Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117443 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117443 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Hayley finished the dishes and wiped down the counters. Chris watched her out of the corner of his eye. She tossed the papertowel into the trash and headed over to the table to grab Tex’s empty beer bottle.
“I told you to stop doing that,” Chris told her. “You’re off work. You don’t clean up after them.”
“I’m not doing anything else,” she pointed out and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin.
“How come you never do what you’re told?” Chris asked.
“You play poker, Slick?” Tex asked.
She came up behind him and put her arm over his shoulder, leaning down to look at his cards. Chris watched without watching, noticing that of all his men, ironically, Tex was the one she gravitated to the most. He chalked that up to Tex’s overly friendly demeanor. He also noted that for all his ‘friendliness’ Tex never, ever touched Slick unless she touched him first. Even in public at Maria’s. Chris further noticed that Slick’s personal contact was always rewarded by Tex with a gentle squeeze of the shoulder or a pat on the arm, and he knew enough about Tex to know that that reassurance was not nearly as haphazard and casual as it appeared.
Chris watched Slick inspect Tex’s cards then shake her head. “No. I don’t play. Aren’t Aces ones? If that’s true you should stop betting ‘cause that’s a really low score, Tex.”
Tex laughed. Hawk frowned. “She’s bluffing,” Hawk declared.
“Maybe,” Hayley said.
Hawk upped his bet and Tex attempted to get one card from Doc, who was the dealer.
“Two cards,” Hayley said, taking one from Tex’s hand and tossing it onto the top of the card he’d just laid down.
“Oh, now wait a minute,” Tex protested.
Hawk grinned. “Too late. Card’s already on the table.”
Tex scowled. “Woman! That was a perfectly good hand!”
“Uh huh,” she said dismissively. “Two please,” she told Caleb. Caleb dealt out two cards and Tex, grudgingly, picked them up.
He glowered at her. “That was friendly conversation. Not an invitation to fuck up my hand. I don’t-” He paused and looked at the cards. Then he looked at Hayley. “How did you do that?” She shrugged. “No, really, how the hell did you do that?”
“Well, I’ve been watching the game,” she finally said. “So I just, you know, knew.”
Tex stared at her and then grinned. “Cheater.”
“No!” Hayley scoffed. “It’s only cheating when you do it. When I do it, it’s totally not cheating.”
“Uh huh. What is it when you do it?” Tex asked.
“Survival! I’ve played for food and rent money! You’re doing it for fun. It’s totally not the same,” she insisted.
“Ever been caught?” Tex asked.
She smiled sheepishly. “In Vegas.”
Tex grinned. “Yeah, they don’t like it when you count the cards, Slick.”
“No,” she agreed, “but they still let you keep the money after they catch you.”
Tex considered this. “Do I have the best hand?” he finally asked.
She gave him a look. “You have a good hand.”
“Yeah, but is it the best hand?”
She shook her head. “I can’t tell you. It wouldn’t be fair.”
“It’s cheating, Slick. It’s already not fair!” Tex argued.
“I already have enough money for rent and food this month. And so do you. We can’t cheat your friends. It would be wrong.”
“They’re not my friends! They’re my brothers. We can totally clean them out!” Tex insisted.
“Nope, sorry,” she told him. “Play your hand or fold.”
Tex grumbled, but stuck with his hand. He was elated when his four of a kind beat Hawk’s two pair. They played two more hands. Chris won the first, Doc the second. Hayley brought Doc another beer, but Tex wrapped his free arm around her waist and pulled her to him. “Come here, Slick, sit on my lap and help me cheat. I’m down four hands.”
Hayley allowed herself to be lowered into Tex’s lap. “I told you I don’t cheat,” she protested and tried to hand Doc his beer.
Tex pushed the bottle back toward her. “Drink this, let go of your moral code, and help me win this hand,” he ordered. “I’ll tip you tomorrow night at work. A lot.”
Hayley took a sip of the beer and sighed. “Well, you already messed this hand up,” she informed Tex.
“God damn it,” he muttered. “I knew it!”
“Fold,” Hayley told him. “You’re just giving the winner more money.”
Tex folded and pulled Hayley back against him. “Who’s got the best hand?” he whispered loudly.
“Not you,” she whispered back and everyone laughed. She leaned her head against Tex’s shoulder. “I could play if you had two decks,” she mused. “I can’t count more than one deck. I could buy a tube pan.”
“What’s a tube pan?” Doc asked.
“Um,” Hayley said, taking another pull off her beer. “Like, a fluted, dome thing. For making stuff like pineapple upside-down cake.”
“Oh, yeah,” Hawk said. “With the cherries?”
“With the cherries,” Hayley replied.
“I like cherries,” Hawk told her.