Single Wide Female: The Bucket List Mega Bundle - 24 Books (Books #1-24) (54 page)

“There are no friends at the poker table, Sammy. That is your first lesson.” He shuffled the cards.

“Okay.” I raised an eyebrow and eyed him for a moment. I wasn’t sure what exactly he was up to, but I didn’t think it was going to be good.

Max dealt the hand with sharp controlled movements. I went to pick up my cards, but he snapped his fingers before I could.

“Don’t touch the cards until I tell you.”

I looked up at him with a smile. He had to be joking. But his expression was quite stern. I was beginning to think I had made a terrible mistake.

“What if I do?” I kept the question playful.

“Do you want to learn or not?”

“I do, obviously. But isn’t this supposed to be fun?”

“If you want fun, play rummy. This is poker.” Max met my eyes.

I stared back at him. There was something alluring about this side of him, but it was mostly irritating. I hadn’t expected him to be so serious about it. I decided that I would play the opposite role and do my best to make him regret the way he was talking to me.

“I want to play poker.” I offered a calculated smile.

“Great. Now, before you touch your cards, I’m going to tell you about the chips.” As Max began running through the value and purpose of each chip, I decided to play with him a bit.

“Can I have all blue ones?”

“No.”

“Why not? I like the blue ones. They’re much prettier than the other ones.”

“You can’t have all one color. Each color is a different value. I just explained that to you.”

“But couldn’t I just add them all up and change them out for the blue ones?” I frowned.

“Sammy, you absolutely can’t have all blue.”

“Fine.” I sighed. “Can I have mostly blue then?”

“Okay, forget about the chips. You can pick up your cards.”

“Do I show them to you?”

“No, of course not.”

“But I can look at them?”

“Yes.”

“I have your permission?”

He met my eyes again, this time with a hint of amusement. “Yes, you have my permission.”

I swept the cards up into my hand. I peered at Max over the top of the cards. He was studying his own hand intently.

“I think that it might be best if I show you what a good hand looks like.” Max met my eyes over his cards. “That way you can know when to bet and when to fold.”

“Oh, I never fold, honey.” I wagged my head side to side. Then I thought about my own words. “Well, actually, technically I fold a lot, I guess—several loads of laundry every day that I work.”

“Sammy.” Max rolled his eyes.

“I’m serious. If you think about it, I probably fold more than just about anyone else in the world.”

“Sammy! Can you please pay attention?” Max looked at me with exasperation.

I did my best to hide a grin. I couldn’t help it, I was really enjoying driving him nuts. He was taking things far too seriously, and I wanted him to lighten up. Instead of laughing along with me, he looked back at his cards. He spread them out on the table between us so that I could take a look.

“So your best cards are going to be high cards—like anything queen and up.” He showed me his own hand, which contained a queen and king of the same suit. “I wouldn’t discard these two cards because they have a high likelihood of creating a winning hand. Now if you have a pair, you’re really set. So you certainly don’t want to split that up.”

“I’m sure I wouldn’t.” I looked at his cards and then up at him. “It would be a shame to end up splitting up a pair.”

“Are you paying attention?” He looked a little impatient.

“Of course I am.”

“Then what did I just say?”

“You like pears?” I batted my eyes at him. “Personally I prefer plums.”

“Sammy!”

I laughed and shook my head. “Let’s just play a hand.”

“Fine, then you’ll see that you should have been paying attention instead of fooling around.” He shuffled the cards.

Chapter 4

As Max dealt the cards I left the table to get us both a drink. I returned with some juice and a plate of crackers.

“Snacks? This is serious, Sammy.”

“Oh, yes. I agree it is serious. You are about to go down, Max!”

“Ha, you barely learned anything from me.” He shook his head. “I’ll try to go easy on you, but no promises.”

I stuck out my tongue at him and picked up my cards. “Just you wait and see, Max. I’m going to make you eat your words.”

“I thought you said that you wanted to learn how to play poker?” Max frowned. He looked at me with such impatience that I was sure he was actually going to speak sharply at me. He tensed his lips instead.

“I do and I have. Thanks to you.”

“I don’t think so. You haven’t been paying attention at all. The entire time you’ve been more worried about teasing me than learning the game.” He shook his head.

“I was just having fun. Isn’t poker supposed to be fun?”

“I guess. But you have to learn all of the rules before you can play well.”

“I did learn all of the rules.” I smiled proudly.

“I don’t see how.”

“You’re a great teacher.” I patted the back of his hand. “Never doubt yourself, Max. You’re the best poker teacher I’ve ever had.”

“Ha ha.” Max rolled his eyes.

“I’m serious. I’ll prove it to you. Let’s play.”

“Alright, but don’t blame me when you don’t do well.” He shook his head again. Then he fixed me with a dramatic glare. “It’s time you saw the consequences of your inattentive behavior.”

“Whatever you say, Professor Max.” I winked at him.

Max couldn’t help but smile a little. That was what I’d been waiting for. He had taken the job of teaching me poker so seriously that he hadn’t been able to enjoy a minute of it. Now I wanted him to finally give in and have some fun rather than being a boring stick-in-the-mud.

Max dealt the cards. He tossed each one swiftly across the table. I tried not to tease him, but it was hard not to. Max was so rarely serious that it made me want to pick on him as much as possible when he was. That was how best friends treated each other, and that was what I needed to remember about what Max and I were to one another.

Once I had all of my cards, I picked them up and began looking through them. When I saw what I had in my hand I smiled. Then quickly I tried to hide my smile. I had forgotten all about the all-important poker face. I tightened my lips and furrowed my brow. I was determined to look as serious as Max was acting. But even with all of that effort I still could barely contain the urge to smile. I knew that I had a great hand, and it was quite likely that I was going to beat Max at his own game.

“Samantha, are you okay?” Max looked across the table at me.

“Yes, why?” I kept my lips tight.

“You look like you might not be feeling well.” He frowned.

“I’m feeling just fine.” I cleared my throat and tried to keep my poker face on.

“Oh wait a minute.” He laughed. “Is that you trying to put on a poker face?”

“What’s wrong with it?” I narrowed my eyes. “I think it’s a pretty good poker face.”

“No, it looks more like a pooper face.” He laughed even louder.

“Max! Gross!” I glared at him.

“I’m only telling you the truth.” He shook his head. “A poker face is all about relaxation. It’s casual, not tense. It’s indifferent, not constipated.”

“Ugh.” I shook my head.

All of the attraction that I felt for him was briefly put on pause during the discussion.

“Here—like this.” He sat back in his chair. He tilted his head slightly to the side. His delicious lips curved into a faint smile. Then he flicked his gaze casually in my direction. I tried not to let my tongue hang out. He was so darn gorgeous and had no idea what an effect he had on me. “So, Sam, are you in, or are you out?” He arched an eyebrow.

My heart fluttered. I nearly choked on my quick response. “In—all in.”

“So ante up.” He tapped the table a few times.

“Alright.” I slid my ante into the middle of the table.

Max slid his in as well. As we went through the process of playing the hand, I did my best to improve my poker face. But every time I looked over at Max I got fairly distracted. Finally, it was time to show our cards.

“Now don’t get frustrated if you don’t get it the first time. Poker is like a fine art and it takes a long time to understand the subtle nuances of—” He stopped talking when he saw the cards I spread out before him.

“I believe this is what they call a full house?” I smiled sweetly at him. “Am I right about that subtle nuance?”

Max stared wordlessly at the cards on the table. I was enjoying his shock.

“Did I do something wrong?” I acted as innocently as possible.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong.” He shook his head and looked up at me. “You won the game.”

“Oh wow!” I clapped my hands with excitement. “I guess I did pretty good then.”

“Pretty good.” He laughed. “You’re a regular card shark. You had me fooled that entire time. I consider myself a pretty good player, but you picked up very quickly.”

“See, I
was
paying attention. I told you.” I picked up my cards. “So what did I win?”

“Well, we didn’t actually make a bet.” He frowned as he took the cards from me and piled them all back together into a stack.

“That’s not fair. I won. I should get something, don’t you think?” I met his eyes with a mischievous smile.

“That’s true. Maybe you should.” He sat back in his chair and eyed me with a steady stare. “Alright, Sammy, you win. I’ll give you anything you want.”

Chapter 5

Something about the way Max was looking at me made me think that he was daring me. Was he giving me an open opportunity to actually ask for what I wanted?

My heart beat quickly. I wondered if I should take the chance. But just as I was about to request something that I couldn’t turn back from, I looked into his eyes. I didn’t ever want to miss out on looking into those eyes. If I crossed the line, then there would be no going back. He might go for it, or he might just take pity on me and pretend for a while; but no matter what, I would run the risk of its not working out.

“A date.” I blurted the words out.

“A date?” He smiled.

“I mean, a night out—just the two of us.” I could only hope that my quick response would cover my eagerness.

“Well, you don’t have to win that, you just have to ask me.” Max smiled.

“Maybe. But I get to choose where we go—no arguments.” I grinned at the idea.

“I don’t know about that.” He eyed me suspiciously. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, that would ruin the surprise, wouldn’t it?” I winked at him. “Just be ready by seven tomorrow night.”

“Ready for what?”

“Don’t try to trick me. I beat you at poker.”

“Because you’re a card shark!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I grinned at him as I stood up from the table. “All I know is that you belong to me tomorrow night.”

He stared at me for a moment. I couldn’t tell if he was frightened or intrigued.

“Alright.” He finally nodded and stood up from the table. “I guess that’s fair. Since you won.”

“I did win, didn’t I?” I grinned. “Say it again, Max.”

He looked up at the ceiling and groaned.

“One more time.”

“Fine. You won, Sammy.”

“Wait, wait, I didn’t quite hear you—”

“Bye, Sam.”

I was still laughing as he closed the door behind him. Even though I had been torturing him for the majority of the game, I’d actually learned quite a bit. I felt I knew enough, but I hadn’t had enough of the experience.

Learning from Max was nice—very nice—but it wasn’t the same as sitting around a smoky tavern with a bunch of cowboys.

I sat down at my computer and turned it on. I was excited to look up what I was hoping to find. However, the first thing that popped up was a message from Blue. I smiled as I read it.

SWF,

So you’re looking for a cowboy? Good to know. I’d hate to be caught in a showdown with you, unless we were on the same side. One thing I do want to know—what will you do with all of your winnings when you dazzle your opponents with your wit and beauty?

Blue

I rolled my eyes. The compliments were getting to be a tad over-the-top. That didn’t mean that I didn’t love them. I was still feeling great from beating Max, and now Blue was shoring up my confidence as well. I decided to send him a message back right away.

Blue,

I think I am going to try my luck with some real cowboys. Though I don’t think I’ll be too distracting, I do plan on winning. I’ll let you know what happens and how much I win!

Once I hit submit, I opened up a web browser. I was getting very used to using the Internet to find the things I wanted.

I searched for a local poker game. After a few rather shocking missteps onto tawdry sites, I managed to get to an actual normal poker game. It was planned for the next night at a hole-in-the-wall bar called the Rusty Boot. I couldn’t think of a better place to find my cowboy poker players.

I spent the rest of the day practicing what Max had taught me. I also looked up several different tips. I knew that I wouldn’t be playing, only observing, but I wanted to be able to at least talk a good game.

By the time I headed to bed that evening, I was bursting with excitement. Not only was I going to live out my poker fantasy, I was going to get a special date with Max as well. I could barely sleep, I was so giddy.

When I woke up the next morning I nearly jumped out of bed. The first place I went was my closet. Picking out an outfit for poker night was very important. It couldn’t be too flashy. It couldn’t be too casual. It needed just enough flair and fun, while not being too wacky.

I had several things to choose from. I’d been rotating my wardrobe based on my weight loss. I had several outfits that I hadn’t worn in a long time that I was now beginning to fit into. I selected a gold glittery top to pair with simple dark blue jeans. I felt like it would give me the pizazz of Reno along with the down-home quality of denim. It was still going to be quite some time until I met up with Max, so I decided to check my blog. I was pleased to find a new message from Blue.