Page 30 of Luck Be a Genie

“Tell her which of us is your favorite,” Kian called from the patio, where he was checking things out.

“Me, of course,” Callum said.

The brothers all laughed, making Callum look thoroughly offended.

Nick leaned in close and whispered a brother’s name into my ear. I shivered at the close contact, then laughed when all of his brothers protested. Apparently, they all had excellent hearing.

Declan didn’t protest though. Instead, he was giving Nick an odd look.

“I’m really your favorite?” he asked quietly.

Nick’s smile was both teasing and warm. “If I had a favorite, which I’m not saying I do! But if I had a favorite brother, it would be you.”

Declan looked away and cleared his throat. “Thanks, man.”

Nick went over and slung an arm around his brother’s shoulder. “Come on, tell me you love me.”

“What? No!”

“Tellmetellmetellme.”

“Dude, go away!”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Let poker night begin!

Callum shuffled the deck of cards. “Five card draw, nothing wild.” He eyed Kian and Dante. “And no cheating.”

Nick snorted. “We can’t cheat around Lucky anyway. Her chaos magic prevents our magic from working.”

“There is more than one way to cheat,” Callum reminded him.

Nick nodded as he accepted his cards, and looked at them one by one. The brothers were doing a few rounds without me so I could see what the mechanics of the game looked like in play. I didn’t really remember it all that well. After explaining the basics to me, they began their first round.

As well as observing how to play, I was also using this time to study them. Callum, I thought, had the best poker face, but Dante had a surprisingly good one as well. Kian tried, but I could tell just from watching him for a bit that playing the game was more about spending time with his brothers for him. I don’t think he cared at all whether he won or not. Declan had a slight eye twitch whenever he got a card he couldn’t use, so that was an easy tell. Unless of course he was faking it...

And Nick.

My gaze moved to him, and I studied him as he played. I thought he fit somewhere between Callum, who played intensely in a take-no-prisoners kind of way, and Dante, who played methodically and cleverly.

The final bets got fierce for a moment, and then they all revealed their cards. Dante won.

After a few rounds, they dealt me in, and I tried my best to both keep an inscrutable expression, and play intelligently. Nick kept looking over at me and grinning, which made me roll my eyes. Apparently, I was failing at the whole inscrutable thing. I couldn’t help how expressive my face was sometimes.

Okay, time to get serious Lucky. I thought of sad things so I could stop laughing at the brothers’ banter and jokes, took a deep breath, and picked up my cards one by one off the table and added them to my pile.

Two jacks, two queens, and a ten.

Inscrutable.

Not allowing my expression or my body, other than my hands, to move a single centimeter, I called, and then when everyone had bet, set down my ten to discard. Another round of cards were dealt, and I slowly picked up the new card that had been dealt to me.

Then tried like crazy to keep from reacting when it was a queen.

I had a full house.

“Raise.” I slid more M & M’s, at least half my pile into the middle of the table.