by Tijan
from changing, or pulling on dry clothes, or telling her about his dad. It was causing a physical ache in her stomach. She rested back against the wall, and forced herself to remain there. She wouldn’t cross the room. Would not. No… She found herself leaning toward him, away from the wall.
Jonah was talking as he dropped his wet boxers.
Dani almost fell over.
He didn’t notice, pulling on the clean pair. They were baggy, but he tucked everything in as he pulled his wet jeans back on. The dry shirt was next, and once he was covered, Dani slumped back against the wall. She felt like she’d run a 5K, right then and there.
He was saying, “…he’s not here to see me or Aiden. He’s here because of the Quandrys.”
“What?!”
“Yeah.” He frowned. “Weren’t you listening?”
She groaned. Would he have? But all she said was, “Say it again.”
“My dad’s here because of the Quandrys. He’s working with them. I’m assuming they asked him to come in to talk to me, get me to change my mind so they can build on the river. It’s not going to happen, but they can try.”
“Boone’s here.”
“I thought they had their own thing tonight.”
So did she. “He’s here. I saw him drive up myself. I was sitting in your car.” Speaking of, “How’d you get here?”
He smirked. “Hawk gave me a ride. He had to check on something, but he’s going to come back. My sister tends to have a lot of good-looking friends. He wouldn’t miss this party for anything.” He cocked his head to the side, crossing the room to her. “How are you with your ex being here?”
She knew he didn’t mean Jake. “It is what it is.”
His hand slid around her neck, cupping the back. “You’re okay with it?”
Was she? She was having a hard time concentrating with him being so close. She could feel his heat. All she had to do was reach a hand out, just a few inches, and she’d be touching him back. Or she could lean forward, her body wavering. She would close her eyes, and she knew Jonah would do the rest.
She forced herself back. “I’ll be fine, but you need to step away because I’m losing the will not to touch you back.”
She didn’t dare look up and meet his gaze. She breathed out, concentrating on just breathing, but she meant it. If he stayed there, she’d lose the battle in the next two seconds. And then it was time’s up, and she found herself going toward him, just an inch. Her hand touched his stomach, feeling his muscles tighten under her touch, and she knew how the rest of those muscles were cut, all deep valleys, all there for her to run her fingers over.
“Okay. No.” She pushed him back. “Leave, or when I take my clothes off, I won’t be pulling any of your sister’s dry ones on.”
He laughed, sounding strained. “I’ll be downstairs.” His lips touched her forehead and she had to will herself not to watch him go. She waited until the door opened, then closed, before she almost collapsed onto the bed.
Too much. Jonah was damned near a weapon himself.
A small grin tugged on her lips. She was looking forward to the end of the night, and with that thought, she sat up. Clothes to wear. She needed some.
Then she heard a knock, and the door swung open. Boone stood there, and he was soaking wet, too.
“Oh!”
“Hey.” She straightened from the bed.
He only stood there, taking in her wet state before looking back to the hallway. “I saw Bannon leave a moment ago.”
“Uh, yeah.” Her lips puckered together. “We were both outside when it started raining. I was just going to change clothes, too.”
He nodded, his jaw clenching at the same time. “I see.” His eyes were so cold.
“Look, Boone—”
“No.” His head clipped to the side. “No.” His nostrils flared. Then he left.
She scrambled to her feet. “Wha—” But he was gone. She changed quickly. Boone was angry. He had reason, but he didn’t at the same time. He knew she was with Jonah. There were other conversations that needed to happen between them, conversations that she knew both were putting off.
She was searching for him when Jenny seemed to materialize out of thin air. “I’m looking for Mitch. Do you know where he is?”
“You’re not the only one.” she murmered.
She was looking around, biting down on her lip. “He went out to get my purse. I forgot it in the car, but he was drenched when he came back in. I told him to dry his clothes before he caught pneumonia.” Jenny laughed a sickening sound of delight. “Heaven’s sake—I wouldn’t want pneumonia. I don’t even want to get a cold while I’m on vacation.”
“He’s—” She lied. “He’s gone downstairs. There’s a clothes dryer down there.”
“Oh. Thank you!” But she stayed put. Her eyes switched to Dani’s face, suddenly a whole lot more attentive than Dani thought she could be.
“Is there anything else?”
“I know who you are.”
“So do I.”
Her top lip curled up in disdain. “Mitch told me that the two of you used to go together, when he was in those third-world countries. How he got his heart broken by some slut and you were just a rebound girl. Did you know about the other girl? I don’t want you to start thinking that you can have him back. Mitch might not see it, but I know exactly what type of girl you are.”
Dani shifted back on her heels. “And what’s that?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“You followed him here.” She leaned closer, her face way too close to Dani’s, and she whispered, “And that was the wrong thing to do.”
“You’re an idiot.”
Her hand was itching to reach up and push Jenny’s face away, but knowing this moron, she’d say she was being assaulted. She grew heated, and before she could do something she’d regret, she turned her back and pushed through the crowd. The farther from her, the better.
Turning into the kitchen, Dani stopped short. Aiden was in complete costume. She wore a chimp suit with a pink bowtie on her tail.
“Dani!” Aiden exclaimed. “I knew Fancy Nancy would be a hit with you.”
Dani pulled the soaked flamingo off her head. The pink head was drooping down. It looked more like a pink drowned rat. Then she stuffed Fancy Nancy back on. “Yes. Yes, she is.” Dani accepted the beer that Aiden held out. “Where’s your brother?”
“He headed downstairs.” Aiden’s smile slipped for a moment, but she brought it back with a forced attempt. “He ditched you tonight, didn’t he? Don’t take it personally. Jonah’s a bit riled with Daddy Warbuck’s arrival. Me—I can let our father’s condescension slide off my shoulders, but it bothers Jonah. I’m sure he just wants to forget right now in a poker game.” Aiden moved as someone reached around them for a bag of chips. “Which means that I can’t play poker tonight.”
“How come?”
“Jonah always beats me at poker, and if he’s playing seriously tonight—he’ll be playing all night,” Aiden answered. “Which means that I’m going to be playing hostess all night. No way am I going to lose money to my brother, though I love him wholeheartedly, but money is money.”
So Jonah was a poker player? Why wasn’t she surprised? “Where’s Kate?”
“Probably wherever Robbie is not. If not with him, then at a table downstairs, too. If she doesn’t catch the first round of games, then she just creates her own game. Kate’s not that good at poker, but she likes to think she is. I told Jonah to be nice to her. Jonah—he can be ruthless sometimes.”
Ruthless? Dani tried to imagine it, and she could. She shivered, remembering their time upstairs. She was wondering now if she should’ve just kissed him and to hell with everyone else. She glanced over her shoulder.
“Looking for your ex-fiancé?” Aiden caught the look and misjudged.
“You know?”
“You told Jake and Kate. That means the whole town knows, but for what it’s worth, I didn’t hear it from either
of them. Dad started in on Jonah when we picked him up from the airport. He was getting interrogated about you the entire car ride to Robbie’s house.”
“Really?”
Dani’s gut dropped to her feet. That wasn’t good, not at all.
Aiden touched her hand. “I’m ducking for cover with this one. The big guns were pulled out when they called in our dad. There’s no way that I want to attract his attention. He’s like a wolf when he gets something in his head. I had to literally bite my tongue the entire car ride. I swallowed some blood.”
At that moment, the windows lit up as lightning flashed. The rain seemed to hit the windows harder, and she heard the wind whipping against the shutters.
Aiden murmured, “The storm outside’s picking up.”
The storm wasn’t just outside. Dani gazed around the crowd. She had a feeling there was going to be some thunderstorms inside, as well.
The party divided into two groups: the players and the watchers.
Dani was a watcher, and she sat alone from her group of friends. Kate played with her emotions, getting excited and not hiding her disappointment when she lost, but bowed out before she lost too much. She became a watcher next to Dani.
Aiden circulated the room, played the hostess to perfection. She patted Kate and Dani on their arms whenever she swept past them. It was a nice and loving pat, as if to say, “Hey, how are you doing? I can’t stay and talk, but thinking of you.”
Jonah was winning, which didn’t seem to be a surprise to most people in the room. Dani overheard a few conversations. Most expected him to win. She studied him, and wasn’t surprised why. He showed nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Then a spot opened at a different table, and Jake sat down.
A second guy left, and the dealer signaled for one more to join.
Boone stepped forward.
Jake frowned, but didn’t say anything. Everyone from Jonah’s table looked over. A new player got attention, and no one knew what to expect. Jonah skimmed over him, the unreadable mask still on his face. His eyes flicked to Dani once, but that was his only reaction.
Jenny smiled proudly behind Boone. She flicked her hair over her shoulder, giving Dani a haughty look, then smoothed a hand down his arm. She began to rub at his shoulders.
Kate leaned closer to Dani. “She’s a piece of work.”
Dani didn’t comment. Jenny was annoying, but she was the least of her worries at that moment. Hearing giggling, she lifted her gaze again. Julia was next to Jenny, and the two were whispering together like best friends.
Julia wasn’t normally a giggler, but Dani caught the martini in her sister’s hands.
“Wonder who’s holding Kathryn’s hand,” Kate muttered underneath her breath. “Isn’t that the sole purpose of Julia’s life?”
Dani shook her head, changing the subject. “Of the two, who’s going to win? Jake or Boone?”
“That’s the guy?”
“That’s the guy.”
“Wow.” Kate was raking him up and down. “I didn’t realize it was him. I thought it was the other guy when we were at Mae’s Grill.” But she approved. Dani heard her friend’s appreciation. “He’s not as hot as Jonah, and I don’t know. Jake’s actually pretty good at poker, but your new guy looks pretty good, too. He looks locked down.”
“He’s not my guy, and he’s angry.”
“How can you tell?”
She remembered how cold he’d been upstairs. “I just know.”
“Judging by how he’s handling himself already, he looks like a contender. He could beat Jake. Too bad Jonah’s at the other table. I think the best table would be you against all three of them. You know their tells.” Her voice picked up. She was getting excited at the thought. “Do you know how to play poker? We could get you in. You come off as this nice girl, but you’ve got an unpredictable streak. Jake doesn’t know what you’re going to do from one day to the next, and I’m guessing neither does your ex. And Jonah—you have to be unpredictable for him to stick around as much as he has. Jonah likes challenges. I love the guy, but he gets bored with girls.”
“I’m not playing poker.” She didn’t know how, but even if she did, wild horses wouldn’t have been able to drag her there. She coughed, tugging at her shirt’s collar. “New topic, please?”
Robbie descended the stairs at that moment. “We can talk about my screwed-up life.” Kate glared at him.
He glanced uneasily around the room until his eyes settled on Kate and Dani. He didn’t move toward them. No one budged, and the crowd clapped as Boone won his first hand.
Jonah won at his table.
Aiden stepped next to Kate and Dani. Her face soured. “I could totally take some of those morons, but no—Jonah has to play tonight. It’s not fair.”
“Why don’t you play until you two have to sit together?”
“Because I’d want to go all the way, and we’d just meet at the championship table. It wouldn’t be good. Trust me.” Someone called her name, and she gave both a forced smile. “And I’m off, playing hostess again!”
“Toot toot.” Kate laughed.
Aiden brandished a hand over her shoulder. “Toot toot!”
Dani didn’t ask. She knew an inside joke when she heard it.
“Look.” Kate tapped Dani’s arm. “Jake’s going all out in the next move. I bet you twenty to nothing.”
And he did. The crowd oohed and aahed. He won the first pot. The loser left, and it was Boone, Jake, and a bearded older guy. There were another three rounds before the bearded guy was forced to leave.
Boone won the fourth pot.
A smattering of clapping and congratulations sounded from Jonah’s table. He was deemed the winner, and he stood to stretch. Dani caught his gaze. He looked from her to Jake and Boone’s table. She tried to read him, but nothing showed. He nodded to her, then headed up the stairs. Dani frowned, unsure if she should follow him, but she stayed. She was going home with Jonah. They could talk then. She wanted to see who won between Jake and Boone.
“Okay.” Kate stole Dani’s attention again. “You see this hand—Jake has to be bluffing. He’s coming across as if he’s got a pair of aces, but I bet that he’s got a pair of sixes. He has to. Your guy is cool.”
Dani gritted her teeth. He wasn’t her guy.
Kate kept talking. “I don’t know what he has, but it’s got to be better than Jake’s hand, and yet—Jake’s still pushing.”
“Why do you think he’s got a pair of sixes?”
“Because when they flipped over the first two cards, Jake tapped the table.”
“What’s the other card?”
“A king.”
“Jake’s got a full house,” Dani proclaimed.
“How in hell do you know that?”
“Because he’s got his full house face on. He looks like that when he’s about to burst from the inside. He’s excited right now, really excited.”
“He’s not making a move.”
“He’s playing Boone.”
“What?” Kate frowned and said again, “What?”
“Jake’s smarter than people think he is. He plays dumb sometimes, and he’s thinking that Boone will make that mistake.”
“Will he?”
“Boone knows that I’d never stay with someone stupid. He’s not going to fall for it.”
Kate’s eyebrows arched high. “Someone’s going to win because Jake just went all in.”
“That’s a stupid move. I don’t know poker that well, but I know that’s a stupid move.”
Boone looked up and found Dani among the crowd. His eyes
