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It baffled me that this man had raised Chris and Gianna. From what I’d gleaned through the phone calls I’d overheard between him and his son over the months and our time today, he was a cheerleader through and through. His kids, on the other hand, sure knew how to make the glass seem half-empty.
“Yeah, last time was awful.” She shook her head at her father.
“It’s my favorite game. Don’t knock it,” Chris huffed from where he was positioned on the floor across from me. “Thanksgiving was only bad because we split the teams wrong.”
Gianna nodded and tucked her long, gorgeous hair over her shoulder. She was the epitome of everything high school Avery had wanted to be. Her thick, shiny hair had been blown out and hung in loose curls. Every time I tried to style my hair in a similar way, I got the curling iron stuck. Her dark eyes were big and depthless, and her lashes were impossibly long. When she smiled, which I’d only witnessed twice so far, it practically knocked me over. She was just sopretty. And though I was hesitant to admit it even to myself, there was a time when I would have paid money for the kind of cleavage she sported. Chris said she was never without a boyfriend, and now I could see why. I had no doubt there was a line of guys just waiting for her to give them the time of day.
“The two of you ganged up on Jake and me at Thanksgiving. You should have known you’d crush us.”
“Your boyfriend insisted on that.” Chris scowled at her.
She glared right back with just as much intensity. I tried not to smirk, but it was nearly impossible. This grumpy dynamic was wildly entertaining. Honestly, it was shocking, but Gianna might have Chris beat in the cranky department.
“It helps that since you’ve teamed up with Avery, you’ve miraculously developed the patience of Job.”
“Children.” Bo chuckled, setting his cards on the coffee table. “I’m supposed to be working on keeping my blood pressure down. Why don’t you help me out and quit all the fighting?”
Gianna rolled her eyes.“Sure. Just as soon as you quit smoking.”
“What?” Chris tossed his cards down and straightened, suddenly rigid. “Pop, you said you quit.”
“I did. Mostly. I just sneak one now and again. My blood pressure is fine since I switched meds. Forget I mentioned it.” He angled to one side and patted Chris’s forearm.
Chris had pushed the sleeves of his gray quarter zip up to his elbows, so as he scrutinized his dad, all tense and broody, the corded muscles in his forearms went taut. Between that and the tan skin on display, I felt a little overheated. One of the downsides of being friends with Chris—and honestly, it was probably the only downside—was that he was so freaking hot. It almost wasn’t fair.
With a long breath out, I forced the thought from my head and averted my gaze. This time, I focused on Chris’s face.
The worry there was evident as he watched his dad. “It better be. We need you around for another fifty years, at least.”
Bo scoffed. “Yup, we all live to 115 nowadays, right?”
“Exactly.” Gianna almost smiled.
Bo shook his head, but he couldn’t hide the smile overtaking him. It was clear how much he adored his kids, and though they were both a bit prickly, the feeling was obviously more than mutual.
“You bid two.” Behind his thin glasses, his eyes shifted to his daughter. “And you said one.” He nodded at me. “I’ll go four?—”
“Seven,” Chris said before his dad could finish.
Gianna dropped her cards onto the sofa next to her with a growl. “There is no way you have seven.”
Chris smirked. “Nope. But there is no way in hell Avery has one either.”
I winced. I was worried I would overbid, so I’d developed a bad habit of underbidding.
Bo patted my knee. “It’s teamwork.”
“Yeah.” Chris sent me a grin. “You and me, Blondie, we make a good team.”
And apparently, we did, because after two more hands, we won the game.
“That, my friends, is our trick.” Chris dropped a spade onto the table, officially putting us over the one hundred mark. Popping up from his spot on the floor, he bounced to a beat only he could hear.
God, he was cute. I never would have expected my broody friend to get up and do an adorable victory dance after winning a card game.
“Nothing like gloating to show how much your sportsmanship has improved lately.” Gianna rolled her eyes.
Chris stopped his celebration and mussed her hair.
