Betting on Hope

Chapter 16



Hope walked down the hallway to the casino so fast that Tanner had to make an effort to keep up.

“Hey, Hope, is everything all right?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said. “I’m just ducking in here for a minute.” She headed toward the women’s restroom, pushed the door open, and disappeared. Tanner looked at the closed door.

The uncles ambled up.

“Where’s Hope?” Sharp Eddie asked.

Tanner nodded toward the restroom. “Did she seem okay to you?” he asked. “I’m not sure she’s okay.”

“I’m not going in there again,” Weary said. “I went in the last time. I don’t exactly mind it, but I think it’s somebody else’s turn.”

“We’ll give her a minute,” Marty decided.

“What?” Tanner asked. “What’s going on here?”

Marty shrugged. Looked away. Looked at Tanner. Thought about it. “Hope ain’t exactly on good terms with birthdays,” he finally said.

“She did pretty good with this one,” Pete Wysniewski said. “That I saw.”

Marty nodded. “She thinks the world of that little girl,” he said. “Plus, I think she likes having us here. In spite of everything.”

“Until the end there,” Weary said. “The dog.”

Everybody nodded.

“Will somebody tell me what the hell is going on around here?” Tanner said, exasperated.

“Hope had her heart broke on her birthday,” Marty said. “A long time ago, when she was just a kid. She took it real hard. And birthdays been pretty sensitive ever since.”

Hope had looked very sad at the end.

“What happened?”

Marty shook his head. “If she ain’t told you, I’m not sure she wants you to know,” he said. “And I’m not sure you gotta know it for this gig.”

“If she can’t snap out of it, she could mess up her card playing,” Tanner argued. “At least for today.”

“Then we’ll deal with it,” Marty said.



Hope dried her eyes in the restroom and checked her mascara. Seventeen years later, and she could still bawl at a family birthday party. What a joke.

She’d gotten out just in time—before she embarrassed herself and ruined Amber’s birthday. If she’d done that, she never would have forgiven herself.

She peered in the mirror. Her eyes were a little red, but there was nothing she could do about that. At least the tear stains were gone from her face. She was about as ready as she’d ever get.

Someone knocked on the door. Hope smiled, still feeling a little shaky. One of the uncles. They were worried about her. Well, they knew the story.

Tanner stuck his head in the door. “Everything okay in here, Hope?”

She blinked, a little surprised to see Tanner. “Just coming,” she said. She stroked on a bit of lipstick, glanced at herself again in the mirror, and headed for the door.

Time to suck it up.



“Tell me something upbeat and cheerful,” Hope said to Tanner as they headed toward the casino. “Something that will make me feel strong and confident and help me win.” Marty had split off, saying he had to do some “research,” leaving Tanner to coordinate the poker phone bank, and the other uncles had ranged ahead and were even now leaving the Desert Dunes for other nearby casinos. Tanner would stake out the Dunes card room.

“You look fantastic,” Tanner began.

No compliments. Not from Tanner. No good can come from this.

“You already said that,” Hope said, realizing almost to her chagrin that she did feel more upbeat and cheerful when Tanner complimented her. “I want a confidence boost to be based on something real.”

“How fantastic you look is real,” Tanner said. “But if you don’t want to hear that, then play to win. Then you will win. And that should give you all the confidence you could want.”

He was right. She just needed to go out there and play to win.

“Which table?” she asked.

Tanner glanced around. “That one,” he said, nodding to one.

“Why that one?”

“The guy on the end is looking at his cards too long. It means he’s got a weak hand, and he doesn’t know how to play it.”

“I’m on it,” Hope said, and went to get a seat at the table.



Tanner went back to the bar and ordered a cup of coffee from Skip.

“Watch out! We’re in a danger zone here,” Skip said as he brought over the pot. “Everybody stay low.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Tanner asked, looking around for Frelly. Had Skip seen the FBI agent in the house? That was all he needed.

“You’re still with that blonde,” Skip said, pouring the coffee. “That’s gotta be uncharted territory for you. Two days running and you haven’t hit any landmines yet.”

Tanner rolled his eyes. “Cut me some slack here,” he said. “We’re not dating.”

“That explains it, then,” Skip said, moving off. “Still plenty of time for crashing and burning.”

Tanner shook his head. When had he ever crashed and burned with a woman? Every dating relationship he’d ever had—and okay, there’d been a few, but they’d all been brief—short excursions that had ended smoothly, coasting quietly to a stop.

But Skip was right about one thing. This—whatever it was he felt for Hope. This intense awareness. Yearning. Desire. Madness, even. This feeling—he could see himself crashing and burning over it. That aching sadness in her eyes. He’d never seen that look in a nice woman’s eyes at a kid’s birthday party. He’d give a lot to know what caused it, and to make sure she never felt it again. And to punch out the lights of whoever had put it there.

He frowned, watching Hope play cards. What was she doing? She’d pursed her lips and folded, after she’d bet the first two rounds.

He watched as the guy two seats over glanced at her. So now that bozo had her figured out, did he?

Maybe it was a ploy. Maybe she’d done that to throw off the other players.

Tanner watched as Hope went down another hand. And then another. And then another.

No reason to panic. She wasn’t in deep. But she wasn’t playing with any spark, either. She was showing tells all over the board.

Tanner dug out his phone and called her.

“Hope, get out of the game and come over here. We have to talk.”

“I’m fine,” she said. “Really.”

“Really, you’re not. Get out now. You’re wasting your time and your money. I’m telling you.”

He watched as she banged the phone shut, but a second later she cashed out of the game and joined him at the bar.

“What?” she said, frowning. She sounded irritated. In that white dress sprinkled with orange butterflies she looked like a flower garden filled with crabgrass—really crabby crabgrass.

“Your heart’s not in it,” he said. “Time to take a break.”

“I can’t take a break! I need to play.”

“You need to win. Playing like you’re playing now won’t get you where you need to go.”

“What’s wrong with my game?”

“Are you kidding? You weren’t focused. Your play was sloppy. You have to be better than that at the thirty dollar tables. Those players are too good for easy mistakes.”

“You call yelling at me helping?”

He sighed.

Hope deflated. “You’re right,” she said. “I was playing badly. I didn’t mean to snap your head off. I’m just upset. But I can’t stop now.”

“There’s a time to play, and there’s a time to sit back and count your winnings. Take the afternoon off. You’ll be better for it.”

“How badly was I playing?”

He shrugged. “You’ve played a lot better. It’s okay. We’ll do something else to change the pace. Something fun.”

“You want to stop coaching me so we can have fun?” Hope asked. “I’m completely anxious now. How are we supposed to have fun?”

He grinned at her as he took out his phone. “Loaded question,” he said. “I’m not answering it.” He called Weary to tell him that they were taking the afternoon off. When he’d finished, he looked at Hope.

“So, what should we do?”

“I don’t know,” Hope said. “I don’t have any ideas.”

“In that case, we’ll go bowling,” Tanner said. “I have to go home first and get my shoes.”

“Bowling?” Hope said. “You have shoes?”



Tanner pulled his pickup into the driveway of his house and parked. Hope looked at the house. It was an older, ranch-style house, nothing special, in a nothing-special middle-class neighborhood. The only thing that set it apart was its landscaping: desert plants in graceful arrangements replaced grass, and a gently curved path of crushed stone and wood chips meandered up to the front door. The yard was pretty.

“You live here?”

“You don’t like it?”

“I do. I just thought a professional poker player would have something…flashier. The landscaping’s great.”

“Thanks. I bought this house a long time ago when I could afford it, and then my dad and I fixed it up over the years. Now it suits us. You want to come in?”

Tanner had turned off the truck’s engine two minutes ago and already it was sweltering inside. Hope’s back and arms felt gritty with sweat, and her dress was sticking to her thighs. “Sure,” Hope said, as she hopped out. As she walked down the path, she admired the cacti and other succulents. Everything was thriving.

“Does your dad live with you, then?”

“When he and my mom retired, they moved to a place about a mile from here. It’s just my daughter and me in the house. She’s off to college next week. UCLA. Swimming scholarship.”

He walked up the path and checked the mailbox before unlocking the front door.

“Won’t your daughter be upset that I’m here?”

Tanner turned in the doorway and grinned at her.

“She wants me to date,” he said. “She’s afraid I’ll grow old alone.”

Hope felt herself blush. It was irrational. She wanted no part of Tanner, and yet, here she was, anyway. And here he was, talking about dating. What was she doing, going to Tanner’s house and maybe meeting his daughter? Was it too late to run?

Tanner laughed as if he could read her mind and stepped inside.

“Come on in,” he said. “I’ll just be a minute. Take a look around.”

As soon as he stepped away from the doorway, Hope gasped. Tanner hadn’t just fixed up the house—he’d transformed it.

The whole back of the ranch-style house was a wall of glass. And outside, most of the back yard was a pool.

And what a pool. Long and narrow, with a ladder mounted at one end and stairs at the other, clearly it was used for lap swimming. But Hope could see a water garden at the far end. Lilies and lotus flowers floated on the surface, and behind them, water flowed straight down over a copper screen in a gentle waterfall. A vaguely Japanese-looking trellis in dark wood arched over most of the pool and part of the yard, providing dappled shade for swimmers and the plants that were grouped in earth-toned jars and bowls around the patio.

“Oh wow,” Hope said, moving toward the glass.

“You like it?” Tanner said, watching her reaction.

“It’s fantastic. You and your dad built this?”

“Yeah. Go on out and look around if you want.”

Hope unlatched the patio doors and slid them open, feeling a rush of warm air. The potted grasses waved gracefully in the breeze, and some of the shaded plants had rich blooms, which cast off a heady fragrance. Sections of tiled patio were interspersed with wood chip walkways, softening the surfaces. Streets sounds were muted by the gentle trickle of the waterfall. Comfortable-looking chairs were grouped around a table. It looked like a spa. Like a resort. It was the most beautiful, relaxing backyard Hope had ever seen. She wondered how Tanner could ever tear himself away to play cards in those noisy, crowded, smoky casino card rooms.

“This is so beautiful,” she said. “Did you study architecture?”

Tanner smiled, still watching her face. “I wanted a nice pool. That’s how it started. I did some research. My dad helped me build it. We needed a pool company to dig the hole and line it, of course.”

“Of course.” Hope turned and smiled at him. “We have a hot springs above our ranch. It’s nice, but it’s not developed at all. It’s just how the water gets trapped in the rocks. It’s nothing like this. This is incredible.”

Tanner tilted his head toward the water. “Would you like to go for a swim?”

Hope’s eyes widened before she shook her head. “Oh, no thanks. I don’t have a suit.”

“Well, technically you don’t need a suit to swim. You just really need the suit for modesty. So if you want to swim, we could figure something out. I could find some old clothes you could wear. Or I could promise not to look.”

He looked so hopeful that she had to laugh. “Get your bowling stuff together,” she said. “I’ll just wait here.”

“Okay. Let me know if you change your mind.” He turned and went back into the house. Hope walked to the edge of the pool and flipped off her sandal. She swished the water with her foot, feeling it splash up the calf of her leg.

This back yard is fantastic. It was what she imagined heaven would be like, if there was a heaven. The space was so gentle, so calming. The water was almost as still as a mirror, inviting her in.

Hope rubbed her arm. Her skin felt sticky and grainy, her pretty dress was wilted and clingy. She wished she’d brought her bathing suit, or at least a change of clothes. But the water splashing against her feet and legs felt great. She closed her eyes as she stirred the water with her foot, feeling it cascade down her bare legs. Bliss.