The Baby Gamble (Texas Hold'em)

“Okay.” She didn’t even flinch. “Does he have a name?”

“No.” She wasn’t taking this seriously. And, really, that was for the best. He’d laugh it off. Take her home to River Bluff and make her get out of his car.

“Does he visit every night?”

“No.”

“How often does he come?”

“I don’t know,” Blake said, running a hand through his hair, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. “A few times a year. Unless I’m under a lot of stress.”

“Has he been by a lot lately?”

“Once. A couple of weeks ago.”

“I’d say you’ve been under a hell of a lot of stress, lately,” she said.

“For me, yes.”

“And he only came once?”

“What’s your point, Annie?”

“I’m not afraid of him, Blake. I’m not afraid of any of your demons. I’m stronger than they are. I want to be the light in your darkness.”

With a soft grasp, she took hold of his chin, leaned forward until they were almost nose to nose, and looked him straight in the eye.

“Listen to me carefully, Blake,” she said succinctly. “I am not afraid of you.”

And with six innocuous little words, Annie freed him from the hell that he’d believed eternal.

“We’ll watch the warning signs, love,” she said, wiping a tear from his cheek. “You’ll teach me, and we’ll watch them together. And if we miss some, if there’s an episode, I’ll avoid your punch. Okay? I’ll always avoid your punch.”

He didn’t know what to say. Now, at the most critical time, he couldn’t find words.

“Just say okay.”

“Okay.” And then, as though the one word released a dam, he couldn’t stop. “Oh, God, Annie, what you do to me. You have always been the sunshine in my heart, do you know that? I’d rather die than lose that again.”

“You are everything to me, Blake. You always have been. Which is why we need each other so badly.”

She was right. He could see that now.

“You have to promise me that you’ll keep yourself safe, when I can’t do it for you,” he said now, completely firm. Without that promise he’d walk away. “No heroics, Annie.”

“No heroics, I promise.”

“I mean it.”

“I loaded my own suitcase, Blake. I can always do that as long as you’re there beside me opening the trunk. And I can open the trunk, too, if you need me to.”

He couldn’t believe this was happening. That the skies had finally opened, giving him back his life. And giving his life to her.

“Don’t ever let me shut you out,” he said now drawing her forehead to his with a hand behind her neck. “Push me, nag me, yell at me, if that’s what it takes, but keep with me until the words come. Because I want them to, Annie. I had too many years of needing to talk to you and having you not be there. I don’t ever want that to happen again.”

“I know,” she said, wetting her lips as she smiled. “And I know, now, that your quietness is just you, not a reflection of your feelings for me. I’m okay with that. I actually kind of like it. Someone like Cole would drive me crazy—”

That last word got lost as Blake covered her mouth with his own.