Page 30 of Hell or High Water

The first cards he dealt, he left them face up so he could tell me what each one was and what a good hand was compared to a bad hand. I listened and nodded when I thought it was appropriate. Than said nothing, but his eyes stayed on me, which was what truly had my attention. I wished it didn’t make me feel warm and tingly when he looked at me, but unfortunately, it did. He wasn’t happy about my putting money down because he didn’t want me to lose it.

Which meant he cared. Didn’t it? Why else would he have said no to the money?

I was grasping at straws. I had to be.

Than had made it very clear that he wasn’t attracted to me. Heck, he even agreed with the six thing when I said it. I had only tossed that low of a number out there, hoping he’d rate me a little higher, but nope. That had stung, but I’d recovered quickly, only to be ignored the rest of the evening once we got back in his truck.

“Now, I’d have probably folded on this hand after it was dealt, but for the sake of learning, I didn’t, and with the river card being another two, I win.”

I blinked and smiled at Gathe, realizing I’d missed everything he just said.

“Got it,” I told him.

“No, she doesn’t. She was zoned out,” Than said.

I swung my gaze over to him, and he was giving me a pointed look as he took a drink of his whiskey. Okay, fine, I had zoned out.

“I said I have it,” I told him and turned back to Gathe. “We can play.”

He studied me for a moment. “You sure?”

I nodded.

“I’m not letting you win. I tried to save you the fifty dollars. So, this is your fault when you’re out fifty,” Than said.

Gathe rolled his eyes. “Assuming he’s gonna win. I might just take your fifty,” he said, looking at Than.

Than just smirked. “You dealing?”

“Yep.”

“Then get on with it.”

I watched as Gathe shuffled the deck again and did my best not to look at Than. He dealt out the first three cards, and I picked mine up to see what I had, then looked back at the three on the bar for all of us to play off of.

“Check,” Than said, then took a drink and looked at me.

“Check,” I replied.

Gathe was looking at Than. “Just because you don’t want her to lose any more money doesn’t mean you and I have to check.”

“What? You wanting to bet each hand? We don’t have chips here,” Than told him.

Gathe wiggled his eyebrows and jumped up from the stool to go searching through the cabinets. He grabbed a box of colorful, fruity cereal and plopped it down on the bar. “We got chips now. Red ones are ten, blue ones are twenty, green ones fifty, and yellow a hundred.”

Than rolled his eyes. “Seriously?”

He nodded and came back around to his stool to sit down. “Pass ’em out. My piggy bank is getting low. I need to take some from the Carver gold mine.”

“You owe Oz, don’t you?” Than said, shaking his head as he opened the box of cereal. “What did you do, bet on the Braves over the Padres yesterday?”

Who was Oz? I’d not heard that name. Was he a bookie that Gathe used?

“Possibly,” Gathe drawled.

Than laughed, and the sound made my stomach flutter. Damn him and my stupid stomach.

“What? Did you bet on the Padres?” Gathe asked him.

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