“That’s a good thing, right?”
I lifted my head, finding Dom watching me closely.
“Whatever you’re thinking or likely going through currently ends on a happy note. Of course that’s good,” I said, as if it wasn’t already obvious. “Everything works out.”
As it always probably did for him, didn’t it?
Dom reached out and stopped my hand before I could swipe up all the cards on the table. “Thank you.”
I dipped my head once. “Course.”
“I mean it.”
“I know you do,” I said, shaking myself out of it all.
“My mom used to do card tricks, but nothing like this,” said Dom.
“She did?” I looked up at him, giving him a chuckle at his easy tone.
He smiled down at his hands, giving a short laugh of his own. “She was killer at poker even though I never could understand the mechanics or if. My dad was happy because that meant I wouldn’t turn into a gambler.”
“You don’t really talk about that kind of thing much,” I said, surprised by the turn of conversation. I tried not to sound too invested though, afraid he’d take it away when I desperately wanted more.
“What do you mean?”
I shrug. “You don’t talk much about yourself or your family, I guess. Or at least, not in detail.”
Sure, I knew random things about him. I knew who Dom was, but I didn’t know the things that had made him up from the start. The odd stories. The embarrassing mishaps. Great achievements. He had surely heard more of mine.
But I wanted more now. The good and the bad. I needed more of him to understand and devour. Things with life and substance beyond what kind of bar food he liked and how good he was at getting me to squirm beneath him.
The memory made my cheeks warm.
“Tell me something else,” I encouraged.
“You probably know me better than anyone else,” Dom admitted after a second of thinking.
“You mean that?”
He dipped his head once. “Well, it’s only fair if I share. Let me think … I guess it’s safe to say, from what I saw, my college experience definitely wasn’t like the one here in Barnett.”
“What? You didn’t have your local witch and golden-boy football star showing everyone up on graduation day?”
“I didn’t walk on my graduation day for one,” he said.
“You didn’t?”
“Did you?”
I nodded. “Kind of a whole thing with my family. It was one of the only things that they’d show up for. Graduations and weddings.”
Dom huffed. “Figures.”
He was starting to get it now.
“At first, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go to college. After high school and the accident, I sort of was just getting by. My aunt, however, insisted I apply. She tried to tell me I was smart, and it would be good for me.”
“And that worked?”
