Page 77 of Sanctuary

Lori put her hand to her chest and batted her eyelashes. “Beginner’s luck.”

Woody clapped Gabe’s shoulder. “She’s hustling you,” she said, “and I’m going to sit and watch it happen.”

Great. Another spectator. Although maybe that was a good thing: another person to keep her from doing something she’d regret in the morning.

“What did I sink?” Lori sipped her mojito.

“You’re stripes, and I’m solids.” Gabe watched Lori bend over the table again and had to take a long pull on her beer to keep from staring. Lori didn’t sink anything, so Gabe stepped up and lined up her shot. She pocketed two balls in a row and could see the path to another three, but she didn’t want the game to end that quickly in case Lori didn’t want to play again. So she caught the edge of the fourteen and sunk the cue ball instead. She stood and shrugged. “Foul.”

“What does that mean?”

“You get two shots, and you can place the white ball anywhere on the table.”

Lori frowned and ran her finger over the head string. “It doesn’t have to go behind here, like when you break?”

“Nope,” Gabe said and collected the cue ball from the top pocket.

“Doesn’t that make it too easy?”

Lori’s fingers grazed Gabe’s palm as she took the ball from her hand, and Gabe rubbed her hands together. “That tickled,” she said, though she wasn’t ticklish at all. Lori’s touch had just traveled straight to her core, and she needed to get rid of the sensation.

Lori laughed and looked pleased with herself. “The super soldier is ticklish? Surely not?”

“Anyway,” Gabe said, not wanting to compound the white lie, “it’s supposed to make it easier. If you had to shoot from behind the line, hustlers like yourself might foul on purpose to put the other player at a disadvantage.”

Lori arched her eyebrow. “If I was hustling you, wouldn’t we have something riding on the game?”

Gabe crossed her arms and took a step back from the table. “Are you suggesting we make a bet?”

Lori placed the ball on the table and rolled it back and forth. The inanimate object had no idea how lucky it was.

“You seem reluctant,” Lori said.

“You seem eager,” Gabe said, unable to resist playing along. “Is five dollars a game too rich for you?”

Lori shook her head. “Not rich enough. How about ten dollars? But the pot stays on the table. We could play best of five, and if we’re tied after four games, let’s make it interesting and bet fifty dollars.”

Gabe didn’t know if Lori was already a little buzzed, or if this was just how she was when she was out. Whatever it was, Gabe was enjoying this side of her. “For someone who wanted me to teach her how to play, you sound pretty confident that we’ll get to five games.”

“Are you worried your reputation will suffer if you lose to a novice?”

Lori turned her attention to the table again and positioned the ball where there was no clear shot for her. She was either clueless or Woody had her pegged.

“I’m beginning to think I might not be playing a novice,” Gabe said.

Lori walked away to Rosie and returned with a crisp ten-dollar bill from her purse. She placed it on the edge of the pool table and weighed it down with the chalk. “Rosie thinks you won’t take the bet, but Shay said it’d be like taking candy from a baby.” She motioned to their little group a few feet away. “They’re actually taking their own bets.”

Gabe grinned. Yeah, she liked this side of Lori a lot. “I’ll take your money, no problem.” She withdrew her wallet and put ninety dollars on the table. “I’ll even put it all down now.”

Rosie hurried over with Lori’s purse, and she swapped out the ten for two fifty-dollar bills.

“That’s too much,” Gabe said.

“It doesn’t matter since it’ll all be going back in this purse in less than an hour anyway,” Rosie said and winked. Then she strutted back to a chorus of banter and catcalls.

Gabe laughed and shook her head. “She seems strangely confident too.”

“Besties are supposed to have your back, aren’t they?” Lori asked.

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