Page 20 of Frozen Play

Phin was a shark.

At first I thought I was losing just because I didn’t know what I was doing. Since we were playing for Monopoly money—Oscar had limited his destruction to the board—it wasn’t costing me. But even though I’d been digging freely into the bank resources, all the money was piled up in front of Phin.

I should have expected him to be stupidly competitive. All the boys had been when we were growing up. And he played a sport for money, which wouldn’t be the case if he didn’t have a lot of drive. I guess I thought he’d be more polite. But a perverse part of me liked that he didn’t take it easy on me. I’d never wanted to be babied, probably because I’d been the youngest.

I shot a glance at him, focused on his cards. He’d thrown off his coat and his shoulders were broad. Strong. There were scars on his hands, but his fingers were long, deft with the cards. What else would they be good at?

This was not good.

We had a distraction when Oscar and Riley came back. Good to interrupt my weird fascination with Phin. They had news that the crews were working, but it could still be tomorrow before we got out. I should have been disappointed, but somehow I wasn’t.

They threw us some water and sandwiches. Once we were back in the cottage, we’d augmented them with a bottle of really nice red wine we’d found in a cupboard.

The wine was nice. But I was getting tired of poker. Bored with losing. Done with being cold. Restless and antsy.

I threw down my cards. “That’s enough poker for me.”

Phin blinked at me, then looked down at the cards. “Really?” He dropped his cards on the coffee table. “Can I see what you have?”

I crossed my arms. “Do you have a problem, Phin?”

“I don’t like gambling.” When I snorted, he continued. “Not like, it gives me a rush. I don’t care about slots or roulette or craps—I just like the game of poker. The competition.”

“Well, I’ve lost every hand and I’d like to play something else.”

He leaned over to look in the box. “Not sure what else we have.”

“Oh, we can play cards. Just not poker.”

The afternoon was getting dark, and we hadn’t heard any indication that the power crews were here yet.

He leaned back and stretched, shirt pulling up to expose drool-worthy abs.

Bad Skye.“I’m going to take a break, walk around, use the bathroom, and then we can playmychoice.”

“And what’s that?”

“You’ll see.” I stood, and swore he was checking me out as I walked away. Maybe I wasn’t the only one going on Santa’s naughty list. Something was buzzing in my veins at the thought, and I didn’t think it was the wine.

When I returned, he’d uncorked a second bottle and pulled some potato chips out of his grocery bag. I picked up the wine bottle.

“I’m not sure cabernet sauvignon really goes with ketchup chips. Though I guess they’re both red. I wouldn’t have pegged you for a junk food eater.”

He took back the bottle and poured wine into my glass. “I can cheat once in a while. It’s Christmas Eve, after all.”

I held up my glass to his once he’d refilled it. “To Christmas Eve and cheating.”

He bit his lip.

“I mean, to cheat meals. Obviously notcheatingcheating, but I’m single so it doesn’t apply here.”

A second bottle of wine was probably a bad idea.Oh well.

“I’m single too, so I’m only cheating with the chips. Okay, what’s your game? Euchre?”

Euchre was fun. I’d played a lot in high school, but I didn’t want to test my euchre skills against the poker champ. I’d decided on a game that was pure chance, but not as time-consuming as War.

I picked up the cards and shuffled them. Not as smoothly as Phin, but I got the job done. “We’re playing Jacks.”

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