Page 90 of Say the Words
I love youechoed around the table, filling me up with something I hadn’t had enough of in far too long. I loved these women who had been my best friends since childhood, and my closest confidantes in adulthood. And not just them, but my father and brothers, Annie and the boys, my whole hometown. I had left Magnolia Ridge trying to find what I needed, but maybe that same impulse would bring me back home again to the people I loved.
Before I could think better of it, I blurted out, “I’m going to move back home.”
A slight pause as the three women parsed what I said, then another round of whoops erupted from our table. Harper and Eliza squeezed me from either side, and Eden reached forward to clasp my hand.
“Nothing’s decided for certain, but I miss everyone so much, and I want more than just weekend visits now and then.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with a certain rancher, does it?” Eden asked.
“Only a tiny bit,” I admitted.
Maybe I was falling for Ty, and maybe I was gearing up to have my heart broken, but that could happen no matter where I lived. What I couldn’t have in Austin was the feeling of being home I so desperately missed.
I was ready to be back home in Magnolia Ridge, Ty or no Ty.
THIRTY-ONE
ty
“Damn,”Booker said as he laid out a royal flush on my kitchen table. “We should have put money on this.”
I tossed down my hand, a pair of twos and trash. About par for how I’d been playing all night. “Thanks for not taking advantage.”
I took a pull on my beer and leaned back in my chair as best I could before the ache in my ribs stopped me short.
Booker had turned up not long after June left, a six-pack in one hand and two pizzas in the other. I would never refuse that kind of hospitality, and we’d settled in. If I’d known he was going to win at poker all night, I might have turned him away at the door.
“You want to try Go Fish?” he asked.
“Shut up and deal.”
His smug smile just begged to be wiped off with a full house, but I’d lost all night. A string of bad cards, and bad choices. Kind of summed up my life right now.
I looked at my hand. A king, a seven, and a three. Any other night, I might have made it into something, but tonight, I just couldn’t break my losing streak. I finished out the hand with a pair of sevens that couldn’t touch Booker’s straight.
“Let me deal.” I pulled the cards to me across the table. The movement hurt, but I needed that edge of pain. It kept me from thinking too much. Or worse, feeling too much.
“Want to talk about it?”
I glanced at him, but he wasn’t giving anything away. “What’s there to talk about? I’m having a run of bad luck, that’s all.”
“That’s all, huh?” Booker shrugged. For a P.E. teacher, he sure knew how to lay on the theatrics. “Whatever you say.”
“My head’s not in it.” I looked at my cards and swore.
He laughed. “Maybe your mind’s on something else.”
He motioned for me to deal him two more cards, and he smiled when he looked at them, not bothering now for a straight face. I might as well fold.
“Maybe I’m just cursed by the Poker Gods tonight.”
“You never lose this much. Does a certain pretty brunette we know have anything to do with that?”
I threw down my cards. If we’d been betting tonight, I’d have run out of cash an hour ago.
“Why would June throw off my game?” I growled.
“Don’t play with me, man. We’ve been best friends for almost thirty years. You really think I don’t know how you feel about her?”
