Page 26 of Make Your Move

“No.” Nash shakes his head at her. He waves both of them toward the table. “Come on, come sit.”

Riley turns back to look at Nova. “Do you want to?”

Nova looks at Nash and then to me, her eyes lingering on mine for a prolonged second. “Sure, why not,” she says with a shrug. “Do you want another margarita?”

“I’ll come with you,” Riley tells her before they disappear from the room into the kitchen. They aren’t gone long, as the margaritas were made earlier, and Nova was keeping them in the fridge. They reappear in the dining room, and Riley takes a seat at the head of the table between Nash and I.

Nova sits down next to her brother so she’s across the table from me now. Nash collects the cards and begins to shuffle as I hand Nova and Riley a few stacks of their own chips. They each take them and set them in front while Nash begins to deal everyone’s cards.

I watch Nova as she looks at her two and sets them back down, the expression on her face never changing. Her eyes meet mine from across the table as Riley and I both set our chips in the center. She lifts her own and sets them down with ours, her face still giving nothing away.

Her poker face is flawless, and I have every intention of cracking it.

“That was absolute bullshit,” Nash argues with Riley as he sets his beer back on the table. The liquid inside of it sloshes around, and he narrows his eyes on hers. “You can’t tell me you didn’t cheat.”

She glares back at him. “Please enlighten me on how the hell I cheated.”

“I don’t know how, but you did,” he retorts, his eyes glazed over as he doesn’t look away from her.

We’ve been playing for a solid two hours, and everyone is a few drinks deep at this point. I have more of a buzz going than I originally planned, but I’m not drunk. I know my limits, especially when I know I’m going to be running on a little amount of sleep the next day.

Nash on the other hand…well, his self-control is lacking.

“Dude, I did not cheat,” Riley tells him as she drains the rest of her margarita. “You’re just a sore loser, and you always have been.”

“So what if I am?”

Nova stifles back a laugh, and her chair is loud against the floor as she pushes it back. “We’re done, right?”

“No,” Nash says.

“Yes,” Riley tells her, speaking at the same time as Nash. They both whip their heads to each other and start bitching again. Nash wants a do-over, claiming Riley didn’t play fairly. I was here for the entire game. She did nothing wrong, but Nash isn’t letting it go.

“Okay, well, I’m going to go ahead and start cleaning up,” Nova tells them through a laugh, even though neither fully listens to her. They’re in a heated discussion, going over almost every hand they can remember.

Pushing my own chair back, I rise to my feet and grab my empty beer bottle. “I’ll help you.”

Nova lifts Nash’s beer, peers through the side of it, and sees there’s still a lot in there before she sets it back down in front of him. I grab Riley’s glass and follow Nova out into the kitchen. She walks over to the sink and begins to rinse out her cup. I walk over next to her and set the glass down before resting my hands along the counter.

“Is he that sore of a loser when you guys lose games?” Nova asks me as she washes out the first glass.

I take it from her and grab a paper towel before I start to dry it. “Not really,” I admit with a shrug. “I mean, it’s obvious that he gets in a shitty mood about it, but he doesn’t act like that.” I give her a sideways glance. “Is there something going on with him and Riley?”

“God no.” She laughs and shakes her head as she finishes washing the second glass. “They both get like that with each other sometimes. They get on each other’s nerves like that from time to time.”

I don’t bother telling her that I saw the way her brother was looking at her best friend. I don’t want to burst her bubble, and there’s a chance there isn’t anything going on between them.

“I can see that,” I tell her with a chuckle rumbling in my chest. I finish drying the other glass, and Nova grabs them to put them where they go. “I’m going to run this out to the recycling,” I inform her as I lift up my empty beer bottle.

Nova closes the cabinet door, turning to face me. “I’ll come out with you. I could use some fresh air.”

She walks with me into the mudroom and pauses as we both slip our feet into slippers before I hold the door open for her. Nova steps out onto the porch as I flick on the light. She walks down the steps and into the grass as she tilts her head up to look at the night sky.

I walk around the corner and toss my beer bottle into the can. As I head over to Nova, my footsteps slow, and I take her in.She’s wearing a pair of sweatpants, an oversized T-shirt, and her hair is pulled back in a low bum. She looks over at me, a smile dancing across her lips as I come up beside her. The crisp fall air envelopes us.

I watch her eyes as they shift to something I can’t quite read. The smile on her lips is laced with sadness, and she stares at me for a moment before she speaks. “Why didn’t I ever hear from you after you left?”

Her question completely catches me off guard. My brain needs a second to catch up because this isn’t what I was expecting. Neither of us have brought it up, but it was only a matter of time. “It was better that way.”

---