Page 111 of Just Between Us

“Angel, if it’s up to me we both will.”

I follow her laughs all the way to my bathroom.

“Liam.” Josie taps her lime green poker hat, unlit cigar perched between her lips.

Leave it to her to turn poker night into a fiasco. When we arrived, she handed each of us a ridiculous poker visor and a cigar, instructing us to wear them. Even Tyler, completely straight faced, has a bright blue one sitting on his head.

“And if you want to light your cigar, do it on the porch.”

I will admit the food is better with the women here, though. Josie always outdoes herself when it comes to cooking.

An arm drapes across my shoulders as Cassie settles in my lap and plops my hot pink visor onto my head. “You look so cute in it. Wear it for me.” She juts out her bottom lip in the cutest fucking gesture and it looks like this visor won’t be leaving my head tonight.

“Gimme a kiss.” I pucker up and Cassie presses her lips to mine.

“Aww,” Josie squeals. “You guys are so cute. I just wanna pinch both your cheeks.”

In response, I reach around to pinch the side of Cassie’s ass, making her yelp.

“Are we playing poker or are the happy couples just making out all night?” Jackson grumbles.

“Aww, hon.” Penny pats his cheek and rests her head on his shoulder. “You know we love you.”

Tyler shuffles the cards, interrupting Jackson’s pity party, and the game is on. We start low, twenty dollars in the small blindand forty in the big blind. Jackson picks up his cards, glances at them once while his face gives away absolutely nothing. Austin, on the other hand, might as well hold his cards up to a mirror for us all to see. His eyebrows do the talking for him. I take a peek at the two cards in front of me, schooling my face so it reveals nothing.

Shit. A two and seven.

“Fold,” I say, slapping my cards down. Tyler can take this one. It’s a small pot anyway.

Josie loses interest around the third hand and Penny curls up on the couch with a throw blanket and Josie’s dog under her arm. Within minutes we all hear her soft little snores. But Cassie stays perched on my lap, watching the whole thing. My next hand is a good one. A king and a ten. I keep my face neutral and match Tyler’s raise. Austin folds, standing to check on Penny. She cracks one eye open, mumbles something that sounds a lot like “Not Conrad. Team Rob” and slaps Austin’s hand away.

“Who is Rob?” I ask the room.

“Reality star,” Cassie explains. “Penny binged every episode the other day. Everyone is obsessed with him.”

Josie’s phone appears in front of my face to show me a tatted guy straddling a crotch rocket. Fuck that guy, making Cassie’s voice go all dreamy and shit. I look that good on my bike.

Austin comes around to look over my shoulder at the screen and lets out a huff. Even Tyler cranes his neck to see. I know we’re all thinking the same.

I shove the phone away to focus.

I win the next hand with a king and ten, while Jackson grumbles and Cassie plays with my hair. Tyler just shakes his head as I rake the pot my way.

Cassie straightens on my lap, tapping her nails on the table.

“I think I’ve caught on. Can I give it a try?” She gives a shrug, looking at me with doe eyes.

“Yeah, baby. You can try.”

She shifts off my lap to pull up a chair, and Tyler deals her in.I should have paid closer attention to the way she arranged her chips or the way she took one glance at her cards, and set them down with a face of stone. Tyler and I both call, but when it comes to Cassie, she raises without hesitation. The flop comes out, a jack, a four, and a jack. Austin folds first, then Jackson. But I’m holding two queens, and if the board cooperates with me, I could have a full house. I raise, Tyler calls, and Cassie raises, with a lift of her chin.

The turn drops a four, and I raise again.

Tyler’s eyes narrow while he studies the board, then his cards. “I’m out.”

Now it’s just Cassie and me. She meets my raise, unflinching. The river falls and I can kiss that full house goodbye. It’s another four. I study Cassie’s face for any tells that might reveal what she’s holding, but her expression is completely blank. Then I think back to when she asked if the women could join us, how something about her tone raised suspicion.

I call anyway, because I have to know.