Craving Lily (The Aces' Sons 4)

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” I agreed, smiling as I walked in the room and saw how crowded it was. Did I love being the center of attention? No. But it was still kind of nice to see how many people had turned out to celebrate the fact that I’d gotten my eyesight back.

It had been six years since the attack, and even though some of the others had been far more injured than me, I was still the last person to heal. As I glanced around the room, I realized that it wasn’t only me that they were celebrating. The entire club was finally celebrating putting the aftermath of that attack behind them.

We’d lost people, and the pain of that would never go away, but finally, we could try to move on.

A cheer went up around the room as everyone realized I’d arrived, and suddenly Rose’s arm was around my waist and she was forcing me to take a bow with her.

“Knock it off, nutjob,” I hissed.

“No way,” she replied, smiling. “I’m milking this shit.”

I laughed as we stood straight again, then let her lead me around the room. I’d visited most of the people in the crowd since I’d gotten my sight back, but it was still nice to be able to see their faces again. It was amazing to me that a couple of weeks before, I’d never even seen most of the kids. I’d been making up for lost time with Charlie, my nephews, and my cousin Will’s daughter, Rebel, but most of the other kids still seemed brand new to me.

Even though I could see, I still couldn’t look across the room and yell at the kids by name when they were being little shits. I had to be close enough to hear their voices in order to know who was who. It was weird.

Less than an hour into the party, I’d been pulled into a chair by one of my cousins and was busy watching and laughing as the boys in my family played a game of poker where the winner seemed to be the person who could cheat the best without anyone seeing them do it. We were crowded around the small table like sardines in a can, but no one left as the game got rowdier and rowdier.

“Oh, what the fuck, Willy,” my brother Cam heckled. “That was fuckin’ blatant. Are we just doin’ whatever we want now? ’Cause if that’s what we’re doin’…” He reached for the deck in the middle of the table, and my cousin Tommy slapped his hand like an old woman.

“Don’t touch that!” Tommy ordered.

“New hand!” Cam demanded, tossing in his hand of cards.

“You can’t just decide for the table that we’re startin’ over,” Will argued in disbelief.

“Oldest.” Cam pointed his thumb at his chest. “Makes the rules.”

“Oh, bullshit,” Tommy yelled, throwing his hands in the air. “Foul!”

“Foul?” Will asked, his brows pulled in so far they practically met in the middle. “We’re not playin’ fuckin’ basketball, ya pussy.”

“Cam’s fuckin’ cheating.”

“We’re all cheating!” Will and Cam yelled at the same time.

Jesus, it didn’t matter how old they got, if you put the three of them together, they turned into children again. I wondered how the dynamic would have been different if Mick was still around. I had a feeling most of their nitpicking would be directed at him, as the youngest. As it was now, the only person missing from their little group was Leo, but none of them said a word about him as Tommy reluctantly dealt the cards again.

I glanced around the room, but didn’t see Leo anywhere. I was sure that he was somewhere around, though. He lived at the club, and I was pretty sure he wouldn’t hide out at his parents’ house even if he was avoiding me. That seemed a little immature for the guy who’d been so insistent that he was too old for me.

“You playin’ this round?” Tommy asked me, pulling my attention back to the table.

“Sure,” I replied. “Hit me.”

“Hit me, she says,” Cam joked, pulling at one of my braids.

I waited and watched as the hands were dealt, then laughed under my breath as I lifted up my cards.

“Two,” Will ordered.

“One,” Cam said next.

“I’m good.” I shrugged as Tommy took two for himself.

“She’s smiling,” Will said, pointing at my face. “Why’s she smiling?”

“I’ve been watching her. She’s bluffing.”

“Maybe,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “But are you sure?”

The boys all stared at me, and Tommy winked.

“Call,” he murmured.

I set down my cards face up and laughed as Cam and Will started yelling. Somehow, and I have no idea how he did it, Tommy had dealt me a royal flush.

“Ma!” Cam yelled over the noisy crowd. “Come get your daughter! She doesn’t understand the goddamn rules of poker!”

“How the fuck did you do that?” Will asked in bewilderment, lifting up my cards and looking them over. It was like he couldn’t even fathom that Tommy had been the one who’d cheated on my behalf.