What the Gambler Risks

by Kristina Knight

  After a while, Melinda tapped on Sabrina’s shoulder, surprising her. She checked her watch. Just after one a.m. “Sweetheart, I’m exhausted. Are you about ready to go?”

  “We have another round.” Sabrina didn’t want to stop now. She didn’t think they were in the lead, but they were close enough that the hundred thousand seemed too big to just walk away from. “I could get you a cab.” She tried to feel guilty about putting her mom in a cab instead of taking her home, but the possibility of $100,000 in her pocket was too brilliant to resist.

  Sabrina traded places with Jase, sending a good-luck wish in his direction as she walked with her mother to the parking area. Cabs lined the drive of the casino, waiting to pick up gamblers or tourists leaving on the red-eye. Sabrina handed one of the drivers a twenty and waved as it made the turn toward Henderson.

  She hurried back inside and didn’t bother keeping back from the players’ area. Only a handful of players remained, and their partners all stood close, too. The river showed all clubs, with a ten, seven, three, six, and two showing. That meant a flush, and whoever had the highest club in hand would be the winner.

  Jase sat perfectly still in his seat as the other players bid into the round. One folded, another played with his cards. Jase tossed a chip on the table, raising the bet. Another folded, but everyone else called. Sabrina felt as if her lungs might collapse from the pressure.

  The flannel-wearing guy from the first round turned over a jack in clubs and a random diamond. A woman she didn’t recognize turned over two nines, in hearts and spades. Jase could have a king or queen or ace in his hand and win the round. Or he could have nothing, having gambled that raising would weed out the other players.

  Only Jase didn’t gamble. How many times did he have to tell her that? He played the cards in his hands, and he studied the other players. Sabrina clenched her fists. She wanted him to win. She wanted them to win.

  Jase turned over the queen and the three. Seven clubs, and he had the high card. A shot of adrenaline sent her pulse racing. Jase gathered the chips on the table as the dealer told them to wait while the winnings were tallied.

  “Did we win?” she asked, trying to keep her voice low.

  “We’re close. They’ll count the winning hands, assign totals. We’ll see.” He changed the subject. “How was your mother?”

  “Calmer, tired. I don’t know what Victor said to her or if it was just having his complete attention, but she seems less manic about Lorenzo and the state of her life now.” And the fact that she hadn’t been around to listen made guilt heat her skin. She could have spent more time with her mother. She had a book tour starting Monday; maybe she would have Melinda come with her. Having some uninterrupted girl time—with Sabrina and with other women—might be good for her mom.

  “You could have gone with her. I can handle the winnings.”

  “So we are going to win?” She waggled her brows at him.

  Jase shrugged, but that cocky look was back on his face.

  “We’re going to have $100,000 to split between us,” she said. “That’s fifty for you and fifty for me. What do you think about that, Mr. Bazillionaire?”

  “I think fifty grand is a nice buy-in to one of the big tournaments in Europe this summer. Or there’s the charity tournament my brother Gage is hosting in about ten days. You could play.”

  “You want me to donate my fifty grand to charity?”

  “Technically, the buy-in to the charity tournament is five grand, so you’d still have forty-five. Plus, the winner gets to choose where all those dollars go. Women’s shelters, foster kids, animal rescues.”

  “Appealing to my crusader side. Smart. I thought you were only inviting professionals into the charity thing?”

  “Connor decided having a pro-am would garner a bit more interest, bring in more players, increase the final pot. Miranda, that’s his VP and romantic interest, has a serious fundraising streak, thanks to her upbringing.”

  The tournament host started toward the podium, and Sabrina’s stomach felt tied up in knots. “Her family has the Clayton Foundation, right?” she asked, trying to distract herself until the host began speaking.

  Jase nodded. “And Clayton Holdings, and some other interests. She didn’t want to go into the family fundraising business, but she’s good at it. It’s an interesting hobby.”

  “What about you? Is fundraising in your blood?” Another worker joined the host at the podium.

  He shook his head. “Not unless by fundraising you mean increasing that little number on my personal bank statements. So, do you want to play?”

  “Do I get to play with you?”

  “Against me, maybe. It’s not a partner tournament. One on one, winner takes it all.”

  “I’ve been watching you most of the night. I’ll take that challenge,” she said, raising up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his generous mouth.

  The host tapped the microphone and announced the winning teams: Jase and Sabrina had finished just ahead of the two other teams. Jase grinned at her.

  “So what happens now?”

  “We celebrate. One hundred thousand divided by two. Not bad for a couple hours’ work.”

  “And I wondered what it was about gambling that keeps you entering these tournaments,” she said, trying for deadpan but knowing she failed miserably. The losing teams stalked from the tournament room, and she squeezed Jase’s hand in hers. “This isn’t so bad.”

  Jase drew her to him, his arms warm and strong around her middle. He pressed his mouth to hers. Lights flashed in the casino, signaling someone winning a slot jackpot. Sabrina wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him to her. “Not bad at all,” he said against her mouth. “My place?”

  “Definitely.”

  Chapter Ten

  Jase woke the next morning with Sabrina in his arms. Her long, blond hair tickled his arm, her breasts falling evenly with her breathing. Her familiar scent, a combination of wildflowers and vanilla, wrapped around him like a second skin.

  He settled into the pillows and closed his eyes, willing himself to fall back to sleep. The sun was already high in the morning sky, but it wasn’t as if he lived on the ranch anymore. There were no cattle to water, no fences to check, and no horses that needed exercising. There was just endless morning and Sabrina warm in his bed.

  And a check larger than the annual income of some families in his wallet.

  Maybe he should get out of bed, bank it, make those last few calls about the charity tournament at Holliday Spas.

  Sabrina shifted beside him, her soft bottom coming into contact with his hip. Maybe the first stop out of bed should be the shower, and maybe she should join him.

  “I’m still sleeping,” she said, her voice thick with sleep. She playfully slapped his hand away from her abdomen.

  Jase checked the clock on the nightstand. “It’s after ten. Even the most insatiable gamblers get up by noon.”

  “That gives me two more delicious hours of mindless sleep, which I deserve after helping you place second in that tournament.”

  “Technically we were a team, and therefore we were both first.” He caught the bit of starch in his voice but couldn’t stop it.

  “So the gambler doesn’t like to lose, hmm?”

  “I didn’t lose. I won with a partner.” He waited a beat. “But I’d rather have won the whole pot outright.”

  “Some things you can’t do on your own. Sometimes you have to choose a role and hope the role you’re choosing is the right one.” She shifted, turned her body so that she faced him in the bed, the look in those big, green eyes making his heart still. “You said you could control the game more as the quieter player, but your impact would have been greater if we switched places.”

  “Too many people were playing last night who already know how I play.” He couldn’t resist running his fingers through her soft hair.

  “So you used me to throw them off their game?” He nodded. Sabrina grinned at him. “You know, I don
’t normally like being used, but there is something empowering about being part of a team with you.”

  “I like being part of a team with you, too,” he said and realized he wasn’t just talking about the tournament. It had been nice, for the past nine days, to be part of a couple. Meeting for dinners and drinks, talking about nothing, taking long walks. No, they hadn’t discussed future plans, but Sabrina knew more about him than just about any other person on the planet, and he knew her better than he’d known any other woman in his life.

  She was dedicated to and enjoyed her work, she was controlled but spontaneous. She loved her mother despite the issues close under the surface of their relationship. She went after the things she wanted, otherwise she’d have never gone to his business looking for him.

  “What are you going to do with your half?” he asked.

  “You said I’d need it for the charity game at your brother’s spa.”

  “Technically, it’s his girlfriend’s. He gave her the deed in a grand gesture last summer. That’s beside the point. The buy-in for the charity tournament is only five grand. Plenty left over for a new car or a few plane charters or maybe a down payment on a couple of jet skis you can go crazy with on Lake Mead this summer.”

  Sabrina slowly shook her head. “I was thinking I might do something nice for my mom. Send her on a fabulous vacation, help her find a new apartment or condo somewhere.”

  “You can’t fix her problems with money, Sabrina,” he said, his voice low. How many times had Caleb tried to fix Helena with another round of counseling or a new car or a housekeeper or a personal chef? It hadn’t mattered how much money he threw at her, the one thing she wanted was another game.

  “I’m not trying to fix her problems, just … I don’t know. It’s always been her and me. Men have walked out on her because of me since I was little. She was a little manic last night, but this thing with the latest guy, it’s different.” Sabrina gathered the bed sheet in her hands, twisting it around. “I think she might actually have fallen for him, not just convinced herself she should fall for him, if that makes any sense. I started thinking last night that if I could get her out of Las Vegas for a while, maybe she would find that she doesn’t need the Lorenzos of this world to be happy.”

  “You really love her.” The thought perplexed Jase. Not that a daughter would love her mother, but that a child could have the kind of deep feelings for a parent who didn’t seem to have the same feelings for her. He’d never mistaken the feelings he had for Helena with love. Protectiveness, yes, for her as well as his father and his brothers. But not love.

  “Of course. She’s my mother. You loved your mom—if you hadn’t, you would never have tried all those times to win against her so that she would stay home.”

  “That wasn’t love. That was self-preservation. Most of the time when she would leave, the three of us would be left alone.” He hadn’t loved Helena. He wasn’t even sure he’d loved Caleb. He definitely hadn’t understood either one of them or the messed-up relationship that neither could stand to lose.

  She put her hand over his. “It was love. You saw what made her tick—the gamble—and tried to make it work in your favor.”

  “How can you love someone who doesn’t love you back?” He’d been asking that question for as long as he could remember, and every time he asked it, he added the provision that he hadn’t loved his mother. But was that just the lie he told himself? He swallowed. He wasn't sure, and he didn’t want to lie this morning, not with Sabrina.

  “How do you know she didn’t love you?”

  “Because she left.” It was a simple answer, but the pain the words caused was anything but simple. Jase tried to push the pain back in, but it seemed to radiate out as if ready to consume him.

  “But she came back.”

  “Because my father dragged her back. He chased after her like she held the secret of life or something.” She had, at least for Caleb. Maybe for all of them. Jase had few happy memories from his childhood, but one of the best was a Thanksgiving when Helena had been at the ranch. Cooking and singing and it had seemed as if she might never be lured back into Las Vegas.

  “Maybe she did. For him. If there is one thing I’ve learned watching my mom jump from relationship to relationship and job to job, it’s that understanding what is in another person’s heart is nearly impossible. We can’t hear their internal dialogues, so we can only understand what we see or hear from them. Most people only show us a little bit of their inner pain or strength.”

  What had been Helena's pain? Was it the gambling or was it her children and husband? Did it really matter? As angry as he had been with Helena, he had always had hope that things would change, that's why he kept playing cards with her. Hope. Love. The two emotions were so closely linked. For the first time, Jase nixed the false provision that love was not what drove him when it came to saving Helena. He took a deep breath, and the pain in his chest eased.

  He turned to Sabrina. “Is that why you write female-empowerment books? So your readers start looking inside themselves for the answers to life’s questions?”

  Sabrina didn’t hesitate. “Of course.”

  “Are you like your readers, looking inside for happiness rather than outside?”

  Sabrina’s mouth twisted to the side, but instead of drawing her lower lip between her teeth and biting down, she just shook her head. “I’m trying to do that. It’s been harder since I met this mysterious card player in Atlantic City.”

  Jase smiled. “That’s the first time you haven’t called me a gambler.”

  “You’re the one who keeps insisting you’re a card player, not a gambler. Maybe you’ve convinced me.”

  “I’m going to miss you while you’re on that book tour.”

  She ran her hand over his hair. “We can video-chat, and I’ll only be gone a few days.”

  “Sabrina,” he said, but then stopped himself. This conversation was getting too serious for the morning after a nice win at the casino, but wasn’t this what he’d been complaining about for most of the day yesterday? That they didn’t talk about the important things? That whatever was happening between them was too light and too fluffy and not real enough? He’d tried convincing himself that he didn’t want real.

  He’d been wrong.

  He didn’t want the relationship he’d watched between Caleb and Helena, but what Gage and Connor had found with Callie and Miranda? That might not be so bad. Spending Thanksgiving with the four of them had been practically … normal. That normalcy had him running for Europe and Atlantic City as much as the tournaments he’d been playing, because his life, at least the life before Sabrina, had been anything but normal. What was normal about living out of a suitcase? About having no ties to anything?

  “I don’t love you,” he said and wanted to beat the crap out of himself when Sabrina’s skin paled. “Yet,” he couldn't stop himself from adding. “I think I could, though.”

  A slow smile crept across her face, making her green eyes glow in the morning sunlight. She pressed her mouth to his, and he could feel every inch of her body against his. This was how he wanted to wake up for the next half of his life. With this woman in his arms.

  “I think I could, too,” she said, the words a breath of air between them.

  • • •

  Back at home, Sabrina spent most of the day scrolling through travel websites. After their not-quite-declarations of intense like, they’d showered together. She made toast and coffee. It was pleasantly domestic, as long as she didn’t look out the condo windows at the neon of Las Vegas. When she did that, Jase’s condo began feeling decidedly less homey and much more vacation-y.

  This thing with him wasn’t a vacation. It wasn’t a fling. She didn’t have the exact words for it just yet, but whatever it was made her happy in a way she hadn’t been. Not ever.

  Now that she was happy, she wanted Melinda to be happy, too. Hence the travel sites. She couldn’t squash the idea of sending her mother on a fancy vac
ation. It wasn’t that she was trying to buy Melinda’s happiness or her love. It wasn’t even that she thought a vacation could fix the issues Melinda refused to confront in herself. Sabrina wanted to do something nice for her mother, and if that nice thing—getting her out of the rut Las Vegas had created over more than fifty years of living here—happened to have a few positive side effects, so be it.

  There was a new resort opening in Hawaii that looked like fun. It catered to the over-forty crowd, with pristine beaches and volcanoes to explore. Melinda had always talked about going to Hawaii, but she’d never gone.

  Sabrina clicked on the “Plan Your Vacation” link and began to make the arrangements. She had just entered her credit card number, and was breathing a little wobbly, when Melinda walked in the door. She’d been gone when Sabrina came home this afternoon; she wore black pants and a white camisole and had pulled her hair back into a braid.

  “Hey, how was your night?”

  “Not as good as yours was,” Melinda said, a teasing light in her familiar green eyes. “Is Mr. Gambler the reason you’ve been so scarce around here since you came off the book tour?”

  Sabrina tried not to blush but felt her cheeks heat anyway. “Yeah, he is. His name is Jase. We, ah, met after the tour stop in Atlantic City, just before you called me.” There was no need to bring the chartered plane into this.

  “How did the tournament go?” Melinda took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and sat at the kitchen island with Sabrina. She took a banana from the ceramic bowl and peeled it.

  “We won the whole tournament, actually.” Melinda’s eyes widened. “We had a few lucky hands.” There was no need to go into Jase’s profession, either, and there was definitely not a reason to mention his last name. Melinda practically lived on the Vegas tabloids and celebrity gossip. She would pick Jase’s name out in a second. Sabrina was surprised she hadn’t recognized him last night in the poker room. Before her mother could ask more questions, Sabrina pushed ahead. “We each won a nice amount of money, and I was thinking … I’d like to send you on a trip.”