her brother chuckle. Celia, damn her, just smiled wider. “So there is a guy.” Heat crawled up Ronnie’s neck. God, this was the last thing she wanted to talk about. Couldn’t she be allowed to forget her mistakes in peace? “Okay, yes, I went on a couple of dates with somebody. But he was awful, and it’s been over for a couple of months now. Happy?” “Nope,” Celia said, popping her lips. “You’re gonna have to do better than that.” “No, trust me. You really don’t want to hear about this guy.” “Of course we do,” Bethany said, knocking her shoulder into Ronnie’s side. “Good or bad, we want to be there for you.” “Yeah, and we’re all in relationships.” Celia gestured between everyone else in the circle. “We’re counting on you here. You’re our only connection to the single life.” “The single life sucks,” Ronnie grumbled into her wine glass. “What was that?” Ronnie huffed and met Celia’s gaze. “I said, the single life sucks. My stories all suck. This guy sucked. Dating sucks. Men suck.” She glanced up at the two men standing in their circle. “No offense.” “None taken,” Christian said. “A little taken,” Hunter corrected, tipping his beer bottle toward his sister, “but go on.” Ronnie tried to calm down,