Page 116 of The Odds of Happily Ever After
His smile came slowly. “Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?”
“Right. The guy who makes bets for a living.” I rolled my eyes and laughed.
“Play for coins?”
I had a better idea. “How ‘bout we play for truths?”
A single brow arched up. “Truths.”
“Yeah. Like truth or dare. Whoever wins gets to ask the other person a question that he or she needs to answer on the spot. We can do best of five.”
“To clarify, we ask a question after every win? And if we get pusoy, we ask two?” A glint shone in his eyes, as though the idea excited him.
It set off warning bells in my head. Of course he was counting on winning. His confidence increased my determination to beat him. “Uh huh. You in?”
“Sure.”
“You shuffle, I’ll deal,” I suggested as we settled into mirrored cross-legged sitting positions on the sofa.
He split the deck of cards into two and fanned them together with his thumbs in a riffle shuffle. After repeating it, he held the deck in his left hand, split it in two across his palm, and used only the fingers on that hand to merge the two halves.
“Show off,” I said even though I felt a tingle between my legs. Watching his fingers handle the cards so deftly made me think of what else those fingers could do. His hands were much bigger than mine, his fingers thicker and longer and?—
“Luna.”
At his voice, my mind snapped back to the present, my eyes zeroing in on the cards he held out to me. I hurriedly looked up at him, and my expression must’ve given my thoughts away because heat flashed in his gaze.
“What?” I shrugged, feigning a confidence I didn’t completely feel. “You make shuffling look sexy.”
His brow furrowed. “Sexy?”
“Uh huh. That finger work? A plus, Professor.” I flashed him the okay sign and tried to ignore the visual of him testing his technique on my body.
He shook his head but one corner of his mouth lifted.“Do you want to deal?”
“Yeah.” Ignoring the ache in my core,I grabbed the deck and cut it to reveal the king of hearts. I began distributing the cards at Gabe’s position, going clockwise until we had four equal stacks between us.
I picked up my cards and studied them.
Crap. My hand was loaded with almost-but-not-quites. One heart short of a flush, a six shy of a straight, and three pairs with a Jack as the highest.
“Lock.” Gabe laid out his cards in front of me, showing that he only had three suits.
My jaw dropped. “Seriously?” No wonder I had plenty of hearts.
“Sorry,” he said, grinning.
I groaned and plopped my cards on the sofa. “That’s so unfair.”
He gathered the cards in one heap. “You shuffle for the next round. As for my first question . . .”
Right. He had a two for one.
“Kai.”
I took a sip of my boba while I waited. “I hate to break it to you, Gabe, but that’s a name. A statement, maybe—not a question.”
“Are you really not interested in him?”
