Page 18 of Going All In

“So, you’re planning to meet your soulmate in time for the wedding. In less than six weeks.”

“You never know. Maybe I won’t know if he’s my soulmate. I just want to meet the right guy. And you can fall in love in six weeks. People do it all the time,” she shoots back.

My eyebrow quirks upward. “Your date for the wedding will be someone you’re in love with.”

“That’s my plan.” She picks up her cards again and examines them, tapping her fingers on the backs in a rat-a-tat that would seem benign, but when I look at her face, she’s biting her lip.

I haven’t known her that long, but I can already tell she’s stressed and overwhelmed thinking about this. Why is she so fixated on having a date for the wedding, and so against dating me?

She lays down three cards to claim a route.

I don’t touch my cards. For some reason I don’t yet understand, I want to make her feel better. I want to see that carefree laugh. “Let’s make a bet.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m not adding more dinners to the one I already owe you, Maddox. I’m busy meeting my soulmate.”

I shake my head and wait until she meets my gaze before I pull the corners of my lips up in a smile. “You still owe me one after today, but no, that’s not the bet. You think you can find love in six weeks, right? Here’s the deal. If you bring a man to that wedding that you’re in love with, likereallyin love with, I’ll pay up. Twenty grand.”

She lets out a little puff of air. “Yeah, right.”

“Fifty.”

Her face scrunches up in confusion. “You’d pay me fifty thousand dollars?”

I threw out the idea without really thinking it over, but now I’m into this. “Yep,” I say, popping thep. “You come to that wedding with a guy that you’re in love with, who loves you back, fifty grand is yours, no questions asked.”

She holds up a hand, her eyebrows knitted together. “I have questions. Like… why?”

I shrug. Mostly, it’s to do something to take her mind off of things. And honestly, I have enough money that this isn’t a huge amount to me. Listening to her talk about her work, her passion for the kids she helps, I know she’d use the money wisely.

Those fingers are drumming on the table now. “And second, what do you want if I lose? Not that I’m going to. But just in case.”

I hadn’t thought that far, but I’ll take the opening. “You. You lose the bet, you agree to date me. Not as friends, not a one-night stand. But actually give us a shot.”

* * *

We shake hands to seal the bet.

The stakes we agree on are this: Holly has until our parents’ Christmas Eve wedding to fall in love. She has to swear she’s in love, and the guy she brings to the wedding has to say he loves her back. That’s it. I’ll deposit the money in her bank account by New Year’s. If she loses, she’ll give up on the lame excuse that our parents like one another and agree to give us a chance to have a real relationship.

I’m learning from our game night that Holly is intensely competitive. Even more competitive than me, maybe, which is saying something. I’m sure Holly has no intention of losing this bet. But I never make a bet without a very clear understanding of the risk involved and without weighing things carefully.

I may have made this bet for fun, but now I’m invested. I’m not going to lose this one.

We’re packing up the pieces of Ticket to Ride when both of our phones vibrate at the same time. For the record, she won the game. This time. But it was close.

Holly picks up her phone first and looks at the message, her expression unreadable. “I think you got the same message I did.”

I check my phone.

Mom, Addie, Josie, and Holly

Hi kids, it’s Mom.

And hi Holly, it’s Judy.

Robert and I would like to invite all of you to my *house emoji* for Thanksgiving *turkey emoji*

We will have *wine emoji* *beer emoji* *cake emoji* let me know if you want to bring something, but we’d just *heart emoji* to have you there!

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