Page 41 of She Wolf

“You’re right to be patient. When the time comes it will be you who gets to show her exactly what she deserves. To be in a loving, committed relationship with someone who worships her.”

“Aww, Callan. I love it when you go all soft. But Gunner, I do have one question. When you finally do sleep with her, do you think it will kinda be like fucking Casey?”

Before I can react and explain what fraternal twins mean, Callan heaves his huge body out of the water, and in a move Adam doesn’t see coming, pushes him under the water smirking at me as Adam flails and fights.

“You fucker,” Adam splutters when Callan lets go and he resurfaces.

***

“Goddamnit!” Rex throws his handful of cards down, folding again. My smile couldn’t get any wider as I drag the pile of red, white, blue, and green chips toward me from the middle of the green felt. We’ve been playing for a couple of hours, and this is the only round I’ve won so far, with Casey and Callan practically wiping the table with us all. We don’t even play for real money, we’re just all so competitive we want to win—even if it’s for nothing.

Rex and Adam are far too expressive for a game like poker, which is why we love playing with them so much. They can’t hide their excitement or in this case annoyance at the current hand, they’ve been dealt.

Casey and Knox know how to play because their mom taught them both one summer when Jack senior was out on deployment. And Callan, well Callan is pretty much unreadable unless he wants you to be able to read him, which isn’t very often.

Knox is completely off his game though and has been all day. Maybe we should have played Skip-bo or Uno instead. Adam always carries a very eclectic card game stash in his away bag.

“I’m heading to bed, I’ll see you in the mornin’,” Knox says to everyone as he stands with the small pile of chips he has left.

“Knox, stay for a little while longer. It’s only 8:30,” Casey says looking at his phone.

“Nah I’m done, catch you later.”

We all watch as he skulks out of the room. Casey rubs his hand down his face and lets out a sigh, his brow furrowing.

“I’m gonna see what’s eating him. Deal me out too, Hollywood,” he says to Adam as he stands and then heads for the door.

“Thank fuck,” Adam says throwing the deck of cards down. “Can we please play something else? Wanna make a Tik—”

“No!” the three of us say at the same time.

“Why not? It’s so cool and it’s easy once you get the hang of it. Everyone’s doing it. I wanna join the hype,” he whines dramatically.

“Not on your life.” Callan cuts him a look that says that’s the end of that.

Thank God.

“You lot are all so boring. I wish there was something to do while we’re away like this. I’m so done with virtual golf.” He sits up straight. “Oh, do they do virtual surfing?”

“How the hell would that work?” I ask.

“Erm, I dunno but it would be really cool.” He starts thumbing away on his phone when suddenly the sound of yelling comes from next door. Casey must have pulled Knox into our room to talk. It’s muffled so we can’t hear what they are saying, but it seems intense.

After what feels like an hour, the noise lowers significantly and hoping their sibling squabble is over, I stand up, grabbing my key card. We finished playing fifteen minutes ago and I really want to get into my room.

“I don’t think they need a referee anymore but might as well go get some rest,” I say and then slip out and walk the few steps to my room.

As I get closer to my door, I can hear Casey and Knox still talking.

“Fuck. Okay, I get it, I absolutely do but I,he, needs you to believe. His fate isn’t truly sealed until July.”

Opening the door with my card and holding it ajar, I peer in but neither of them notices.

“Fine, I’ll try and not be so uptight if you loosen up a little. Playoffs are made for you. It’s when you take your little gambles and pull out a few of your tricks. This is where you thrive,” Casey tells him.

I clear my throat. “Erm, have you two kissed and made up because I really wanna just get into bed and text your sister,” I say, pumping my eyebrows for extra effect.

“Jesus. I’m out.” Knox screws up his face and then heads out leaving just me and Casey to our room.

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