Twelve
Montana
I hadn’t been sure I was going to come back out of the bedroom and eat anything tonight. But I was glad Gathe had shown up because I was hungrier than I’d realized. The lobster and cheese stuffed noodles were delicious, and Gathe kept things from being uncomfortable like it had been with Than’s silence. Unlike Than he asked me about my day, and he threw back his head with a shout of laughter over the fact that Crew had wanted my number.
Than mostly kept to his silent routine. He did, however, pull a bottle of whiskey out of the cabinet. I noticed his last name on the label and wanted to ask about it, but didn’t. Gathe offered me a glass even though Than had not, but I turned it down.
Once the bar was cleaned off from our dinner, Gathe tossed the deck of cards onto it, then pulled out his wallet. “Fifty buy-in good for everyone?” he asked, holding up what looked to be two twenties and a ten.
I started to say yes, but Than spoke first.
“No buy-in. If we’re playing, it’s for fun only,” Than told him, saying more than he’d said since I had come out of the bedroom.
Gathe frowned. “You go broke since the last time I saw you?”
Than scowled at him. “No. Not because of me.” Then he glanced in my direction.
“I can afford fifty dollars,” I replied, then walked back to the room to get it out of my purse.
“She said she can afford it,” I heard Gathe say.
Than’s response was spoken too low for me to hear. I smirked and pulled out my money, then returned to the bar and sat down on a stool before placing my fifty beside Gathe’s.
“She’s in, man. Stop being so damn sour and get your wallet out,” Gathe told Than, taking the stool beside mine. “I’ll teach you before we start playing for money. We will go through a few hands first,” he assured me.
I nodded, then glanced up to see Than watching me while he took his money and put it with ours. I didn’t smile, but I wanted to. He shook his head, as if I were being stupid, and went to stand on the other side of the bar with his glass of whiskey.
“Get a stool,” Gathe told him.
“I’m good.”
Gathe shrugged, then began to shuffle the deck. “Okay, in Texas Hold’em, it’s about having the best five cards on the table,” he began explaining, and I pretended to give him my full attention.
The first cards he dealt, he left them face up so he could tell me what each one was and what a good hand was compared to a bad hand. I listened and nodded when I thought it was appropriate. Than said nothing, but his eyes stayed on me, which was what truly had my attention. I wished it didn’t make me feel warm and tingly when he looked at me, but unfortunately, it did. He wasn’t happy about my putting money down because he didn’t want me to lose it.
Which meant he cared. Didn’t it? Why else would he have said no to the money?
I was grasping at straws. I had to be.
Than had made it very clear that he wasn’t attracted to me. Heck, he even agreed with the six thing when I said it. I had only tossed that low of a number out there, hoping he’d rate me a little higher, but nope. That had stung, but I’d recovered quickly, only to be ignored the rest of the evening once we got back in his truck.
“Now, I’d have probably folded on this hand after it was dealt, but for the sake of learning, I didn’t, and with the river card being another two, I win.”
I blinked and smiled at Gathe, realizing I’d missed everything he just said.
“Got it,” I told him.
“No, she doesn’t. She was zoned out,” Than said.
I swung my gaze over to him, and he was giving me a pointed look as he took a drink of his whiskey. Okay, fine, I had zoned out.
“I said I have it,” I told him and turned back to Gathe. “We can play.”
He studied me for a moment. “You sure?”
I nodded.
“I’m not letting you win. I tried to save you the fifty dollars. So, this is your fault when you’re out fifty,” Than said.
Gathe rolled his eyes. “Assuming he’s gonna win. I might just take your fifty,” he said, looking at Than.
Than just smirked. “You dealing?”
“Yep.”
“Then get on with it.”
I watched as Gathe shuffled the deck again and did my best not to look at Than. He dealt out the first three cards, and I picked mine up to see what I had, then looked back at the three on the bar for all of us to play off of.
“Check,” Than said, then took a drink and looked at me.
“Check,” I replied.
Gathe was looking at Than. “Just because you don’t want her to lose any more money doesn’t mean you and I have to check.”
“What? You wanting to bet each hand? We don’t have chips here,” Than told him.
Gathe wiggled his eyebrows and jumped up from the stool to go searching through the cabinets. He grabbed a box of colorful, fruity cereal and plopped it down on the bar. “We got chips now. Red ones are ten, blue ones are twenty, green ones fifty, and yellow a hundred.”
Than rolled his eyes. “Seriously?”
He nodded and came back around to his stool to sit down. “Pass ’em out. My piggy bank is getting low. I need to take some from the Carver gold mine.”
“You owe Oz, don’t you?” Than said, shaking his head as he opened the box of cereal. “What did you do, bet on the Braves over the Padres yesterday?”
Who was Oz? I’d not heard that name. Was he a bookie that Gathe used?
“Possibly,” Gathe drawled.
Than laughed, and the sound made my stomach flutter. Damn him and my stupid stomach.
“What? Did you bet on the Padres?” Gathe asked him.
“Yep,” Than replied.
“Fucker,” Gathe muttered. “Well, at least your pockets are padded. You’re gonna need it.”
Than divvyed out the cereal pieces, and I thought about asking for some, but decided to wait. I kept my hand, although it wasn’t a good one, and Than won with two aces, king high. The next hand I also kept and could have won, but Gathe had a full house. I folded two aces the third hand, sliding my cards to Gathe face down.
After I watched Than win five hands and Gathe win three, I decided to join the betting.
“Can I have some of the, uh, chips, please?” I asked Than, who had the box of cereal beside him.
His brows drew together. “No.”
Sighing, I glanced at Gathe and smiled. “I think I’m ready to bet, and I have more money in the room.”
Gathe looked torn. He didn’t want to tell me no, but since I’d lost every hand so far, he didn’t want me losing money.
“Don’t look at him. He needs money, and he’ll take yours,” Than warned me.
Gathe shot him an annoyed glare. “Shut up.”
“Just a couple of hands?” I asked. “It looks fun.”
Than stared at me, then grabbed the box and poured some out. “You can bet, but I’m not taking your money.”
I smiled at him, and he paused for a moment as he looked at me. Then he blinked and jerked his gaze off me and back to the box of cereal.
What had that been all about? It had been weird.
“I won’t take your money either,” Gathe told me, leaning closer. “Just his.”
“If I lose a hand, then it’s only fair if you do.”
Gathe winced. “Yeah, well, we’ve been placing some steep bets.”
I was aware. I had been paying close attention. They used the yellow pieces more than any other piece.
Than slid over my allotment of cereal. “Here you go.”
“Thank you,” I told him, and he gave me a small nod.
“All right. Still no big or little. Just betting before the flop,” Gathe said.
“He means that no one will be designated to bet. We will all bet before we see the first three cards on the table,” Than explained.
“Okay,” I replied.
Gathe dealt out our first three cards, and I looked at mine, then waited.
“Than was first bet last hand. You start this one,” Gathe told me.
I studied my pieces of cereal, then took a yellow one and put it in the middle before looking at both of them. “Y’all seemed to always use this one to start.”
Gathe chuckled. “All right, big spender,” he said.
He put a yellow piece with mine, and then Than placed his.
“You’d better hope those dimples can keep him from taking your money,” Than drawled.
I looked over at him. “If I’m a six, then I doubt my dimples will do much good.”
“What about a six?” Gathe asked.
I turned to him. “My ranking.”
He frowned. “What ranking?”
I shrugged. “Than said all guys have a ranking. They rank females in their heads.”
Gathe nodded slowly with a confused look. “Yeah, we do, but”—he glanced at Than, then back at me—“my scale is a one to ten. What the fuck kinda scale is Than’s?”
“The same,” I replied.
Than remained quiet.
Gathe turned to him. “You told her she was a six?” he asked, and then he laughed and shook his head. “You’re not only an asshole, but a fucking liar.” Gathe’s eyes came back to me, and he reached out and took my chin. “Sweetheart, you look in a mirror every day. You gotta know that you’re not a six.”
“Are we gonna play, or are you gonna feed her ego?” Than asked.
My eyes cut to him as they narrowed. “I don’t have an ego.”
“You fucking should,” Gathe said, letting go of my chin and tapping the tip of my nose. “You’re a ten, and he knows it. He’s just being a dick.”
I wasn’t a ten, but Gathe liked me. He wasn’t hiding that fact. Than was annoyed with it because of Jericho. But it had been sweet of Gathe to say it.
“Are you gonna deal the flop, or do you want me to deal?” Than asked.
Gathe gave him an annoyed glance, then laid the next three cards face up on the bar. I slid another yellow to the pile in the middle.