Page 1 of Calling His Bluff
CHAPTER 1
“Never look a gift horse in the mouth,” Josephine mumbled to herself. But she was really thinking, “If it seems too good to be true, it is,” as she pushed open the door to the Seaside Vows bridal boutique.
Otherwise, why would her recluse, slightly deranged great Aunt Clara Bodine leave her a bridal shop in a small town on the West Coast? Montana-born and bred, Clara had never been out of the state. She had expressed no interest in seeing the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic, or anything beyond them. The woman hadn’t even been to Canada, which was just across the border from where she lived in small-town Montana.
So how did Clara end up with a bridal shop in Wild Rose Point, Oregon, unless the story was true and she really did win it in a poker game? But then decided to leave it to her niece, whom she’d met only one time?
It was enough to make Josephine suspicious. Not to throw shade on her aunt, but anyone who’d known the woman would have been wary of the so-called gift.
Josephine hadn’t even known she had a great aunt until the summer she was twelve. Her parents had driven her almost to the Canadian border before dropping her off with her aunt while they tried to put their marriage back together or some such nonsense.
On first meeting her aunt, Josephine thought her an eccentric old woman who wore too much makeup and perfume, lived in bright-colored gaudy pantsuits, and swore she was a princess in all of her numerous other lives she’d already lived. Superstitious, the woman wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning until she checked her horoscope, threw spilled salt over her left shoulder, and swore that itchy hands foretold the future.
But it was her Aunt Clara’s true obsession that turned out to be the highlight of that summer for Josephine. Aunt Clara, who always said, “Unlucky at love, but lucky at cards,” lived to play poker.
Five-Card Draw. It was Josephine’s first introduction to the game. It was also her first introduction to “the art of sleight of hand,” as Aunt Clara preferred to call cheating. By whatever name, Josephine learned quickly and won back her cash and belongings. Though grudgingly, she also won her aunt’s respect along with several pieces of her vintage jewelry.
That summer changed her life. Josephine caught her aunt’s love for games of chance. When the summer ended and her mother came to retrieve her, Aunt Clara gave Josephine her prized good luck charm—a worn Montana silver dollar.
“You’re never broke as long as you have this,” her aunt had told her, tucking the coin into her palm.
“A dollar will keep me from being broke?” Josephine had asked with a laugh.
Aunt Clara had peered over the top of her glasses at her. “You play poker almost as well as I do. You’ll be fine, but never discount luck. Just don’t tell your mother about any of this and stay away from good-looking, charming men and you’ll be fine.”
When Josephine shared what she’d learned that summer with her divorced parents, they found one thing they could agree on—they should never have left her at Clara’s. To remedy their mistake, they sent Josephine to an all-girls boarding school. There she ran poker parties and by graduation had started her first 401(k).
Since then, she’d become a professional gambler, living by a lot of her aunt’s teachings. The silver dollar her aunt had given her had been lucky, and she’d never parted with it. Staying away from good-looking, charming men, especially cowboys, proved much harder. They came with the territory, growing up in Montana, and one in particular had stolen a chunk of her heart she couldn’t seem to win back.
As she stepped into the shop and closed the door behind her, Josephine saw old mail and flyers littering the floor. She scooped them up, quickly sorting through them and disposing of all but a white envelope with her name on it. She frowned. There was no stamp, no return address, just Josephine Bodine handprinted on the envelope. The handwriting didn’t look familiar. Probably someone welcoming her to town. She shoved the envelope into her jacket pocket to look at it later. She wanted to see this place she’d inherited.
It was a pretty little shop. She couldn’t help but feel grateful to her great aunt for thinking of her but had no idea what to do with a bridal shop in Wild Rose Point, Oregon. True or not, it made a touching story if her aunt had really won the place in a poker game.
Now though as she moved through the space, she wondered what she was going to do with Seaside Vows. The building was narrow, the store compact, with a sitting area, stacks of wedding magazines on an end table, a wine fridge complete with crystal glasses, and one wall at the back filled with racks of white wedding dresses.
According to the paperwork she’d received from her aunt’s lawyer, there was an upstairs furnished apartment where she could live. The property taxes were paid for six months. She now owned the building and business only a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean. What more could she ask for?
Unconsciously, Josephine drew the good luck charm from her pocket, her thumb tracing the smooth, worn silver. It was something she always did when she was uncertain. Gambling had taught her to make quick decisions, so why was there any question about what she would do with Seaside Vows?
Was this “inheritance” a hint from her great aunt that she should get married? Not likely since Clara had never married and had nothing good to say about the men who’d traipsed through her life. Nor, after a summer with her aunt all those years ago, could Clara have seriously thought Josephine’s dream was to run a bridal shop one day.
Feeling a little guilty, she wondered how much she could get for the place. Realizing that she’d already seen enough to know that operating a bridal shop wasn’t for her, she remembered the envelope she’d stuffed in her jacket pocket. Maybe it was from someone who wanted to make an offer for the place.
Pulling out the envelope, she frowned. Had to be from someone in Wild Rose Point who had heard about the new owner of Seaside Vows because Josephine hadn’t told anyone. Because of her lifestyle, she traveled a lot, letting thewind and the next poker game take her. Her parents feared she would never settle down and blamed their divorce.
The truth was that Josephine had never had a reason to plant roots.
Which is why she couldn’t see herself staying here in Wild Rose Point, so if someone was interested in buying the bridal shop… She started to pocket the silver dollar to open the envelope. The coin slipped from her fingers, dropped to the wood floor and rolled away into a corner under the rack of fluffy white wedding dresses.
With a curse, Josephine tossed the envelope aside to fall to her hands and knees. Crawling through the wall of dresses, she felt around for her good luck charm. Now was definitely not the time to lose it. Something told her she was going to need all her luck.
Slipping deeper into the dense yards and yards of lace, tulle, chiffon, and rustling taffeta, she heard a sound that made her freeze. The bell tinkled over the front door of the shop.
She hadn’t locked it?
Even more determined to find the coin and possibly hide at the same time, she snaked through the billowing white froth of the dresses as a gust of Pacific Ocean air rushed in. The front door closed. For a moment, she thought whoeverhad started to come in had changed their mind—until she heard the thump of heavy boot heels cross the hardwood floor coming toward her.
Her fingertips felt the cool silver as she started to turn back. Picking up the silver dollar, she closed it in her fist. Relief made her smile until she heard the footfalls stop directly behind her. She turned her head to steal a glance under the dresses to see a pair of fancy cowboy boots.
