ANTE UP (7-Stud Club Book 3)

by Christie Ridgway

  “Um, Rach—” Her phone buzzed on the table, and Willow glanced at it. “What?” she muttered, noting who’d sent a text.

  Rachel craned her neck. “A problem?”

  “No.” Willow read the words, then looked up, annoyed. “Brad wants to meet. Tonight. Now, as a matter of fact.”

  “Do you want to?”

  “Of course not. I’m with you.”

  “It’s okay—”

  “Not to me.” She quickly tapped out a reply, informing him she was out with Rachel and not available. Then she turned off her phone and dropped it into her purse. “I’m here for a reason that has nothing to do with him.”

  Rachel arched a brow. “That sounds intriguing. Don’t keep me in suspense.”

  “I…” Her attention drifted as Cooper walked into the game space from the direction of his back office. He stopped at the bar, consulting a clipboard and then the bartender.

  Her foster mom turned her head to see what had snagged Willow’s attention. “Your client,” she said. “I remember now you told me he runs this place.”

  “Owns it too,” she said absently, recalling that afternoon at the lake. I think I was afraid you weren’t real. The honesty of the remark had weakened her last defenses. They’d been together since, she in his bed when he returned from his night shifts, eager to greet him when he woke her with soft kisses and heated touches. Reluctant when morning came. She’d leave him sleeping to return to her place and prepare for her work day.

  But last evening she’d decided to stay at her own place and work on some plans for a new client. He’d opted to take the closing shift at Fun & Games, so they’d slept apart.

  Meaning she hadn’t seen him in more than thirty hours.

  “Willow,” Rachel said now, with a little smile. “What’s going on?”

  Realizing she was wearing a sappy smile on her own face, Willow realized she couldn’t keep cool about Cooper any longer. “He’s, um, more than a client. We, um, well, it’s possible I can’t keep my hands off him.”

  Her foster mom blinked. “Really?”

  Willow shrugged, unsure if Rachel was surprised because of her short acquaintance with the man or the even shorter amount of time she’d been un-engaged. “I…we…” Her voice drifted off as he turned, spotted her, and started her way, his handsome face alight with pleasure. “Oh,” said Willow, heart swelling so that she could barely breathe.

  “Oh,” said Rachel. “Wow.”

  And she continued to look wowed as Cooper joined them, first dropping a kiss on the corner of Willow’s mouth, then pulling up a free chair. He did what he did so well, kept a friendly conversation going with Rachel, asking after her family members by name, while letting his hand rest on Willow’s leg, just above her bare knee.

  A gesture that surely appeared harmless from the outside, but wasn’t at all if one detected the tiny stroke of his little finger against her inner thigh and the way the maneuver reminded her of the last time they’d been together. Then he’d ordered her to stay completely still as he touched her everywhere, including places that before had seemed non-erogenous.

  Teaching her that every tap and pat and rub could be arousing when the right man was beside her. When that man cared to take his time and catalog every one of her sighs, moans, and shivers.

  He looked over now. “I’ve got to check on a couple of things,” he said to her. “Are you sticking around?”

  “Rachel needs to get home soon, but I’ll hang out, maybe perfect my pinball skills.”

  “Perfect,” he repeated, the outside corners of his eyes crinkling. “I’ll have to test you later then.”

  His goodbye to Willow’s foster mom was warm. “I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.” To Willow, he brushed her shoulder as he left the table.

  Maybe she sent a look after him that was just a tad too long, because Rachel said, “Umm…Willow?”

  She turned toward her foster mom with a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”

  The other woman’s expression remained neutral, however. “I have to ask…”

  Gulp. “Go ahead.”

  “Are you protecting yourself?”

  Cue goggle eyes and a swift blush. “Of course!”

  “I don’t mean that,” Rachel said. “I mean, are you making sure this isn’t moving too fast? Are you being careful while considering every angle?”

  Oh, God. Here it was. She could lie, or she could say at least this much of the truth. “No,” she admitted. “Not at all.”

  With her breath held, she met her foster mom’s gaze.

  “Good,” Rachel said after a moment, her mouth turning up in a pleased smile. “Be young, be a little foolish. Don’t listen to your fears.”

  Go ahead and be happy, is what Willow heard, and after the other woman returned home and she got another glass of wine and watched the bustle of the brew pub as the crowd around her grew larger, she was. Then she decided that people watching and a couple of desultory attempts at pinball weren’t entertaining enough, so she sought out Cooper.

  When she didn’t see him in the main area, she ventured down the dim hallway toward his office. The door was half-cracked and she was a few steps away when a man called her name.

  She turned, blinked. “Brad? What are you doing here?”

  “I called T.J. He told me where Rachel had gone.”

  Meaning he’d discovered where Willow could be found. What was he after now? Vexed, she pursed her lips and attempted to size him up.

  Reluctant sympathy twinged. Had he lost weight? His face definitely appeared thinner and there was a tightness around his mouth and a bleakness to his expression. “Is something the matter?”

  “Can we go somewhere and talk?”

  She glanced toward Cooper’s office. She’d been hoping to entice him to sit with her a while. “I really don’t want to leave right now, Brad. And I don’t understand what we might have to talk about.”

  Her ex ran both hands over his short hair, muttered something under his breath, then he sank to one knee. “Willow—”

  “What are you doing?” Panic filled her chest. “Get up!”

  He squared his shoulders. “I didn’t do it like this the first time. But I will now.”

  “What? No!” She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him up.

  Instead, he took her hand in both of his and held it fast. His gaze sought hers. “Will you marry me?”

  Oh, God. What was going on? “Brad…”

  “We’ll set the date right now. As a matter of fact, we can get married tonight. We’ll…we’ll fly to Vegas or Reno, somewhere like that. There’s no need to wait another day.”

  She stared at him, bewildered as well as alarmed. “You don’t want to do this.”

  “I don’t want to not do this. I want to—”

  “Not be with me,” a new voice said. Ben Gillespie joined them in the narrow hall. Dark, handsome, and clearly miserable. “I get it. You only needed to say so, Brad.”

  Her mouth agape, Willow looked between the two men. “What is going on?”

  Brad rose now, still holding her hand, his gaze focused on her. “I need to talk to you, Will. Only you. I have the ring in my pocket and—”

  A pained sound from Ben had them both glancing his way. “Brad,” he said, looking even more wretched.

  Swallowing hard, Brad turned away from the other man. “Can’t we be alone?” he asked Willow. “Please?”

  Her mind spun. While she was trying to make sense of things, the dark-haired man pivoted and strode off, practically running.

  Now Brad choked out his own noise, but then squeezed her fingers. “We can have what you’ve always wanted. Give me another chance. Please, Will,” he said again. “Let’s go talk—”

  “In here.”

  Her head whipped to where Cooper stood in the doorway of his office, clearly a reluctant witness. “You can have all the time you need in here.”

  Before she could protest, he brushed past them and Brad towed her into the no
w-empty room and shut the door with a firm snick.

  It gave her enough time to start putting pieces together. She sank into a chair and rubbed her face. “Am I interpreting this all wrong?” she wondered aloud.

  “You don’t need to interpret anything,” Brad said. “I’m telling you plainly that I love you, I’ve always loved you, and I want to marry you. We’ll be one big happy family.”

  She glanced up at him. “Family? Yes. Happy? Um, Brad, I’m starting to understand why that would be a no.”

  “Mom and Dad love you. They think you’re perfect for me. They always have.”

  “First, are you listening to yourself?” Willow shook her head. “Second, have I been completely blind all these years?”

  With his back to the door, Brad sank to the floor, drawing up his knees. He rested his arms on them, then lowered his head. “It’s…I…” he said, his words muffled.

  Willow couldn’t unravel her own tangled feelings. Despite that, she couldn’t ignore his obvious distress. “You like men,” she said, then drew a breath. “Okay.”

  “It’s only Ben,” he said, then grimaced. “Or maybe…I don’t know. But I love you, too! We could have a good life together. Everything you’ve always dreamed of.”

  “Everything your parents dreamed of for you, too,” she said, the picture coming into sharper focus. “God, Brad. This isn’t the right thing for any of us. Especially for you and for me.”

  He looked up, his eyes red-rimmed. “I never wanted to hurt you. Or Dad. Mom might be okay with me and Ben, but Dad…”

  Willow frowned. As far as she knew, Roger Faber had never made disparaging remarks in that regard. “You might be underestimating him.”

  “Can’t we just go back to the way things were?” he asked, plaintive. “My ring on your finger, our future mapped out?”

  A future designed to fill all the holes in her confidence and in her life. But she was doing that on her own now, by building a business, and by finding other companionship, both friends and lovers.

  Brad came to his feet, his expression resolute. “Willow, it could be just the same as it was…before.”

  “Before you knew what it was like to truly be in love,” she replied. She’d seen that with her own eyes, had felt it, now, herself. “You want to go back to that after experiencing a full-fledged, passionate romance?”

  “You really think that I…that me and Ben?” His expression contained both woe and a hopeful joy.

  Her heart cracked and tears welled up behind her eyes. What mistakes a lack of honesty could lead to. What pain and potential lasting damage.

  She rubbed her chest with her palm. “You need to be talking to him,” she advised. “Go find that man and hash this out.”

  Brad pulled in a long breath, then nodded. “God, I’m sorry, Will.”

  “For using me?” Yes, she felt that a little. More than a little.

  His mouth turned down. “I didn’t see it like that. Though now…” His hand reached for her, then dropped to his side. “I’m sorry. Maybe someday we can be friends again.”

  She managed a smile. “You’ll always be the boy who taught me to drive in the Red Vixen.”

  His laugh sounded rusty. “Right.” He turned, reaching for the doorknob, then turned back. “You looked surprised about…about Ben. I thought for sure that Cooper would have told you.”

  Her brows shot together. “Told me what?”

  “He saw us together.” He hesitated. “Together together, at the condo complex. We had a conversation about it.”

  Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. “He didn’t say a word to me.”

  Brad nodded. “Good man.”

  Or untruthful one. Willow rubbed her chest again as the last of the happiness she’d brought with her into Fun & Games left her in a discordant wheeze. Like an accordion giving up all its air. Waa aah.

  Chapter Thirteen

  With a vicious stab, Cooper got the hoe under a clump of weeds, then pitched it in the direction of Big Ed.

  The homeless man ducked, both hands going up to protect his head, even as the clod of dirt and dry vegetation landed at his feet.

  Crap. “Sorry there, big guy. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Ed sent him a suspicious look from under his grimy, moth-eaten beanie, then leaned over to swipe up the chunk and drop it into the tall bin designed for greens. He readjusted his stained and ragged overcoat with exaggerated movements. “I’m ready now.”

  “You could take off the coat, Ed. It’s like eighty degrees.”

  The other man ignored him. “Ready.”

  Without another word, Cooper turned, and went after the next patch with the same ferocity, hoping that clearing the empty lot behind the brew pub would work to clear out his shit mood as well. It was past time to reclaim his old laid-back attitude.

  The next lob to Big Ed was four times softer. The guy actually caught it, not even blinking at the shower of dirt that landed on his shirt and fell to his shoes.

  Cooper watched him make another deposit in the bin. “Good job.”

  Ed looked up. “You’re going to give me lunch money?”

  “Yeah, Ed. I’m going to pay you for the hours you work today, right? And I’m going to give you extra for lunch. That’s what we agree on.”

  They toiled together for another thirty minutes, making slow progress against the hard soil that still managed to produce a hardy selection of pesky weeds. When they took a water break, Cooper led them through the gate in the fence which opened into the alley at the back of Fun & Games. They stood in the shade there, guzzling liquid. Sweat and exercise had only served to further tighten his neck and shoulder muscles.

  Damn it.

  He glanced at Ed’s pile of belongings parked beside the nearby dumpster. He’d found the homeless man there that morning, and supposed he’d probably slept in the space. During the summer months, camping out was survivable, but he didn’t know how Big Ed made it through winter.

  “What do you do in December, Ed?” he asked now. “Or during the rains?”

  “I have a sister,” he said, tucking the water bottle in one of the pockets of his overcoat. “I can stay there when I want.”

  Cooper didn’t ask why he didn’t always want to have a roof over his head. Ed’s thinking didn’t run on the same path as most people. He glanced up at the camera he’d installed over the rear exit of the brew pub. “Have you seen anyone else hanging out back here overnight, Ed?” Maddox’s warning had caused Cooper to install the device the very next day.

  “I saw two horses.”

  “Uh…”

  “There’s four horses of the apocalypse. I saw two of them.”

  “Ah.” Big Ed had spent a lot of time at Sunday school, it seemed, and often shared bits from the Bible.

  “There’s ten commandments and you shouldn’t be unkind to anyone.”

  “Right.” Cooper cleared his throat. “Words to live by.”

  They returned to work, until they were both streaked with dirt and sweat. Or, in Ed’s case, streaked with more dirt and sweat. “Time for lunch,” he told the other man.

  Big Ed took the ten dollar bill and promised to be back in an hour. “Unless my sister comes. She said she might.”

  Frowning, Cooper handed the other man his morning wages too, just in case his sister or something else caused Ed to be a no-show for the afternoon. An excellent idea, he decided, as he noticed the man collect his belongings before trudging off.

  Without Big Ed as partial distraction, Cooper’s mood lowered with a vengeance. Food held no appeal, so he returned to the field, shoving on leather gloves then picking up the hoe again. He scowled at something broadleaved and evil, then lifted the tool, ready to attack.

  “Cooper.”

  He halted, mid-swing. No. Not now, not when his temper was all red hues and jagged edges. Breathing slow, he kept his back turned to the newcomer, to Willow, hoping she might take the hint and go away.

  Leave him until he could sm
ile at her as if merely hearing her voice didn’t hurt.

  Without looking, he could tell she drew closer, he was that attuned to her. “What are you doing out here?” she asked. “Your staff told me where to find you.”

  He kept his head down, and poked at the dry dirt, disrupting its top scale. “I bought this lot. The plan is to connect it to Fun & Games. We’ll turn it into a pair of sand volleyball courts, string lights, have outdoor seating.”

  She didn’t say a word, but he could imagine her designer brain at work.

  “If it takes off like I hope, we’ll organize rec leagues for evenings and weekends.”

  “Cabanas too, maybe,” she said in a musing tone. “A tiki bar.”

  “There’s an idea.” Turning, he found he could dredge up a smile after all.

  But it died immediately. She looked impossibly fresh and sweet in a little dress that was splashes of bright spring colors on a white background.

  In contrast, he only felt more grubby and ill-tempered.

  Unsuited for her.

  “You’re a genius at this kind of thing,” Willow said, glancing about as if picturing the courts, the lights, the balls sailing over nets. “You’ve got a way.”

  “Gotta keep myself amused.”

  She gave him a sharp look. “Why do you do that?”

  “What?”

  “Make light of everything.”

  That was his talent! His calling. The “way” she’d just spoken of. Making light meant nothing got heavy enough to smother you if it went wrong. This required long-winded explanations? It seemed completely logical to him.

  Preferable.

  “You didn’t call or text last night,” she said, changing tacks.

  She was clever that way.

  “Did I break a promise?” he asked, working to keep his tone mild.

  Her arms crossed over her chest. “You left the pub while I was still in your office.”

  Yeah. Where she’d been sequestered with good ol’ Brad. “I’d been putting in more than my share of hours. The staff had it handled.” Now that her hands were tucked into her elbows, he couldn’t tell if she wore a ring on her finger. “Did you, uh, patch things up with the farm boy?”