Page 4 of Jacob

He glanced around and then sighed. “Fine,” he grumbled and flung the door open. “I gotta go to the clubhouse.”

The two swapped sides. Once behind the wheel, Sparrow adjusted the seat and mirrors. “Now, I feel safer.”

“Anything for my lady,” he said as he restarted the song.

She rolled her eyes.Anything, right. Anything but stop smoking meth. That’d be too much to ask.As she put the car in gear, Marc Roberge crooned about losing his watch.

Pipes sang softly along with the song as he bopped his head in the passenger seat. His hands flew all over as he air drummed. A smile crept across her face, not in response to him, but the song always made her think of the summer she’d learned to play poker.

Intense blue eyes pierced her soul from across the table, outlined naturally by long dark lashes. He stared at her, unflinching. He didn’t look at his own cards. He didn’t check the river cards. He just stared at her while she sucked on her blue razz-ma-tazz lollipop.

Sparrow, on the other hand, twisted the white stick, making the candy in her mouth roll over her tongue as she pondered her next move. She had nothing, that much she’d learned. She’d understood the basics. However, it was just the two of them playing. So, if they played seriously, and only played when either one of them had a good hand, it would be boring as hell. She’d rather play around with bluffing.

She did her best to put on a serious face. She squinted. He quirked a brow. She mirrored. His lips tightened, forcing the corners of his mouth down.

With a pop, she pulled the candy from her mouth. “I raise you two Dum Dums,” she proclaimed, and dropped them into their center pile of potential winnings with unnecessary flair.

Stroking his chin, he nodded. She wanted to make him smile. When he smiled, he had the most adorable dimple in his chin. She wanted to poke it.

“Two Dum Dums,” he repeated and looked over his stack of candy. “What did we say the exchange rate was?” Using his finger, he shuffled some around. “Were they worth Jolly Ranchers or yellow Starbursts?”

“Ew!” she scoffed. “Don’t you dare compare my Dum Dums to your nasty ass yellow Starbursts.”

He laughed, and there it was. That dimple. She bit back her lip, fighting the urge to reach over the table and stick her finger into it.

“They aren’t that bad.”

“I’d rather eat a shoe.”

More laughter. “Fine, I call,” he said and pushed two Jolly Ranchers into the pile. “What you got?”

Shimmying her shoulders, she slid her lollipop back in her mouth. The burst of fictional blue raspberry sugar danced over her tongue. One at a time she flipped her cards over as though she were revealing something stupendous.

“All odds,” she declared triumphantly. “Five. Three. Seven. Ace. Nine.”

Jacob’s smile fell to the point his jaw slackened slightly. With his mouth slightly ajar, his gaze locked on the cards. Blinking a few times, he cocked his head to the side. “Uh?”

“All odds,” she repeated, knowing it was nothing.

“That’s not…” He took a deep breath and scrubbed his hands over his face before dropping them on the table and meeting her eyes. “That’s not a hand. You have ace high.”

She feigned a frown. “No. All my cards are odd. I think that takes some skill.”

He offered her a blank stare, but what a beautiful blank stare. She could get lost in those eyes.

“It’s called an odd flush,” she insisted, making things up off the top of her head.

Again, his mouth fell open.

That’s when she laughed. Bursting into a fit full of giggles, she covered her mouth. “You should see your face.”

“Where are yougoing?” Pipes interrupted her trip down memory lane with his annoyed tone.

“To the clubhouse,” she said casually, as though she weren’t taking the most round-about, long-ass way.

He peered at her as thoughshe’dbeen the one smoking amphetamines whilehewas collecting drug money for the Roughneck Riders in the gas station convenience store.

“This way has less lights,” she lied with a wide smile and a single shoulder lift in a shrug. “I’m fucking tired and want to get to bed as soon as possible. So, sue me that I’m going the fastest way I know.” In reality, she wanted to avoid the trucker diner where she used to work. It’d been the last place she’d seen Jacob. Or, she thought she did.

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