The Mysterious Stranger (The Confidence Game 3)

“First to twenty-one,” said Zeke. He sat opposite her and she had to bite her lip not to laugh.

Earl shook his head. “No, that’s Blackjack, not—”

Zeke cut in, “Right, right. Just kidding. I love a good river?”

“No, no. We’re not playing Texas hold’em. This is five card. There’s no river in five card.”

Zeke wore a kid-at-Christmas grin. “I get it. Just kidding. My favorite part is the flop,” he said, using another Texas hold’em term.

She laughed. The way he said flop, full of innuendo, was hilarious, especially as it made the others uncomfortable. So that’s the way Zeke was going to play it. Wide-eyed innocent. If this was a real game with real stakes, not just chips shared equally at the start of the round, he’d take their kids’ college funds.

What was good for the goose... “I don’t really know how to play very well. Not like Zack. He’s a card shark.”

“A card shark,” Earl echoed, incredulously. The only flop in this game was going to be Earl’s sense of humor.

“Played a bit, have you?” said Wayne with a whole lot of come on in, the water is warm, sucker, in his voice. “Where?”

“Online,” Zeke said. “You know, on my computer.”

Wayne nodded, doing a very bad job of hiding his delight. “This’ll be a bit different but I’m sure you’ll catch up.”

Earl finished explaining the rules and shared out the chips equally, and when he dealt the first round, Zeke fumbled and dropped his hand, showing a spade and a club. Everyone pretended that didn’t happen and instead of Earl declaring Zeke’s hand dead, they played on. Wayne won the hand.

“I’ll get you next time on the flop,” Zeke said, deadly earnest, and none of the men corrected him.

The next few hands were uneventful if you put aside the fact Zeke bet big on nothing-burger hands, said the word flop for no reason a lot, and looked confused when he lost, and Rory folded every time without placing a single bet after the opening round.

She muttered to herself things like, “These are the wrong colors,” and “I just don’t like these cards,” and when she threw out a perfectly good winning hand with the words, “Dammit, only three queens,” Bernie had to excuse himself and go get a glass of water.

“Sweetheart, you might want to hold on to a pair, you know,” said Wayne after she’d impressed on the men she had no idea how to play.

“A pair, okay, thanks,” she said, as if Wayne had given her the keys to a bank vault.

She didn’t look at Zeke and he didn’t look at her, but he smashed his knee on hers when she tried to win a hand with only a pair of twos. Meanwhile, Zeke’s pile of chips had all but disappeared, her own was tiny and Wayne, Earl and Bernie were cleaning up.

While the men were talking about food riots in San Francisco, and the fact people were forced to eat domestic cats, Zeke quietly won a small hand. “I only have two pair,” he said in disgust, putting his four kings down two at a time.

“That’s four of a kind,” said Earl. He tossed his losing straight on the table.

Zeke got loudly excited about his win, celebrating by leaping from his seat and dancing around the table like a demented rock star, making people from other tables look over. The big goof. The more attention he got, the more annoyed Earl, Wayne and Bernie looked, the harder Zeke worked it, getting laughs and claps. She couldn’t tell if he was palming cards to cheat or had the others completely bluffed, but she couldn’t contain her laughter.

When Zeke wheeled past Earl, he stole his cap, and when he got to her, he grabbed hold of the top of her ponytail and then let her hair filter gently through his hand before smoothing his palm over her collar bone and shoulder.

He’d always done things like tugged her clothing and messed with her hair and there was nothing inappropriate in the gesture except her reaction. She leaned into him, wanting more of his touch and almost tipped out of her chair when he moved on.

“Sit down, idiot,” Bernie said.

“Sit down or the game is over,” Earl said.

“I’ll sit down if you let me deal,” he said, tossing Earl his cap.

Oh, now things were going to get interesting.

“Probably be better if you didn’t,” said Bernie.

“Dealing isn’t as easy as it looks,” said Wayne.

“Next thing, dolly bird here will want to deal,” said Earl, gesturing to Rory. “We’ll be waiting all night. Women are always terrible poker players. Better off sticking to baby making.”