Page 19 of Fight or Flight
This is exactly the kind of distraction I was looking for, and I veer into the room and head toward the table.
Shane glances up when I’m a few paces away, and his expression instantly shifts from fake amusement to real anger when he sees me.
I bite back my smile. Nice to know I still have the same effect on him.
“Hey,” Paxton greets as I stand between him and another guy named Dan so I’m directly across from Shane. Now he can’t ignore me.
“Hey.” I upnod Paxton and take a quick inventory of the table. Based on the varying sizes of the stacks of chips each guy has in front of them, and the impressive pile in the center of the table, they’ve been playing for a while.
“Texas Hold’em?” I ask.
Several of the guys nod as Paxton says, “Yup.”
“One,” another of the guys says and tosses a card onto the table, resuming the game.
I watch as they continue playing, not hiding how my gaze keeps landing on Shane.
He does his best to ignore me and keep his focus on the game, but I can see subtle signs of him growing more and more agitated the longer I stand there. And the big, beaming smiles I give him every time he looks up at me definitely don’t help with his mood, but they do wonders for mine.
Nothing like paying it forward and ruining some else’s night to make mine a little better.
The next five rounds go by quickly, with Shane winning three of them, and some of my ambivalence fades the longer I watch him play.
He’s good, and not just because he’s strategic and calculating. He’s a fucking champ at bluffing, and after six rounds, I still can’t figure out what his tell is, or if he even has one.
“Are you going to go?” Paxton asks Shane, who’s studying his cards intently.
“Yup.” Shane puts his cards face down on the table and pushes an entire stack of chips into the pot in the middle. “Call.”
“Fuck that.” The kid next to him tosses his cards on the table. “I’m out.”
“Fold,” the next guy says.
Dan tosses his cards down as well. “Yeah, too rich for my blood.”
Paxton pushes a stack of his chips into the middle. “Call.”
The next kid also folds, and the last guy, a first-year named Cody, confidently pushes what’s left of his chips into the pile. “All in.”
Shane shoots him a little smile and casually counts out the extra chips. “Call,” he says and drops his bet into the pile.
“I’m out.” Paxton tosses his cards down.
Cody shoots Shane a triumphant grin and reveals his cards. “Beat that.”
Shane looks at the flush on the table and gives Cody an innocent smile. “Wow, that’s a good hand.”
Cody lets out a whoop of joy and reaches for the pile.
A quick flash of movement catches my attention as everyone else turns their focus to Cody, and I have to bite my inner cheek so I don’t grin like a moron as Shane deftly slips a card from under the sleeve of his hoodie and switches it out with one in his hand.
The move was so fast and smooth I wouldn’t have noticed it if I wasn’t so hyperaware of him and tuned into his every movement.
“But not good enough.” Shane drops his cards on the table face up, revealing a royal flush.
“No fucking way!” Cody shouts, freezing with his hands hovering over the pile of chips in the middle of the table.
“Oh shit!” another of the guys calls at the same time the rest of the table erupts in laughter and a few cheers.
