Drinks were served, cards were dealt, and Alicia wasn’t about to tell them just how good she was at poker. Poker was a weekly Riley family event. She’d learned to play when she was a kid, plus she’d played plenty in college. She might not be a Vegas pro, but she was shrewd, and she often won.
After about two hours of play, she had a sizeable amount of chips in front of her and four very irritated men glaring in her direction.
“Do you take weekend jaunts to Vegas on some casino’s dime?” Trevor asked her, finishing a beer and signaling to the waiter for another round for the table.
Sitting comfortably, Alicia offered up her typical poker face as she scanned her cards. Two jacks and an ace. The dealer had a jack on the table. Sweet. “No, I just played in college. I’m probably a little rusty.”
“Rusty, my ass,” Garrett grumbled, throwing some chips in to bet.
When the dealer pulled up an ace, Alicia stayed perfectly still while she put in her chips and waited to see what everyone else was going to do. Gray folded; the rest of them bet.
“I’m all in,” she said, pushing her chips into the middle of the table.
“Fuck,” Drew said, tossing his cards on the pile.
“I’m folding, too,” Trevor said.
“I’ll see what you’ve got.” Garrett went in with his bet. “Show me.”
“Full house, aces and jacks.”
“Sonofabitch. Three queens,” Garrett said, flinging his cards toward the dealer.
The others laughed at him. “Did you purposely bring Alicia to play poker with us, knowing she was going to kick our asses?”
“If I’d known she was that good, I’d have never invited her,” Garrett said. “Did you see the hand I had?”
Alicia grinned and dragged the winning chips over to her side. “Thanks, guys.”
They broke to eat, and while the guys ate steak, she contented herself with an amazing tofu and nut salad. Then they went back to poker, where she tried hard not to kill them. Amazingly, they won some money back. Not much, but some. She still won a lot.
“You really are good at this,” Drew said.
She shrugged. “I had a lot of play in college. And I have a very shrewd poker-playing family.”
“Apparently,” Garrett said, rolling his shoulders.
They’d been at this for seven hours. She finally stood and stepped behind Garrett, resting her hands on his shoulders. She felt the knots there when she pressed into his muscles. “As fun as it’s been divesting you all of your money, I need to abuse your friend here for a bit before I fall asleep at the table.”
A chorus of ooohs and catcalls went up. She rolled her eyes.
“Assholes,” Garrett said, then pushed his chair back.
“We might come to the door and listen,” Drew said.
“You can come watch if you’d like,” she said.
“Garrett. Did you know she was such an exhibitionist?” Drew called after them as they walked away.
“You have to forgive my friends,” Garrett said as they headed up to the room. “Actually, don’t forgive them. They’re pricks.”
She laughed. “They’re fun.”
“Yeah, they are. And you’ve been great about it. I appreciate it.”
“It was no problem. I’ve enjoyed it.” She slid her key card in the slot to her room. “I’ll just grab the heating pad and some lotion, and I’ll be right in.”
“Okay.”
She changed into more comfortable clothes, piled up her stuff, then knocked on his adjoining door. He opened it, already in his sweats and naked from the waist up, which again caused that jolt of awareness she tried not to be so—aware of, but the female part of her was finding it harder and harder to disengage.
“You all get along so well. Was it always like that?” she asked as they waited for the heating pad to do its job.
Garrett laughed as he settled in against the headboard and pillows. “No. Not always. Young guys with hard heads and a lot of testosterone. You can imagine what rooming with those knuckleheads was like the first year. It took us awhile to find our footing.”
“I can imagine. But you’re such good friends now, so you obviously found a way.”
“Yeah, eventually. It was pretty much sink or swim when you have to live together. So we had to learn to . . . live together.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You were all away from home with no one to depend on but each other. It probably didn’t take long for the four of you to bond.”
He looked at her. “You have a pretty keen insight for someone who wasn’t there.”
She shrugged. “I went to college, too, you know. I had the same experience. College life is like being dumped on an alien planet. You feel so alone, and the first thing you do is grab on to whatever lifelines you can. For me, it was my roommate. We stuck together through those first lonely months and became good friends. We’re still friends today. I imagine it’s the same for you and your guys. The fact you all played sports gave you even more of a common reference and glued you closer together.”
He nodded. “I guess you’re right about that. I never would have made it through that first year without the guys.”