“That’s two in a row you lost to Frank. Are you letting him win or is your luck starting to turn?” Tipping my beer up, I eye Kate.

“My luck must be running out. I only let people win to build their confidence.”

“Well, my confidence is dwindling here, maybe you should throw some charity my way.” I motion to the sparse pile of chips in front of me.

“I don’t think you’ve ever experienced a shortage in confidence, Mr. Montgomery.”

Frank snickers. “You got this one pegged. Hard to be lacking in confidence when you’re walking around with Ms. Laroix on your arm.”

“She’s beautiful. I saw you with her today. Is she your girlfriend?” Kate asks, a sly smirk on her face.

“No.” I throw two chips into the pot, even though I have another shit hand.

“Looked cozy.” She shrugs. “Friends with benefits?”

My eyebrows jump. “No. Not friends with benefits either.”

“Ohhhhhh,” she says, as if something dawns on her for the first time. Then says nothing more.

“What?” Eventually I take the bait.

“I didn’t realize you played for the other team.”

Cute. Really cute. I’ll show you what team I play for. “No. I don’t play for the other team. I actually just met someone.”

She tosses her cards on the table, folding for the third time in a row.

“Looks like your luck really is running low,” I say. “You know what, guys, I have an early morning tomorrow. What do you say we make next hand the last hand?” She knows exactly what I’m doing. Yet I don’t have a damn clue what she’s up to. For all I know, she can be playing us all. Folding three hands in a row and taking my mind off the game.

“You have those diamond four-leaf clover cufflinks your old man used to wear? I’d love to get my hands on them in a last-hand pot,” Frank says.

“No. Wish I did. He lost them in a game. He swore it was the reason his luck changed.” Kate’s face saddens.

“Sorry, kid.”

She forces a conciliatory smile.

Frank rakes in the final pot of chips for the night and everyone digs for their final ante. Frank tosses in a business card holder with my initials on it. I haven’t seen that thing in ten years. Carl tosses in Frank’s high school ring, and I throw a custom Montblanc platinum pen engraved with Ben’s initials into the mix. Kate is busy in her purse.

Just like the first time we met, she tears a piece of paper. Grinning, she picks out the fifteen-hundred-dollar pen from the pot and scribbles something, her hand covering the content like a schoolgirl writing a note. She folds it a few times, concealing what she’s offering to the winner.

Frank chuckles. “You know I already have your phone number?”

“Maybe it’s not my phone number,” she says cryptically, smiling at Frank fondly. But her eyes blaze when they turn to me.

Carl’s the first one out. He hisses and pushes back from the table.

I eye the stack of chips in front of Kate and dig into my pocket. My eyes never leave hers when I toss a wad of hundreds into the pile—Tiffany money clip and all.

Frank bows out. “Too rich for my blood with the crap cards I got.”

And then there’s just the two of us again.

Kate and I stand off, her eyes gyrating through an assessment I’ve become familiar with. First she squints, looking deep into my eyes, then her eyes relax again. Her gaze drops to my lips and then slowly makes its way back to my eyes. An ever-so-slight uptick on the right side of her mouth is the only indication that she thinks she’s got me.

She pushes all of her chips in.

I take a deep breath and turn over my cards.

Three kings.

And two tens. I haven’t had a full house this high since, well … ever.

The guys whistle.

Kate’s eyes sparkle. I hold my breath as her eyes drop down to read my cards and then quickly return to mine. She throws her cards into the pot. Face down. Defeated.

Laughter erupts in the room. Carl stands, grabbing his jacket. “Damn. That was intense. Nice job, Coop. Glad one of us didn’t get beat by a girl. It was a pleasure, though,” he says to Kate. Then he nods to Frank. “Come on, I’ll help clean this up.”

“Go ahead, guys. I got it.”

“You sure, Coop?”

“No problem. Have a good night, gentlemen.”

Frank slaps me on the back as he leaves. “If I can’t have your old man around, you’re the next best thing. You turned out good, kid. You turned out good.”

The room goes quiet as the two men exit. Neither Kate nor I have moved from our seats. We stare intently at each other. I watch as her pupils dilate and the rise and fall of her chest seems to grow deeper with each breath. And then something happens. It hits me. And I realize playing the game really is all about reading people. So I reach into the ante pile and my hand hovers over the folded-up paper for a long count. Then I veer slightly to the left and flip over her cards.

Four of a kind.

Beats my full house by a mile.

Kate grins and arches an eyebrow. I don’t bother to clean up. She grabs my hand and we head for the door, leaving her folded-up bet that reads One Night unopened.

Chapter fifteen

Kate

“I’ll follow you,” I say as we reach the warm summer air outside.

“No. I’ll drive you.”

“But I need my car to go home later.”