Kendra’s toast popped up. “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.”
The barest hint of regret in her tone made Colton try again. “Saturday night TV sucks, you know.”
Her shoulders slumped slightly and he thought he heard a soft sigh before she admitted with quiet dignity, “I don’t have any extra cash to lose playing poker.”
Ah, ha. That made sense. Easily solved. “I’ll give you some.”
She shot Colton a frown. “I’m not going to take your money.”
He elevated his eyebrows in pointed disbelief to remind her of her sprint down the sidewalk with his wallet. She blushed and looked away.
“It’s really no big deal—”
“No,” she stated and picked up her plate.
“Kendra, look.”
His command contained a smile. She turned as he lifted a handful of money. Pink, green, blue, white, orange and yellow Monopoly money.
“How much you want? Two, three, four thousand?”
Jordan suggested four thousand and after another brief moment of hesitation, Kendra finally agreed. Cassie curled her lip, but Colton ignored her reaction as Kendra set her plate of toast and a glass of juice on the table across from where Colton sat. “Why do you play with Monopoly money?” she asked as she took a seat.
“We got sick of robbing Colton blind,” Jordan said.
Colton directed a half smile toward the table and concentrated on shuffling the cards like an expert. That was Jordan’s kind way of saying Colton didn’t have any extra cash either, and it made him feel a little bad for wanting to get rid of them earlier.
Until Justin scooted his chair nice and close to Kendra.
The phone rang as he began to deal. Being closer, Kendra rose to answer it. “Hello?” After a moment, and without saying anything, she set the phone back on its charger. She stared at it for a moment, and when she turned back to the table, her teeth worried the corner of her bottom lip.
Colton hesitated, hand poised to finish the deal. “Who was it?”
She jerked her head up with a brief smile and waved a hand. “Wrong number.”
Justin explained the basics of poker as they started the game. Colton was surprised at how quick she picked it up. By the fifth hand, Justin quit offering advice and, after three hours, Kendra had a decent amount of monopoly money in front of her. With her next raise of five hundred dollars, Colton and Justin tossed in their cards.
Jordan, on the other hand, never gave up, and he suspected Cassie stayed in just for spite. He hadn’t missed the daggers she cast at Kendra all evening. Did she really think that’d help her case?
Cassie added her money and Jordan raised. Kendra didn’t bat an eye as she called his bet and raised another five hundred. Colton studied Kendra, unable to determine if she was serious or bluffing. Cassie folded. Jordan matched Kendra’s bet and laid his cards on the table. An ace, a jack, a pair of eights, and a two. With jacks being wild, he had three of a kind. All eyes turned to Kendra. She laid down three queens and a pair of tens.
“You sure you haven’t played before?” Justin joked as she gathered the money from the middle of the table.
“Guess I’m just lucky.” She grinned at Justin and flipped her dark curls over her shoulder with a quick toss of her head.
“You’ve got a great poker face,” Colton commented.
Her gaze met his, and he knew she heard the underlying accusation in his observation. Good. He couldn’t fully explain his suspicion, except that for someone who claimed not to have played before, she was on quite the winning streak. Wondering if it’d been another lie, he attributed that as the reason for his sudden irritation.
She averted her gaze as Jordan began to deal the next hand. Colton reached for his cards when the phone rang again. His hand stilled when he saw Kendra flinch. More interesting, she took her sweet time getting up, as if she didn’t want to answer it this time. She looked at the handset as she lifted it, only to discover what Colton already knew. No caller ID.
Seconds passed. The others laughed at a joke Justin told, but Colton watched Kendra. Without a word, she slammed the handset on the counter. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jordan and Cassie look at her with surprise.
“Wrong number again?” Jordan asked.
“Yeah. You’d think the idiot would get it right by now.”
Her annoyance fooled everyone else, but Colton had seen fear in her eyes before she covered it. Something had her spooked. So who was calling; making her as skittish as a horse in a pit of rattlesnakes?