Chapter 6 – Flush

 

Addy –

“Damn, I can’t beat that. You got me.”

From behind my mountain of chips, I glare across the table at Crew. It’s late and I started scowling at him an hour and a half ago. Before that, I did my best to ignore his presence. Now I’m infuriated, and even though it’s quarter poker, I know what he’s doing.

Earlier this evening when I joined the rest of the group in the Ordinary, I found Crew in my spot. Everyone knows where I like my chair and place at the table, they know better than to disturb the seating arrangement.

When I saw him sitting in my spot, I informed him of this. “You’re in my seat.”

He replied with a mouth full of pasta, probably mixed with barbecue chips, “There’s an empty seat across the table.”

“But I always sit there.”

He swallowed his mouthful of food with a swig of beer before refuting, “I’m settled.”

Bev leaned into him and murmured under her breath, “She doesn’t like change.”

That was absolutely not true. I, of all people, have learned how to live with change. “I can do change.”

“It’s not so much change,” Evan butted in. “She’s a control freak.”

Well that, unfortunately, was true. Still, I had to defend myself. “I can’t help that I like what I like. And I’ve come to like my spot at the poker table.”

Crew shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just a chair. You’ll be fine.”

“No. I won’t,” I protested and started to move around the table.

“Addison,” he called for me and when he did, my name glided out soft and smooth from his lips. When I stopped to look up, his eyes weren’t sharp like they usually are. They matched his tone and he weirdly gave me a reassuring look when he tips his head toward the empty chair. “Sit down so we can get started.”

I would’ve looked ridiculous had I kept arguing, not to mention his soft tone caught me off guard, so I sat across from my normal seat now occupied by Crew. I did this ill-tempered, wondering silently if Monday night poker will consistently include my new neighbor. The thought made me feel funny, in a good and bad way. There’s something about him that makes me nervous, yet I find myself captivated. He’s straightforward, but he’s not. He is who he is, yet nevertheless, mysterious. What makes me nervous is the feeling he sees too much of me, and that, I do not like.

That’s how the evening started. Not only did he show up uninvited—not invited by me anyway—but he grossed me out by mixing chips with pasta, freaked me out with the Laffy Taffy, and stole my poker spot. Once the game commenced and I finally ate something, I settled in, even if it was begrudgingly.

Until I started winning.

Even if the first couple hands were small, I was on a roll. Then I won huge during a game of No Peak. The winnings are always big in No Peek. I was thrilled and forgot all about Crew stealing my seat. I won again…then again…and again. Now, I’m not an idiot and have played poker for years. I knew what was happening, hence my reason for glaring across the table at our new guest.

“What did you have?” I demand after he informed the table he lost again without proving it.

Tossing his cards face down, he leans back. “You beat me—I don’t have to show my cards.”

“That’s the third time you stuck it out to the end and said you lost.”

“Thought I could pull it out. You can’t win if you don’t play, eventually my luck’ll change.” He starts to pile the cards together as Mary collects my winnings from the center of the table.

“You must really suck at poker,” I chide. “Are you sure you’ve ever played?”

Shuffling the cards, his eyes narrow on me with a stony face. “Of course I’ve played. Just having an off night.”

“I know what you’re doing,” I accuse.

“What am I doing, Addison?” His voice is sarcastic as he shuffles. He looks to me while handing the deck to Bev, who grins like a loon as she cuts the cards.

“You’re paying me back.”

He ignores me and starts to deal. “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

“For the fence,” I add.

“Ante up,” he keeps on ignoring me, but I don’t ante. I sit back and cross my arms. Without taking my eyes off him, I sense Mary ante for me from my ever growing mass of chips.

If he’s going to cheat and throw poker, I’ll simply refuse to play.

Morris starts and the betting moves around the table. When it gets to me, I refuse to pick up my cards and grump, “I’m out.”

“You can’t be out.” Evan frowns. “You haven’t looked at your cards and the flop hasn’t been laid.”

“She’s in,” Crew announces and I frown deeper as Mary tosses my chips in to call the bet.

My cards lay unseen as I get back to the point I was trying to make. “You can’t pay me back for the fence by throwing poker, Crew.”

He calls, burns a card, and lays down the flop. Looking at the table, I see the Ace of diamonds, four of diamonds, and eight of spades. Nothing.

Betting commences.

Morris: I’m out.

Mary: Fifty cents.

Me: I’m out.

Evan: You still haven’t looked at your cards.

Me: I don’t care. I’m out.

Crew: She’s in.

Me: I’m not.

Mary messes with my chips, and before I know it, she sees the bet for me.

Evan: I’m in.

Bev: I’m always in.

And she is. She plays to the end of every hand, no matter her cards. She says it’s the law of poker, she’ll win more that way—which she doesn’t. She always loses.

Crew: I’m in.

Me: Of course you are.

That won me a scruffy grin and a dimple. Damn it.

The turn and the river are dealt, with more betting between each. Mary is out, however she keeps betting for me from my pile of clay while my cards remain face down. Through all this, the four of clubs and six of diamonds are added. A pair of fours show on the table. Abysmal.

The last round of betting ensues—it’s down to Bev, Evan, Crew and me. When it gets around to Crew, he of course sees the bet and calls. “Show your cards.”

“Straight,” Evan announces with a smile.

Laying her cards out, Bev sighs. “I have a pair.”

“Everyone has a pair, Bev,” Morris scoffs. “There’s a pair on the table.”

“I was hoping for another four.” She shakes her head in defeat.

“Show your cards, Addison,” Crew demands.

I look at him, narrowing my eyes and refute, “You first.”

“I dealt.”

I tip my head the other way. “It’s my house.”

He says nothing but raises his eyebrows and shrugs as if to say, that it is, before flipping his cards over. “Flush.”

I look at his cards, and coupled with the ones on the table, he has five diamonds. Finally, I smile. A flush is a decent hand, not at all common, especially without a wild card. Liking how I played this, finally making him show his cards, I realize my chances of winning are slim. Reaching out, I pick up my cards and flip them over in the middle of the table, landing on top of the pile of clay chips.

Then I slump in my chair.

Shit.

“You’re on a winning streak!” Bev shrieks, clapping her hands in quick succession.

“What are the odds?” Evan grumbles.

“You thought you were all high and mighty with a straight,” Mary gibes Evan.

I look up from the cards and all I see are Crew’s deep dark eyes smiling. His lush lips surrounded by scruff tip when he says, “Full house beats a flush. You’re having a good night.”

He really makes winning not gratifying. At all.

“I’m beat. Time to go, Bevie.” Morris pushes his chair back, scratching across my old hardwoods.

“I’ll cash everyone out.” Evan starts counting chips.

I don’t even want to know how much I won. Deciding to ignore them all, I get up carrying dishes and cups on my way. When I get to the kitchen and start loading the dishwasher, Mary appears at my side.

“Who in the hell is that?” she asks under her breath while crowding me at the sink.

“Who?” I don’t look away from my task, not wanting to talk about Crew. Especially right now.

She bumps me with the entire side of her body and frowns. “You know who. What’s up with you and the new neighbor? He looked as comfortable as George Washington hanging out in the Ordinary and you looked scared of his ghost.”

I whip my head to her and snap, “The Ordinary is not haunted. I’m not going to tell you again to quit talking about ghosts and George Washington. I’ll ban you from poker.”

She rolls her eyes and sounds bored. “Fine. It’s not haunted, Georgie isn’t floating around your house at night, and all the previous owners’ stories are bullshit. Happy?”

“Stop it, Mary. You don’t have to sleep here by yourself every night.” I jab her with my elbow since my hands are wet from washing dishes.

“Whatever.” She flips her long turquoise and blonde locks over her shoulder. “He’s into you. Even if it is in a calm and cool way. He couldn’t take his eyes off you all night, but how would you know—you spent the whole night ignoring him.”

“I didn’t ignore him. I’m plenty perturbed at him right now. He’s trying to pay me back for fixing the fence that lines our properties. I refused him in the beginning, trying to be neighborly since the fence was rotted when he bought the place. I’m the one with cows—he doesn’t have a reason to need a fence. Then he sent me a check, Mary. A ridiculous check for ten-thousand dollars.”

“Wow.” She frowns, her eyes go big.

“Yeah. I ripped it up and tossed it at him on his doorstep, no way am I taking money from him. I might not have been nice about it, but you know I don’t like people having a hold on me and that’s how it felt. He told me the other day he’d find a way of paying me back, now it’s a matter of sheer will. The fence was barely over eight-hundred dollars in materials and Morris works on the property for a salary, there was nothing extra for labor. So you see, the man’s infuriating and threw the game to pay me back for the fence.”

“But you probably won thirty bucks at most. How’s that paying you back for the fence?”

“It just is. I can tell.” I slam my rickety dishwasher shut, flipping off the water and decide to leave it at that. It’ll freak me out to talk about the Laffy Taffy or how he likes the sound of my full name.

She doesn’t have the chance to interrogate me further. Bev comes in the kitchen announcing, “Fifty-two big ones for you. No one ever wins that much.” She slaps my money down on the kitchen table before going to her crock pot. Morris goes straight for the cookies, bound and determined to keep them for himself.

“First Van cashes out early, which is bullshit, and then Addy wins twice as much as anyone normally wins. She even did it without looking at her cards,” Evan gripes walking through the door with all his poker gear. Stopping to pick up his cooler, his face softens when he turns to Mary. “I’ll walk you out.”

“I don’t need an escort.” She puts her hands on her hips. “I’m parked right outside the door. What, is a deer going to get me?”

Evan ignores her and looks at me devilishly. “Probably not a deer, but maybe a ghost.”

“Shut your mouth,” I snap as Mary laughs out loud.

“Let’s go,” Morris says with cookies in his hand. “I’ve got workers coming tomorrow to prune. Gotta get up early.”

Morris manages the care of the vines and they require pruning at least once a month. It’s a big job and he hires a small group to help. It will take at least the rest of the week to get through all the acres.

Bev kisses me on the cheek. “See you tomorrow.”

“Bye,” I call as Bev follows Morris out. After more goodbyes, Evan finagles a way to leave with Mary. I shoot her a grin and get an eye roll in return. I’m not quite sure what her hang up is with Evan. Even though they don’t look like they’d go together with her edgy, cool look versus his preppy persona, I think they’re cute and wish she’d give him a chance. I wonder how I can help make that happen?

I’m snapped out of my matchmaking thoughts when I hear boots clomping up the steps from the Ordinary. I probably should’ve done something to stall them from leaving because now I’m alone with Crew. When I turn to him, he’s carrying bottles and glasses in both hands.

I take the glasses and tip my head toward the other side of the kitchen. “Recycling is in the pantry.”

The bottles make a crashing-clanking sound as I finish loading the dirty dishes. It’s late and even though I don’t have an early morning tomorrow, I’ve had a long day. I really don’t want to be alone with Crew.

Preparing myself to walk him to the door and kick him out as politely as I can after he purposely threw poker all evening, I stop. He’s digging through the bag of Laffy Taffy, grabbing a couple. When he steps back, he leans against the counter across the room from me.

Ripping open a banana flavored piece, he tosses the whole thing in his mouth. As he chews, I’m jerked out of my trance to catch the green one he tosses across the kitchen. I nab it out of the air quickly, just in time before it hits me.

Holding it up in my fingers, I frown at him in question.

Through his chewing, he mutters, “Thought you liked the green ones?”

“How do you know that?”

“Pretty easy to see, you’ve been eating them all night.”

“Oh, right.” I sigh, grateful that something finally makes sense. I rip open my candy and take a bite.

“What made you buy a vineyard?” he asks out of the blue.

I guess he’s not leaving on his own. “I was here to visit almost two years ago. My mom is from this area and when she died, I thought it might be nice to spread her ashes here. My grandparents are buried here and she always talked about how she loved Virginia, even though we never visited. Anyway, when I was driving around the countryside, I happened upon Whitetail. It was for sale and had been for some time. Once I began looking into it, I realized it was a sound investment. Especially at the reduced price.”

“What did you do before?”

“I was an assistant manager of a country club. Knowing the restaurant side of things along with managing large events made it easy to transfer that to the winery.”

He tips his head to the side and changes the subject drastically. “Your mom died.”

I take a breath and nod. “Cancer. Ovarian. It was progressed when they found it. She went through treatments for a while before it took over. At the end, she said she wanted her ashes spread at the shore where we lived in California, but for some reason it didn’t seem right. I tried for months to do as she asked, but couldn’t bring myself to follow through. One morning I woke up and decided she needed to be here—where she’s from. You know the rest, I’ve been here a little over a year and a half.”

“You just picked up and moved?”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal, I thought I needed a change after she died. My mom was a real estate agent, and a good one. She purchased a brokerage firm ten years ago. Since I never got into real estate, she sold her firm near the end. That’s where I got the money to put down on the winery.”

He nods, his eyes narrowing slightly as he continues. “You must have family. What about your dad?”

I feel that down deep like I always do when I think about my dad. But after many years of practice, I hold steady. “My dad left when I was little. I don’t have a lot of memories of him.”

He looks at me for a second before slowly nodding again. This is far from small talk and getting too personal, it needs to end.

“I’m tired, Crew. I have an early morning,” I lie.

He ignores me again. “Why the green ones?”

I sigh and lean back against the sink. “Green apple is my favorite. I don’t like the others.”

His mouth tips. “Banana’s the best.”

“Banana is gross. The worst.” I wrinkle my nose because it’s true.

He instantly smiles.

I cringe. “You would like banana. You eat barbeque chips on top of Maggiano’s pasta.”

He huffs a low chuckle and looks down to study the wrapper in his hand. Straightening away from the counter, he moves toward me. I try not to let my eyes widen as he approaches, standing straighter as I frown. When he gets to me, I’m forced to look up. He doesn’t touch me, but he does put a hand to the sink at my side, leaning in close. Very close.

Without taking his eyes off me, he lowers his voice. “What did the boy chip say to the girl chip?”

I read all the jokes. Rather, I read all the jokes on the green apple pieces. I’ve been reading them for so long, I know a lot of them by heart, but I’ve never seen that one. Trying to keep my voice steady, I give my shoulders a slight shrug. “I don’t know.”

I look into his smoldering dark eyes and feel my heart pound. When he leans in even closer, I feel the plastic of the wrapper lightly scraping my bare arm, giving me goose bumps. I congratulate myself for holding my ground, but I had to work for it. I want to push him away even though I want to touch him. I want to slide out from between him and the sink, yet I want to see how his lips and scruff feel on my face.

The next thing I know, he’s holding the wrapper between his index and middle fingers. I lose his eyes when he leans in farther and I get what I wanted. His scruff scratches my cheek when his lips come to my ear, his voice coming out low and rumbly. “Let’s dance and I’ll dip you.”

I whimper on an exhale. Holy shit. He can make a Laffy Taffy joke sound dirty.

He doesn’t wait for me to reply and looks into my eyes. “Carpool Thursday. Be ready at five.”

“I’ve decided to drive myself,” I try, knowing if he makes me weak with a Laffy Taffy joke, there’s no way I can be in the car with him for hours.

He doesn’t say a thing, but shakes his head slowly.

“I’ll see you there,” I go on.

He keeps shaking his head. “Carpool at five. Don’t be late.”

I’ll leave at four-thirty. I’m sure I’ll get lost and need the extra time anyway.

“Fine, five o’clock,” I lie, pleased with myself for sounding strong.

“Thanks for the poker night, Addison.”

“You can’t come back if you keep throwing the game. It’s not fair.”

He says nothing but he does smile, proving he threw the game.

His voice dips and he’s so close, I feel it across my face when he promises, “Thursday.”

My resolve starts to slip and I have to fight the urge to reach out for him, because right now I want nothing more. Finding it hard to stay in control, I decide it’s best not to say anything and simply tip my head as a goodbye.

He pushes off the sink, tossing the wrapper to the counter before turning to leave. When he moves out of my sight, I slump in relief right before the front door slams. Quickly, I grab the wrapper and read the joke again. A joke for kids, that’s clean and pure, but when read by Crew Vega, it’s not only sexy and hot, but made me want to touch him all over.

I can’t help myself. I cross the kitchen to the drawer where I keep my favorite jokes. After opening it, I toss the banana wrapper into a sea of nothing but green.