âIâm not the bad guy here.â
Lexie laughed incredulously. âYouâre saying I am?â
âYou donât take your responsibilities seriously,â Rafe explained. âAbsentmindedness is no excuse for failing to file a tax return.â
âHumph.â She stood in an indignant tinkling of bells, swished away a few paces before she spun around in a whirl of skirt. âYouâre just like my family. Oh, that scatterbrained Lexieâshe canât handle her finances, she canât take care of herself, much less a baby. Maybe I have different priorities. Maybe money andâ¦and receipts arenât the most important things in life. Maybe people are.â
âThatâs what Iâm saying. People need hospitals and schools and roadsââ His hands rested on the keyboard as he stared at her. âWhat baby?â
Dear Reader,
Life, it seems to me, is largely a matter of timing. What if you meet your soul mate but one or both of you arenât ready to settle down? Would you say goodbye and hope youâll find someone else someday whoâll be as perfect for you? Or would you grab him and never let him go, regardless of the monkey wrench it throws in your lifeâs plans?
When to have children is another major life decision that depends so much on âbeing ready.â What if one person wants a baby and the other doesnâtâor at least doesnât yet? Is that a deal breaker?
I wasnât interested in marriage and children until I was close to thirty years old. But when I was finally ready to settle down, my husband came along. It felt as if Iâd been waiting, without knowing it, just for him.
Iâve had fun playing around with questions of timing in Two Against the Odds. Life doesnât flow quite as smoothly for my hero and heroine as it did for me and my hubby. Add to that the fact that Lexie Thatcher is twelve years older than Rafe Ellersley and the question of babies and timing takes on a new urgency.
Two Against the Odds is the third book in the Summerside Stories trilogy. Lexieâs parents, Hetty and Steve, who have been having their own trials throughout these stories, finally find the key to their own happiness.
I love to hear from readers.
You can email me at www.joankilby.com or write to me c/o Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
Joan Kilby
Two Against the Odds
Joan Kilby
Joan Kilby enjoys drawing and painting as a hobby. However, between her writing, her husband and three almost-grown children, going to the gym, cooking and walking her dog, Toby, she doesnât have a lot of spare time to indulge her other interests. Instead, she lives vicariously through characters like the heroine of Two Against the Odds, artist Lexie Thatcher. Joan also loves art galleries and every year makes a point of going to see the exhibition of the Archibald Prize finalists.
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
RAFE ELLERSLEY WAS kind of like Snoopyâalways daydreaming about things heâd rather be doing, such as going fishing. Unlike Snoopy, he didnât have a doghouse to lie atop, just a cramped cubicle at the Australian tax office.
âI need a volunteer for an audit in Summerside.â Larry Kiefer, balding and forty, with a slight gut, walked among the cubicles filled with tax accountants at the Australian tax office. âWhoâs interested?â
Rafe shot to his feet. âIâll do it.â Heâd have gone anywhere just to get out of the office, but Summerside was ace. A small bayside village southeast of Melbourne, it was prime red snapper territory.
Sunshine, blue sky and salt water. Oh, yeah.
Larry pretended not to see him. âAnyone? This ladyââ He consulted a file folder in his hand. âLexie Thatcher is a portrait artist. She hasnât filed a return in four years.â
Rafe cleared his throat. âLarry, I said Iâd do it.â
His colleagues nearby glanced at him, then at Larry. They didnât say a word. It was unwritten code that if someone put up their hand for a case, everyone else would bow out. One by one, they bent their heads and went back to work.
Rafe remained standing. But not quite as tall as before.
His previous audit hadnât gone so wellâ¦.
Larry made a sour face and shook his head. He was the boss. He could simply assign the case to whomever he chose. But Rafe knew he tried to hand the out-of-town files to whomever was interested.
He walked slowly over to Rafeâs cubicle, gave a last glance around then, when no one looked up, he said to Rafe, âWhat makes you think youâre the right guy for this job?â
âI want to make up for last time.â Rafe fumbled for an antacid and popped it in his mouth. His five-year plan depended on keeping his position and if that meant pretending to be sorry for what heâd done, so be it. The great fishing would be a bonus.
Larry checked out Rafeâs cubicle. The partition walls were papered with photos of boats, his dog Murphy and Far Side cartoons heâd clipped out of the newspaper.