Page 47 of All Bets Are Off

That had been wrong—I realized it now—and I figured it was my duty to make up for being such a jerk.

“Okay, we need to be more proactive here,” I said to Halley. We’d managed to find a bench down the strip even though there were very few benches—the casino operators didn’t want anybody getting comfortable outside because that meant they weren’t gambling inside—and I had my notebook open. “Drawing attention to what you’re facing is good, but you need to hit them where it counts.”

“In the nuts?” Halley asked, her eyes sparkling. “Don’t you think we’ll get arrested for that?”

I rolled my eyes. “I was talking about their wallets.”

“Oh.” Halley nodded. “Yeah, that probably hurts more than a testicle shot. I’m convinced most of them don’t really have testicles.”

“Or they’re so small that you would have to be a sharpshooter to find them,” I agreed.

Halley had the sort of laugh that brightened the day, and she used it now. “What do you have in mind?” she asked as she turned back to her iced tea.

“Well, have you gotten any feedback regarding my idea to freeze out the casino whales?”

“Oh, so much feedback.” Halley giggled again. “The casino hosts are mad. Jackie over at the Stone Casino actually threatened me with hiding carbohydrates in my morning protein powder in an effort to make me too hefty to strip.”

I frowned. “I don’t think I know her.” I tapped my bottom lip. “I can ask Zach, though.” Once the words were out, I rethought them. “Although … he has no idea what I’m doing.”

Halley arched an eyebrow. I’d admitted I was married to Zach on our second meeting because I didn’t want to lie to her. I had not, however, admitted the truth of the marriage. I couldn’t. We’d agreed to tell Tallulah and Rex … and that was it. As much as I trusted Halley—and I did—that was part of the story I would be keeping to myself.

“Do you think he would help?” Halley looked intrigued at the option.

“I don’t know.” Suddenly, I felt like a bit of an idiot. “I mean … he doesn’t actually run the casino. His dad does.”

“His dad has a reputation as a real ballbuster.”

I tried to rack my memory of every interaction I’d ever had with Ryder Stone. In truth, they were few and far between. Occasionally, when I was in my early teens, Rex would take me with him when he was hanging out with Zach. I’d met Ryder onthose occasions. Never once could I remember the man saying anything kind.

“Do you want to know the truth?” I was rueful. “I’ve known Ryder Stone for more than fifteen years, and I think I have five total memories of the guy, and one of those includes telling him that Zach and I eloped without informing anybody it was going to happen.”

Mirth flitted across Halley’s features. “I thought you and Zach were close before getting married.”

“We were,” I lied, my stomach constricting. I hated lying. I was bad at it. “Zach spent way more time with our family than his own when we were kids, though. My parents never came right out and said it in front of us, but I heard them talking a few times. They didn’t trust the Stones.”

“Because they’re bad people?”

“Because they were uninvolved in the day-to-day raising of their children,” I replied, remembering my mother’s exact wording. “Zach had nannies when he was little, and there was a house manager who kept tabs on him when he was a teenager.”

“Do you think he wanted to be with your family because he didn’t feel at home in his own family?”

I shrugged. I had to think about it for a moment. “I think maybe that’s exactly why he was always at our house. He and my brother were tight, but I remember him heading out to the garage to learn things about fixing cars with my dad. He always jumped at the chance to help Mom put away groceries too.”

“He probably knew it would result in an invitation to dinner.”

“Probably.” When I thought too hard about Zach’s upbringing, it made me feel sad. “I had the worst crush on him when I was a kid,” I admitted.

Halley’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, yeah?”

“He didn’t know I was alive, though. He and my brother were two years older than me, so when they were sixteen andwhooping it up with girls, I was fourteen with braces. I preferred spending all my time reading in a corner. I was such a dweeb.”

“You’re only a dweeb because you used the word dweeb,” she countered. “Besides, it seems to have worked out for you. I mean … you guys are madly in love now. So in love you eloped.”

I nodded, even though it wasn’t remotely true. “Yeah. We’re still kind of finding our way around, though. We didn’t live together before we got married—which, in hindsight, might’ve been a mistake—and he is gross with his toenails.”

Halley snorted. “They all are.”

“He says I’m a pig, too. I’ve taken to leaving dishes around just because I know it annoys him.”

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