Page 71 of The Promise of Jenny Jones
Given the same situation, would actual parents have taught their child to play poker and twenty-one? Jenny had to believe they would, even Marguarita.
“Should I raise, call, or fold?” Graciela asked impatiently, tipping her hand toward Jenny while shielding her cards from Ty’s sharp glance.
Jenny sighed and looked up from her book. She’d read the same paragraph ten times. “I told you. I make it a practice never to advise a man how he should play his hand.”
“I’m not a man. I’m a kid. Fold, right?”
Jenny looked into Graciela’s disappointed eyes and nodded. “I’m not telling you what to do, but,” she leaned over the corner of the table to whisper, “you only have a pair of fours. If it was me, I’d fold. Now don’t interrupt me again.”
Graciela tossed her cards on the table with a look of disgust, and watched Ty grin and pull a pile of matchsticks toward his chest. “Let’s play again.”
“Can’t,” Ty said, counting his matchsticks. “It’s almost time for supper.”
Jenny considered abandoning any attempt to read. “Teach her how to play solitaire, will you?” she suggested. “That will give us a break.”
“I don’t want to learn another game, I want to play poker,” Graciela insisted, pushing her mouth into a pout. “And I want to win. Mama and Aunt Tete let me win at games.”
Jenny laughed, and even Ty grinned. “Well, you can forget that. Nobody here is going to ‘let’ you win. The day you win a pot from me or your uncle Ty, you can pat yourself on the back because you’ll have won it honestly. Until that distant and improbable day, you are going to lose, so just make up your mind to it. Now stop talking, I’m trying to read.”
“Why don’t you read out loud while Uncle Ty and I play another game of poker?”
Jenny narrowed her eyes and sighed. “I read to you this morning. Now I want to read to myself. Maybe I’ll read more to you on the train, but not now. So, shut up.”
Graciela let her shoulders slump and did her best to look utterly dejected. Jenny studied her a minute, then slammed her book shut.
“Since you already feel rotten, this is a good time to remind you that your uncle Ty and I are going out tonight. I don’t want any grief from you about this.”
Graciela’s mouth dropped in exaggerated astonishment, and she stiffened in outrage. “You’re going out without me?”
Ty shuffled the cards and eased them back into the box. “I hired the hotel owner’s wife—you know her, Senora Jaramillo—to stay with you while we’re gone. You won’t be alone.”
“I hate Senora Jaramillo. She’s fat, and she has a mustache. I won’t stay with her, I won’t!”
“Yeah, you will,” Jenny said calmly. “You can scream and shout and cry all you want, but you’re staying here. I told you about this three days ago when I showed you my new gown.”
“I’m going, too!” Her hands formed into fists on the tabletop, and tears streamed down her face. “We own each other. We’re responsible for each other. You have to take me too!”
“Oh for heaven’s sake.” She frowned at Ty’s stricken expression. “I know what you’re thinking,” she snapped. “But just remind yourself who the adults are and who the little snot is. If we let her get away with this crap, then she’s right. She owns us.” She turned a glare back to Graciela. “And that isn’t going to happen.”
“I hate it when you talk about me like I can’t hear you.”
“Graciela, honey,” Ty said in a coaxing voice. “Senora Jaramillo knows how to play poker.”
Jenny noted that the kid didn’t give in right away, but she brightened a little. Pride insisted that she string out her sulk and make it abundantly clear that she’d been hideously betrayed. By now, Jenny recognized the ploy, and she almost laughed. She wondered if she had tried to manipulate the adults in her life when she was Graciela’s age. If so, she had been as certain of failure as was Graciela.
Ty stood, guilt writ large across his face. “If I take you out for supper while Jenny is getting dressed, will that make you smile?”
Jenny rolled her eyes. “And you said I’m an egg yolk. Look at you. She has you wrapped around her little finger.”
“I’ll get my cape,” Graciela said happily. Shooting Jenny a triumphant glance, she slid off her chair.
“Sucker.”
Ty laughed and settled his hat on his head. “We’ll be back in about an hour. Will that give you enough time to bathe and dress?”
He had performed his ablutions earlier and stood before her tall and heart-stoppingly handsome, wearing tight-fitting black suede pants and a black velvet Mexican jacket over a starched white shirt. The flowing red tie at his collar caught her eye, as she hadn’t seen him wear a tie until tonight.
“You look wonderful,” she said softly, letting her gaze travel along the taut muscle swelling at shoulder and thigh. A light shudder thrilled down her spine as she thought of the nights they had shared during this week. Now, they were familiar with each other’s bodies. She knew he could shatter her with a kiss or a touch. And she knew she could direct him or stop him with a whisper. A glint of fledgling power shone in her eyes. “Where are we going?”
